The Waters of Lethe
Disclaimer: I don't own FMA, I just like to play around in it's world and torture Ed for awhile
Author's note: post series and very AU. Some movie events will happen, but differently
Warning: May contain movie spoilers, does contain violence, death, and maybe sex.
39. Sanctuary (Schongebiet)
Two days later, Edward departed at dusk. After one last flurry of stolen kisses from Emmeline's sweet lips, he pulled on his coat, grabbed his suitcase and left the Howard residence for the last time. In a final act of defiance, he went out the front door, making sure to stomp hard on each tread of the steps as if to imprint the fact a mere servant had dared to do so. He only wished Major Howard had been there to see it., but that mustached ignoramus was out at his dig site.
He had turned back and waved several times as Isis House receded in to the distance, to Emmeline, and to the other house servants. After the last wave, Edward set his gaze firmly towards the Nile and he trudged down the dusty main road towards the landing stages where local ferrymen waited for passengers. Righteous anger towards his erstwhile employer bubbled through his veins and he made good time at first.
But when Edward had to stop and rest three times in the space of an hour, he began to wonder if he hadn't made a mistake. He sat on his suitcase and sweated, while his temples pounded with the first tendrils of a headache. Edward looked wistfully towards the lights of Isis House blazing in the distance, and wished he was back in bed. He was so tired, he had begun to nod off when the honk of a car horn jerked him awake.
The lights blinded him for a moment and an icy fear crept up from his innards, fear the car contained that bastard from the German embassy. What had been his name? Ernst Draco. Edward heard all about him via the servant's grapevine, the news embellished here and there by Tariq's insistence Draco was another djinn. An evil one, who's true form was that of a cobra. Edward gulped as the car drew closer. If Draco wanted to grab him, he didn't have the strength to fight back, or escape.
A battered touring sedan, dented and rusty with mismatched wheels pulled up beside him. It swung back and forth on loose springs before the passenger side door shivered, then swung open with a protesting creak of stiff hinges. Barely daring to breathe, Edward looked up into the driver's face.
"You look terrible, Edward. Get in before you collapse." Dr. Forbes said with a slight smile on his face, which didn't reach his brown eyes. He looked the same way Edward's mother did before she scolded him when he was naughty.
"I was held up longer than usual with a difficult delivery in Gurneh and I rushed to Isis House as fast as I could, but you had already left. So it's a good thing you stuck to the main road, or I never would have found you. What were you thinking, trying to walk all the way to the landing stage? You ought to have stayed put until Howard came back, then asked for a ride from him. He owes you that much." Dr. Forbes spoke out of the side of his mouth because he needed to keep his eyes on the road which seemed to be made mostly of rocks and potholes. He sounded disappointed in Edward's lack of common sense.
Edward didn't answer right away because the motion of the car was lulling him to sleep. Or it had been until a particularly jarring series of potholes yanked him back to full wakefullness. His speech center still foggy, he mumbled, "I had nowhere else to go but Luxor."
"You would never had made it, Edward. You are still too weak to travel. The winter days are hot enough, but the temperature plunges after dark. There is a good chance you would have collapsed from exhaustion and frozen to death. At best, you could have suffered a relapse." Dr. Forbes reached one large hand over and rested the fingers on Edward's cheek, and the younger man leaned his face into the coolness. "You have a slight fever. I think you should go back to bed and rest for a few more days."
"Where're we going?" Edward was barely able to move his mouth to get the question out. He closed his eyes and attempted to go back to sleep, but the car jerked just then and he banged his head on the window. Awake again, he frowned and rubbed the aching spot on his head. Edward's frown deepened when Dr. Forbes laughed at him, his anger vanished.
"We are going to my house in this village coming up," Edward looked out the dust streaked and cracked car windshield to see lights gradually getting closer. "I live in a big house with my wife and family, plus her parents, innumerable relatives and semi-permanent guests. It's very chaotic, but comfortable. And despite all the people, there are somehow a few empty bedrooms." The car chugged onto what passed for the village's main street, it was smoother than the road they had been on, but only just.
It seemed to Edward every last inhabitant of the village was standing on the front stoops of their houses, waving to Dr. Forbes and calling out greetings. He waved back and called in Arabic, apparently he knew everyone by their first names. The main street was barely a block long and it dead-ended at a long mud brick wall pierced with an arch. Dr. Forbes drove under it into a large courtyard which appeared to be the scene of a soccer match between two evenly matched teams of children and dogs. The game broke up at the sight of the car as all parcipants rushed towards it, yelling and barking.
Dr. Forbes parked the car, and turned off the engine, it dieseled briefly and was still.. Then he turned towards Edward and grinned, "Prepare to be mobbed."