The Emerald Tablet

The sun had barely risen as Ed opened his eyes. He went to stretch and realized he was wrapped around Alexa. They were sleeping on their sides, his arm over her stomach. He blinked as he realized exactly where his arm had come to rest. Blushing intensely, he swiftly removed his offensive arm and tried to roll away. Alexa moved a little in her sleep and he realized she was laying on his other arm, which had fallen asleep. He tried in vain to slide it out from underneath her head. He flexed his fingers and regained some feeling.

Suddenly, he looked and felt her small fingers, tracing shapes on the inside of his wrist. That felt...really good. He lay on his back and closed his eyes, enjoying the sensation. Perhaps he didn't need to wake up quite yet. However, as he lay, metal hand on his stomach and felt his other forearm being very gently stroked, a problem arose. Literally. Yanking his arm out from under her and letting Alexa fall with a thud, Ed raced out of the room, turning a lovely shade of crimson on the way.

"Alexa?"

"G'morning Al."

Alexa's voice was groggy.

"What just?"

"Um, Brother had a uh....He needed to use the restroom."

Al was very abashed on his brother's behalf and could think of no better way to explain the morning problem. Meanwhile, in the bathroom, Ed stood, cursing quietly. This wasn't something he was accustomed to have happen. He knew that some guys had the morning issue, but he'd never been one. If I'm going to be sleeping next to her, this is going to be a real problem, he thought accusingly at his body. Traitor

Ed's first instinct, of course, was to go have breakfast and clear his head. However, unfortunately, he remained in his underwear and nothing else. For God's sake, his hair was a mess! So, crossing his arms over his chest and trying desperately to look cool and not in such a compromising situation, he strode casually back into the room. To be confronted with a yawning and stretching Alexa. To his dismay, it seemed she'd completely woken up, even before he'd run out, and Al had probably noticed exactly what happened. However, though Al was giggling in the corner, Alexa seemed not to be so cruel. Ed had appreciated the fact that when she stretched, her shirt stretched very tight across her....NO! No more! He decided to turn around and stare straight ahead.

To his intense surprise, he felt her gentle hands grab his metallic one and pull him back to the bed. He felt guilty as he stepped back and sat on the very edge of the bed. He cringed, waiting for her to smack him and call him a pig. It was quite the opposite. He felt her toes touch his back as she scooted up and sat criss-crossed. She took his hair and began to braid it, very gently. He blushed again and looked down at his lap. When she'd finished and tied it off, she pulled on his shoulder to get him to turn around. He did so very slowly. However, as he did so, he saw that she was not going to lecture him in the slightest. He dropped his arms finally and she spoke.

"Um..."

Here it comes.

"Ed, I'm really sorry."

"Huh?"

"Well you see, I..."

She trailed off and poked her fingers together, looked ashamed.

"I sort of stole a manuscript from the library."

"What?"

Al had been prepared to stay out of a conversation in which his brother's masculinity was being reprimanded, but this was something else entirely.

"Well, we were reading and I'd just gotten to it and it actually looked really promising and then we were found out so suddenly, I just sort of put it in my knapsack and-"

"Stole it?"

Ed's voice was soft.

"Hey! I'm trying to help the cause here! And I said I was sorry."

"That's no excuse for stealing!"

"C'mon Al! Cut me some slack here."

"Alexa, that wasn't very smart."

Alexa looked at Ed again.

"Chances are, someone catalogs those things, maybe Sheska, and no doubt if the colonel hasn't already noticed something missing, he will soon. We've got to get it back."

"Well let me read it first."

"No."

Alexa was surprised by the intensity.

"We need to put it back."

Alexa sighed. She hadn't wanted to bring it up, but...

"You owe me a look at least."

Ed's head jerked up and he blinked at her stupidly before realizing simultaneously what she was implying and that she was referring to the manuscript. He turned red.

"That has nothing to do with it!"

Alexa giggled, but not meanly. She poked him in the belly and laughed again. Ed thought it was the cutest thing he'd ever seen. Al thought that his brother had found a mighty soft spot for this girl. But that was okay, Al liked her a lot too. However, if she could persuade Brother that stealing was okay with a wink, a poke, and a cute smile, what else could she convince him to do?

Ed grabbed her finger the third time she tried to poke him. He held onto her hand, softly though.

"We'll read it together, okay? And we're putting it back. Tonight."

His tone was serious, but not annoyed. Alexa rolled her eyes hugely.

"Yes Mr. Fullmetal Sir."

"Hey! I don't deserve that!"

"What are you talking about Sir? I'm just addressing you properly Sir."

Ed tackled her and tickled her until she was crying with laughter and begging him to stop. Al was laughing along with them, but he felt very lonely. In fact, he felt like such a third wheel that he resented Alexa a little, for taking Brother away from him. He immediately felt ashamed for the selfish thought and got very depressed. Ed noticed.

"Hey Al. Are you okay?"

"Yeah, I'm fine. I was just thinking."

Alexa got up and quickly dressed, throwing Ed's clothes at him. She retrieved the manuscript from her rucksack and sat down in front of Al. Ed was busy putting on his clothes and boots. She looked up sympathetically at Al.

"Sorry."

She murmured. Al was about to ask what for, but he saw her eyes dart at Ed who was coming to sit as well. Al felt guilty again at his resentment towards Alexa and was sure she could feel his silent apology. He was very glad she was so kind.

She gently flipped open the manuscript. The print was small and the script so light it was barely readable. The three leaned forward and somehow managed not to bump heads. She kept flipping through until she came to a passage that she skimmed and quickly summarized.

"So the Emerald Tablet is a stone...and each of its facets have a line engraved in it...it tells how to reach happiness, knowledge, freedom, power, or all four at once depending on the order in which you read the lines...The combination of all four results in a Philosopher's stone...In a way that many lives are not sacrificed."

Ed and Al looked up at each other in wonder. A third way to make a Philosopher's Stone? And a harmless one at that? Simply incredible. They paid attention as Alexa began speaking again.

"Even though the Emerald Tablet is the key on how to create the Philosopher's stone, it only describes the process, and doesn't name the ingredients...But there is an accompanying book that does...In the span of 15 illustrations that are heavily encoded...only a true philosopher could understand them...known as the silent book, Mutus Liber, because it has no words...if properly decoded and used in conjunction with the Emerald Tablet then it works...."

Al excitedly interrupted.

"So all we have to do is find a copy of this book right? And it'll probably also have a clue where the Emerald Tablet is hidden! I bet Central Library, or the Restricted Section have Mutus Liber?"

Al ended his statement, slowing down and ending on a question pitch because Alexa was already shaking her head.

"This manuscript is already very old and it says that Mutus Liber was not being reproduced anymore and few copies remain. That means that by now there is probably one or two copies and I'd bet my purse that the pages are not together or whole at that matter. Based on how confusing these copies are supposed to be, if we only find fragmented pieces, well..."

"In any case, we should begin in the library. That's where we'd find any suitable information and that's where this belongs."

Ed gestured at the gingerly held manuscript in Alexa's lap.

"Well, I'll keep browsing through this for any more useful information, because I have no idea where to look for an emerald. We'll have to just try a lot of libraries to find Mutus Liber."

"If we can find these things, it'll be a miracle..."

Al trailed off in wonder at everything.

Ed smiled sadly at his brother's far away gaze. Ed was not so innocent and by all rights Al shouldn't have been either, but he was glad his brother still saw the beauty of the world. His gaze darkened as it fell on the broken manuscript. He wanted to hope. That this emerald existed. That they could find this Mutus Liber, and yet somehow....he had a lot of trouble believing that a way could exist to bring back their bodies without taking mass amounts of lives.

There was no way. It wasn't in accordance to equivalent exchange at all. Either the emerald had to be a philosopher's stone that was already made and just needed to be harnassed or, the stone had a different power source. Ed nearly raised his eyebrows at his own idea. What if the stone had some other power source? One as powerful as human life? But what on earth could that be? Certainly not animal souls, he hoped. Al would never go for that and Ed wasn't sure he could stomach that idea either.

Alexa started reading aloud and both Ed and Al were awakened from their reveries.

"The emerald, being in itself a potentially dangerous and infinitely powerful object, was hidden long ago by those who made it. The gods who once walked our earth, hid their precious gem in the heart of one of their own cities.

The emerald can only be found by the desolate and the desperate. One must give everything to use its power, the ancient power of the gods who, being desperate themselves, locked themselves away inside it, behind the Gate of Light."

Ed and Al looked at each other, trying to make sense of all this information.

"The gods worshipped a superior god, the One who was all powerful, all knowing, and all loving. To Him, they built churches everywhere they conquered in His name, killing entire cities, making them vanish in a night."

Ed dimly remembered hearing an old story, from his childhood, one that Hohenheim told him, about a city called Xerxes that was destroyed in a night. His eyes widened.

"In one such church, the Temple, they buried the emerald deep beneath its holy grounds. The Temple lies in the heart of a lost city, an ancient city, a ruined city, a city of gold, of temptation. A city of evil."

Those words sent a rippling shudder through the three and Ed jumped up. He began pacing. He waited until he was sure Alexa was done speaking before he began.

"This is ridiculous! An evil city?! Gods who walked the earth?! Only worshipping one god of many? What is this nonsense?"

"Brother, maybe we should do more research before calling it ludicrous. There was some truth to it."

"Like what?"

"Xerxes was destroyed in a night."

Alexa said it quietly. Al looked at her as he continued.

"There was a church, I saw it in our travels, that was dedicated to one god, and I asked about it later. There was a race of people who did alchemy, but a very strange and evil form of it. They waged war on every other race who did not believe similarly because of their intolerance. Maybe they were collecting power. To make a philosopher's stone."

"If they were doing it that way, then why did they need the emerald?"

"Perhaps the emerald is the product of their work."

"A philosopher's stone?"

"Apparently a heavily guarded one if you have to give everything just to get it."

That made the most sense out of everything Ed had heard of it. He had supposed it himself, after all.

"There's more."

They looked at her in unison.

"It's a warning. That the emerald on its own will not accomplish the greatest of goals. Also, they weren't making a philosopher's stone."

"Then what-?"

"Patience Ed."

She smiled at him and he blushed as he plopped down on the floor again.

"They were collecting souls, it's true, but for a higher purpose. One of their people said he would lead them to glory, that he was the son of their ultimate God. So they were questing to bring him souls of the unfaithful and non-believers. Apparently, he said that the more they did that, he would banish the souls to Hell and the followers would have a place secured for them in Heaven."

The Elric brothers looked confused.

"I don't know what those are, but I guess Heaven is good and Hell is bad. It's where you go after you die."

Ed snorted at the lame ideas this ancient race had.

"How do you know that son wasn't secretly making a stone and just giving false reasons to his people?"

Alexa shook her head slowly.

"He wanted to become his God. His Father."

"But thats what the philosopher's stone does! It gives you gold and eternal life."

"He wanted to be all powerful and all knowing too. It would have to be a more perfect form of the philosopher's stone. So powerful, it was divine. So powerful, it embodied all the power of the Guardian of the Gate."

Ed's eyes got very large indeed. He remembered the Guardian. He remembered the raw power he could sense in the entire place all coming from Him. He shuddered.

"But if they were making something that powerful then why are they extinct? Why can't the emerald perform the greatest goal? And what is the greatest goal?"

"I don't know Al. Obviously, they failed somehow. They failed on such a great scale that it wiped them out completely. A failed transmutation, I'd guess."

"Maybe they didn't fail. Maybe he succeeded and became a new Guardian."

"Always a possibility. But it says he loved his people very much and I can't imagine someone like that would sacrifice them all."

"People do a lot of unthinkable things."

Ed spoke bitterly. Alexa looked at him sadly.

"I believe that they failed though and that's why Mutus Liber was written, perhaps by that same race, to refine and perfect the emerald. Perhaps they gathered too many souls and were not capable of using the extreme power."

Ed nodded absently. Alexa looked down at her hands, folded neatly in her lap. She undid her entwined fingers and, trembling, lifted her hand slightly. She frowned and the trembling stopped. She moved her hand, very slowly, to where Ed's right hand lay, on his knee. Just as she reached his knee, Ed suddenly lifted his arm to run his fingers through his hair in frustration. Alexa jerked her hand back, hurt. Al sat quietly and when Ed saw Al's demeanor and how quickly Alexa had moved her hand, he took a guess at what he hadn't observed.

"We should return the manuscript to the library soon. I can go during the day time; I'm very apt at sneaking in places."

She stood abruptly and turned to go.

"Wait."

Ed reached up, on impulse, and grabbed her trailing hand. He held it for a moment longer than he needed to and she stopped in her tracks. They both looked at their hands and then Ed gently and slowly let go.

"Let me come with you."

Alexa started shaking her head.

"I don't think it would be wise or needed to have two-"

"Let me come with you?"

She looked at his eyes. She had to look away first.

"Yeah okay."

Al murmured,

"I can be in the main library looking for any texts that might help us."

Alexa smiled brightly at him.

"Good idea!"

Al was pleased at the compliment. Alexa turned her gaze slyly to Ed, who gulped at the foxy stare.

"And, of course, seeing as how you're so small, I'm sure no one would ever notice you sneaking in with me..."

Ed's hair flared up and he stood on his tiptoes so he could be looking down at Alexa.

"WHO'RE YOU CALLING SO SMALL THAT NOBODY WOULD EVER NOTICE HIM ANYWHERE?"

Al was impressed.

"Hey! Brother! That's the first time you ever got the insult right."

Ed rounded on his little, er, larger brother and attempted to beat him up. All that happened was a lot of clanging and laughing.

*************Later

Alexa and Ed looked around one more time before lighting the lamp. The Restricted Section was deserted, like always. Ed wondered vaguely why the section existed if the only people who made use of it were sneaks.

Alexa was looting around through the manuscripts, trying to figure out what kind of order they were in, if any, and where to place her manuscript.

"Hey...Alexa?"

"Hmmm?"

Ed was pointing to a place on a random shelf that looked familiar to Alexa. She came over and browsed the manuscripts around and decided this was as good a place as any for it. She had to wonder though.

"Why here?"

"I dunno. Something just seemed...missing."

Alexa shrugged and finished putting away the manuscript. Just as she'd started to turn, Ed leaned in closer and raised the lamp. Initially, she wondered at his intentions, but then saw that he was staring intently at the bookshelf and she blushed lightly.

"What?"

He reached in and pulled out a folded piece of paper. Unlike most of the paper in this room, this was obviously new. As he unfolded it, smudges were visible that showed the paper was folded before the ink had dried and it was still a little wet.

"Someone must have put this here maybe five minutes before we got here."

Alexa said, wonderingly. They both craned their necks to read it properly.

Go to the Moose's Jaw. You'll find some answers there. The oldest are the wisest and the most foolish.

Ed and Alexa stared at the note, puzzled. They quickly folded the note and snuck back out to the main library where they signaled Al and they left. After getting some distance, they revealed the note to Al, who agreed that it made no sense.

"Brother, we could ask someone about it. Maybe it's a famous store?"

"Or a town?"

"Something like that...Excuse me!"

Ed flagged down a young man's attention.

"'Scuse me, do you happen to know where the Moose's Jaw is?"

The man shook his head, flabbergasted, and walked away. After several more tries, they discovered it was a pub in a small town outside of central. Perhaps a day's walk, the lady had said. So, after having a substantial meal, and then bringing more food with them, (Al couldn't believe how much food his brother could eat. Where did he put it all?), they began walking. The skies were clear, the sun was shining, and it was a pleasantly warm day.

"So, Ed. Tell me about your home?"