Sin and Virtue
Chapter 01
Songstress
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"The choir room is at the very end of the hall." Rose said, her voice echoing through the corridor as she gestured down the hallway. "If you can't find Malone there, you can always ask one of the members of the church, they should know where she is."
Both Edward and Alphonse nodded. "Thank you so much for all of your help Rose." Al thanked, politely bowing at the waist.
The girl laughed. "Not a problem. I'm happy to help in any way I can." Smiling dreamily, she sighed. "It is the teaching of Leto to help those in need."
The older brother grimaced, fighting the urge to gag. "Yeah... uh... great."
Smiling brightly, Rose gave a wave of farewell and walked off, leaving the two brothers to their own devices. The large suit of armor turned to his older brother, and nodded his head. Edward nodded back in reply and the two set out down the hall.
'What is up with these doors?' Ed wondered. The deeper they got into the church, the bigger and gaudier the doors seemed to become. It wasn't until the 5th door that he noticed a mural embedded into the wooden surface. On the door on the left of the hall, there was a painting of a hideous monster, sitting on a throne in what looked to be a dark cave.
It looked almost humanoid; it had scaly grey hide, purple eyes with cat-like pupils, five long claws on each hand, and a beak full of pointed teeth. The thing was surrounded by scantily clad women (Edward blushed), piles of gold, jewels, and many other valuables. Scrawled in neat, gold lettering under the mural was a small sentence in a language Ed didn't understand, and the words 'Greed the Avaricious'.
Curious, the boy turned to the opposite set of double doors on the right side of the hallway. This time, the mural was of a beautiful young woman dressed in white robes. Her skin was pale and delicate looking. Her expressions was cast downward, onto the people clutching her garb, their hands reaching out her, pleading. Ed noticed the small smile on her perfect, pale pink lips.
Her outstreatched hand held an apple, handing it out to a small boy, who was looking up at her with large doe eyes. The womans eyes, though partialyly closed, were as blue as the Xingese ocean and her hair was as golden as the fine treasures in Greed's mural. Another small sentence was written under the painting, along with the name 'Charity the Benevolent'.
It wasn't until Al called for him that Edward realized he'd stopped walking. Jogging quickly to join his brother, Edward caught glimpses of the other two murals. One was of the sin Lust, a beautiful, skimpy dressed woman with the face of a feline and hooves like that of a horse. The opposite of Lust was Chastity, a young man robbed in white with golden hair and blue eyes; he wore a single gold band on his right index finger. The final set of murals was of Pride and Humility. Pride was a huge, bear-like beast, with thick, ebony fur and a snout of a crocodile. Black shadows swirling around his grinning figure.
Then, on the opposite wall, there was Humility. A small girl, no more that ten years old. Like the two before her, she had long golden hair and blue eyes. She held a small bird in her cupped hands, an aura of light surrounding her.
By the time Edward had reached the final door - the choir room – he had reached a conclusion…
Religion was seriously messed up.
"Let's go Al-"
"Shh! Brother, listen!" Alphonse whisper-shouted, bringing a finger to where his lips would have been.
Shoothing his brother an annoyed glare, Ed complied and listened.
"-eth
Aleto mor'e
set deno
ah delo crehma
set nosei
Foreth-day
Morlana-"
It was haunting and soothing at the same time, making you feel as though the voice was resonating through your entire soul, making it vibrate with a strange chill. But, it was also sad... like remorse for a lost loved one, like longing to be held again in warm arms...
"So pretty." Alphonse murmered, seeming oddly cheerful compared to the meloncholy mood Ed found himself feeling. "Think she's the Songtress that woman was talking about?"
Shaking himself out of his thoughts, Ed replied. "Only one way to find out." And opened the doors.
The room was round and filled with arched, stained glass windows. The fading sunlight made the room glow with an amber light. Rows of chairs filled nearly half of the room, and a podium filled up another large chunk. Standing on the long, lavish rug leading from the seats to the pulpit, was a girl, probably in her mid-twenties.
You couldn't see the hair color under the white, nun headress she was wearing, or her body-shape under the white robe, but her pale face was slender and her features small; she looked extremely fragile, like if the wind blew too hard, she'd snap in half. Her eyes were very dark in color, maybe dark blue? It was hard for Ed to tell in this kind of lighting.
The woman stopped singing once she noticed the two boys at the end of the room; she smiled a professional, guarded smile and bowed her head. "Welcome to the Church of Kindness." She spoke, her voice as tiny and fragile as the rest of her. "How may I assist you two?"
"Um, I'm Alphonse Elric, and this is my big brother Edward Elric..." Al said sheepishly; he would have been blushing if the armor allowed him too.
"We were hoping to speak with the Songtress Malone." Ed stated, cutting right to the chase.
She smiled - though it seemed a little forced - and straightened. "I am she. What may I assit you with?"
"Well, we were wondering if you could tell us a little about an old story we heard a long time ago." Al requested.
"Oh? What's the story?"
"We were wondering what you know about something called the Philosopher's Stone." Ed said.
"The Philosopher's Stone?" She repeated, her tone taking on a harder edge. Ed could see her expression turn suspicious. "Why would you want to know about something like that?"
"It just... it was in an old story book of our father's before he... he left." Alphonse said, his eyes cast downward and his shoulders slumped, his countenance resembling one of a kicked puppy.
Malone's expression softened, though she still seemed reluctant. "I recall reading that it was an alchemic tool-" Ed was surprised that the used the world 'alchemic' instead of 'sorcerer's'. "-that caused the destruction of the advanced, ancient civilization known as Xerxes. If recall correctly, the entire population dissappeared in one night."
"Is that all you know about it?" Al tried again.
"I'm sorry, that's all I know. The story isn't a religious historical record, so I have little knowledge about it."
Ed wanted to groan. They traveled all the way here, just to have some lady tell them what they already knew. Oh, when he got back to HQ, that Flame bastard was in for an earful!
"But, there are probably records of it in the library, records I myself haven't even read." She offered, a kind smile on her face. "You two can feel free to browse, but the library is locked at 7p.m., so you'll have to leave by then."
"Really!?" Al exclaimed, a little to loud, which made him duck his head bashfully. "Um, I mean, you'd let us do that?"
Malone laughed. It was a quiet, sweet laugh that painfully reminded Ed of his mother. "Of course. Just be sure to return the books to their proper places on the shelves and do not remove anything from the library; many of the books are old and quiet fragile." Smiling, she approached the two boys; now that she was closer Ed could see that her eyes were a dark, inky blue.
The woman's smile broadened as gestured to the hall with one graceful sweeping motion. "Shall we go?"
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"Wow."
When Ed said this, he said it flatly; there was no awe or excitement in his tone what-so-ever. He frowned, narrowing his eyes slightly at the room. 'Why does one religion have to have so many freakin' books?'
The room was large. Much larger than the library in Central, Ed summarized. The room was rectangular in shape and filled with many rows of bookshelves, beautiful – and probably very expensive – stained glass windows were placed along the walls and were in perfect symmetry with the windows on the opposite side.
In the right-hand corner of the room, there were several tables and chairs (for reading and studying on, he presumed). The bookshelves were made of a dark kind of wood that the alchemist really didn't care to try to identify and they were tall, probably a little taller than three of Alphonse stacked on top themselves. There were ladders attached to the bookcases with wheels on the bottom for reaching the higher books.
"The books you're looking for will mostly likely be in the back; probably somewhere between row 8 and 12; that's where most of the historical non-religious texts are kept." Malone informed, turning her gaze towards Ed, a small apologetic smile forming on her lips. "I'm sorry I cannot narrow your search down any further than that."
"That's okay." Alphonse replied. He turned to face her, bowing politely at the waist. "Thank you for helping us get this far."
She shook her head, closing her eyes. "Your thanks is unnecessary; it is Leto's will for us to help those in need."
Ed once again had to suppress the urge to barf. 'Déjà vu.' He snorted mentally before wordlessly walking away, disappearing behind a bookshelf.
"Brother!" Alphonse hissed disapprovingly at Ed's retreating back. "Uh, sorry about him." Al sighed, apologizing to Malone. "He just gets like that sometimes…" He trailed shyly.
The woman chuckled. "No need to worry, I'm not offended in the least." She assured. Bowing her head, she continued. "Now, if you will excuse me I have some chores I must attend to; would you like me to come escort you to the pilgrim's quarters once it is time to close the library?"
"Oh, that'd be great!" Al exclaimed happily.
Malone stood again, her eyes smiling. "Very well then, I pray for your success in finding the book." She turned to leave. "And please keep in mind that the books are old, so try not to handle them roughly."
"We'll try not to, thanks!" Al called as she exited. He smiled inwardly. 'She is such a nice person…'
"Hey, Al, give me hand!"
The suit of armor turned just in time to see his brother trip; the mountain of books he had been carrying came toppling down on top of him. He winced, remembering Malone's request to treat the books gently.
"Brother! You should be more careful, you could have damaged some of the books!" Al scolded crossly, picking one up off of the pile. "I think you may have dented this one's cover!"
"Oh, don't worry about me Al, I'm just fine. Who needs to breathe, anyway?" Was Ed's sarcastic, muffled reply.
The suit of armor shook his head. "You wouldn't be in this mess if you'd carry a stack of books your size-"
"ARE YOU CALLING ME SHORT?!"
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"Argh, this is impossible!" Ed groaned, smacking his head against the table's wooden surface for the umpteenth time that day; the many stacks of books on the table swaying as he did so. "We've been here for hours and found squat! And I'm sick and tired of reading about how 32 alchemists were hung by their thumbs for trying to turn water into wine!"
"32?" Al asked, puzzled. "My book says it was 23… Oh, wait, mine was for sparkling grape-juice, never mind…"
Ed let out another groan, running his hand down his face. "These crazy, religious zealots really need to find something better to do with their time." He grumbled bitterly. "Seriously."
"Brother, what if Malone walked in and heard you talking like that?" Al reprimanded.
"We still have plenty of time before Malone'll come and get us." Ed waved dismissively, his chair creaking as he leaned back.
"How do you know? It's already starting to get dark outside."
"Geeze, Al, I'll check if you're that worried about it." Edward sighed in exasperation, reaching into his coat pocket. He stopped, a look of confusion spreading across his face. He tried his opposite pocket. Standing, he checked his front pockets and patted his back pockets.
"Brother?" Al asked as his brother continued to pat himself all over, growing more and more frantic with each one.
"It's gone! My pocket watch is gone!" Ed cried in alarm. "Damn, Mustang'll never let me live it down if I lost it!"
"Maybe you dropped it?" Al suggested, looking under the table. "It could have fallen out of your pocket while we were looking for books…"
"Fall… THAT GIRL!" Ed snarled, his eyes narrowing into slits. "That smart-mouth girl with the freaky green eyes that bumped into me today! I bet she took it!"
"That's being awfully presumptuous, brother…" The suit of armor sighed, crawling on his hands and knees as he continued searching on the floor.
"She even thanked us, remember!? It must have been her!" Ed shouted, eyes blazing. "That cheeky little…"
"Is everything all right?"
Ed and Al looked up. Malone stood several feet away; a concerned, yet curious expression on her face.
"Oh, Ed just lost something of his, that's all." Alphonse explained quickly, attempting to stand up, knocking the table he was crawling underneath over in the process. Malone winced as the books and table loudly came crashing down.
"I-I'm so sorry!" Al cried, panic stricken. "I didn't mean to-!"
Malone's hand twitched, a pained expression came across her face; much like a mother grieving over the loss of one of her slain children. She shook her head, a weak, very forced smile on her lips. "It's fine…" Malone assured, her voice cracking slightly. "They were only a… a couple irreplaceable 300 year old tomes… No big deal…" The last part came out as a squeak. The woman cleared her throat, giving the brothers a strained smile. "Did… Did you find what you were looking for?"
"No…" Ed scowled at the pile of books.
"I see..." Malone trailed, her expression softening and becoming less forced. "Well, you may return and resume your search in the morning, if you wish. Until then, would you please accept my invitation to stay in the pilgrim's quarters for the evening? It's not much, but it is free and the food is good."
Ed's stomach gave a loud rumble at that moment, causing the older Elric to blush with embarrassment. Al snickered quietly at this brother's expense.
Malone smiled, quirking an eyebrow teasingly; her slain books long forgotten. "May I take that as a yes?"
"Whatever." Ed grumbled, cheeks still red.
Malone smiled again - the older brother noticed that it was much less forced than before - leading the Elric's out of the library and into the hallway. Ed watched her from behind as she and Alphonse made casual small-talk. He felt his lips tilt upward slightly when Al laughed at something the woman said.
Maybe some religious zealots weren't so bad.
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Author's Note
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Uh, wow… I'm sorry this is so unbelievably late?
Geeze, it's been, what… 8 months since I updated this story and another 2 since I updated any of my stories whatsoever?
You have my upmost apologies for being such a horrible author and leaving you all hanging for this long.
I hope to update not only this story, but my other stories much more often than I have been.
Sorry again, I hope you all enjoyed this (very very short) chapter!
Please review and tell me what you like (or what you don't like) and, if you can, how I can improve my own writing to make it more enjoyable for you all
~Fyuro