"What is the secret of immortality?"
King Xerxes had asked his country this before, and the answer was the same as always.
"I don't know."
"You must know! You're immortal! You're my country! You've lived for thousands of years! How can you not know?"
Xerxes moved forwards to embrace the king and the child fell into his arms, sobbing.
"Am I… am I going to die?"
"Everyone dies, King. Some just die older than most." Xerxes said in a soothing voice, rubbing circles into the king's back.
"I don't want to die at all, Xerxes! I won't!"
"You have to, King, everyone does. But I'll make sure you have a really long life, okay?"
The king sniffed. "Promise?"
"Promise."
"Okay. I still don't want to die, though."
Xerxes ruffled the boy's long golden hair, so like his own. "No one wants to die, King."
King Xerxes was an old man now, no longer a child, but he still had the same juvenile wish, still asked the same thing he had asked Xerxes all those decades ago.
"What is the secret of immortality?"
The Homunculus, after teasing the king, gave in and agreed to teach him the secret to eternal life.
Xerxes found he didn't trust the Dwarf in the Flask, though everyone else did. He couldn't see why it was helping the king, what it stood to gain, and it had to gain something. Xerxes knew some alchemy, he knew about equivalent exchange, and he knew this was a creature of alchemy. It would receive something from the king, willingly or not.
Xerxes found out what that was as the transmutation circle was activated, he realized the king had lied to him (he was going to sacrifice him for immortality), and he felt his entire country dying. No, not dying; their souls were being ripped from their bodies and joining in one location.
His entire country was in the homunculus and the man he had copied his body from.
It wasn't really his country anymore though, Xerxes thought as he slumped to the floor and his vision flickered black.
It was just a collection of eternal death.
Is dying forever good enough, king?