Chapter 3 - The body of a sinner
Anger, surprise, the part, the actor.
Doctor, which symptoms does happiness have?
Evolution, the sky's in a prison,
this is not a drill.
Lorenzo 'Jovanotti' Cherubini - 'I trust you"
Honestly, Edward and Alphonse were not quite sure what had just happened: the ranks of armed priests who had come between them and the entrance was on the ground, weakened by several wounds, mostly to the legs, where a barrage of bullets hadhit them.
"Wh-what does this mean?" Anderson said, dumbstruck.
He turned in the direction from which the shots were fired and met the eyes of the nun with glasses, who was now wielding a giant Gatling Gun that had seemingly appeared out of thin air. She picked it up and slammed it in the man's face, knocking him out cold. The young woman jumped off the raised platform and strode toward the two boys.
"In short!" She snapped, tearing the veil off from her head and tossing it to the ground. "I don't ask much, but a little discretion?!" She removed his glasses and threw them together with the veil. "It's your fault I had to burn my cover, two whole months of work..."
"Hello, Oriel..." Al said, sheepishly.
Having removed the veil and glasses, the girl took a red ribbon from her pocket and tied it in her hair, bright dark eyes with a peculiar violet tinge peering around.
"You're not Yumiko!" the wounded Sister Heinkel exclaimed from the ground, watching the scene with confusion.
"I'm so sorry, Heinkel" the girl regretfully said. "The real Yumiko Takagi never left Aerugo."
"Then who the hell are you ?!"
"Oriel Eckhart, Dancer Alchemist" the girl introduced herself, not without a touch of pride in her voice.
"Another State Alchemist..." Anderson's voice, full of anger, boomed in the crypt.
"Scheiße, I thought he was out!" the girl exclaimed, turning around.
"Damn worms, false, subtle. God will not forgive your insolence, snakes with poisoned tongues! " The man growled, holding his broken and bleeding nose as he stood up. With a flash from the Stone, the wounds disappeared from his face and he was on his feet again ready to fight. "All State Alchemists have to die!" He shouted. He grabbed a handful of sand and transmuted it into a bayonet, that he hurled towards the three alchemists.
Edward clapped his hands immediately and created a wall with sand to protect himself, his brother and the girl. Anderson took another handful of sand, turned it again into a bayonet, and threw this one again against the wall of sand, trying to break it, and continued to do so, riddling the three alchemists' shelter.
"I can't believe you were trying to pass as a nun!" Exclaimed Edward. "You could at least tell us when you sent that telegram!"
"A telegram has a limited number of words, Ed! Wasting them to give you useless information would be stupid." The girl replied, ripping the sleeve of her dress, under which she wore, around her forearm, a complex silver armlet with rotating circular sections. "I've already had enough trouble to get it to you, as you travel the country like a madman, be grateful that I have provided you an interesting track, at least!" With a somersault, the girl rolled out of the cover and knelt, facing Anderson: the rings of the bracelet had all fit together to form an alchemical circle, which lit with bluish flashes and allowed the girl to transmute a cannon from the floor, that shot to the raised stage, destroying it. "I suggest a retreat!" She then exclaimed standing up.
"I agree," the two brothers cried in unison, standing up in turn and heading toward the opening in the wall.
"Not that easy!" Sister Heinkel and some men had managed to get to their feet and stood in front of the only exit. However, the three teenagers ran towards one of the side walls, leaving the priests stunned. Edward clapped his hands and placed them on the wall to instantly transmute a gate with clappers in the form of an animal skull, which he opened up on a corridor into which the three of them disappeared into the maze of underground corridors.
The sun had just set on Istvàn when the three of them finally managed to hide from the eyes of curious citizens and armed priests who were looking for them: the alley where they had taken refuge had been camouflaged by walls created with alchemy and finally the three could rest.
Oriel arranged the circles of her bracelet in a different way, before laying her hand on the black, dirty and torn dress and transmuted it into a pair of pants and a sleeveless shirt that allowed her a greater freedom of movement. Al gave her a thumbs-up sign of approval.
"What do we do now?" The boy in the armor asked then.
"We wait for daybreak, then we try to get in touch with the troops stationed in Istvàn" Edward said. "Between the Philosopher's Stone and the handful of soldiers, we cannot afford to face them again."
"Absolutely not," interrupted Oriel sharply. Edward shot her a dirty look. "To involve the army right now is a very bad idea" the girl explained. "The hostility of the military has already ailing civilians, we risk stirring up unnecessary confrontations!"
Edward mumbled something unintelligible, but didn't reply.
"Why were you sent to Istvàn, and undercover furthermore?" He asked instead.
"Colonel wanted to know who was at the helm of this city and if it posed a danger," Oriel told them. "We're talking about a religious cult, and given the bad precedent with Ishbal, Amestris doesn't want to have problems. Anderson looked like a normal person, at first, despite his hatred for the military. Then, four weeks ago, he received the ring, by an 'Emissary of God,' or so he said, and began to perform miracles... "
"And that's when you decided to send the telegram" Al concluded, but she shook her head.
"No, for that I had to wait. You have seen the demonstration this morning: this is the third time that Anderson brings someone back from the dead... "
"Have you met the other two?" Ed asked, with sudden interest.
Oriel nodded.
"Briefly, and in passing: after returning to life, the revived are accompanied in a room prepared for them, and here are visited Emissary. It orders them to retreat in prayer for three days and three nights, after which they must make a pilgrimage trip to a saint city in Aerugo, until their souls are healed... but none of them has returned yet. You understand that I don't trust the roast, but... "
"You don't trust what?"
"The roast. I mean, I have not had a chance to investigate further. The thing is that when Anderson revives someone, the power of the ring does not fire up: there is no transmutation, only that strange smoke... "
"It's a hoax, as I thought... But how can he?"
"Though, Edward..." Oriel began, rocking on her heels, uncertain. "I'm not convinced at all that the Father is the one who orchestrates this hoax: his faith makes him blind. If we could show him the truth, we could avoid unnecessary... "
She was interrupted by Anderson's voice coming from numerous speakers throughout the city which was probably also heard several kilometers away from the town.
"Citizens, today three military infidels have tried to kill me. They are still in the city and are very dangerous, so, until their arrest and confinement, I ask you not to leave your homes for any reason." The announcement continued with the description of the three alchemists.
"You were saying?" Edward said, sarcastically. The girl glared at him. "That damned bespectacled priest knows very well that this way the faithful will not think twice about coming to look for us for quite a lynching" continued gritting his teeth. "You two go hide, I have a plan," he added, with a smirk.
Oriel looked at him, then shrugged with a sigh.
"Do as you please, we'll come to rescue you when you're in deep shit."
"Thank you for the confidence," the boy muttered.
The three split ways. None of them realized that two human figures, a woman and a really fat man, were spying on them, perched on an iron structure that connected the two palaces.
When the citizens of Istvàn arrived, armed with brooms, shovels, pans and picks, they found Edward and Alphonse standing in the middle of a crossroads waiting for them.
"Listen to me: the miracles that man performs are nothing but alchemy!" Ed announced, trying to resolve the situation diplomatically.
"Liar!" A voice cried. The crowd split in two to let Esther trough. "The alchemists are the unbelievers who seek to rise above God, but they are bound to fall!"
"Are those your words or Father Anderson's?" Asked Ed.
"My words just tell the truth: no alchemist will ever be able to match the power of God. This is demonstrated by the fact that my Dietrich came back to me."
"And he also told you that soon he will leave you to make a long pilgrimage, isn't that it?" He insisted. "Esther, are you really sure that that person is your boyfriend?"
The girl's answer was drowned by the shouts of the crowd, who began to shake the improvised weapons in the direction of the Elric brothers, but Edward didn't miss her confused look. He was barely able to see Esther as she turned and walked away in a hurry, when suddenly the ground began to shake. A giant statue, apparently formed by trees and shrubs twisted together, walked with heavy steps towards the two alchemists. Edward's eyes widened, surprised and terrified at the same time. Transmuting organic material was very difficult, very expensive and very dangerous. Ed didn't have time to shout a warning, or to react: a giant fist came down on Al's armor , reducing it to a pile of scrap, while the second hand grabbed the boy and imprisoned him in its giant fist. The crowd cheered at the miraculous appearance, while the statue brought Edward back to the church.
Esther returned to her room, seemingly calm but really very upset: she wasn't able to get Edward's words out of her head. Since that very morning, in the few moments that she was able to be together with Dietrich, before Anderson bought him to the room where he would have spent three days in prayer, she had noticed something strange in her boyfriend's behavior, especially in the way he looked at her. Small details that had been overlooked in the euphoria of the moment, but that the fall of night and the recent disturbing events, the attack from the two alchemists towards Father Anderson, the betrayal of Yumiko, had somehow put them in a new light. With a long sigh, Esther clenched her fists, straightened her dress and opened the wooden chest at the feet of the bed.
A few minutes later, the girl was walking along the stone corridor that went to the room where Dietrich was supposed to be in prayer. Esther cautiously opened the wooden door and peered inside: it looked vacant.
"Esther?" It was not. Esther turned, nerves on edge. Maybe she had imagined it, but for a moment she seemed to see in the corner of her eye a few red sparks before focusing on the slim figure of her boyfriend. "You shouldn't be here," he said with a sweet smile, like the one she remembered. The same smile he had when she came home with wounds which she didn't want to talk about, or when making her the sandwiches with peanut butter that she loved so much. Similar, but painfully different.
"Dietrich" she began, trying to keep her voice steady. "Do you remember how we met?"
Silence, a silence too tight to be comforting.
"Why such a question?" He laughed lightly, but didn't answer.
Esther swallowed: in the best circumstances it would only make a fool out of her, and she didn't even want to think about the worst.
"I was just a child of the resistance, without parents, without hope, without a future," she spoke up. "A weapon driven by hatred towards people I didn't even know. And when they burned my house, you took me in, even though I was your enemy, even if you didn't know anything about me, but... "Esther thanked the gloomy air the chapel was surrounded by, and she hoped that the tears streaming down her face seemed of pain, and not anger. "And you promised me you would always be on my side."
As she spoke, Dietrich hadn't taken his eyes off her face, a cold, vaguely lost expression on his face, as if he didn't understand what she was saying. Then that expression that didn't belong to Dietrich turned into the usual smile of the boy who she loved so much and that she had managed to capture in a photograph that she kept on the nightstand beside her bed.
"It's still valid, Esther. That promise will last forever, "he said, wiping away the tears from her face with a cold hand.
Esther sobbed, but not with emotion: slowly, she held up the only weapon she had, a crossbow that Sister Heinkel had given her for any emergency, and that until that day she had kept hidden in her room, and pointed it at Dietrich.
"Who are you?" she asked, her voice broken. Dietrich froze. "Who are you really? I met Dietrich in times of peace, what I told you it never happened. And no one, not even Dietrich knew that once I was in the Aerugo Resistance. "
Dietrich's hand, still brushing her cheek, fell slowly down his side. The boy looked down, his shoulders hunched.
"I'm sorry, I didn't want to hurt you," he began. "My memory is not yet fully in focus since I came back," he murmured, his head sunk between his shoulders. "This is why I have been trying to avoid you..." He lifted his gaze to meet the girl's. "It is I who doesn't know who you are: I... I don't remember you." For Esther it felt like being stabbed in the heart. "You tell me that you were my girlfriend, but I don't remember" Dietrich continued, lowering his eyes again. "I don't remember the times we spent together, I don't remember anything about you..." He closed his eyes and squeezed his eyelids. "I don't remember what it meant to love you."
The crossbow in Esther's hand shook. She didn't know what to think. When the boy took a tentative step towards her, Esther found herself backing away.
"You don't believe me," he noted with an expression so sad it was heartbreaking.
Esther shook her head.
"I want to believe, I desperately want to believe you, Dietrich, but..."
"I understand," he interrupted her, placing a finger on her lips. "Then let me prove it. Come with me".
Anderson awoke from a restless sleep haunted by a huge red snake wrapped around a tree loaded with golden fruit. The snake arched his back and hissed, teeth bared. His eyes open, there stood a very charming dark haired woman wearing a white dress covering her from throat to toe.
"Divine Emissary!" Anderson exclaimed, getting up out of bed and kneeling before the woman. "What news?"
The Emissary's red lips curved in a sweet smile, but her violet eyes were narrowed to slits. When Anderson raised his head again, the woman had disappeared.
Dietrich opened the door of a dark room, barely illuminating the walls with the light of the candle in his hand. Esther followed him, the crossbow in her hand, still not pointed at the boy. Something moved with a swish across the room, and the girl stopped on her tracks. Nonchalantly, Dietrich slipped behind her, standing between the girl and the door.
"What are you doing?" She said, tightening the grip on her weapon.
Dietrich drew a long sigh, scratching his head with the hand that wasn't holding the candle.
"I knew it was a very bad idea," he commented with an annoyed tone. "But no! That whore was like, 'Nooo, the girl can be useful!' Fuck off with the girl, I say! "
Esther stared at the boy, confused.
"I don't understand... what are you talking about? You said you'd shown me a proof... "
The boy put his hand on her shoulder.
"All lies," he whispered softly in her ear, before backing away, smiling. Esther realized too late that with that swift movement he had taken away her crossbow.
"You're not Dietrich..."
The boy raised his arms to the sky, launching the crossbow on the floor behind him, which shattered into a thousand fragments.
"Nice one! You guessed right! We have a winner! "He exclaimed with an idiotic grin on his face, then twirled his torso and sent the girl to the ground with a powerful side kick.
Esther's back collided against the room's wall. The swishing noise from before came back, dangerously close. The guy who was not Dietrich walked to the back of the room, and the dim light of the candle showed a stubby and ungainly shape: it was a bald fat man.
"Are you hungry, Gluttony?" the boy grinned. "Of course you are, you're always hungry... I brought you a snack."
"I really can eat it?" the fat man asked. He looked at Esther with eyes blank but full of yearning, saliva dripping from his mouth.
The face of the boy who was not Dietrich deformed into a wicked grin, as he headed for the room's door and opened it.
"Don't leave even a shred."
Esther sprang to her feet, ignoring the pain caused by the kick, and ran for the door, but the boy had already closed it behind him. A metallic click pointed out that he had locked it.
"However I must admit that I love girls full of fighting spirit like you, Esther," the boy commented, his voice muffled. "If you had been just a little more dumb, I would have left you alive."
Esther turned to face the fat man named Gluttony, who was slowly advancing towards her.
"Tender… meat..." murmured this one, showing his teeth, an inhuman smile on his face.
The girl screamed in terror, as the man charged on her. In that instant, the ceiling collapsed, and a large stone fragment struck Gluttony's bald head, knocking him out cold.
Alphonse Elric reached out to Esther.
"It's dangerous here," he said calmly, as if falling from the ceiling above a monstrous man was something ordinary. "Let's go."
After a moment of hesitation, Esther grabbed Alphonse's hand firmly.
Dietrich walked down the church corridor whistling, when he heard footsteps approaching from behind the next corner.
Father Anderson turned the corner, crossing briefly ways with an anonymous cleric with light hair whom paid no attention to.
Please note, Oriel Eckhart is an original name, but she is not an original character. Her identity will be hinted at but for now it's in a spoiler zone.