Iserlohnn - continued

CASTING THE WARD

While the Princess was off talking to Mustang, Hughes and Armstrong stopped in to see how Edward was doing. Neither of them was surprised to see he was up, out of bed, and in the midst of drawing an Array on the large sheet of parchment he had spread on the floor of his hospital room. In his hand was a quill pen and the inkbottle was kept within easy reach. Hughes watched him curiously. It had been a long time since he saw anyone use such old fashioned writing implements but he recalled hearing that some Arrays had to be drawn this way. Armstrong tried to see if he recognized the circle Edward was creating. He had seen a lot of odd Alchemy in his day but what Fullmetal was sketching was new to him.

“Edward, what are you doing?” Armstrong asked.

“Making a Ward,” Edward explained as he continued to carefully paint the ancient symbols onto the thick vellum. “My first try at creating this didn’t go so well. The lynch pins were all wrong. But I think I nailed it this time. The idea is it’ll keep anyone not a part of its creation from entering the area it protects.”

“So you’ve never done this before.”

Edward paused to look up at the huge man. “No I haven’t. This is as new to me as it is to you. However, it’s a proven technique, even though no one outside of Iserlohnn has done it for decades.”

“You have been researching the Alchemy of Iserlohnn?” Armstrong queried intrigued.

“A bit,” Edward told him. “Mostly things that are new to me, like this Ward for instance. And all the techniques they use for investigation and transport.”

“Transport?”

“Yeah,” Edward said absently as he resumed his drawing. “They use Alchemy to move people or objects from one place to another.”

“Amazing.” Armstrong commented.

Edward just grinned in response but made no further conversation.

Armstrong excused himself. He was in charge of the team assigned to keep the hospital secure so he went off to attend to his duties.

Edward was now getting to the more complicated part of the Array so his attention was completely focused on the task at hand. This was the part he had botched on his first attempt so he was determined NOT to make any mistakes. Hughes knew a little bit about Alchemy; it was hard not to pick up the odd tidbit when you were best friends with one of the top Alchemists in Amestris. The complex Array Edward was crafting reminded him of what he had seen sketched into the floor and ceiling in the Fifth Laboratory. However, unlike those designs this one didn’t give him the creeps.

Hughes turned when he heard footsteps behind him. It was Mustang and Princess Katarin and the two of them were looking pretty chummy. Maybe there was hope for Roy yet, he mused to himself. And she’s a looker too!

Katarin recognized the circle Edward was creating and asked, “Need a hand?”

Edward shook his head. “No, I think I can manage this part but what goes into the circle for the exchange has me a bit perplexed.” He grabbed his journal and read aloud from his notes, “An item of spiritual significance is placed within the innermost ring, one item from each person to be shielded from harm…”

She knelt down next to him and said, “Whoever is going to be allowed into the safe house has to put an item of personal importance to them into the Array.”

“It can’t be too important, since it’s going to get sucked up-”

“No, the physical item isn’t broken down by the alchemical reaction, only the ESSENCE of the person to whom the item is attached is removed.”

“What?”

Katarin laughed. Explaining the Old Ways to someone who viewed Alchemy as a hard science was difficult. Edward was used to dealing with tangible things. Hydrogen and Oxygen made water, which was how on a humid day an Alchemist could fill a canteen easily by sucking those two elements out of the air, combining them and focusing that blending into a container. That type of Alchemy was what Edward could do in his sleep. But intangible things, like a person’s spiritual essence, were things he had never dealt with or understood. Doing Alchemy based on the comprehension of such things was going to be hard for him.

“Ed, as skilled as you are, this is not something I think you can do on your own,” Katarin said. “A lot of our Alchemy is very different from what is practiced here in Amestris. I think to make this work we’re going to have to do this casting together.”

Edward sighed and studied the quill in his hand. He was doing everything right, even the TOOLS he was using were the ones specified. But the Princess was right. He would need her help in order to make this thing work. This Ward wasn’t based on science but something else. And if it wasn’t hard science then Edward was indeed out of his element.

Katarin reached over and took his hand. “Ed, asking for help is not a sign of weakness. It is one of strength.”

His gold eyes met hers and she held his intense gaze. He was a lot like Flame, the two of them were both strong willed individuals, but unlike the Colonel Edward didn’t like to have others share those things he considered his obligations. He withdrew his hand from hers saying, “Okay, you can help me. But I can finish drawing this Array on my own.”

She left him to his work. He had a wall around his heart that she doubted anyone other than his brother could get through. Katarin sensed Edward would not be able to love anyone until he was released from his burden of guilt. And the only thing that would free him from that would be finding a way for him to restore his brother’s lost humanity. The Philosopher’s Stone had offered Edward hope until he found out the price it extracted for its use. Now his chance lay in accessing the power of the Divines.

But he wasn’t the only one seeking to use the Divine’s power to achieve a goal. Katarin knew Kenton Ares escaped from where Mustang had imprisoned him in the limbo between the two worlds. She had seen that for herself when she brought the Colonel back from the brink of death. The fact that he was free meant he had an ally whose power exceeded his own. And Kenton Ares having friends with that kind of power scared her.

There had been men with power that rivaled the gods in the past. One such man tried to use the power of the Divines to save his dying son. But he didn’t have all the information and tried to use the power of the Seven Divine Spirits and the Gate Keeper alone to do the task. Without the Key Holder and the power that the Unsealing unleashed the casting went awry. The energy had to come from someplace and it was taken from every living entity in the city. The force the extraction of the energy caused the very earth to tremble and not only was all life in the city eradicated but the city itself vanished beneath the shifting sands.

Legends of the “lost city” exist in the ancient writings of not only Iserlohnn but of Amestris as well. It lives on as a warning to Alchemists who think they can play god. The rumored location of this lost civilization is said to be where Central now stands. Archeologists attempted digs in the old quarter of the city but never found anything. Either the ancient city is buried so far down that it would take years to dig it up or its physical location is actually elsewhere in the kingdom.

The lost city only held interest to Katarin because it was the last known place anyone every etched a Divine Array. If Edward was going to be the one to Unseal the Key and open The Gate then doing it in a place where it had been done before could be beneficial. Finding the Lost City would not only be of great historical significance but also might be a key to restoring Al, saving Iserlohnn and perhaps a few lost souls in the process…

Katarin was pulled from her private thoughts by a gentle hand on her shoulder. It was Edward and he was wearing his usual confident expression. “Ready?” he asked her.

She smiled at him. “Yes. Get everyone to gather around the circle. I’ll guide us all through the process.”

Edward nodded and did as she requested. The group kneeled around the large painted Array eyeing it curiously. Mustang was kneeling next to Katarin, who smiled warmly up at him when their eyes met, and he admired the handiwork of his young subordinate. It had been a long time since he had seen a Ward of Protection but Mustang recognized what lay before him. Edward had indeed gotten it dead on and with all of them putting their essence into the casting the Ward they were making was going to be an impressive one indeed.

The quiet in the room was broken by the distinct sound of a cat’s meow. Everyone looked around puzzled until the sound happened again and made its location more apparent. The cat sounds were coming from inside the armor and if Alphonse had been capable of blushing he would have been beet red.

“Um, sorry,” Alphonse apologized.

“Al, you know we can’t have pets,” Edward said.

“It isn’t a real cat,” Alphonse explained. “See?”

He showed everyone the very realistic looking plush calico cat he had hidden inside his suit of armor. The fur even felt real it was so soft. It would purr or meow depending on where you squeezed its on its body.

“Tenshi gave it to me,” Alphonse told them.

Edward shot Tenshi a hard look and Tenshi blushed pink. He was going to express his annoyance at the poor timing of this sudden act of kindness but thought the better of it. Instead of berating his brother and his Kohai Edward said simply, “Please put the toy away Al. We need to get this done.”

Alphonse was a little surprised by Edward’s calm reaction. He set the plush cat aside and focused his attention back on the Array. Tenshi also found his Sempai’s actions to be a bit out of character for him. He was waiting for Edward to scold him for his poor timing. For some reason Edward was keeping his usually volatile emotions in check. Tenshi was beginning to wonder if it had something to do with the Ward.

“The first thing we need is something from the person we DON’T want around,” Edward stated looking at Mustang who took the hint and placed something that looked like burnt potato peelings into the center of the circle. “This begins the process.”

Edward clapped his hands completing his circle and then charged the Array. The Array’s energy consumed the blackened items Mustang placed inside the circle. The power field died away and Edward said, “Now we move on to the next phase.”

“Each of you must place inside the inner circle an item of significance,” the Princess began demonstrating what she meant by removing from her neck the beautiful gold necklace with the ruby red stone in its center she always wore. “The item you choose will NOT be broken down by the alchemical reaction. So you have no need to fear losing that which is precious to you.” She placed her necklace in the center of the Array and continued, “The closer the connection you have with the item, the stronger the Ward will be. My necklace has been on my neck since the day my mother placed it there. It has been in my family for generations so its spiritual connection to me is very powerful. Whatever each of you has that is a part of you is what you need to bring to this casting.”

Hughes and Mustang exchanged a look. Hughes chuckled. “Am I THAT obvious?” he commented as he removed his gold wedding band and placed it beside the Princess’s necklace.

“Only to everyone who knows you!” Mustang retorted as he placed his flame glove on top of the necklace and the ring.

Doctor Seris Ferguson and Winry both had to think about what they would add to the mix. After a pause the Doctor placed the gold pinky rig she always wore into the circle. It had been a graduation from medical school gift given to her from her late brother. Winry could only think of one thing that was a part of her; her favorite wrench from her toolkit was tossed into the circle. It was the one she would bop Edward with whenever he got out of line, which happened quite a lot!

Sempai and Kohai gazed at each other from where they sat on opposing sides of the circle. Edward motioned to Tenshi to go first and the little Alchemist put a gold pocket watch that had been a gift from the man who forged his Auto-mail. Tenshi used that watch rather than the one issued to him when he became a State Alchemist. It was his only connection to the first person ever to show him any degree of kindness. Edward placed next to Tenshi’s gold watch his state issued silver one. If anything represented Edward Elric it was the physical sign of his lifelong profession.

The last one to contribute was Alphonse. He had no idea what to put into the circle since he didn’t own anything but books and a few odd trinkets. The only thing he had that was him would be a part of his armor. He tried to think of what part of his armor he could stick into the circle when Edward removed his head and placed it in the center of the Array.

“Niisan, what are you doing?” the head asked from where it sat on top of everyone’s items.

“Giving you a ringside seat of what casting a Ward looks like…from the inside!” Edward told him with a wry grin. “Besides it’s the easiest part of your armor to take off!”

Odd as it was Edward did have a point. The rest of him was hard to remove without exerting a good degree of force.

“Um, okay, I guess this will work,” Alphonse acquiesced after a thoughtful pause.

Each Alchemist kneeling by the Array completed their own personal circles of power and placed their hands by the edge of the Array. A bright wave of white-hot energy surged forth from every line and symbol. All those whose spiritual energy was represented by the items in the center circle also glowed with alchemical power. The Doctor noticed that the two people who glowed the brightest were the Princess and Edward. As the Array drew on the power of both the items and those who gave them the intensity of the emanations grew. The color of the light shifted from white to an eerie shade of blue as the power being drained to create the Ward stopped coming from all assembled and began to come solely from Edward.

Alphonse had seen Edward enveloped in that strange blue white almost electrical light before. That night they were in the Fifth Laboratory and the Sins were trying to force Edward to forge a Philosopher’s Stone using prisoners from the jail next door as fuel for the casting. The brothers escaped from the Sins because of Scar, an enigmatic figure from Ishbal with an Alchemical arm capable of incredible feats of power. Scar’s attack gave Edward the chance to rescue Al, who was being held prisoner by Lust, but in the process of doing so Edward had walked into a charged circle dosed with Red Water, a key ingredient for making the Philosopher’s Stone. The power surged through him making him glow in the exact same way he was glowing now…

“Ed!” Alphonse called to him but his voice was lost in the flow of current.

Katarin saw what was happening and realized why. Her necklace! The stone within it was a piece of the True Philosopher’s Stone. Its ancient power was reacting with the Red Water that had been absorbed by Edward when he stepped into that circle in the Fifth Laboratory. She had to get him away from the Array before he was drained to the point of death.

She grabbed Edward and tackled him to the floor pushing him clear of the circle. A bright flash of blinding white light surged from the Array the second Edward was out of its field of power. He lay unmoving beneath her slender form but she knew he was only unconscious. She had managed to get him free before it sucked away his life force.

The bright light faded quickly leaving the room in darkness.

“All the lights in this section of the hospital were blown!” Hughes announced as he lit a candle he found one of the nightstands.

“Is everyone all right?” Mustang inquired.

There were mumblings of assent from everyone but Edward. Alphonse noticed Edward was quiet and recovered his head quickly and scanned the room for his brother. He saw the Princess was trying to help Edward up and swiftly went to her aide. He got Edward back into his bed where he showed signs of stirring.

“Did it work?” Edward asked still woozy.

“Yes,” she told him. “Now rest. You’ve done enough for today.”

She left him to fetch her necklace from the circle. Everyone else had already recovered their items and it seemed from the reaction she got no one suspected the reason for the strange alchemical reaction. Not even Mustang gave her a second look. But she would have been surprised if he had recognized what almost went wrong. No one outside the Iserlohnn royal family knew about the location of the True Stone except Obaba and she wasn’t telling. And only someone acquainted with the powers of the Philosopher’s Stone would know what a bad reaction to it looked like. Since no one there has even seen the Stone, her secret was still safe.

Mustang joined her by the circle. “That was impressive,” he remarked.

“You have some impressive friends,” she replied.

“Will this Ward hold?”

“Oh yes,” she assured him. “It’s very strong. Once you place it you can be fairly sure you’ll be free of any unwanted intrusions.”

“Tomorrow we’ll Ward the safe house,” Mustang told them. “By then everyone should be well enough to leave the hospital.”

“We could leave now,” Edward suggested.

“Shut up Ed!” cane a response from almost everyone in the room.

Edward sighed and sank back into his pillow defeated…
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MORE TO COME...!