Spoilers for the middle/late middle episodes in the series. Genfic. PG. Unashamed foreboding.
This Learning
by Maaya
Like all students practising alchemy, Izumi once asked her teacher about the Philosopher's Stone.
Izumi remembers the moment clearly.
They had been sitting in the garden, talking over their cups of tea. One afternoon in July, flowers had blossomed and the forest was filled with life. Whereas the noise from the city couldn't be heard in the distance, the singing of birds filled the air.
Dante was always fond of philosophy, teaching through talking and leading the student onto the right path. A master of manipulation, one might call it, but a skilled one. It had taken Izumi a long time before she recognized the signs of bitterness in the woman. With bitterness came biased viewpoints, and those weren't always the most logical ones.
When she realized that, Izumi also learnt not to trust everything Dante said. A valuable realization, also what taught her to never trust anyone's beliefs other than her own.
When Izumi had asked, Dante had looked at her and stirred her tea with her spoon. Dante's lips had twitched into an almost-smile, Izumi was sure, and she remembers feeling annoyed because she had known the question has been stupid. The Philosopher's Stone was just a legend-a fairy tale-after all. Even non-alchemists knew that. She had just wanted to hear another alchemist's view.
"The Philosopher's Stone," Dante had said, speaking up after a moment's quiet. Her voice had been amused, there was no doubt about it. "Is the result of desperation."
Izumi had been startled, gripped her cup tightly, and hadn't for the moment felt the hot tea burn her fingers through the china. "You believe it exists?"
"No." Dante's voice had been the one from an old woman, fragile-sounding, and yet it held sharpness. She had put her tea away on the white-painted table with artful care. "It exists in people's heads. That is enough for them. Seeking the stone will only lead to unhappiness."
"You think it leads to dissatisfaction? Realization it doesn't exist?" Izumi had unconsciously mimicked Dante's actions by putting the tea away. Now she sat stiff and ready for a debate that never came.
"Mankind created the stone through imagination and dreams." Dante had titled her head to the side thoughtfully. "The human race isn't ready to obtain that. It would lead to destruction."
Dante had suddenly stood up with a hand on the scarf around her shoulders. "It's getting colder," she had said and gestured towards the house. "Come inside with me."
The memory of the conversation hits Izumi when her own students ask the same question she once had. The two children are sitting by the table, looking at her curiously, both wearing that desperate expression of wanting, needing to know.
Eager to learn, those two are.
Izumi pauses, the knife hovering over the carrots as she considers the memory of her and Dante and mixes it with her own thoughts and beliefs, turns it around and over a couple of times. She knows she has already abandoned many of Dante's teachings and Izumi hasn't considered the Philosopher's Stone much, herself. Now she can't help but wonder how much time Dante had spent thinking about it.
Frowning, Izumi lets the knife slice through the carrots again.
"The Philosopher's Stone is a fairy tale," she says simply. She doesn't know what she believes so she gives the Edward and Alphonse a simple answer, something they can question once they grow older, if they wish to do so.
They are satisfied with the answer. Izumi almost sighs in relief.
To keep from doing that, she throws two knives towards the boys and proceeds to teach them how to peel potatoes correctly.
Izumi hopes that Edward and Alphonse won't ever need the stone so much they'll believe it exists.
end
C&Cwelcome, as always. -)