Shadow Alchemist

Chapter 4

I sat down in at the table in the Elric house hold the next morning with a small smile on my face. Alphonse and I had talked late into the night, but I was also thinking about what I supposed to do for his brother. To me it seemed like Edward was getting along fine without the help of his alchemy. Flame-for-brains wanted me to restore the power to him though. I was starting to have second thoughts about whether or not to do as I was ordered, and this wasn't the first time either. As I watched Winry walk around her table her children sitting quietly in their seats also watching the tall blonde woman. She seemed so happy at this moment. It reminded me of the way that my parents had been before they had both died; at least I think that's what I'm remembering. I could be that I'm confusing memory with all the stories that I have read in my short seventeen years.

As I observed I thought about the various things that I would have to do in order to make sure that the procedure that I was supposed to do work. It wasn't that it was complicated, no it was more the fact that if I did something wrong then I could more than likely die. Magik wasn't hard to use, but it took a lot of energy. This particular spell that I was thinking about doing hadn't been done in nearly a thousand years if the Magi texts that I had read meant anything. Running through the particular incitation was what I was doing when suddenly I wasn't in the Elric's kitchen any more. I was actually standing in front of a large gate made out of silver and quartz. In front of it was the manifestation of the one that had created all life "Truth." I walked up to him my boots making an audible click in this in between world.

"Hello, child," the creature said to me in a young voice.

"Says the being that speaks in riddles with the voice of a child," I retaliated not impressed in the least.

"Still as feisty as ever aren't you little Moon child."

"I am who I am, but what pray are you?" I replied. This was one of the reasons that I disliked talking to this being, he was so annoying and if you didn't speak in riddles to his speech he found some way to get in the way of what you needed to do. For me he was a consent thorn in my side.

"Good, good, you know you're way what brings you here this time child." He was smirking as though he knew very well what had brought me here in the first place. He just wanted to trip me up and it wasn't going to work considering that I knew his game better than any other alive.

"Twist me and turn me, bring me to grief, thou doest knowest what I seek." I spoke standing a bare foot away from him.

"You seek to return the Elric boy's alchemy, do you not?" He asked placing his chin in his hand in a classic thinking pose.

"A woman knows her answers not, but a man knows better than to ask," I answered. It wasn't a mystery how I came to understand riddles or how to speak in them. Considering the fact that there was always the little fact that cats are the master of riddles and I was raised by wild animals when I was small, so speaking this way was as natural as speaking any other language to me.

"Ah, so you are at an impasse I see. It is one of those times that you are trying to figure what would be right, to follow orders or to reject them. It is something that he often struggled with as well. So what do the shadows tell you Moon child? What do they whisper to you?"

I looked down at my shadow and saw the manifestation of my soul a large dark bird that held its wings wide as though mantling over young. "Mentors tell one to seek one's own consul." My shadow shook its self although I hadn't moved.

"Good, then you know what you must do. Do not worry until the sun darkens for no reason," he said as I was brought back to the table where the noise suddenly filled my ears.

"Lunara, hey are you alright," Winry asked me as I blinked my eyes to make sure that I was completely back, sometimes "Truth" liked to keep someone to talk to. It seemed though that he had decided that I had done enough today so he was letting me go entirely.

"I'm fine, but I think that I will step outside for a bit." I stated as I stood and made my way to the door, my shadow laying close to me its dark weight a comfort. I stepped onto the porch letting my eyes wander over the rolling hills covered in green. Smiling softly I pondered the parting message that "Truth" had given me. What did he mean by the fact that I had nothing to worry about until the sun darkens for no reason? It didn't make any sense to me, the only time that happened is when there was an eclipse and one of those wasn't supposed to happen for another seven months if I had my calculations right. That is unless there is another enemy that I wasn't paying attention to. I thought about that, things is around here had been too quiet since Full metal's last battle with Father. Something was going to go down and I had to figure out what, great…this was going to be interesting.