Author's Note: This is a longer chapter, for you. I'm sorry if my writing's not what it used to be. Fu's death is just really getting me down.

Chapter Eight: Falling From Grace

"Xingese herbs here! Low price!"

Lanfan and Ling took in the sights and sounds and smells of the Port Town Shopping District, eyes wary. Shops lined the seemingly endless street, which was bustling with people from all walks of life.

"Beautiful silk dresses from all the way across the desert!"

"Forget Xing! These spices from Ishbal are top-quality!"

Lanfan was on-edge. It had all the noise, nauseating brightness, and odd smells of the bar, but with foreigners. She wiped her forehead, silently begging for the cool interior of her mask. Through the riffraff, she was still pretty surprised that Ling hadn't yet tried to evade her watchful eye. He must have taken pity on her missing arm.

"Ooh, Lanfan look!" Ling called, steering her towards a door draped with richly colored fabrics. "A fortune teller!"

Lanfan coughed upon entering the shop, pulling her scarf up to cover her nose and mouth. The entire place reeked of incense and herbs, vaguely reminding her of her dreaded visits to the matchmaker back when she was just a young teen.

"Come in, come in," a woman called from inside the tent of layered curtains. "We'd love to tell you your fate."

Ling and Lanfan pulled the main curtain away, stepping into the chamber. The two plopped down on the pillows set up on the ground in place of chairs. In front of them was a short table, and behind that was the fortune teller.

Her hair flowed in luxurious waves in front of her face, in a manner resembling that of the late Lust. She was obviously from Ishbal, but her eyes were an odd shade of violet as opposed to red. She would have been beautiful, except for the fact that above the two of her eyes sat a third, blinking rapidly.

"Welcome," she said, her accent heavy. "To Madam Estella's Fortune Telling. We will see what you cannot."

Ling was speechless, still gawking at the third eye that sat in the center of her forehead. Lanfan shook her head, hoping he wouldn't try something stupid like attempting to touch it.

"Why do you say 'we'?" She said rubbing her stump of an arm with her other hand. The scent was so strong it irritated the soft skin around her wound.

"The eye and I are not one," Estella replied, her standard eyes blinking sleepily.

"If you are not one, how did you gain such a thing? I apologize for being intrusive," Ling said, appearing to be in a staring contest with the third eye. The weird thing was, that he was losing.

"I was, I am, an alchemist," she began. "My boyfriend had died, so I started studying the ungodly science, hearing rumors that it could bring back the dead. I was banished from my village, but I persisted on. After the attempt, I had thought I had succeeded."

She sucked in a breath for dramatic reasons. "I was wrong. I was taken to The Gate, where they had been contemplating what to take from me. Instead, they decided to experiment. They knew I was always scared of the future, so they gave me the curse of having to see it all the time, with this third eye, that sees into The Gate and beyond."

She smiled weakly. "I've learned to turn my curse into profit. Would you like your fortune told?"

Lanfan was surprised by this new development. She'd thought the woman was going to be a phony, dabbling in star-gazing and tealeaves. But she didn't doubt the Estella's story at all.

Ling grinned. "This will be fun, Lanfan! I will pay for us to both get out fortunes told."

Lanfan frowned. "Young Master, that is not necessary…."

Ling frowned, mimicking Lanfan. "I insist." He retrieved money from Lanfan, they'd both agreed Lanfan was the best to keep track of the funds, and handed it to Estella.

"Ladies first, I presume?" She said. Before Lanfan could refuse, the third eye started to glow a bright pink, the shafts of light omitted dancing across the curtains.

Estella's mouth opened, but it was not her exotic tone of voice that emerged. "You will fall from grace, your eyes wide open. Fall, fall, fall. But not for the man who sees what none can. For the bravest of them all, for him you will fall."

Lanfan blinked. Fall from grace? Xing was a purely Agnostic country, only creating shrines to pay homage to famous ancestors and emperors.

Ling was more confused about the falling part. Lanfan, fall for a man? She was hardly the hopeless romantic. But more so than that, he was wondering about who this brave man could be. Possibly Fullmetal. But in Ling's eyes, the golden-haired alchemist only did the things he did because he had nothing to lose.

The eye continued to flash and glow. Estella was still in The Gate's realm. Ling assumed it was his turn, and sat up to listen. "The prince, the prince, the prince, the prince. We laugh at you, the prince, the prince. A war will commence, not between lands but between clans. The one, who prevails, will lead them all. One will become four, but you will be with one, and only one."

Ling frowned. A war? Xing was a peaceful country. He'd wished he'd gone first. Maybe he would've gotten a less cryptic message that way.

Estella was back to herself again, rubbing her droopy eyes. "Thank you for selecting Madam Estella's for all of your divination-related needs." She said it as though she had said it many times before.

The pair excused themselves, glad to be out of the place. Lanfan was convinced the strong stench of the room had been giving her visions!

Ling sighed, his eyes squinting of their own accord. "Would you like to go to the shore?"

The best thing about Port Town was well, the port part. Lanfan and Ling were sure of this as they sat top a rocky shore side cliff. It was almost nighttime, and they'd have to leave the following morning. The breeze was soft and fluttery. Lanfan let her hair out of the makeshift knot, letting the draft ruffle it.

Ling wasn't staring at the sea, but at her. He'd never noticed how pretty she was before. The only other time he'd ever seen her with her hair down and neat, as opposed to the "tickling incident", was when she was recovering from the battle with wrath. And even then, it was hardly the time to focus on her beauty when it was his fault she'd never be whole again. In fact, he was thinking the exact same thing now.

Lanfan had closed her eyes, suddenly becoming very sleepy. Then, a rougher wind came up and slammed into her back. Her limbs were warm and sleepy as well, and didn't get a chance to react to the sudden blast of air. And Lanfan was falling, falling.

Just like Estella had said.

Looking back up to the cliffs, she saw the wooden sign that seemed to be mocking her. "Welcome to Grace Point".

Before she could send a wire line back up to the surface, she crashed through the waves, feeling the icy water sinking through her clothes. Vaguely, she tried to remember how to swim. Xingese warriors were taught in the arts of land combat. So to say it simply, if you dropped one into a lake, they'd sink like a rock.

She flailed around, somehow making her way to a rock jetty, clambering onto a flattish boulder.

"Young Master is going to yell at me…." She whimpered, shivering. Well, at least she was alert now. Any normal person probably would've gone into shock, but bodyguards were good with these kinds of things.

"Hey, you!" A young man called. He seemed to be fishing by the shore. Dropping his rod, he waded through the frigid sea to her. His dark hair was long and covered his eyes, making him slightly resemble a sheepdog.

Scooping her up, he waded back to the sand. He seemed skinny, his face tanned and weather-beaten. He grinned offhandedly, reminding her of Ling.

"So how did you get down here?"

She sighed. "I fell…."

He nodded. "I would've hoped you didn't jump."

She bowed. "Thank you for helping me."

He grinned again. "Anytime."

Changing the subject, she gestured to the rod. "Why are you fishing at night?"

"Why do you only have one arm? Don't answer. The fish are always out, no matter what time of day. I like night, it's peaceful. Plus, if I hadn't been out here fishing then I would've never been able to help you."

"What is your name?"

He shrugged. "It doesn't matter. Now, you'd better get going. I imagine a pretty girl like you has got a boyfriend to run back to."

She shook her head. "Goodbye. I will repay my debt to you someday."

She gave the boy an awkwardly chaste hug, running back to get with her master.

She realized how harsh the breeze could be. It seeped through her clothing, freezing her already damp skin. Soon she had to stop, lest she get sick.

She sat on a bench, at the base of the long winding road leading back to Grace Point. Soon enough, the prince had come.

"I'm sorry Young Master," she whispered.

He didn't seem to hear her, pulling off his jacket and wrapping it around her.

"Young Master…."

He shook his head. "No need to refuse. If I don't give you my jacket, you might very well get pneumonia, and I might get assassinated while you're out sick."

She pulled the jacket around her tighter. She couldn't argue with that logic. She discreetly sniffed it. It smelled like… well… Ling. Like salt and jasmine and so many wonderful things all mixed together. She faintly smiled.

"You can swim?" He asked.

She shook her head. "A nice fisherman was out by the shore and came to help me."

Ling blinked. Since she had fallen from Grace Point, maybe this had been the man she was going to fall for, like in the vision. "Hm."

Lanfan shook her head, cursing herself for staring. Since she was wearing his jacket, the upper-half of his body was bare, bandages covering his torso.

Checking into an inn, Lanfan was the one asleep first, crashed out on an armchair the way she had been before. Ling smiled, returning to his respective sleeping spot.

"Goodnight, my sweet guard."

Author's Note: Well that was a LITTLE less OOC. Just so you know, the fisherman used to be a State Alchemist, but he fell off Grace Point while on vacation, and had lost his memory of the military of anything about it. He makes a living fishing. And for those of you that think this story's declining in quality, just wait for the aforementioned war between the clans. You won't be sorry. Please review!