"What did you say?" I questioned.

"What does being human mean to you?" Questioned the Alchemist.

"I don't spend my time pondering silly questions like that." I said

"Maybe you should." He grinned at me, his breath growing harsh. "Who knows, you might learn something in the process."

"What do you mean?" I asked. He did not give a reply.

"Answer me!" I demanded. His grin only grew wider.

"Now you're interested. Here, take this." He lifted a shaking hand, and handed me some kind of notebook. I ran my hand over the leather cover. I opened the leather bound book, and read it's pages. It had detailed drawings of gemstones, listings of what it does, how it can be used, and the possibilities of what it may be made of. I came across the last page in the notebook, and froze. I could hear my own heart thumping in my chest as my eyes scanned the page. The page detailed something called a Soul Heart. The page had a few details, but was cut off by drips of blood.

I-is that, my blood?!. My head began racing at the sight of it, and my eyes were most likely as wide as they could be. I was frozen, locked in. I couldn't move, I could hardly breathe, and I didn't understand why a simple notebook could do so much to me. A sudden image flashed into my head.

A small girl was sitting against a cave wall, drawing in her notebook with a gem nearby. After she finished the image, she began writing information.

"The Soul heart is the darkest gem of all. It slowly feeds off the soul of a human being until there is nothing left. It then shoots shards of crystal into the empty husk and starts to suck up everything, bone and all, through the crystals like straws. Prolong exposure to this crystal means death, and should never be done. After this crystal steals 1,000 lives, it will be ready to use in alchemy. This is indicated by the crystal turning a grey colo-" The girl stopped writing, when the pen fell out of her hand, and stared wide eyed at the blood now resting on the page in

her notebook.

"I was here for too long." She muttered to herself. she picked up a rock and-

The images stopped there. I sat for a moment, trying to process it all. The Alchemist took the notebook from me, allowing me to move freely again.

"What was that?" I asked.

"I knew you were her. That look can't be mistaken. Listen, we will meet again someday. I may not know it's you, and you may not know its me, but then I will explain. Until next time." He gasped. His eyes slid to a close, and he gave his final breath. He had died from bleeding out, but the notebook laid in his palm. I has a backpack on me, since my job was to collect materials for the others,so I picked up the notebook and carefully slid it into the backpack. It made my heart burn, having it this close to me, but i just have a feeling.

That it will all be worth it in the end.