Okay, just to counteract the sadness that is "A Lantern for the Alchemist". Here's an alternate ending where Varian lives.
"Varian!" the Captain yelled, mainly in horror as he watched the young alchemist almost get executed in front of dozens of people. But the executioner instead took the noose off of the boy's neck, and set him free. The two guards that had put him up there laughing their asses off at Varian's distress because their "joke" was successful, while everyone who came to watch the boy get killed yelled in dismay because they wanted him dead. But Varian took this opportunity to run down from the platform and run straight to him because people started throwing things at him.
"Captain, what happened?" Fredric asked, having seen the crowd and heard the commotion all the way from the castle.
"Roderic and Cameron nearly executed Varian as joke," he said as he shoved Varian behind him to shield him from a brick someone had thrown. Taking the brick to his chest, and stumbling backwards from the blow.
"Some joke," Arianna muttered, trying to get Varian to come to her. "Come on, sweetie. It's okay. I'm not going to hurt you."
"Arianna," Fredric said, putting on a warning tone with his wife.
"Do not use that tone with me, Fredric. You have more pressing issues to attend to," she said, nodding to Roderic and Cameron as they backed away slowly. Varian running right to her, and practically squeezing her to death in a hug because he was so scared. "Varian, sweetheart. I can't breathe."
"Put him back in the prison!" someone shouted as another person from the crowd pulled Varian off of Arianna and hit him over the head with the brick that had been used to strike Captain in the chest, and a whole other group rushed to beat the crap out of the boy. Causing Captain, Stan, and Pete to arrest all of them as Arianna quickly got Varian out of there and took him back to the castle to get him away from everyone. Sitting in the guest quarters with his head on her lap while they waited for the doctor, trying to comfort him as she ran her fingers through his hair, being careful with the growing bump from getting hit with the brick.
"Varian, it's okay," she soothed, taking her hand out of his hair to wipe his tears away with the back of her hand. "You're safe now."
"I'm sorry," he whispered. "I'm really, really sorry. Your majesty."
"Varian, we've been over this," she said, thinking he was talking about what he had done to get himself put into the prison in the first place. "You know I already forgave you for what you did."
"No, it's not that," he said, sitting up and letting out a huge sniffle as she grabbed a tissue from the box beside her. "I-I had a makeshift alchemy set in my cell. To keep me busy while I was in there. I-It wasn't anything that would help me escape, but-"
"Varian," she said, taking on a tone of disappointment as she wiped his nose and dried his tears; putting her free hand on his shoulder to get him to look at her. "You know you aren't supposed to have that stuff on you. Not only could you have potentially found a means of escaping the prison, but you could have really hurt yourself if any of the stuff you made exploded."
"I'm really sorry," he apologized again, putting on the puppy eyes as Arianna pushed his hair aside to look at the bump on his head. "I won't do it again, I swear."
"I know," she said, kissing the top of his head, and giving him another hug.
R&R.
Edit: If you haven't read "A Lantern for the Alchemist", I suggest you read the first chapter at least so you have more context as to why Varian was nearly executed here.