A/N: This wasn't originally how I'd been thinking this discussion would go, but as soon as Ed opened his mouth and said 'bull shit' to the Xingese Lord, I gave up trying to get him to not be a little shit. Cheers!
Points
Ed had woken with his hand still feeling stiff and sore, and to an empty room with enough light coming in at the small window (it was shuttered and currently without glass, as glass production was one of the things they had to re-develop) to tell him it was well into morning. He blinked and tipped his head to the side before looking down at his hand and deciding to try a Cure on it, but that only helped marginally, letting him know the ache wasn't 'damage' in that sense, it was overuse. Only so much could be done to heal the effects of overuse, and that generally meant tangible damage had happened—not the case with his hand, otherwise the Cure would have done more.
After changing, he stepped out into the hall of the small home—it had two bedrooms (Winry's families stayed in the other one, including Riza), and once more homes had been built, would probably end up becoming some new couple's starter home—wondering if anyone would even be there. At least he knew he only needed to go to the bonfire for anything he needed, like food, but in most cases, someone was still there as long as one of the 'children'—him, Al, or Winry—was still there. In some ways, he didn't blame them for keeping a watchful eye on them, since they had a habit of getting into trouble, Ed more than Al or Winry. To offset that, though, was the fact that Al and Winry were both actually only five years old (Winry was going to turn six soon, though).
As it turned out, he found Aunt Nasima in the kitchen, and she turned to give him a smile as he stepped into the room. "So you finally decided it was time to wake up," she said teasingly. "How's your hand?" As she did, she grabbed a plate of food from the earlier meal and set it on the table at the seat nearest the entrance, where Ed stood.
"It's sore," he admitted, making a small face as he sat at the table. "I don't actually like going into a trance for exactly that reason. At least I should only have to do it once more. What time is it?"
"Around mid-morning. Maybe ten-thirty or so?" She paused to ponder that, then shrugged and said, "The others are already working on the arrays you drew, and Ria's recording them. Also, the creature you called Carbuncle is exploring the developing town, but doesn't seem to want to stay anywhere in particular."
"Yeah, Carbuncle usually doesn't stay anywhere for long," he shrugged, giving her an amused look. "As old and wise as it is, the bloody thing is still perpetually a cross between a fox, a squirrel, and a child, and the aspects which make it like them seem to intensify as it ages. This one is something like ten thousand years now because of my repeatedly calling the same one back to me in each new dimension. It's fun when mine and the version of it from each dimension meet for the first time, though."
Her brow quirked in amusement, but she said, "I don't doubt. But how is it effective as a protector if it keeps wandering off?"
"It's gotten really good at sensing pending danger and making its way back to whoever I asked it to protect just then," he replied in amusement, deciding to start eating—and realizing he'd have to use his left hand for that because his right hurt way too much. Doable but not easy, though at least it was way better than him trying to write with his left hand.
In one of the dimensions, someone had actually explained 'handedness' to him, and unless someone had partial or complete ambidextrousness, their ability to do anything well with the hand not their primary, or main, one was almost non-existent. Some things could be done with both hands, like stirring a pot, or generally things which didn't require precision, and he definitely didn't have ambidexterity. In that regard, that his reports had even ever been legible enough to be understood was something of a minor miracle. He was pretty sure that Winry, and probably Al, had it to some degree, though.
Because of the lack of precision his left hand had, he ate a little more slowly and carefully than he usually would have, and realized something as he finished. "Why aren't you with them, working on the arrays?" he asked. "You're an alchemist, too."
"Yes, but I'm not especially fond of playing with people's soul arrays, necessary or not," Nasima shrugged. "There are enough people working on it that I could bow out, so I chose to take that route."
"Do you think we shouldn't be doing it?" he asked in surprise.
The woman paused for a minute to think about the question and how to answer, then said, "No. You've said it's needed, so I think you should still see if you can fix the problem. It's more that my personal preference is to not get involved in that unless I have no choice. Right now, I do, but maybe if it was just you, Roy, and Genesis working on it, I'd have to help because you might not have enough people otherwise."
"Oh," the blond boy blinked in surprise. Personal preference wasn't something he'd associated with studying alchemy before, probably because he and Genesis really didn't have one in regards to general study or the necessities of creating new arrays. It hadn't occurred to him that some people really just may not like some aspects of alchemy and wouldn't want to delve into them, just for the knowledge they provided.
She smiled again and said, "Go let the others know you're awake. And don't go using that hand much for the next couple of days."
"Yeah. Thanks," he agreed, getting up and heading out—and only just remembered not to run his hand along the wall on the way. A simple, wood building it may have been, but it was sturdy and well-built, so his only real complaint was that they needed to sand the walls more. They'd done better with the floor, but he'd gotten a sliver off the wall once before since they'd moved into it, and they had nothing like paint to cover it with just now.
Soon after, he'd joined the group working on the arrays, and they were so intent on their work they almost forgot to eat, even when the food was shoved at them. The next time he became aware of his surroundings was sometime after the noon meal, when there was a commotion near the fire not far from where they were. When all of them looked up to see what had caused it, Ed could see the new arrivals—people from Xing, a few who were talking animatedly with Kunzel and others who were being introduced to Lady Shinra by Emma.
As they were settling around the fire, the boy got up and joined them, squeezing into a space left between Lady Shinra and Vincent, and was just in time to hear the man who seemed to be in charge say, "We are a humble nation, so—"
And his immediate response was, "Bull shit. There's nothing 'humble' about you, unless you're just pretending to be."
Lady Shinra began laughing, as did the few present Turks and SOLDIERs, while the Xingese group looked askance at him. The man in charge asked, "What do you think you know about us, child?"
"You're from Xing, the largest nation east of here, and the most powerful one. Nearly every other nation in the region is just a 'satellite state' of yours. You dictate a lot to them, and get yearly taxes from them which you've decided to refer to as 'gifts'. The only nation not abiding by your system is Japan, so you've just classified them as 'the black sheep of the family' and still call them a satellite state, even though you leave them entirely to their own devices. Of course, that's not from lack of trying to take them over, it's because your fleets keep sinking when you try to go attack them (1). And we're not ever going to be a satellite state of yours," Ed announced bluntly.
The man blinked, then blinked again, and asked, "How could you possibly know that when you are apparently from another world?"
"Oh, no, I'm Amestrian first, then Gaian—that's Lady Shinra and hers," the boy smirked, and the man's eyes widened. "And some of the people here are other Amestrians and Ishbalans. They beat you to it. Of course, it helps that Ishbala had a hand in that." He then focused on the fire as he realized he couldn't see any wood burning. Turning to Lady Shinra, he asked, "When was the last time anyone added wood to the fire?"
She blinked in surprise, then looked around at the nearby people. One of the SOLDIERs said, "Well, it hasn't been burning out, so we assumed someone else had."
Lady Shinra blinked in surprise, then turned to the fire and said, "She made it into another Cosmo Candle. Interesting."
At that, several jaws dropped, and Ed nodded, then turned back to the shocked Xingese party to say, "The Cosmo Candle is a fire that burns without fuel because it's powered by planetary energy. It's also a meter and indication of the health of the planet's energy. I guess Minerva decided the bonfire they built here was large enough for her to make into one of those meters, so put the necessary arrays under the wood as it burned. Now, they're all covered in ash so we can't see them."
For a long moment, the Xingese man just stared at him, then looked at Lady Shinra and asked warily, "Who is this boy, Lady Shinra?"
She just smiled and said, "This is Edward Elric, also the 'Avatar' of both Ishbala and Minerva. Edward, this is Lord Cao Long, one of the high-standing Xingese Lords. He's been put in charge of the party of alkahestry practitioners and soldiers sent to determine what the situation here is after it caused a great deal of new growth in areas previously without it."
Ed's brow rose, but he asked the Lord, "What's the Long Clan's rank, if you don't mind my asking?"
Again, the man blinked, but offered, "Fifth. You know about the Xingese Clans?"
"I met a few people from other Clans once," Ed shrugged. "Fifth is pretty high up, so I guess the growth is something the Emperor really wants to know about."
"He does. We hardly expected to find an inland salt-water sea, a border of pillars glowing purple, or a—what that Commander called a Dragon, on our search. Or a solid metal, crafted bridge apparently made by your Goddess for you," Lord Long offered.
The boy gave him an annoyed look and asked, "Are you stupidly using 'deity' to substitute for 'planetary sentience', or do you really not know the difference?"
"Edward, are you trying to start a war with them?" Lady Shinra asked with a tired sigh, even as most of the other present Gaians and Amestrians began laughing.
"Is there a difference, particularly with the great works yours seems to do?" Lord Long asked of the boy, apparently ignoring the woman's comment to focus on him, and Ed had to pause at the phrasing.
"There is, regardless of 'great works' done by one," the boy told him, but his tone was flat. "Deities are beings humans essentially created out of thin air to justify themselves or for comfort or whatever. On occasion, someone might have mistaken guardian spirits as deities, too, but most people on this world seem to refer to beings like them as 'demons'. Which they aren't. There's also no actual evidence of them doing anything to help anyone in any way, so they really don't have a strong argument to support them actually existing.
"Planetary sentiences and their created guardian spirits, on the other hand, are the ones which show themselves to people and cause things to happen—they actually interact with us. They're the reason plants grow, and actually, your sentience, who the Japanese call Amaterasu, is the reason your fleets keep sinking when you try to go to Japan. The other nations got scared of your larger army and capitulated with next to no effort on your parts, but Japan refused, so she stopped you from interfering there. How else do you think you hit a 'sudden storm' every single time you tried?"
"Amaterasu, or our Kirin, is a deity, too," Lord Long replied, sounding mystified.
Several of the other Gaians snorted in amusement as Ed blinked, then gave him a cross look. "Seriously? You're calling a guardian spirit who grants healing a deity? Do you even have brains in your heads?"
That actually caused them to bristle, only for a familiar voice to call, "Hi, hi!" and Carbuncle landed on Ed's head, making the boy yelp. "Did you miss me?"
"Don't do that, Carbuncle!" Ed glared, poking the Summon hard in the side, which produced a small yelp and a whine.
"What is that?" one of the others with Lord Long asked in shock.
"Carbuncle is one of the guardian spirits Edward mentioned, and specifically, this type is protective," Lady Shinra offered. "I believe he also has a Kirin to call out..."
"I have to call the Materia shard to me to call her out," Ed replied, then gave his head a small shake. "I can, though, if you really want to see her. There's no duplicate or Materia shard for Amaterasu, Ishbala, or Minerva, though, so don't ask. No, no one can 'just call' an actual deity or a planetary sentience to them in the way a guardian spirit, or Eidolon, can be called. The sentience has to like you and be watching you in order to respond tangibly in any situation around you."
"Except that she'd probably pop right in if you asked her, Ed," Aeris commented in amusement as she leaned over him to meet his gaze when he looked up at her in surprise. "At least, Minerva would. Maybe Ishbala, too, since he apparently already did that once in front of the Ishbalans?"
"He did, but we were in his Temple then, and he was already sort of watching things devolve, anyway," Ed replied dryly. "I just made him realize he really did have to intervene. And Minerva is still busy, so unless this actually devolves into something life-threatening, she probably won't directly do anything just now."
"So we keep talking," Zack's cheerful voice came from a bit behind and to Aeris' side, and a look showed him standing there happily with Jenny in one arm and a basket full of flowers and herbs over the other (and Jenny was holding one which she was waving around happily like a flag). When Ed looked at Aeris again, she actually also held an armful of ones with long stalks—most of what was in the basket had short stalks. It was no wonder Zack was carrying it, too, when they were obviously just coming back from collecting more of them.
"Is it commonplace for your men to care for children?" Lord Long asked with another mystified look.
Lady Shinra sighed at the question and said, "Zack—First Class SOLDIER Zack Fair, that is—happens to be an especially doting husband and father, so goes above and beyond what most of our men will do. Thanks to him, though, men caring for their children and wives is becoming much more common. I'd rather the trend become the norm than not."
"What of his work with the military?" the Xingese man asked in surprise. "And if his rank is so high, why does he only have one wife? Or is he just beginning his family?"
The Gaians, Amestrians, and Ishbalans in the area bristled, but Ed said, "Everyone here—all three groups—believe in monogamy, not polygamy. They allow the occasional exception if all parties are of age of majority and are willingly entering that relationship, but it's not our standard way of doing things. Also, the form the polygamous relationship may take could be with multiple male partners, not just multiple female partners, or a mix of the two—say, two men and two women. As for Zack's military work, he does that, too, when he needs to, but SOLDIERs in general are a bit different from a standard military soldier—they're elites sent to deal with things ordinary people couldn't, so they have more free time unless they're called in for something."
"...Soldiers are soldiers are soldiers..." Lord Long just scowled at Ed.
"The Gaian SOLDIERs are an acronym for Special Operations, Logistics, Demolitions, Infiltration, Enforcement, and Reconnaissance, not basic soldiers—we call basic military forces infantry or troopers, even though they fill every military roll—land-based combat, navy, Materia Corps., and even air," Lady Shinra put in.
"Materia Corps.?" the man repeated in confusion.
Kunzel put in, "Right, you weren't really listening to the discussion while I was telling Lady Hong and Lord Yao about what Materia are and do. To simplify it for you now, they're people who are experts in long-distance alchemy and alkahestry to support troops in battle, support doctors and healers, or attack an enemy directly. Often, that means they do active battle healing and specialize in effect skills—causing blindness to attackers, for example."
"I see," Lord Long answered with a slow blink. "Go on, please, Lady Shinra."
"The Turks have taken over a couple of the things SOLDIERs were developed for when my late husband realized they were too likely to announce their presence to do things like infiltration, and that he also couldn't hide their eyes," she shrugged, and the man's eyes moved to Vincent beside Ed and Verdot to her other side. "Regardless, the name was already established, and no one wanted to change it after the fact. As such, they're an elite force of generally front-rank combatants, while the Turks tend to things like crowd control or investigating crimes."
"I see..." the man blinked in surprise. "I had wondered why your military forces all seemed to have identical eyes and wondered if that was simply a racial trait. Apparently, that is somehow a result of a...SOLDIER's...training?"
"The eyes are a result of an experiment, not of training," Lady Shinra shrugged. "They all knew that and were willing, all but three of them and the Deepground group, who we later 'rescued' and added to our basic SOLDIER program. My husband did a lot of things I didn't agree with, but at least we were able to save some of the ones from Deepground. There are even some of our people who have eyes like that due to other methods—Mako infusions tend to do that to people, and falling in the stuff can give you an 'infusion' as much as being deliberately shot up with it."
"Natural Mako has a different effect than manufactured Mako, too," Ed threw in. "You'd never know someone had a natural infusion unless they specifically needed to use the benefits, but the over-all benefits it gives aren't that different from manufactured Mako."
For a long moment, Lord Long sat there and stared at the two, then asked, "Exactly who is in charge here, really? The child or Lady Shinra?"
"That would be Lady Shinra," Shiro's voice came from back in the direction of the group Ed had previously been with. Lord Long met his gaze in shock. "By that same token, the boy always has useful things to say, so we have all learned not to stop him, if only because it generally spares us trouble later. He is deliberately emphasizing things to you to make a point. Because we already know what to expect from you, he is making every effort to deter you from your usual course of action—we will not bow to you, we will not cater to you, and we will be only your equals or nothing. Yes, I count myself in that, as I intend to remain with the Wutains of Gaia, not return to Japan. They desperately need someone to teach them onmyoudou, amongst other skills."
Lord Long gave a piteous sigh as the woman beside him commented in an acidic tone, "Of course a Japanese man would get along with another group who refuse to join our ranks...Poor little black sheep, looking for justification for refusing to join a more powerful group who they could then ask for help when they needed it."
Shiro's brow rose and he replied, "With all due respect, we have never either needed nor wanted your help. You only wanted control of our nation because it was wealthy of its own accord, and you wanted that wealth to be handed to you. We chose otherwise, and we have no regrets."
The woman turned to Lady Shinra and said, "You do realize he likely has not told you the benefits he—and you—would be passing up by refusing to join up with us, right? We can offer you a great deal, such as supplies and building materials, while you are establishing yourselves, or if you have a dispute over the next to rule, we can help settle it. Since you have no children of your own, that would be a real danger, especially at your age, Lady Shinra."
"And put in someone who will especially cater to you," Ed retorted with an annoyed look as nearly all the Gaians, Amestrians, and Ishbalans present began snickering in amusement. "And who said Lady Shinra doesn't have any children? Her son is up at the pass leading into Drachma, commanding there—the group sent north already had to repel them once. Remember, we operate on the premise of monogamy, and not everyone has large families, or even needs to. Rufus, like his mother, earned everyone's respect, so they won't challenge him for the leadership, regardless."
"As for supplies, there's only so much we would need from others to begin with, and the Ishbalans have already provided that," Lady Shinra went on dryly. "With no terms attached, either. I have reason to be loyal to them for that reason, and to work with them, because they aren't demanding anything in return. When we can do something for them to repay their assistance now, we'll do so, but that won't be by any sort of dictated terms, and it doesn't make us part of their society or them part of ours. Friendship doesn't work that way. Everything else we need to develop, we need to do ourselves because none of you have developed those things yet."
"How?" Lord Long asked in surprise. "How could you have no one vying for the position—or positions—of power in your society?"
A silence fell for a moment before Genesis commented, "It rather helps that we're given credit for our skills and our work, regardless of rank, and that Lady Shinra makes sure no one goes without." He'd joined Shiro in time to hear both Ed's words and Lady Shinra's. As Lord Long turned to look at him in some surprise, he crossed his arms and added, "There's none of the typical 'we only appreciate the very, very best' crap—we appreciate everyone's efforts.
"That's been made a standard now that we've had a chance to be cleansed of all negativity. That isn't to say we couldn't choose to re-develop it, but after seeing it destroy one planet, we're really not inclined to repeat the mistake. Lady Shinra was already mitigating a lot of it, so why shouldn't we let her keep doing it, without contest, when it makes all our lives better, not just the lives of the wealthy? The grass isn't always greener on the other side of the fence, and we'd rather not have to fight over basic necessities—that's not living."
"Now, that isn't to say we won't trade with you and be on friendly terms in general," Lady Shinra put in. "As long as you don't try to cheat or attack us, we can be a friendly trading partner, but we won't be changing our way of doing things for you or answering to your Emperor. My best offer is that, if you want people here to study, live, or work, send us people who are adaptable and already didn't like your existing system. Edward told me there are some benefits to the system for those living in it, but every system has those who don't fit. Our only benefit in that just now is the cleansing, so we can all start on the same page."
"How would the cleansing do that? It would not change basic beliefs, would it?" the Xingese Lord asked in surprise.
"To Minerva, beliefs which give people absolute power over others or encourage harm to those less well-off are negative by default, and if they have no intention of changing, the cleansing just dissolves them gently back into planetary energy and genetic data," the blond boy filled in. "So the only people who arrived here are the ones who had a chance of changing and making a better life for everyone."
"And as it turns out, there are a shocking number of people open to a change of beliefs," Lady Shinra added with a small smile. "In that, I have no complaints. It's a change for us all, and being dropped here has given us the perfect break from what we always knew to encourage change. I plan to capitalize on that, because my goal has always been to make things better for everyone—I'll take whatever comes for an opportunity to do just that. Nothing means more to me."
Lord Long blinked at her, then sighed faintly. "Can I assume that, as a trading partner, you also would not be trying to change our system?"
"In theory, we wouldn't need to," she answered. "I can't say what influence from us might do in the long term, but no, we wouldn't actively be changing anything about how you currently live. As long as your system is working for you, it would be a lot of effort for nothing. Though, I would encourage some slight changes in your system, regardless, because they will become problems, and have been such in the past."
"What kinds of changes would those be?" he scowled.
"Keep your Clan ranks for all I care, but stop treating the lower-ranked Clans like shit," she bluntly said to him, and he gaped at her, as did all the other Xingese in range. "That's how you create insurgents and terrorists, how you create criminals, how you end up 'having' to perform genocide to stop the issue before it destroys the rest of the society. By treating lower-ranked Clans like they're trash, you're systematically creating the same problem you were trying to avoid by arranging the system in the first place.
"The same is true of your satellite states. Stop calling Japan a satellite state of yours when it isn't—all you're doing is making them angry—and stop treating less wealthy nations like they're lesser than yours or others of their peers. And don't blame them for retaliating when you're not letting them live in a way that's worth living, give them reason to not need to retaliate by showing them a certain amount of respect. Just changing how badly you treat the ones on the low end to something less harmful to them would go a long way towards resolving your governing issues."
"...Well, this is certainly a great deal to think on," Lord Long finally said after a long moment of staring at her. "I will have to think on it for some time. For the moment, is there a place here where we could rest and relax for awhile?"
"We have a place over there," the woman offered, pointing to one of the larger buildings not far from the orchard. "We'd been using it for storage until a few days ago when we got an actual storage warehouse built for goods, and we haven't allocated anyone else to it yet, so while it'll be a bit of a tight fit—like all our homes for the moment, to be clear—you'll have enough space to arrange yourselves. Of course, anywhere in the orchard and here by the fire are always places you can just sit and relax. I'll work on finding a place we can use as a proper meeting space to discuss things like trade deals."
"Thank you," Lord Long agreed, rising and calling to his people to lead them to the indicated building. He opened the door, paused to scan the space, then began motioning the others inside in certain directions.
"Edward, I think you went a little overboard," the woman told the boy beside her quietly.
He just gave her a wolfish grin and said, "I didn't. Just see what they're like tomorrow—you'll see. They adapt fast as a rule."
She just sighed and sent him back to his work with Genesis, Shiro, and the other alchemists.
Notes:
(1) Historically speaking, records of people trying to attack Japan (both Japan's and other nations') show a repeated trend of hitting a storm and sinking before being able to do much to Japan. What got through were refugees, missionaries, and legitimate traders (all people not intending attack), up until around 1850 and the time of the Bakumatsu. There's really no official or logical explanation for how the people intending to attack Japan pre-1850 pretty reliably hit storms and their ships sunk, so the one I used in this chapter is as good a one as any (which doesn't make it true IRL, it's just useful in this fictional situation).