Chapter 10: Recovery

"If he gets her out of bed again, I will throttle him," said Sara to no one in particular. Roy had burst in and run to where Riza was resting, and was talking excitedly and pointing to his shoulder. So far she was only sitting up on her cot. Her eyes were still red from crying, but she was calm.

"Don't throttle him yet, Sara." Urey had rushed in behind him, out of breath. "You've got to see this." He grabbed her hand and tugged her over to Riza's cot.

Riza was shaking her head in disbelief. "You're telling me, not only that it exists at all—but that it's here, now?"

"Feel it." Roy pressed something red into her palm. "I sensed its power as soon as I touched it. I think you will too." After a moment her eyes grew wide, and she thrust it back into his hand.

"I don't like it, Roy. Even if it is what you say, we don't know where it came from, or what kind of power it is."

"I know," he said, running his fingers through his black hair. "I don't like it either. But right now we don't have a choice." He looked over at Urey, who nodded, then back to Riza. "Do you trust me, Riza? Will you let me heal you?"

"Wait a minute!" protested Sara.

"Hold on," Urey answered. "Just watch."

After a moment's hesitation, Riza nodded. Roy pulled a piece of chalk from his pocket and drew an alchemical circle on the floor. Then he gently lifted her sweater just enough to expose her injured ribs. He touched the circle, and a red glow spread to her side.

When it was finished, Riza's eyes grew wide again, and she took a very deep breath. "The pain's gone!" she exclaimed, and began tearing off the tape. Roy grinned. When she was done, she threw her arms around him and kissed him on the cheek.

"Will someone please tell me what the hell's going on?" demanded Sara.

From there, it was only a matter of convincing the Ishvalan patients to allow themselves to be healed. Alchemy had long been taboo within the Ishvalan religion. It was well-known that the Amestrians had used it to murder Ishvalans, and they had all watched Roy use it to kill one of their own kind, the man who had attacked the Rockbells. But they had also seen him use it to protect them from the Amestrian military, with a much higher body count, which had earned him a measure of their trust. And the threat of additional troops attacking the clinic was very real. In the end, no one refused.

While Roy made the rounds of the patients, with Sara providing medical guidance and the older assistant acting as an interpreter, Riza helped the younger assistant pack up food and medical supplies for the journey ahead. Plans had been made: The Ishvalans would find a refugee encampment, or start one of their own, in the hills outside East City. The Rockbells would return to their home in Resembool. Riza and Roy were invited to come with them if they needed a place to stay.

Meanwhile, Urey recruited a few of the newly-healed patients to help him finish burying the bodies. The volunteers were only too happy to bury the remains of the Amestrian soldiers, which were consigned to the ground together with a large quantity of Ishvalan spit.

"We don't have much time, but this is important," said Roy, as the doctors loaded supplies and patients into the transport truck. "Let's try it before we go."

"We've been through this a hundred times. You're as bad as my father," Riza sighed. They stood outside of the clinic, away from where the bodies had been buried, in the last rays of the setting sun. "I can't perform transmutation."

"I know it's never worked before. But you understand the theory so well—please, just try one more time." He held up the Philosopher's Stone. "I think you'll be able to do it with this."

She hesitated, frowned, then reluctantly took it from him. He knelt on the ground and scratched out a transmutation circle. "Earth is easiest," he said. "See if you can raise a hill in the ground. With the Philosopher's Stone, you won't even have to worry about equivalent exchange."

After a few more moments' reluctance, she knelt down beside him and placed her hands on the circle, touching the stone to it. She closed her eyes, her forehead wrinkled in concentration.

"Remember the three phases," he lectured smoothly. "Comprehension of the physical properties of the soil, deconstruction—"

"Shhh," she said, annoyed. "I know what the three phases are."

He chuckled, and after that he stayed quiet, watching her concentrate. For a few long minutes, nothing happened. Then very slowly, a dim red glow began to emerge from the circle. Slowly, it spread to the ground next to the circle, and gradually began to brighten. The ground began to move beneath the glow, began to rise…

Then a mountain of dirt erupted from the ground amid a burst of bright red light. Ten feet high, twenty, widening at the base until it raised the ground under the transmutation circle itself, breaking the symbols and halting the reaction, and stopping just shy of knocking over both alchemists.

They both stared up at the mountain, laughing in amazement, Riza a little out of breath from the effort. "It—it really worked!" she exclaimed. "You did it!" grinned Roy, pulling her into his arms and kissing her cheek. "I always believed you could."

She turned and kissed him properly, on the lips. Then she handed the stone back to him. "I'm going to try again without that," she said. She drew a new circle and repeated the process. Her second hill was considerably smaller and slower-forming, but she performed a complete transmutation.

"I really did it!" she grinned, gazing at the little hill with pride and wonder in her voice. "After all those years…and it's not even that hard."

"You did great, Riza," Roy congratulated her. "I've wanted this for you for so long." He hugged her again, grinning. After a moment, he added, "Now, whatever happens, you'll at least have alchemy."

She pulled away and looked at him curiously. "What do you mean, 'whatever happens'?"

He put his hand up to stroke her cheek, looked into her eyes sadly. "Riza, I'm not going to Resembool with you."

Her smile faded. "Why not?" she asked softly.

He opened his hand, looked down at the Philosopher's Stone. "Because it's time for the Ishvalan War to end."