Edward sat in his chair next to the fire, the dancing flames reflected in his golden eyes as he stared, his thoughts turning one thing over and over in his mind.
"The barrier is broken."
It had been a week since the girl had plunged to her death and he had acquired her diary. That phrase was one thing that stood out to him. He read into it, looked at it objectively, researched it in every paper he owned, every book that he could get his hands on. The phrase didn't seem to exist in the right context that it was written in here. Alfons had been working on breaking the sound barrier, as one of his milestones for creating rockets that could punch through the Earth's gravity. Could this be related to that?
No, he reasoned. The beginning of the diary was...normal? It seemed to be a generic young woman's diary. Each entry was dated, and it was written informally, as if she were talking to herself about normal things. The first entry was about receiving a beautiful book from her father for her 18th birthday. Whoever "she" is.
But the book suddenly became coded. It was fairly simple to work out, as far as Edward was concerned at least. But it made less sense un-coded.
"The way is clear."
But the part that really disturbed him was a drawing. Or what seemed to be a drawing anyway, except that it was drawn in a jumble of letters and symbols. It seemed to create a large circle, with symbols that he recognised.
It reignited a hope in him that he struggled to keep below the surface. He had to approach this scientifically. What if this was a trap by some homunculus remaining on Earth? Or just a 'coincidence'. Who was "she" and why did she give him this book?
He was snapped out of his trance like state by Maes who had looked over his shoulder in passing at the page the book was open at.
"So, you've found a way home?"
"No..I don't know. Maybe." Edward sighed, rubbing his tired eyes with his flesh hand. "I don't know what this means." He closed the book and put it away with his work. "A girl gave it to me, a girl who reminded me of someone back home."
Maes sat down by Edward. "So tell me about her, maybe I can dig something up that might help?"
Edward shook his head, remembering how the girl had plunged into the river. "No, she's dead now."
"Oh?"
"She...fell into the river. After she handed me this book." Maes watched Edward carefully.
"Really. The Spree?" He asked. Edward nodded, sadly. Maes stood up again, turning away from Edward, trying desperately to remember anything he could have heard that would relate to this. If someone had "fallen" into the Spree, he would know about it.
Edward stood suddenly. "What do you know?" He demanded. "Who was she?"
"That's just it, Ed." He turned to face his friend. "No one has fallen into that river recently. You know I would have had to investigate that, or at least heard about it." They both looked over at where the book rested on the table. "Whoever gave you that did not fall into the Spree."
"Are you sure? Maybe she survived and climbed out?" Edward knew he was clutching at any chance to explain this away.
"No one fell into the river. There's been no reports."
Edward sat heavily in the chair, stunned. "I need to think."
Maes nodded, disturbed for his friend. He sat by him, smoking a cigarette as he watched the flames dance, reflected in the young man's staring eyes. He looked back at the fire itself, uttering a silent prayer to whatever being could be doing this, hoping for Edward's sake that he was finally onto something useful. "Please, he's just a boy, still. Let him go home and have his childhood before he really is too old."
Edward began to rent a small house close to the Hughes' family home, so that he could experiment in privacy. This house was chosen because it had a large basement with lighting installed. Every now and then, Gracia would visit to drop off some food, and pick up anything that Edward needed doing, such as washing clothes. He was so into his work that he forgot most of the domestic aspects of life, only doing what was necessary – a few hours sleep, the occasional plate of food from Gracia, and bathroom breaks. He occasionally felt a pang of guilt that Gracia, on top of her family duties, was looking after him, but he reasoned he would pay her back in full. As soon as he had figured this out, found a way home, he had a plan as to how he could set up the family for good with his savings.
The human transmutation circle drawn on his basement floor in the traditional chalk was creepy at best. He hadn't seen the shapes and runes for 7 years, and every time he had seen them, something bad had happened. It took him more courage than he thought he had to be able to draw it out, even though he knew that simply using it like he would have in Amestris wouldn't work here.
"This book should hold the key to making this work." He murmured to himself. The one thing that really worried him was that there was no mention of equivalency. He knew that it was always there, in some form of another. Even for something that most alchemists never even thought about – Energy. Alchemic reactions take a lot of energy, they all knew that, but where did this come from? In this world, they worked toward nuclear fusion for energy. It was not perfected, but it was their dream. Clean, renewable energy. However, they could not make the reaction happen without a huge amount of energy which so far was only obtainable through dirty energy. Alchemists could do this almost without effort, but why?
The Gate had told him. The energy for his world's alchemy came from this world's tragedy.
What made this exchange equivalent? What would Truth take from him this time?
Somehow, Edward didn't care. Just a few more preparations and he could be home. No matter what happened, he just didn't want to be alone again.