AN: a continuation of my ishvalan AU series, there's another like this under the title equivalent fucking exchange or something like that. thanks for reading!
The desert sky burns red when the sun touches the dunes. The eyes of Ishvala wake, and sleep. It's a holy moment, She wakes, and no wrong will go unpunished under Her watchful eyes, when She rests, the sinful nature of man awakes. Every morning they watch it rise, and every evening they watch it set. Eklavya sits in between his ata and ana on the roof of their modest clay home. Advik sits in Ana's lap curled up and protected by the whispering of Ishvala's winds. He looks like Her, like Ishvala's children and like Ana. But Eklavya has the golden hair of Ata, it makes him different from the rest of people in Kenki. They call him rakki, a mutt, denied the markings of a child of Ishvala, he retreats into Ata's library, reading forbidden texts and muttering curses to villagers. In the dark, he cries and curses his brother who looks like Her. It's not his fault, but Eklavya is lost and young and does not fit in.
(When Ata leaves, he cuts his hair in a fit of anger. Ana cradles his face and fingers the choppy strands of gold. Advik is crying. She whispers, in the language of a desert goddess, "Baby," ruby eyes are watery with tears, "Your hair is a part of who you are. And you, Eklavya Elric, son of Von Hohenheim and Trayi Elric are more of a child of the desert than anyone here. Descended from the ancient ones and Her children.")
When Ata leaves, it signs their fate. The villagers scorn Eklavya, a madarikatu, denied by both Ishvala and his own father. Eklavya is stubborn, and climbs the highest building in the village, the temple, and stands closer to Ishvala than they ever will. The High Priestess shakes her head and mutters under her breath but there is sympathy in her gaze, which makes Eklavya even madder. He never does climb the temple again.
When Ana gets sick, she presses a finger to Eklavya's lips and whispers into the desert sky, Her eyes turned away from Ana in her final moments, "take care of Advik, sweet one. He loves you. I love you. Go with the Priestess, she will take you to Pinako. She will take care of you." Never mind that Ishvalans are banned from leaving their sanctioned homes, and Pinako is days away, in Amestris, a country full of sinners.
And the Priestess takes them into the cold desert night, hiding underneath the long traveling robes and wrapped in mourning veils. Eklavya is five and his world is ending.
The body of Trayi Elric cools in a small clay home, Ishvala will remain blind to her until the sun breaks the darkness of night.
Pinako colors Adviks hair with shoe shine, and gives them dark glasses to cover Her eyes. She teaches them Amestrian in slow painful sentences and works the accent out until it's replaced with the slow drawl of the East. She gives them new names, Edward and Alphonse. Winry nicknames them Ed and Al, and Ed laughs at Al's red cheeks every time she calls him Al. They do not watch the sun set and rise anymore.
Al is taken under the wing of Winry's parents. They teach him healing and set Ed's bones and soothes his scrapes when he breaks his arm in a fight with the other school boys. Ed learns as much as he can, but his mind is always drawn elsewhere.
It happens in the night. Ed who has been studying alchemy, who smuggled Hohenheim's scrolls and books across the scorching desert below the watchful eyes of Ishvala and Her Priestess. Who begged Izumi Curtis to take him on as an apprentice, and who excels at all he does. It matters little to him that Human Transmutation is taboo, just as it matters little to him that alchemy itself is a slight against Her. It's easy, at first, makes him grin in victory and spit on Her. But hands grab him and take him down. The haunting face of something Other, something that was Not Meant to Be. The grim, wide smile of Truth.
In the end, Ishvala is blind to his sins, but his brother and Truth are not.
His leg is gone and his brother will not speak to him.
The automail hurts, but payment for his sins are due, and he has nothing to offer.
He is twelve and his world is ending.
Ed is sixteen when the war breaks out. He escorts Winry's parents and Al across the desert to his home village. They seek his help, now that he is back. They call him a saviour, even when he uses alchemy to save their lives. Ed revels in it, even as he cuts down boys and men. Her gaze beats down on him, and Eklavya screams his rage into the blood stained sands.
"Do you see me now?" He rages, and spits the Amestrian men cower from his blade and his alchemy. "Do you see me spill blood on your dunes?" The sun burns red when it sets across the dunes. She never responds.
The ground shakes when the State Alchemists are sent out. The desert blooms with explosions. "Is this the best you have to offer?" The Crimson Alchemist shouts, he lifts Eklavya by his the burnt remains of his right arm. His laughter rings through the desert sky, as he draws a sword and holds it under the desert sun. It glints in a menacing way and idly Eklavya wonders if this is his punishment for his slights against Her. The burns up his side and his arm ache, especially sharp where the Amestrian's nails dig into the charred and oozing flesh.
Someone screams when the blade comes down to sever his arm. It might be him. The Crimson Alchemist grins down at him, Eklavya's arm slung on his shoulder like a rucksack. "I think I'll keep this, hm?" All Eklavya can do is chuckle, at this situation, at Ishvala, at Kimblee's stupid face. At the fact that there is sand in his fucking stump.
"Your face," Eklavya rasps in his best Eastern, "it looks like a fuckin' stubbed toe."
It's maybe not his best comeback, but as his vision whites out, Eklavya pats himself on the back.
When he wakes Advik is holding him, sobbing, whispering in the language of a desert goddess. "I love you, Eklavya, I'm sorry."
It is the first time Advik has talked to Eklavya in four years. They cry in the night, blind to Her eyes.
Eklavya is sixteen and his world is falling back into place. The automail takes a year from him, but he sees Winry and Pinako and they laugh and share stories. It is good to be with them. Grounding.
He is seventeen when he comes back to Advik. Winry's parents are gone, and in his grief Eklavya sets out with a vengeance—this time to protect, and not for Her. It feels better, and they call him Fullmetal, the people of Ishvala praise his name and Amestrians curse and fear it. Eklavya is better with a purpose, one that fuels him and not one that tears at his soul with each scream of rage.
By the end of the war, Eklavya is nineteen, he has racked up the most kills of all the Revolutionaries from his two years of service. Amestris declares him a War Criminal, wanted for his crimes against the soldiers Amestris, despite the fact that his kill count is less than that of the Flame Alchemist by at least a couple hundred. It's injustice, and it inspires the familiar if not old flame of anger in his chest.
Al and Ed travel to other countries, to learn, to escape what they know, to see things other than familiar farmland and blood stained dunes.
Each day, they watch the sun rise and set, content under Her eyes.