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Summary- "Roy Mustang what is it you're afraid of? What is it that makes you loose yourself in fear?"
Prologue
…
It was dark out when they knocked on the door. Visitors were unusual enough for the run down house and its solemn residents so the young girl was curious. The strangest part, she thought, was that her father actually came out of his study to greet these people, instead of telling her to make them leave like usual. He almost seemed happy they were there, surely it was the happiest she's seen him since her mother died years before.
He led them into the living room, where she was sitting finishing her latest assignments. There were eight of them total; four scary looking men and each of them had a young girl with them. The girls all looked to be close to her age, though she could tell that they were all older by at least a year or two. She imagined that the girls must the men's daughters, though their reason for coming to her sad little house was a mystery.
The thing that caught her attention most was how different some of them looked. Two of the sets of fathers and daughters looked like everyone else she knew, blonde hair and light eyes. However the other two looked completely different. One pair had black hair instead of the blonde the girl was used to, and they both had green eyes. Those features were not completely unheard of, but they were still uncommon.
The ones who stood out the most were the last pair. They both had light hair, almost white, but not quite, and when she looked at their eyes she saw bright blood red. She had heard of the Ishvalans, she even had a little Ishvalan blood, which explained her own unique eye color, but she had never actually met any. Their appearance in her house was, to her, the biggest mystery of all. After all, why would any Ishvalan want to come to an alchemist's house?
Her own father instructed the other girls to sit down and wait while the men went and talked. The girls did as they were told without a word and the men all went into the girl's father's study. Only when the door was shut firmly did any of the girls dare to speak. It was one of the blond girls and she looked directly at the girl as she spoke.
"Hello, my name is Adriana. What's your name?" Her voice was meek, not unlike the girl's own voice. It cracked a little as she spoke, a tell-tale sign of disuse. Observing the other girls in the room she could tell that they were all like her. Fleetingly the girl wondered if any of them had mothers, she thought probably not. Feeling a little safer the girl finally spoke.
"My name is Riza." Was all she said at first, then she asked, "Who are all of you?"
The girls all looked at each other for a second and then Adriana spoke up again.
"Well, as I said I'm Adriana, that over there is Karina." Adriana said pointing to the other blonde girl. "Over there is Miranda, her and her father moved here from Creta a few years back." She was then indicating the girl with black hair. "And last is Nila, as you can probably tell she's Ishvalan." Each other girl then gave a polite and formal greeting.
Riza looked at all the girls committing their names and faces to memory. Then her curiosity got the better of her and she asked, "What are you all doing here? It's not often we even get one visitor, let alone eight at one time. Oh, I'm sorry if that sounded rude, I really didn't mean for it to."
This time it was Karina who spoke. "Don't worry, we all understand what it's like. You see the four of us, well five now I suppose, are kind of like a sisterhood. We've all gone through similar circumstances and of course there's our connection through our fathers. We just want you to feel comfortable with us, especially considering what's going to happen…"
"Karina! Hush now or you'll get us all in trouble. Can't you see that she has absolutely no clue as to what's going on?" Adriana scolded.
"What? What do you mean? What's going to happen? How do our fathers know each other, and what does that have to do with all of us?" Riza was now both curious and slightly afraid.
Adriana spoke again, "Listen Riza, we can't tell you everything right now, but trust me soon you will understand everything. All I can say right now is that our fathers are all colleagues so to speak. They've all helped each other with their research and now they are helping each other hide their work. They're all alchemists. I wish I could tell you more, but I don't want to get us in trouble, just remember we are here for you even when others might not." With that the door opened and Riza was called in. Once she was in and the door was once again closed tight the other girls began to speak once more. For the first time that evening Miranda spoke up.
"I do hope she'll be okay. She's so small I wonder how they'll be able to fit it all on there."
Then Nila chimed in, "They'll do it the same way they did the rest of us. And remember she's the same age the rest of us were when we got ours. I'm sure she'll be fine, I mean the rest of us survived it."
"Sorry I said so much Adri. It just makes me so upset to think that yet another girl has to go through this." Karina added apologetically.
"It's okay Kari, I understand what you mean. At least she's the last one; no other girls have to go through this."
"You're assuming that none of the apprentices' decide they like the idea and do it to their own daughters." Miranda said bitterly.
"Well I don't know about you girls, but I don't plan to ever show mine to anyone, especially my father's apprentice. He gives me the creeps. Not to mention he's a jerk."
"Kari, you're assuming that your father gives you a choice in the matter. If he says to show it to him you must. None of us have any choice in this."
Just as Adriana finished speaking the girls heard a high pitched "WHAT" followed by several men shouting from inside the study. After the men quieted down all that could be heard was the gentle sobbing of a 10 year old girl. Then Nila spoke again.
"Well it seems that they've told her."
"Yes, they'll give her a few minutes to calm down and then they will begin."
"That poor girl. She will remember tonight as the most painful night of her entire life."
"And then she'll be one of us; another girl turned into a human notebook, forced to carry the burdens of their fathers deadly work. She can never have a normal life after this."
"None of us can."