Chapter Two of "The Omega Stone" by Melinda-chan
"May I be of assistance?" the light brown-skinned girl asked us. Her dark features contrasted with the white robe she was wearing.
"I'm Edward Elric, and this is my younger brother Alphonse," Brother said. "We are from Central. May I ask, are you really Sarah Somers?"
"Yes, but I'm called Salama as well," she replied. This caused Brother to look more closely at her.
"How old are you?" Brother asked her.
"I'm twelve years old," Sarah replied. Brother coughed, then pulled out from the envelope the paper that had her personal information on it and looked at it.
"This says that you're twenty-one years old," Brother said.
"I'm twelve years old," Sarah insisted. "Do you want proof?" At that, she almost pulled up her dress. Brother had to run in order to stop her from stripping herself.
"I believe you! I believe you!" Brother shouted. He then coughed. Sarah pulled down her dress (much to our relief- we have never seen even Winry nude) and put her hand on Brother's forehead. I also became concerned.
"Your aura tells me that you're sick" Sarah said. "You should get better before you start your assessment. I can give you some medicine and a place to rest."
"I'm not sick!" Brother protested. I then heard him sneeze.
"You are sick," I said. "Please don't make it worse, Brother." I didn't hear him protest, so I counted that as a good thing.
"We should go inside my place," Sarah said. "It's small, and it doesn't have electricity or plumbing or anything like that. Still it's a lot better than staying out here in the cold, don't you think?" I had to agree, so I helped her bring Brother into her home.
"I must apologize for everything," Sarah said. She was now holding a candle as we walked in her home. "I have been so busy in fixing this place up and my study room is still a mess."
"That's alright," I said. "We are alchemists. We have seen lots of study rooms before and- oh!"
I then saw her study room, which led me to exclaim that last part. Books- some opened, some closed- was over the place, including a big wooden table that seemed to have been handmade. Papers were also all over the place. I could tell most have been hand-written- the ink on some of the papers looked fresh.
"You can lay him down on this cot," Sarah said. So I put Brother on it. She went to him.
"His head feels very warm," Sarah said, putting her right hand on his forehead. "I will prepare the tea now. Do you want me to polish you too? You can't eat in that condition right?"
"You mean you want to polish my armour?" I said. I had to admit that I was touched by her offer, but I did have a question. "How did you know that I have no body?"
"You don't have an aura or at least I can't detect it" Sarah said. "And I do know that you don't have any lungs or a heart or do you?"
"Uh…" I started to say, not knowing what else to say.
"I'm not going to ask how you got to be like that," Sarah said. "I'm just a girl, but I still would like to polish you."
"You got armour polish?" I asked her.
"Only silverware polish," Sarah said. "But it should still work on you."
"Okay," I said. She then smiled, and left. I turned away. "This is the first time someone offered to polish my armour since I became a suit of armour!"
I then heard kissy noises behind me.
"Al and Sarah sitting on a tree…" Brother's voice caused me to look back. I saw Brother sitting up, making kissy faces at me.
"Brother, that's immature!" I protested.
"Methinks, my younger brother is in love," Brother said.
"I-I am not! I mean, we both came just to see her, right?" I said. Why did I feel like hitting him?
"So what do you really think of her?" Brother asked. I looked around the room.
"Well, uh, she's really been busy" I said. I picked up a piece of paper. "I mean, I don't know what this code is."
"Code?" Brother said. I could tell from his voice that he was interested. I then brought him the paper.
Brother's eyes were red due to the cold but he kept looking at it despite rubbing his eyes a few times. I looked at it too.
"It seem to be some sort of language, not just a code," Brother said. The marks were in shapes that resembled forks and lines. There were a few dots in some words as well and after a few words, though those could be periods. But they appear to be highly structured, like a real language.
"I got the tea and polish!" Sarah's voice caused us to look back at her.
"You really are going to polish my armour?" I said.
"Why should I lie to you?" Sarah said. She then looked at Brother. "Here's your tea. Be careful when picking it up. It's still hot!"
"I didn't mean to burden you like this," Brother said, accepting the cup.
"I'm happy to assist you" Sarah said. "After all, I plan on becoming a State Alchemist just like you." This caused Brother to think.
"Why do you want to become a State Alchemist anyway?" Brother asked.
"Because there is something I need to find out and the military may be the only thing that can help me," Sarah replied. "Isn't that why you join the military, Mr. Elric?"
"Yeah" Brother said. "You can call me Ed or Edward by the way."
"So you know what we did?" I asked her.
"You mean you partaking in human transmutation?" Sarah said.
"Did you?" Brother asked her. He sounded like the cold was affecting him again.
"As you can see, I was left unscathed by my experiment," Sarah said. "But I felt I did lose something."
"You mean you partook in human transmutation, but didn't lose anything?" Brother said almost in disbelief. He then coughed.
"You need to drink the tea, Edward," Sarah commanded. "You need to cleanse your body of the germs that threaten you."
"Please do so," I said. "We wouldn't be able to leave until you get well."
"I know," Brother said. I then saw him drink the tea, which relieved me. He then looked at Sarah again. "You do know what you're getting yourself into, do you?"
"I know," Sarah said. "Are those for me?" She pointed to the big envelope he still had in his left hand.
"Oh yeah," he said. "Here you go." He then handed her the envelope.
"You should rest now," Sarah said. "I'll look over these papers myself." Brother was probably too willing, as he quickly went back on the cot and closed his eyes. She then turned to me.
"I hope it wasn't too difficult to find this place," Sarah said. "I didn't want to make this place too inaccessible."
"Oh no!" I said. "I mean, we had to knock on a lot of houses and only a man on the street told us where to go. The people here have been very unfriendly."
"Please forgive them," Sarah said in a low voice. "We could see the smokes of Ishbal from the southeast. Our humble village was also overrun by the military. There were even a few skirmishes here. People still live in fear of anyone from the military, especially a State Alchemist." I didn't reply- I knew from what happened to our town what could have happened here.
"So you want to become a State Alchemist anyway?" Brother asked from the cot.
"You know the answer to that already," Sarah said. "You must rest now. If you do not, your sickness will not go away." I then saw Brother close his eyes again.
"He must be drowsy by now," she said to me. "Now that he's finally asleep, I'll be able to go through this." Sarah then went to the table and started to go through the papers.
"Where did you get all of these books?" I said, looking around the place.
"I got them from people that didn't want them anymore," Sarah said. "But I can no longer understand most of them."
"Why not?" I asked. Her answer shocked me.
"Because I lost all my past knowledge in the exchange," Sarah replied. I was about to ask what she meant when she looked at me. "I forgot to polish your armour! I'm so sorry!" She then took the polish from the tray (it was still on the floor where Brother put it) and grabbed a cloth from a container on her table. I sat down on the chair.
"This polish is supposed to polish anything metal though I use it mostly for shoe polish," Sarah said. I wished I could blush, because I would be so red. A girl was polishing ME!
"Tell me, Alphonse, was your older brother recruited or did he personally apply to become a State Alchemist?" Sarah asked.
"He had to personally apply, but the Colonel did come to us first," I said.
"The young one?" Sarah inquired.
"He is young for being a Colonel," I said. "Did you met him before?"
"The one with black hair?" Sarah said. "The one called the 'Flame Alchemist?'"
"Yes" I said.
"I have" Sarah replied. She then looked at the consent form. "I signed my name on the consent form. Is that all you came here for?"
"Brother can only answer that," I replied, trying to hide my uneasy feeling.
"He'll not be able to go anywhere in his state anyway," Sarah said. She then put down the polish and grabbed a bunch of papers in the bookshelf. "I must continue my research. If you excuse me-"
"Wait!" I said. "Your papers are all in code, right? Or is it a real language?"
"If you think about it, all languages are codes," Sarah replied. "I know it's your job to see if I'm qualified or not. I must make sure that I have the necessary knowledge to pass the State Alchemy exam, or at least know where I need help."
"But why do you want to be a State Alchemist so badly?" I had to ask her.
"I told you why already," Sarah said. "But it's not the same thing that you two are seeking. In fact, it's just the opposite. If you excuse me-" She then left without saying another word.
'The opposite?' I thought. What could be the opposite of the Philosopher's Stone? I wanted to ask Brother, but he was asleep, and he would be too sick to answer anyway. I decided to go through her room. Except for the books, all of her materials were in that forklike language of hers. I went through one-third of the books by the time night fell, but none could tell me what she meant.
I figured it was around eight o'clock when I put back the last book I read that day. The lamp was dimming- most of its fat was gone from the candle. I saw Brother still sleeping, which was just as well.
I then heard a noise- it was the shack door. I walked as quietly as possible (not that easy for a suit of armour) to the door. I heard nothing.
"Sarah?" I said out loud. There was no response.
'Did she went outside?' I thought. I then went outside. The air felt so silent- I could hear cicadas close by.
I then saw a small light further ahead. I went down to the ground, hoping not to be seen. There were a few trees but none had thick trunks to hide my body. I slowly crawled closer to the light. I then heard a voice.
"Salama, how could you-!"
I then heard the response. It was Sarah talking back.
"Are you so impatient that you cannot discern the times?"
What was going on?
End of Chapter Two
Sorry for the delay. I had to rewrite a few pages. In any event, I hope you enjoyed the second chapter. It looks like Al stumbled into something important, eh? So what will happen next? What other secrets is Sarah hiding? Fullmetal Alchemist was created by Hiromu Arakawa and distributed by Square Enix and Viz Media. Don't forget to review!