Chương 64: Bonus Story : The Kingdom's Phone : Part 3 : Messages

"There's one more way to communicate. In fact, many people prefer sending messages." She opened her messaging app. Several conversations immediately appeared on the screen. Some contained only a few lines, while others stretched across dozens of messages.

"Here, you can write to someone. You type your message, send it, and the other person receives it. It's called an SMS, although nowadays most people simply say 'a message.'""An instant letter..."

"Exactly."

"This invention seems even more remarkable to me than phone calls."

"Really?"

"A conversation requires both people to be available at the same time. A letter can be read later. Its recipient replies whenever they wish. You have preserved all the advantages of correspondence while eliminating the time needed for delivery."

"Let's give it a try." She opened a new conversation and selected Aldric's name. A blank page appeared. At the bottom of the screen was a virtual keyboard.

"I type here." Her fingers moved across the keys: Hello, Aldric. Then she pressed the send button.

"There." Aldric looked down at his phone. He was about to ask whether something had gone wrong when the device vibrated. A second vibration followed as the screen lit up automatically.

"You've just received your very first message." A notification displayed Emma's name, followed by: Hello, Aldric.

"It has already arrived... And yet you only just wrote it."

"That's normal." The knight lightly touched the screen.

"I can still read it."

"As many times as you like."

"Even tomorrow?"

"Yes."

"Even several years from now?"

"As long as you don't delete it."

"Now I'm going to show you something that almost everyone uses when writing messages."

"What is it?"

"Emojis." She tapped the icon. The keyboard immediately disappeared, replaced by a collection of colorful symbols. Hundreds of faces filled the screen. Some were smiling, others laughing, while others looked surprised, sad, or angry. As she scrolled, new symbols appeared: hearts, hands, animals, flowers, food, objects, and even flags.

"There are an extraordinary number of them. And each one has a very specific meaning?"

"More or less."

"This one represents a smiling face."

"Yes."

"And that one is a heart."

"Exactly."

"And the raised thumb?"

"It generally means everything is fine or that you agree." She pointed to a laughing face.

"This one seems to be used very often. In fact, it's one of the most popular."

"What is its precise definition?"

"It means that something is very funny."

"I believe I have understood their true purpose."

"Oh?"

"They're diplomatic ideograms. An official letter can sometimes be interpreted in several different ways. These symbols surely indicate the writer's exact intentions. The heart probably expresses deep esteem. The thumbs-up signifies official approval. The smiling face indicates that the words should be received with goodwill. Thanks to them, misunderstandings become almost impossible."

"That's not entirely wrong..." she replied.

"But that's not really what they're for."

"No?"

"They're mainly used to show our emotions. When you write a message, the person reading it can't see your face or hear your tone of voice. Emojis help show whether you're joking, happy, sad, or amused." Emma opened a new conversation to give him a concrete example. She typed a single word: Thank you.

"If I send you this, it's a perfectly ordinary message." She then added a smiling face: Thank you 😊"Now you understand that I'm smiling." Next, she replaced the smile with an angry face: Thank you 😠"And here, the exact same words take on a completely different meaning."

"That is far more complex than I had imagined." Emma burst out laughing.

"And yet you thought you had figured them out."

"I believed they existed to clarify the diplomatic intent of a letter. Discovering that they represent the emotions of their author makes their use far more delicate. Emotions are rarely as simple as a smile or a look of anger. It must therefore be difficult to choose the symbol that most faithfully represents what one truly feels."

"You know, most people don't think about it that much. They simply choose whichever one feels the most appropriate. Now, let's do one last exercise."

"I am ready."

"This time, I'm going to send you several messages. Reply however you like. Don't hesitate to write whatever feels most natural to you." Emma walked a few meters away so they could no longer see each other's screens. She opened their conversation and typed: Are you almost here? A few moments later, Aldric's phone vibrated. He opened the conversation and typed his reply: Message received. Emma's phone vibrated in turn.

"That's not quite what I meant."

"Is my reply incorrect?" If you spot this story on Amazon, know that it has been stolen. Report the violation.

"No. You've simply confirmed that you received my message. But you haven't answered my question."

"Indeed."

"If I ask whether you're almost here, you can simply reply, 'Yes, I'm on my way,' or 'Five minutes,' or even 'I'm on my way.'""I understand." She sent a second message: Thank you. A few seconds later, her phone vibrated: Message received. This time, Emma burst out laughing.

"Another mistake?"

"Not really... but you reply like an officer in charge of communications."

"Is it not important to confirm that a message has been received?"

"It is... when you're communicating with an emergency response team, the military, or certain official services. But between friends, it's generally not necessary."

"I see." She decided to try one last time. She typed: Good night. Aldric's phone vibrated. A moment later, Emma's did as well: Message received. Emma couldn't hold back another fit of laughter. Several pedestrians turned to look when they heard her laughing.

"Have I responded inappropriately once again?"

"You're far too serious." She showed him their conversation.

"Look. If someone texts you 'Good night,' they aren't expecting to receive an acknowledgment of receipt."

"What would be the appropriate reply, then?"

"You could write, 'Good night to you too,' 'Thanks, you too,' or even add a little smiling emoji."

"I understand much better now."

"The purpose of a message isn't just to confirm that it arrived. It's mainly to continue a conversation. You can reply as if the person were standing right in front of you. Let's try again." She typed once more: Thank you. Aldric's phone vibrated. He read the message several times. His thumb hovered over the keyboard as he thought. At last, he remembered Emma's advice. Reply more naturally. He began typing: Message received… He stopped. That probably wasn't enough. He added a few more words... with enthusiasm.

Then he pressed Send. Emma burst into laughter, even louder than before.

"Is my reply still incorrect?"

"No... it's just... very you."

"And yet I tried to follow your advice."

"And that's exactly what you did."

"You wanted to reply more warmly, but you still used the language of an officer."

"I suppose some habits are more difficult to abandon than I imagined."

"Don't change too quickly. Honestly, I find it much funnier to receive a 'Message received... with enthusiasm' than a simple 'Thanks.'" Aldric inclined his head.

"In that case... I shall continue practicing." Emma smiled even more brightly. She knew that one day Aldric would probably end up texting like everyone else. Yet a small part of her secretly hoped he would keep this unique way of communicating for a long time to come, transforming even the most ordinary exchanges into what sounded like official correspondence. After leaving the café, Emma and Aldric resumed their walk. The sun was beginning to set, bathing the buildings in a golden light.

Several tourists stopped to raise their phones toward the city's landmarks before continuing on their way. Aldric had noticed this gesture ever since arriving on Earth. He had already seen it at the Eiffel Tower, on the metro, in front of shop windows, and even inside restaurants. Today, once again, he watched it repeated dozens of times all around him. He pointed to a couple who had just raised their phone toward a church.

"They are all performing the same ritual."

"They're taking a photo."

"A photo? Like the ones in the store?"

"I think it's time to show you another function of your phone." She stopped at the edge of the sidewalk and took out her own device. Emma opened the app marked with a small camera icon. The screen displayed everything in front of them. The buildings, the trees, the cars, and the pedestrians all appeared on it. The knight held his phone up in front of his face and slowly moved it from left to right. The image followed every movement.

"The screen shows exactly what the phone sees." Emma pointed her phone toward the street and pressed a white button. A shutter sound echoed. Almost immediately, she opened the photo she had just taken and handed the phone to Aldric. The photograph reproduced the street with astonishing precision. The cobblestones, the shop windows, the branches of the trees, the clouds above the buildings, and even the silhouettes of the pedestrians all seemed to have been captured with perfect fidelity.

Aldric looked up at the street, then back at the screen. He repeated the comparison several times, studying every detail. Nothing was missing. The colors were identical. So were the proportions. Even the shadows matched exactly what lay before him.

"It is... exactly this street. Nothing has been altered." Emma placed two fingers on the screen and spread them apart. The photograph immediately enlarged. A sign several dozen meters away suddenly became readable. She zoomed in even further, examining the stones of a building's façade, the leaves of a tree, and the windows of another building before returning the image to its normal size.

"I don't understand... In my world, the greatest painters sometimes devoted several weeks to faithfully depicting a landscape. Yet despite all their talent, their works were always an interpretation of reality. Every artist added their own perspective, their own sensitivity, sometimes even their imagination. Here... this object reproduces the world exactly as it is. In only a fraction of a second. No painter could ever rival such precision."

"The phone doesn't draw what it sees. It records light."

"So it captures light itself..." he murmured.

"That far surpasses the enchanted mirrors I once knew. A handful of archmages in my kingdom possessed artifacts capable of preserving an image, but they required rare crystals, immense amounts of magic, and were reserved for kings. Yet this one seems more accurate, faster, and infinitely easier to use."

"You know," Emma said, "I don't think anyone really realizes anymore just how extraordinary this invention is."

"That is often the fate of the greatest wonders. Once they become available to everyone, they gradually cease to be regarded as miracles. And yet, if a master painter from my kingdom had gazed upon this image, he would probably have believed that the people of this world had learned how to stop time itself."

"Now that you know how to take a photo... there's another version that everyone uses."

"Another version?" She tapped a small icon in the corner of the screen. The image flipped. This time, instead of the street, their own faces appeared. Emma stepped closer until she was standing beside him.

"It's called a selfie."

"The device is looking at us now."

"Exactly. Come a little closer." Their two figures now filled almost the entire screen. Emma raised the phone slightly to frame them better.

"Look here." She pointed to the small camera above the screen.

"Very well." She pressed the white button. A soft shutter sound followed. Then she opened the photograph she had just taken. He could see himself perfectly. His armor. His face. Emma was smiling beside him. Behind them stood the buildings, the trees, and part of the street they had just walked down. Everything looked astonishingly real.

"We are inside it."

"Not... exactly."

"And yet I can see us clearly. We are inside this object."

"We aren't inside it. It's only an image of us. Imagine a painter creating your portrait. Once the painting is finished, are you inside the canvas?"

"No."

"There you are. It's exactly the same. This image doesn't contain the people themselves. It only shows what they looked like at a particular moment."

"That comparison is logical..." The knight fell silent. The longer he thought, the more another idea seemed to trouble him.

"What are you thinking about?"

"In my world, certain legends warned of enchanted mirrors capable of stealing a person's reflection. Others told of artifacts that trapped part of the soul of anyone who used them. Very few of those stories were true... but some were based on genuine magic."

"You're wondering whether the camera does the same thing."

"This image is so faithful that I find it difficult to believe it captures nothing but light. For a moment... I wondered whether it might also preserve a small part of ourselves."

"Let me reassure you right away. It captures absolutely nothing but light. Not memories. Not thoughts. Not the soul. Only the light reflected from whatever the lens sees for a fraction of a second."

"Are you certain?"

"Absolutely."

"So everyone in this world uses this object without the slightest danger."

"Billions of people take photos every single day."

"That is reassuring."

"Were you really worried?"

"A little."

"You see... a selfie is simply a photograph in which the photographer appears as well."

"In that case, it is not merely a portrait. It is the memory of a shared moment."

"There's one last important thing you need to understand." Emma tapped another icon. Dozens of photographs immediately appeared on the screen. There were landscapes, meals, buildings, a few friends, a sunset, flowers, a cat sleeping on a couch, and several vacation photos.

"What is this?"

"The gallery." She scrolled through the pictures.

"Every time you take a photo, it's stored here. You can find it again whenever you want." Some of the pictures were clearly several months old. Others seemed much older still. Yet none of them had lost any of their clarity.

"They are all still here... So you don't have to redraw them or make copies of them. They simply remain here."

"Exactly. You can look at them whenever you want. Some people take a few photos each week. Others take several hundred while they're on vacation. Many enjoy looking back at those memories years later."

"In my world, memories depended entirely upon the minds of men. When a companion passed away, the memory of his face gradually became less distinct. As the years went by, certain details would fade away. A smile. A glance. An expression. Painters occasionally created portraits, but they were rare and reserved for the most powerful. As for the places we visited during our travels... they changed with time until it became impossible to remember them exactly as they had been.

Here, all it takes is the press of a button to preserve a moment exactly as it truly was." He looked at the gallery once more.

"A face." His finger paused on a family photograph.

"A place." He stopped on a picture of a mountain landscape.

"A moment." He studied a group of friends laughing around a table.

"Nothing seems capable of altering them."

"That's another reason why people take so many photos. Not just to show what they see... but so they won't forget," Emma said.

"That is a reason I can understand." At last, Emma opened the photograph they had just taken once again. Aldric's very first selfie. A faint smile appeared on his face.

"What are you thinking about?"

"At first, I believed this artifact existed merely to communicate. Then I thought its purpose was to reproduce the world with perfect fidelity. Now I understand its true value. Kingdoms build statues so that heroes will never be forgotten. Chroniclers fill entire libraries to preserve the history of past generations. Painters devote their lives to immortalizing kings. This artifact accomplishes part of all of those things. It is an artifact that no king of my world would ever have dared to imagine."