Avatar of Ishbala

That day set the pattern for several weeks, with only a couple days off each week for other tasks. Ed also had some time off where the others worked without him because Rashad took him to do the things a Warrior-Priests' son would be expected to do. Sometimes, he wasn't sure how many people knew he was Amestrian, but it seemed like the majority of the people who lived there thought he was Ishbalan. While that would be good until he could rejoin the Gaians, what would they think if he suddenly didn't look Ishbalan and suddenly wasn't around anymore?

For the moment, he had to set that aside, especially one day when he, Al, and Winry had been told to 'go play'—and while they were out, Amestrian troops made their way into town.

The three watched from an alley as the arrogant Amestrians did some posturing, warily eying their guns, which they'd drawn. Guns were dangerous weapons, and Ed knew very well what kind of damage they would do. Incidences like this had been what had both started and escalated the war—troops shooting Ishbalans 'accidentally' while in town for some reason, or somehow the reverse. This time, they only seemed to be there to show off, which meant it was deliberate. One soldier was a woman who he initially glanced over—then paused and hissed as he realized she was Lust. Oh, no—this was no accident, and would be one of those incidences unless he did something.

But what?

"I don't like this, Ed..." Al murmured.

"Do you remember the arrays for Full Cure, Al?" Ed asked in reply.

"Yes," he agreed sharply, gaze intent on his brother.

"And for Revive, hopefully the stronger version?"

"Yes, that one too."

"Then be ready to activate both on the people here, just in case. I'll be back soon."

"Ed?"

When he heard alarm in his brother's voice, he said, "I'm going to get around behind them and see if I can do something to make them leave. But, I can't do it from here."

"Be careful," Winry told him with a glare. "I'll hit you with my wrench if you don't!"

That made him chuckle and say, "I'll do my best." It was somehow both amusing and heart-warming to hear such a familiar statement (and sentiment) from her at age five when it had previously normally been her older counterpart, the teenager, who had done so.

He slipped out from the alley and around the outside edge of the crowd to the alley across the way, which he ran down, then turned down the next street and ran back in the direction of the Amestrian soldiers, looking for the alley which would come up closest to them. He knew Lust was there, so maybe Envy was, too—he could look like anyone he wanted to, and none of the other soldiers looked like one of the homunculi 'Father'—the First Homunculus—had created. As he came to the alley's street corner, he realized he was about fifteen feet from the group, so painfully activated the arrays for Sense (they naturally weren't visible) through the wall, and used it on all of them.

When the only odd readings he got back were from the one who looked like Lust, he breathed a sigh of relief, then decided to use the arrays Genesis had created to revert people directly to Lifestream energy. It was the only thing he could think of which would work on her and do it fast, before she could counter. He'd also need a way to hide his channeling of it so no one would be able to trace it back to him—and remembered having done so more than once on Gaia, usually in Hojo's Labs to accomplish something. He could use that same technique here, on mostly uniform, sandy brown ground.

Mentally focusing on what he needed, he crouched and put his hands on the ground, then let the paths travel to her, hidden by Change as he'd modified it to cover energy and light. It was hard through the wall, and he felt Ishbala warn him not to stay attached too long to those energies. He knew he couldn't; he was already tired. It was almost like the wall was fighting back, trying to block out intruders who were putting holes in it.

Setting that aside, he watched impassively as the arrays hit Lust's feet—and she gasped in shock as she dissolved into bits of floating energy which seemed to be a mixed green, blue, and brownish color swirling around white. That was a very interesting manifestation of pyreflies, he noted absently with some amusement.

Everyone turned to stare at her, then at the mass of floating lights (she turned into so many of them that it rivaled the 'pyre-snow' created by Black or White), in fascinated horror. The horror quickly morphed into fear and everyone scattered, the Ishbalans running for shops and homes (and grabbing un-attended children as they went) as the Amestrians bolted for their camp outside town. He was pretty sure he'd glimpsed a woman grab Al, too, so someone had probably seized Winry.

Breathing a sigh of relief, he sagged against the alley wall and just sat there, eyes closed in exhaustion.

One homunculus down, six to go...Maybe five if this Greed wasn't really an enemy by that definition.

He didn't realize it when he fell asleep there.

FoWD-HC

Waking suddenly, he realized he was in a mostly dark room in a largely utilitarian bed, but he wasn't bound. It sounded like three men were in the same room, but at a bit of a distance from him, so it wasn't an especially small room. Given that they were having a 'soft argument' in a language which didn't immediately jump to mind, staying still and listening was the best option. His brow furrowed a bit as they spoke, and it occurred to him that he recognized at least some of the words—they were Ishbalan. Because Ishbala probably couldn't give the gift of languages until he wasn't behind the wall anymore, it was a language he had to learn manually.

While he'd learned some during his time with the caravan, he didn't know enough yet to get a good feel for what they were 'arguing' about. For that matter, he was really only sure it was an argument by the palpable anger in the room and the often sharp or hissing qualities to their tones. For the words he could pick out, it seemed they were 'arguing' over him and what to tell his 'father'. He was sure all the Priests knew he wasn't Rashad's son by birth, but if he was grasping that part right, there was no doubt in their minds that 'Jed' was Rashad's son. Except, it was gradually getting easier to understand them...?

Suddenly, a quiet voice cut in, and the other three silenced to let him speak. What he said was, "I would suggest simply telling Warrior-Priest Rashad the truth. Now, please hurry and send someone to his home to inform him of where his wayward son is." How that had translated so clearly in Ed's mind, he wasn't sure, but it had, and in some ways, he was thankful for it.

Then, someone sat near his head at the side of the bed and said in that quiet (and rather ancient-sounding) voice, "Child, you need not pretend sleep. You are safe here, at the Temple." It had been said in Ishbalan, spoken at a slower pace than most spoke at—and he'd understood every word!

Realizing he'd been caught, he opened his eyes and turned his head to look at the man beside him—only to see two of them, one being the High Priest and one being Priest Ishan, who he'd met several times by then. A sudden yawn startled him into covering his mouth until it passed, but then he decided to try using the Ishbalan he'd learned from the other children in the caravan. "But I'm still tired..." he murmured.

The High Priest smiled faintly and agreed, "That you are. Tired and sleeping are, however, two different things." He paused as Ed smiled in faint amusement (oh, yes, this man knew a child's tricks—and likely adults' tricks as well—very well), then added, "Would you happen to know what caused your exhaustion?"

He hesitated for a moment as his mind went back to Lust, but then he tentatively said, "It hit around the time that Amestrian woman—turned into lights."

For a long moment, the High Priest was silent, but then he reached into the front of his drape and took out a small, stone pole. At least, it looked like stone to Ed, but he could tell there was something odd about it, and even without using Sense, he could tell there was energy in it—enough of it to be palpable. Ed blinked in surprise when the pole was offered to him, but he eyed it warily for a long moment before looking up to meet the High Priest's gaze questioningly.

"This artifact will not harm you," the High Priest assured him. "It has plenty enough of its own energy, so will not drain yours. However, how it interacts with your energy will tell us a great deal about who—and what—you are to us, Child. Please take it. Often, the reaction takes several minutes."

Oh. That was one of the things he had to do. Rashad had told him that if a Priest ever offered him one of their artifacts, he was to take it and follow any instruction given with it, or to take it to him if he was given none, assuming he was able to. Those artifacts weren't given to others, even temporarily, lightly, and they were to be treated with care and reverence when they were offered. So, he gently reached out to take it, knowing this could not possibly be good as he did, and held it carefully in both hands as he rested them on his chest.

As much as he wasn't sure exactly what it was going to assess, he had taken the man at his word when he'd said it would likely take several minutes. He should have known better, just because it was him, and that closing his eyes again to rest was a lost cause.

About a minute later, there was a soft, startled gasp, and he could feel something nudging his hand out of the way, so opened his eyes to look—only to see the stone pole sprouting plants. Lots of them. All the way around it. Vines, flowers, something that looked like it was trying to grow into a miniscule bush, one that even looked like a tree sapling. And very quickly, his hands were stuck in the vegetative growth.

Like Minerva, Ishbala grew plants, and that was one of his two primary associations. If water came into the picture, which Ishbala also provided for them, it was probably true he'd be taken as Ishbala's Avatar.

"Speak of the devil and he shall appear." Those words rang in Ed's mind as a swirl of water began filtering through the mass of plants and dripping onto his chest. In horrified bemusement, he rolled onto his side and held his hands over the edge of the bed, letting the water drip on the floor.

Apparently, the High Priest decided that was enough, and reached forward to gently pry the boy's hands from the mass of growth. He then set the foot-wide ball of greenery and water on the floor beside him, gaze entirely amused as he said, "We should be calling you 'Ishbala', Child."

"But I'm not!" he protested weakly. "He's himself—I could never talk to him if he was the same person as me!" The High Priest's brow rose at the words, and Ed realized what he'd just said—and turned very red as he closed his eyes tiredly in defeat. It had been a long time since he'd screwed up his words that badly.

"And what does Ishbala share with you, Child?" the now decidedly amused elderly man asked.

"...You probably won't like a lot of it..." the younger sighed faintly, not opening his eyes.

"Why is that?"

"...Because Ishbala told me he had said to be cautious with alchemy, not to shun it entirely. He had meant that we needed to study it more, and find safer ways to use it so it was harder to use it to hurt others. Instead..." the boy told him carefully—and realized as he'd been talking that he'd just apparently 'learned' the Ishbalan language. What he had done to Lust must have put a pretty big hole in the wall, which in turn had allowed Ishbala to impart the knowledge of the Ishbalan language to him. Maybe that larger hole was also why the wall had been actively fighting him this time?

Ishbalan was as good as Amestrian and Standard were to him, and he was fluent in it now.

"We have cast it aside," the High Priest admitted evenly. "I have read those passages in our texts many times, and every time, I noted the wording. I had already suspected that was one of the things we had lost our way on, and for a child to appear who represents Ishbala to us directly, that is clearly a means to return us to the proper path. What I have yet to grasp is the reason why he destroyed that particular Amestrian soldier through you. Do you know?"

Ed opened his eyes to meet the High Priest's as he said bluntly, "She was neither an Amestrian soldier, nor was she even human. She's one of several beings called homunculi—created beings which may or may not look human. The reason she was here was to cause another incident where 'an Amestrian soldier' killed an Ishbalan to force the war into a worse state."

Both Priests blinked in surprise, but the High Priest said slowly, "I see." He paused in thought for several minutes, and Ed closed his eyes again to rest. Finally, the elderly man commented, "That would mean Amestris is not truly our enemy at all, and they are as much victims of those homunculi as we are. Interesting. Yes, that is very much the sort of thing Ishbala would like us to be aware of."

"If that was all, High Priest, it may be best to allow him to rest until his father arrives," Priest Ishan put in gently, like he was almost afraid to be speaking out of turn to the High Priest.

"Yes, that is true," the High Priest agreed.

Ed made a sudden decision and opened his eyes to look at the High Priest as he asked, "Does the assessment of that artifact change if I'm actually an Amestrian who happens to know of a way to change a person's looks so they don't stand out?"

Both men turned to stare at him, Ishan in alarm and the High Priest in surprise. The Priest's gaze moved warily to his superior, but the High Priest commented, "As surprising as it may be that Ishbala chose to manifest in an Amestrian child—perhaps in light of the trap we have all been caught in, that is not so surprising, other than superficially. And no, it does not affect the results of the artifact. You could only have gotten those results by being truly touched by Ishbala, and in no other way. Nor can those results be denied unless they happen to change."

"...So why did nothing happen when you held it, High Priest?" Ed had to ask.

The man's lips quirked in amusement, but he explained, "For most, the result truly takes several minutes to show. You are a rare one where they showed within one. Also, it must be touching bare skin, not covered skin, for the reaction to happen. Now, rest while we wait for Warrior-Priest Rashad."

Nodding, Ed closed his eyes and thought about the High Priest's response. Remembering how the elderly man had taken the stone pole from in his drape, the boy realized he'd been carrying it in what had essentially been like a cloth bag, and had only touched it very briefly both to put it in the drape and to hand it to Ed. But, by that requirement to touch skin, it reminded him of Materia on some level, and he wondered if the pole would work in a slot on Gaian gear. Not that it would be especially practical to do that, but it was a curiosity for him.

What also stood out to him was the fact that he really was being taken as the man's son, and he wondered why. Just because Rashad was taking care of him? Something told him it wasn't that simple, just like the automatic relationship he had with Ifalna, Aeris, and Nina wasn't simple, but it was undeniably familial. There was just something about those who shared ties of planetary genetics, and over time, he'd realized even people like Genesis, Angeal, and Sephiroth were like brothers to him. Honestly, it wasn't so surprising for him to perceive the older man as a father figure.

But then, why did he have such a negative reaction to his own actual father touching him? If any of his young childhood memories were true, that had never been an issue...until he'd returned with Lifestream for blood. And it was entirely possible Lifestream didn't like a forcibly made Philosopher's Stone, because that same stone was a lot closer to stagnant Mako than to natural Mako or Lifestream. That left his more positive reaction to Roy, though if his guess that Roy was a Mage—and likely had Cetra heritage—was right, then maybe it also fell under the category of the planetary genetics bond.

When Rashad arrived, he asked apprehensively, "What's wrong? What happened?"

The High Priest rose and moved away from the chair, motioning the younger man to the side of the bed as he said, "Jed is merely resting, not injured. I suggest you allow him a day of rest tomorrow."

"On a Worship Day? I won't be able to attend my own Worship if I have to stay home with him," Rashad pointed out as he quickly made his way to the bed, sat beside Ed on it, and quickly gathered the boy into his arms to hug him. The tightness of the hug told Ed—who had been startled out of a light drowse—how worried about him the man had been. And, like always, he just relaxed against the man's chest. Sometimes, he really wasn't sure if he should like or hate being six again and having that child's soul bound to his own.

"Which is allowed after what took place today and the fact that one of the Priests realized he was entirely unresponsive near the site," the High Priest informed him gently. "Warrior-Priest Rashad, are you aware that he speaks with Ishbala?"

For a moment, the Warrior-Priest was silent, but then he sighed faintly and admitted, "I knew he had some form of communication with Ishbala—this isn't the first time he's been involved in something strange since I found him—but he told me that communication is limited by what he described to me as a 'wall' blocking him from Ishbala unless he can 'poke a hole in it'. My brother and his friends have been working to try to remove the wall with Jed's help because he can 'touch' it easier than they can. By what Zahir has told me, the wall appears to be made with alchemy by a very, very powerful force. Trying to negate it isn't easy."

"Hmmm..." the High Priest murmured. "I see. Thank you for sharing those details, Rashad. Your son—have you looked at the floor beside the chair?" A moment later, Ed heard the man draw in a sharp breath, but the elderly man went on before the younger could say anything, "An Avatar of Ishbala. I had thought he was unusual, so had been observing him, but when he fell unconscious earlier, the timing left a great deal of questions. That artifact answered what most needed to be answered. When he recovers, the Priests and I will expect to see him here to learn and study twice every week in the afternoons."

"Does that mean I'm allowed in the library to read?" Ed asked, suddenly much more alert as he opened his eyes to look at the High Priest eagerly.

Priest Ishan gave the boy an amused look (as did his honorary father) as the High Priest chuckled and agreed, "You may. However, much of the language of those texts is archaic, and it is also very likely you will need my help to translate the words you do not recognize. And yes, as you read, I expect you to come directly to me for both translation and a discussion of what you have learned that day."

Rashad asked warily, "An acolyte who reports directly to you, High Priest? Won't that upset the other acolytes?"

"Yes. Which is why he is neither an acolyte nor a Priest. He is an Avatar of Ishbala and must realize what Ishbala has tasked him with; however, he has no need to follow our training in the manner of a Priest, because Ishbala will correct him of his own accord," the High Priest replied. "And as he is an Avatar, it is for me to give him what aid I may."

With a faint sigh, Rashad asked Ed, "Are you really okay with this, Jed? It's going to take more time away from what you already need and want to do."

"It's books, though!" Ed grinned at him. "And since the most recent hole I put in the wall was—bigger than normal—he was able to imprint the Ishbalan language into my mind, so it's really only the archaic language I don't know now. I can read and research, and might even find something to help take down the wall!"

Both Priests chuckled as Rashad gave an amused sigh and agreed, "Fair enough. If you're all right with it, you can come with me during two of the afternoons I come here while you would usually be with Zahir and his friends."

"Sure," the boy agreed.

"Now that we have resolved that, the two of you may head to your home," the High Priest agreed, then gave them a nod, similarly offered one to Ishan, then left the room.

"Was it wise to share so much with him?" Priest Ishan asked once the door had closed. "I realize you accidentally walked into admitting you do, in fact, speak with Ishbala directly, Edward, but you shared sensitive things without prompting as well."

"I know," Ed answered, leaning against Rashad again and closing his eyes. "But usually when I slip up that badly, it's not my own doing, it's because someone like Minerva or Ishbala made me say something. Since Minerva is still too far away, that leaves Ishbala. And there were some things I had to say, to know how he's going to react to them so I know what I have to do next. I also couldn't just let him keep thinking I'm an Ishbalan child when I'm not one, especially if he's going to insist on elevating me to a position like 'Avatar of Ishbala'. That level of 'deceit', even unintentional, never goes over well."

Ishan was quiet for a long moment before he sighed and nodded. "All right, I see your point. How much do you intend to share with him, then?"

"Over time, probably most of it, if he takes it well in parts," the boy answered plainly, knowing it was something he'd end up doing for Ishbala's version of the Cetra. "But not all right now because he already has lots to try to adapt to."

"But you dumped it all on me at once?" Rashad asked in amusement, and Ishan blinked.

"You're the exception, not the rule, and there are things you already knew before then, so even when things worried you, nothing much surprised you," Ed replied with a pout. "And maybe some of those things, the High Priest won't ever know, because they're actually dangerous to me if they become widely known by random people. And they're technically not his business, anyway. You're taking care of me, so you needed to know."

"That wasn't your reason when we first met and you started dropping those details on me," the Warrior-Priest pointed out in amusement, rising with the boy in his arms.

That made Ed huff. "No, right then, I just needed you to take me seriously. And you did, so I'm good with how things turned out."

"Thank you for your exalted words, oh Avatar of Ishbala!" Rashad answered teasingly, even as Priest Ishan gave them a wryly amused look and just let them go with no further interruption.

"Shut up!" the boy answered, turning red and embarrassed. "Don't you dare start calling me that in public! Or in private, either!"

Rashad just laughed, then commented, "You do realize your new status is going to spread through the population of Ishbal like wildfire, even if I say nothing, right?"

Groaning, Ed replied, "Yes, I know. Which is why I don't want you to do that. Just stay normal, please?"

"I reserve the right to tease you, Jed," the Warrior-Priest answered in amusement as they walked down a long hall where there were several Priests. "But I'm not going to treat you any differently than before. It's not like any of this was actually a surprise to me, so nothing has really changed."

"...Thanks," Ed murmured, once again feeling thankful he wasn't going to be put in a bad situation by being revealed to be something other than normal. So far, he'd done really well avoiding panic situations, as the closest he'd yet come was through Marcoh's presence and the related 'Amestrian military isn't nice' knowledge he already had.

Knowing Rashad was basically going to stand with him much the way Lady Shinra did...It was a relief.