Haddash was named after a great beauty who had saved her people years before Ishaval had willed Xerxes to ruins in one night.
She, however, was not a great beauty. It's the simple truth just as the sand of their home is grating (Haddash dreams of lands with green, the country of the east so near
yet so far away from her, that doesn't get everywhere and grows unlike the sand that she's overheard traders mention). She doesn't mind that she isn't a great beauty. It gives her more time before she marries and leaves to have her own family when she has far more important things to do.
Never mind David had coldly refuted her time and time again in her attempts to help him in his research; the thing is she's as pig headed as the wretched mule her father owns and loyal as a dog which sadly her father doesn't own. Probably more reasons she has yet to leave her own home like her older sister had. Despite the disappointment in her mother's eyes all Haddash can think with vicious stubbornness is: good.
Haddash, unlike not being as beautiful as a spring day, does mind the loneliness that has filled her life ever since Adara died though. It's that and her dog like nature that brings her steal. She gathers all the hope of being Adara back, the heresy against her God, and makes a fire. She waits impatiently for David to return back from the meal she's knowingly sacrificed. Briefly she wonders how convincing Alexander is with keeping her parents from worrying where she at. Hopefully Alexander is not to dramatic like he has a habit of.
He doesn't know that's she here. That she went into his brother's tent, ready to burn all David's research if needed. She didn't tell Alexander because she knows he'll try and help too. He had loved Adara; they all had because she had been beautiful in her soul as she had been in flesh God had crafted for her. Haddash wouldn't allow him to help because if this went wrong, rather it be the transmutation or banishment, Alexander would have no part. She is aware of the hypocrisy but the simple truth was he was her friend and she was selfish.
It's later, when the fire has fully warmed Haddash from the chill of the night that David arrives. There's already an angry look on his tired face when Haddash sees him. Her mouth twists into a grimace as she blames those damned spectacles of his.
"Haddash, what in Ishvala's name are you doing?"
She has to bite back a snort at that. Using their lord names as they sin against him. (...Except how can God claim this is a sin when she does this for the love she feels for her friend? For her family not through blood or through marriage because Adara was family to Haddash.)
"Do you know how much trouble you'll be in for filching my work?"
Haddash blinks up at David. Her expression dumb as the sheep that her grandmother has often told her are. "I think my parents would believe that I was in right to burn your research considering it is forbidden by Ishvala."
She can see a vein pulsing. Haddash smiles viciously at the sight. Unforgiving and unrelenting is what she is in this moment.
"I'm going to ask one my time," she pauses to look David in the eyes. Her father often said there was no damnation besides Ishvala's that is worse than a woman scorned; her father was a wise man.
"Will you deny me what you yourself are doing? To play a role in bringing Adara back to us."
There's an ugly silence between them. There's no going back from this. The only reason there are tears in Haddash's eyes is because the fire and it's smoke makes them sting.
"Perhaps you can grab your notes from the fire before they're burn to ashes and scatter by the wind. If you succeed I will tell my parents. My parents who will confess to our high priest. If you allow me to help you - if you teach me alchemy so it's not one person bringing Adara but two therefore a more likely chance - I will not tell a soul even if they hold a knife to throat. I'll keep your heresy a secret even as my throat will be slit."
David stares astounded at Haddash because of her words that might as well be an oath.
He nods. Haddash gets up with the research desperately clutched by her fingers. She hands it to him and she doesn't apologize. Haddash isn't sorry for her extremity in her actions. If it meant bringing Adara back Haddash would give anything for her deceased friend to brought back.
Later, when she sees Ishvala who smiles wide as he takes, as he damns her for her love, does Haddash lose something.
Haddash was fourteen when she saw God; she never saw again. Later, right before she and David are banished, when Alexander describes the damned creature they created Haddash thinks perhaps Ishvala was not a cruel God. Afterall she'd been the one who would give anything for a chance to steal Adara from Ishvala's hands.
A/N: Originally posted on ao3 under the pen name youngjusticewriter and part of the Elrics Through the Looking Glass series.
Behind the names:
• Haddash, Trisha, is Hebrew name for Esther. Esther was married to Persian king that in the Bible is called Ahasuerus. It's believed Ahasuerus was Xerxes the first (though I've read somewhere it might have been his son instead). Their son, Darius, would later rebuild the Holy Temple in Jerusalem.
• David, Scar's brother, I gave that name to as a reference to David from the Bible allowing his lust for Bathsheba to be what David followed instead of God. Scar's brother in 003 lost his manhood during the human transmutation to bring back human!Lust. Alchemy, despite once been accepted and used by the Ishvalans, is forbidden by the Ishvalan God.
• Alexander, Scar, was the name I choose since I could swear that when Scar brother's when talking to Scar he was saying something and then ended the sentence with Al. Alphonse and Scar in 003 have some parallels in 003 - to the point Alphonse admitted if Edward was killed he would follow Scar's footsteps. So I decided to look for something started with Al in honor of those two things. Turns out the Alexander the Great spared Jerusalem from harm and in honor of that the high priest demanded every boy born in the city that year will be given the name Alexander. Supposedly it's still a popular Jewish name today. Plus Alexander means protector of man.
• Adara, human Lust, is a Hebrew name that means fire. It's a reference to Dante's Divine Comedy. If I remember right those in the second circle face burning winds. Lust ironically is considered the least heinous of the sins by Dante and I find Gluttony, Lust, and Wrath to be the not as "evil" as the other sins in 003. In Brotherhood I still can't see Gluttony as heinous and I just love both Pride and Wrath.
If I wrong in anything please feel free to correct me. Also yes Scar is extra in 003. Not as bad as Victor from YOI but he is extra and you'll never convince me otherwise.