11 August 1919

The girl had the features that Al was becoming so familiar with. Dark hair and eyes. He could recognize her relation to Me- The Empress though. They had the same round face shape and large eyes, but while the Empress (even after having grown so much the past four years) was at least two or three heads shorter than him, this girl looked only a head below his height. Her pulled back hair only managed to reach mid back though, whereas the Empress's probably could have easily reached her knees if she let it all down.

"Ambassador," the Empress said calmly when he entered. He bowed deeply, as he had quickly learned was expected upon meeting with the Empress. Not that he met with the Empress very often, in fact this was only the third time in the entire two months he had been here. The time he had met with her after first arriving, once two weeks ago when she told him that his teacher would be arriving in two weeks, and then once now.

The girl stood up from the table she was sitting at and bowed to him, so he repeated the gesture, making sure to bow deep enough to show his respect to a teacher. It had taken Fei Qing hours to get him to recognize the proper depths of bows for different honors.

She flushed when he did so.

"Hi, my name is Alphonse Elric," he said as he walked closer to her.

The girl glanced at the Empress, who nodded. "It is nice to meet you, Ambassador. My name is Rikui Chang." Her voice was differently accented than the Xingese Al was used to. Mei had probably had more time to adjust or lose her accent. He had never really heard her speak Xingese before coming here.

"Are you going to be my teacher?"

"That is what the Empress wishes." He smiled, though something in his stomach died at her formality.

"Rikui has agreed to come and teach you at my request, Ambassador. She is quite a good alkahestrist herself, though she didn't study with Master Hishu like I did. She will teach you well."

He nodded and smiled again.

"I will check up on your lessons if my schedule ever allows it. Not that I don't trust you, Rikui, but since I am personally sponsoring the Ambassador's lessons, it would be good for me to know where he stands. No foreigner has ever been taught the Dragon's Art. Do not make me regret my decision to trust you, Ambassador."

Al promised that he wouldn't, bowing and thanking her again.

"You may go."

He bowed again, before backing up a few feet, then turning around and walking out. He was surprised to notice that Rikui left with him. As the door closed behind them, he wondered whether or not she was planning on starting their lessons now.

She didn't seem to have a notion of starting lessons though, because she turned around and grinned at him.

"I am so glad to get out of that room."

"I'm… sorry?"

She continued to smile. "Mei was always my favorite cousin, but all the "Your Highness" and bowing and smiling and asking for her permission to sip my tea? It's annoying."

The corner of his mouth twitched up. It was like she was reading his mind of the past two months.

"I feel like I'm in over my head with all of these formalities," he admitted, causing her to nod and smile.

"No kidding." She bit her lip, then seemed to make some sort of decision. "I have to ask. Are you… Are you related to Edward Elric?"

He blinked. She didn't know? "Yes, he's my brother."

"Really?"

"Yes."

"Oh." The size of her grin increased. "And… are you aware that the mighty Empress of Xing, Daughter of the Morning, used to have the biggest crush on your brother? I probably know more about him than you do, I heard so much about him. Edward Elric, the People's Alchemist with golden hair."

"I did actually," he responded, smiling back. "She was quite disappointed when she found out what he was really like. Started blowing things up… literally."

The news that her cousin had started blowing things up did not seem to alarm or surprise Rikui at all. She fixated on a different part of Al's statement. "And what is he actually like?"

"Short," Al said, now grinning. If Ed heard him saying that, he would probably earn himself a week or two in the hospital. "With an even shorter temper."

"Really?"

"Absolutely. She called him a rice-grain boy and he started blowing things up too. There was just a lot of blowing things up going on in that first meeting. Well, technically it wasn't the first meeting. The first time I met her, she kicked me into a train, jumped on Brother's face – she didn't know that he was who he was – and then blew things up aiding in the escape of a murder."

Rikui gaped at him, and Al couldn't help grinning. "I'm guessing she hasn't had time to explain the story to you?"

"No…" she responded, jaw still lax. "I… what?"

Al chuckled. "It's a really long story."

"I've got time. The reason I'm here, after all, is to teach you alkahestry, so I really don't… I mean I can make time for you, or…" she paused, getting tongue twisted. "I can listen to your story because I have time because I don't have to do anything here except you… I mean teach you. I mean…"

"It's alright, I get what you mean." She rubbed the back of her neck, turning red. "Do you… want to hear the story?"

"Yes," she said firmly, and Al smiled.

"Alright. So, the first time I met Mei… the Empress—"

"I don't understand."

The man sitting across from him lacked any signs of sympathy, despite the repeated utterance of 'I'm sorry'. Everything about him, as a matter of fact, screamed indifference. He wasn't even facing him, instead addressing a sheaf of papers in his hands.

"The position has already been filled. We can only take on so many workers, or else everyone will be paid so little everyone will starve."

"I was promised this job," Hua said slowly as he fought to keep his voice level. "Your boss promised me the position, said that I earned it with my service in the army."

"Everyone fought in the army," the unsympathetic man said, not even looking at him as he flipped through a few papers.

"Not everyone was a prisoner of war in Gondappi for two years," he snapped, before putting a leash on his anger with a deep breath. "You called me a hero… why will you now not let me work. I am willing to." A desperate idea occurred to him, and he offered it without even thinking. "What if I… I will work for less. I will take the lowered wage. I need work—if I do not get it I will starve."

This seemed to give the other man pause. Or at least it made him stop shuffling his papers.

"A lowered wage…"

Hua jumped on the lifeline this man seemed to be offering. "Yes. A lowered wage. I need this work, please."

A few seconds pause. Then finally: "No, I'm afraid not. It is simply impossible."

Hua gaped at the man as he picked up his papers again.

"But… please you do not understand—"

"I understand perfectly. The position has already been filled. It is impossible. Now leave."

"But I need this work, please, I have tried everywhere else—"

"I am sorry. Please leave now."

"I will not leave until I have a job!"

The man stood up abruptly. "I will give you one last chance to leave, now before I have you dragged out of here by your ankles! Leave, you worthless scum!"

The sound of something snapping was almost audible.

Hua threw himself across the room without even stopping to think about the consequences of his actions. All he could remember was the men who would stand there, kicking him again and again, calling him scum and other far worse terms. How much he hated them. How much he wanted to destroy them.

The man fought, he really did. But against Hua's mindless rage and extensive training, he was helpless.

"Call me scum one more time," he shouted after the man finally fell to the floor, sinking his foot into his stomach. "Say it! Say it!"

"Mercy!"

"Say it!"

"Save me!"

Hua's foot froze an inch away from the man as he breathed in one, then another sharp breath.

"Why? Who?"

"Have mercy…"

"Who!"

"Chang," the man moaned, almost crying. "Tiang Lau. Chang clan. Chang."

"What is he? Who is he? Why!"

"Chang. He's Chang," the man repeated as if that made perfect sense.

And it did.

Hua Pang stepped out from the building a few minutes later, pulling his hat on low over his face. If no one saw him leaving, hopefully no one would be able to connect him to what had happened here. No one could. He couldn't let that happen.

21 December 1919

From the very moment Al began his tutelage under Rikui, he was confused. The very concept of qi was so foreign that he couldn't even wrap his head around it. It was like she was expecting him to all of a sudden develop another sense organ. Which was almost exactly what she wanted him to do. Qi was almost like an entirely new sense that he had yet to be able to… well, sense.

She told him to have patience, and he tried. But he really did hope that after the four or five months that they had been working on it, he would be able to understand that at least.

Even if his alkahestry studies weren't progressing as much as Al had hoped, he couldn't deny that he was learning at a near exponential rate. Every new thing he learned sparked something new to learn and explore. Fei Qing was a huge help in explaining all of the different customs. They had even taken quite a few trips out together into the capital to explore. Fei confessed to Al that he had never really been in the city much other than the palace.

He learned the language, the cuisine, how to eat with chopsticks, what make him sick, what parts of the city he needed to keep a hand on his wallet, where he could expect to be bowed to and where he was expected to bow.

His alkahestry lessons frequently took him up into the mountains, despite the fact that it was well into winter now, because Rikui claimed that it would help him clear his mind. There was enough life in the forests on the mountains surrounding the capital to be able to develop his sense of qi, but not so much that he would feel overwhelmed or stressed like if he learned in the midst of the city. In fact, that many people all in one area if anything probably blocked his ability to access the Dragon's Pulse.

"It's the flow of the life around you, you just have to—"

"I just have to tap into the flow and read it. I am a part of it, as well as the smallest ant. The patterns are there, I just have to recognize it."

Rikui pursed her lips. "Al. I'm just trying to help."

"I know," he said, sighing. "You're just trying to help me understand, but I'm just not getting it. Do you think that maybe you have to learn how to sense it when you're young, or you can't develop the skill?" Everyone he had ever met who was able to understand the mystical property seemed to have been taught to sense it since they were children. The Empress hadn't been able to explain it to him because it had always been a part of her; trying to get him to understand it had been like trying to explain sight to a blind man.

She hesitated, before shaking her head. "No, I'm pretty sure that anyone can learn to read the Dragon's Pulse. It's a part of life, of living. Being alive. How could anyone not learn how to feel that?"

"I don't know, I seem to be doing a pretty good job of it," he remarked dully.

"You just need to let yourself relax. It's there to be felt. Now close your eyes."

He did so, taking a deep breath in and slowly releasing it.

"Reach into the earth. Feel it. Embrace it."

Well at least she didn't point at her temples and go "And there. I feel it."

All the same, he let himself relax.

The thoughts he turned to though were not those of mystical energy and life force though, but that of his brother and (he had to grin at the thought) his fiancé. Al had gotten the letter from Ed that morning. They were finally going to get married. And then once they were married, knowing those two, he'd probably be an Uncle in no time. Just imagine, Ed and Winry's offspring…

Ed and Winry together creating a life. Al's little niece or nephew. Just a collection of chemicals and energy, but so much more than that.

One is All, All is One.

He noticed the light slowly. Or at least he thought it was a light. It certainly seemed to have a brighter quality about it. At first he thought that the sun had shifted out from behind some clouds, but then wouldn't the light look red from behind his eyelids?

He focused more on the… light? Pinprick? It wasn't quite warmth either.

And then there. Right next to it, another one. Brighter, but not quite as warm. Or smooth. Or electric? He couldn't quite explain…

He opened his eyes, expecting to see some sort of flashlight or maybe the sun starting to shine through the branches (a sign that it was time to start heading back to the palace), but all he saw was Rikui standing next to a large tree.