"Alchemy: The science of understanding, deconstructing & reconstructing matter. However, it is not an all-power full art. It is impossible to create something out of nothing .If one wishes to obtain something, something of equal value must be given. This is the law of Equivalent Exchange. The basis of all Alchemy .In accordance to this law there are two taboos among Alchemists. The creation of Gold and Human Transmutation are strictly forbidden."
My father taught me this important law when I was very little. I always wanted to become an alchemist myself, so I started studying his research. He always got mad at me when I was messing up his papers, but in the end he would just stand there, smiling at me and saying « Nevermind, I'll pick it up later. Let's go outside, ok Kiara?»
Through the years I worked on martial skills and learned a lot about the flow of the world. My uncle ,Alphonse , shared with me his knowledge from countries of the East and mostly Xing. Both, my father and my uncle, travelled a lot when they were younger ; and my father still does. All their notes and research that they gathered in the past nineteen years are like an endless and wide open treasure for me. I enjoy combining different techniques and making up recipes on my own.
The Purification Arts are a remarkable category of Alchemy, too. The Legend says that the Rentanjutsu is based on a concept called "The Dragon's Pulse" ,which symbolizes the earth's flow of chi. People from Xing mainly use it for medical reasons, but combined with Amestrian and Cretan alchemy ,my father and uncle were able to establish a new alchemical ritual called "Dragon's Seal". This seal can separate a chimera to it's original body, for instance, a human who has been transmuted with an animal into a chimera can be separated from the animal's body and as the name says, it seal's up the process by not allowing the bodies to be transmuted again. So it's permanent. For that recipe ,the alchemy of three different countries had to be studied, combined and perfectionized. It took them eight years to make up the final list of elements needed to carry out the transmutation successfully.
My father's research archive expands every time he returns from a long trip. He recently visited Ergon, a small littoral country which boarders with South Aerugo and Eastern Cardos. He always brings me and my brother little presents. For me he manages to find all sorts of books, written by Great alchemists from all over the world. The hardest thing is to decipher those which were written in codes. My mother rarely gets any presents, but when she does they're always fancy and extrenly expensive. Elegant Fibres from Creta and Polishing diamonds from Drachma were some of them. But the one thing she really cares about is him. Sometimes I hear her cry in the middle of the night after hearing that a war broke at at the region my father was travelling to and she would be worried to death until his , when he comes back she puts on a smile and acts like he was absent for just a few hours.
Unlike me, my brother Trent, doesn't have much for alchemy. He works together with my mother as an auto-mail mechanic. He says that that job means everything to him and I do believe that, but honestly, I also believe he makes a really big effort lately just to impress his girlfriend, Amy. She has an auto-mail leg and Trent is her engineer. The two of them met about four years ago when a terrible accident occurred at the East City Train Station. A train, from Central, went off the rals and fell on the station's building. A vast explosion followed and hundreds of people got killed. Amy was one of the few who miraculously survived, but she lost her leg and had to be hospitalized for seven months. The doctors at the Eastern Hospital suggested her a well-know auto-mail engineer named Rockbell who lived in Resembool. My brother was my mom's apprentice at that time and helped her out a lot. When he saw her he said it was "love at first sight" (whatever that means). Now he's got his own patiens and although I'm not that big of an expert in mechanics, I think he does a pleasing job.
My parents have a lot of friends in Central and we all get to see them on the annual Military Festival . Alicia Hughes is like my older sister. Whenever we chat it's like we can't stop laughing and letting out comments about people we don't like or people we both admire. She sure is an amazing friend to me, as well as he mother , Ms Gracia. Our families have know each other since the time my father was still a State Alchemist. Same goes for Ms Riza who is Commodore and works for the Military. Another good friend of my father is the Fuehrer King himslef, Roy Mustang, also known as The Flame Alchemist and my first inspiration to learn Flame Alchemy.
Alicia works in the Military's Central Library. I constantly keep asking her to borrow a few books for me ,but she repeatedly refuses by telling me that only State Alchemists are permitted to have access to that branch of the Library (meaning the Alchemist's Research branch).
A hardly believable story is also the fact that my family has close relations to the Emperor of Xing. Moreover, my uncle works as his personal medic in the palace. My father and uncle met with him three years before I was born when the Emperor, who back then still was a prince, came to Amestris in order to find the legendary Philosopher's Stone. The three of them fought alongside during The Promise Day and gained each other's trust and friendship. The Emperor, Ling Yao, took the Philosopher's Stone with him and thus ensured himself the position on the throne. With that powerful stone, also called the fifth element, he was hopping to reach immortality ,but after figuring out what the stone was made of, he decided to use it only for the sake of his people. The palace medics healed every plaguing disease and the people of Xing seemed to have found a worthy Emperor to look up to.
My aunt May belongs to the Changs, one of the many clans in the Empire of Xing. Apparently, after she married my uncle he sort of became a prince himself and I always brag about that to my friends. My little cousin's name is Ethan and he's fifteen. He's a very talented fighter and masters Xing's martial arts like a pro. Along with his chain sickle he trains every single free minute he has. Purification Arts are not really in his interest section, but my aunt taught him the basics (by force). The three of them come and visit us whenever they can.
When I was five years old, uncle Alphonse brought me a very special present.
«What is this uncle Al?»
«It's called Sakura Tree. If you plant this little seed it will grow into a big and beautiful tree with lots of blossoms. Promise me to take very good care of it. Alright Kiara?»
My eyes were so full of excitement that I couldn't stop smiling. A heartwarming feel came over me when I took that seed out of my uncle's hand which was twice as big as mine.
«Ok, promise.»
Since then, I've been watching that tree growing everyday as I was growing up myself, too. It truly was outstanding! The night on my fourteenth birthday I turned off all the lights in my room and looked outside the window. The cherry blossoms were glistening in the moonlight and the light breeze that was blowing made them dance like fairies. I will never forget that picture. About a year ago though, we moved to Rush Valley, my mom's former working place. After Granny Pinako died my mother wasn't feeling comfortable living in that house without her presence anymore.
The town seemed to be amazing from the outside. Nevertheless ,viewing it from the inside made me change my option a bit. We had visited Rush Valley before but only to the outskirts were an old friend of my mother's lives. I had only been once in the town when I was little and I don't remember much. Travis is an old childhood friend of me and my brother and he's Mr. Dominic's grandson. Thanks to him we didn't have any difficulties in the town. Almost everybody had one or two auto mail limbs and every second building was an engineering atelier. Honestly? It drove me crazy at first because of the intense oil smell, but I quickly got used to it in less than month. My brother, of course, loved it and was even more happy when Amy decided to move along with us.
One positive thing about having a mother and a brother who are crazy about auto-mail is their creativity. Trent was working on a new idea he had a few months ago and he called it Roaler Skates. He was ambitious about how popular it would become as it would offer easier transportation within the city and because of the simple but stylish design. My mother helped him ,so I was their first testing object - I protested it as you know that I'm clearly NOT an object, but it was two against one so I couldn't stand a chance. It was okay the first time I wore them, but after my mom started tinkering on it They always felt different each time I put them on. At last my brother made his first self designed Super High-Speed model and named it "Titanium ΧΙΙ". It is made of special diamond polished Iron which increases speed at every friction it makes with earth or cement, but is perfectly controllable by the user of the skates.
The rough ground and the deep canyons around Rush Valley aren't only a good place to play with my skates, but they also give me a perfect opportunity to work on my alchemy. Practicing Earth Alchemy is something that I've lacked off lately so I'll take that chance. Earth is the basic element of Alchemy and every alchemist has a certain knowledge about it. It symbolizes the deconstruction and reconstruction of matter. Although, when I first started to study alchemy , I came across a rather unusual and – I would say – lost form of alchemy : Air Alchemy. It was being described and analyzed in one of my father's books from Aeropolis ,a small district within Cardos. I decided to study it as it seemed pretty easy and understandable, without any complications.
The next thing I took up was Earth Alchemy. While the elements earth and air were relatively easy, I found my first difficulties in learning Fire Alchemy, as it is considered to be a very old and rare form of alchemy as well as Air alchemy, at least that's how it is in Amestris. Mr Mustang taught me some basics on how to create a fire spark out of thin air and what materials are needed to accomplish that. Everything else, I learned it again from my father's research. A fascinating book collection which filled up a whole shelf, almost as big as an encyclopedia. "The Secret's of Liora" : Contains eight volumes ,all about explosion alchemy, fire alchemy and other local forms of alchemical performances. Many of the terms referring to to alchemy which can cause explosions were also written in that book about Air Alchemy. I could understand the link between them very well.
At the age of ten I was finally able to start studying Aqua Alchemy (Water based Alchemy) when I had collected all the notes I needed form Ergon. It is a wonderful form of Alchemy and also the strongest of the four Elements. When I was through all the research and after performing various transmutations I was able to obtain water from every liquid and every plant that existed. I could even transmute human blood .
I made up my mind about learning alchemy of all four elements so I spent days and nights reading and reading, deciphering, creating my own transmutation circles and practicing until I would faint from exhaustion – and lack of food. I told myself that I had to become a skillfull and well trained alchemist. I wanted to reach a level higher than that of State Alchemists. As for the Military, I would never come up with the idea to join it and become one of those Dogs. My father told me everything about how hard his time as a major was. Of course the circumstances have changed now, but there is always the possibility of an unexpected War and I would never agree to participate in human execution like 2nd Lieutenant Armstrong & Commodore Hawkeye had to. My family would never have to suffer again from being part of the Military, even if that meant loosing the chance to gain access to it's vast Library archive. And I guess that's the stubbornness I inherited from my old man. After all, I am the (former) Fullmetal Alchemist's daughter .