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“Sir, the call was for a street fight. There’s no need for you to go,”
Colonel Takashi Shirogane flinched, of course, lieutenant Wazir would notice him trying to sneak off to the scene of the latest brawl. He turned around.
“I’m not going so I can break up the fight, I’m more interested in the alchemist who reportedly wasn’t using a transmutation circle, someone like that could be a major asset to the military,”
“Then just go find her!” Matt called from his desk, “Captain Sendak has her in the detention cells on the second floor,”
That was certainly easier than his first plan. “Right then men,” Shiro ordered, “If captain Sendak asks my whereabouts, none of you have ever met me,”
“Yes sir,” the squad replied. Lieutenant Wazir shook his head tiredly.
Allura Altea was an interesting case, the colonel decided. The daughter of renowned alchemists Alfor and Melenor, sitting in a cramped detention cell glaring at him. Certainly not something one saw every day.
“Miss Altea, I’m here because I heard about your fight this morning. Apparently, you performed alchemy without a transmutation circle. How?”
“I learned the hard way that it’s better not to know the truth,” Allura muttered darkly.
“You summoned a giant stone lion to aim at your opponent, a technique that no one beside Melenor ever used in combat,”
“You learn things when your only company for a year is a library,” Allura said, ignoring how the colonel’s eyes brightened.
“Alright then, I have a proposition for you,” Shiro said, “You can stay in this cell and stew, or you take the alchemy exam next fall and become a part of my squadron,”
“What are the conditions?”
Shiro took a deep breath, “Please tell me everything you know about Melenor Altea’s research! I’ve idolized her technique since I was a kid!”
His request was unusual compared to the usual “Tell me how you obtained your skills or die” and “What happened to your leg?”, Allura couldn’t help the laughter that burst out of her.
“Deal colonel,” she answered over her giggling.
“Excellent,” he stood up to leave, “Someone will let you out before dark,”
“Wait, hey! Aren’t you going to let me go now?”
“Nope, not my job” Colonel Shirogane shot her a shit-eating grin as he left.
Allura Altea, the lioness alchemist, sat in front of a massive pile of books, trying to piece together what little information she had on her next assignment. Hunk tapped her shoulder.
“Could they be using philosopher’s stones?” he asked.
Allura shook her head. “If they were, they’d have to be performing transmutations. No witnesses have reported seeing transmutations at all,”
Hunk groaned and went back to his stack of reports, Allura flipped through the field notes of an alchemist famed for his study into the medicinal uses of Alchemy. All his entries showed detailed sketches of transmutation circles and formulas. Nothing that a gang of criminals could be using with the time reports said it took for them to heal.
The next book in her pile mentioned creatures created using alchemy, Chimeras? No, they were humanoid in appearance, and besides, chimeras couldn’t regenerate. So then it had to be…
“They’re homunculi!” Allura and Hunk shouted triumphantly at the same time.
“It makes sense, look here,” Hunk pointed to an illustration in Allura’s book then to a section from one of the reports he’d been reading. “That would explain their regeneration abilities. And the weird extra powers,”
“If they’re homunculi then we’re in more trouble than we first thought,” Allura said, “Be on high alert Hunk, they’re probably much more clever than they’re making themselves look.”
Hunk nodded sharply, then grabbed Allura’s book to read aloud from the passages that might help them.
“Homunculi are humanoids created using alchemy. The brunt of the danger they pose comes from their regenerative abilities. Though they will die eventually if they receive enough otherwise-fatal injuries. The alchemic toll for creating a homunculus is a human life” he set the book down and stood to leave, “What would drive a person to kill someone else just to create a monster like that?”
“I imagine it would mostly stem from greed,” Allura replied eventually, “We’re heading east tomorrow, you should get some rest.”
“Goodnight, Lioness,”
“I don’t want to go!” she cried as her mother tried to pry her away from her father’s legs, “I want to stay with you!”
Alfor bent down to look his daughter in the eye, “I’m sorry, Allura,” he whispered sadly, “your mother and I have to send you away in case something happens to us,”
“But you and mama are alchemists! Nothing will happen to you!”
The train whistle blew suddenly, her parents gave her a last embrace before passing her bags over to a waiting steward. She shrieked as her mother kissed her forehead.
“Goodbye, darling,” Melenor said gently, “We’ll see you soon.”
She never saw either of her parents again.
The village of Balmera was an active one. As a local girl lead them to the destroyed bridge, the market bustled with activity and the mine shaft elevator whirred to life as it ferried workers up and down to the dark tunnels below. The river and the bridge that once covered it appeared on her left.
It was a mess. Shattered concrete and broken beams littered the muddy river. Allura climbed down the steep embankment to get a closer look at the supports. Long slash marks sliced cleanly through several beams, the rest scarred by explosives. I don’t understand, Allura thought, If they truly are homunculi, why settle for vandalism?
“Allura,” Hunk interrupted her thoughts, “I think they knew we were coming, this doesn’t fit their usual patterns,”
He was right, this wasn’t an ambush assault or nigh-untraceable murder, “So what should we do then?”
“The lieutenant is supposed to be investigating the warehouse tonight, I say we rest for a while, compare notes, and come up with a plan tomorrow.”
“I still don’t see why they even let themselves be spotted, it’s sloppy,” Allura said.
“Maybe they want to be found,” Hunk muttered.
She held tightly to Coran’s hand as he lead her through Pollux’s main square. Behind her, the curious stares of the villagers burned a hole in the back of her head.
“Cheer up, ‘Llura!” Coran said brightly, “Everyone’s happy to see you!”
Allura sniffled, “But I want to go home. I want to see my parents again,”
A brief shadow passed over Coran’s usually cheerful face and he gripped her hand a shade tighter than before.
“Coran! Coran! Who’s she?” chirped a sunny voice to her left. Allura turned to see a little girl with long blonde hair tied into two braids running up the hill towards them.
“Hello, Romelle!” he replied, “This is my niece Allura, she’ll be living here with us for a while,”
“Hi, Allura!” Romelle leaned forward to grab Allura’s hand. “Do you like flowers? There’s a field of flowers by the lake and it’s huuuuge!” she spread her tiny arms for emphasis, “You can see all sorts of pretty colours there every day!”
Allura giggled and let go of Coran’s hand to follow her new friend. “I love flowers! There used to be a big garden full of them at the park in central,”
Romelle’s eyes went wide as saucers as they disappeared towards the lake, “You lived in central?!”
“Shouldn’t someone go after them?” said a townsperson, “Allura’s only been here one day, and Romelle’s always been a little too… adventurous for her own good.”
“I’m sure they’ll be fine,” Coran said, “How much trouble could they possibly get up to?”
The answer, he later discovered when they showed up later sunburnt, smeared with mud, and toting a comically large bundle of flowers each, was a lot more than he first anticipated.
Their planned ambush had gone terribly wrong.
“Lioness!” the lieutenant cried over the crack of gunfire and the roar of Allura’s alchemy, “Do you have a visual on 1st officer Garrett?”
Allura dodged another one of the Homonculi’s shadows, “I can’t see him!” she shouted. Lieutenant Wazir cursed and fired again at the lanky homunculus. There was an exasperated groan as he emerged from the shadows. With his unkempt black hair and dark tired eyes, he looked like some kind of ghost.
“No, it can’t be!” The lieutenant cried, his eyes wide as saucers. “You!”
“Who?” Allura shouted in reply.
The exchange made the two hesitate long enough for the third homunculi’s spear-like fingers to pierce the lieutenant’s side and slam Allura against a wall.
There was a shout somewhere behind her, Hunk, she thought dazedly.
“That won’t do,” laughed the small one. There was a dull thud and a groan of pain.
“Who… who are you?” Hunk stuttered.
“Name’s Envy, the sulky one is Pride, and you’ll meet Lust soon enough,”
“Can we just kill them? This is getting tedious,” the one called Pride complained.
“Cheer up you sourpuss! It’s fun to taunt them a little,” Envy shot back.
There was a sickening squelch and Hunk whimpered in pain before falling eerily silent.
“Stop it. Both of you,” said a cool voice somewhere closeby. Allura distantly thought she recognized the speaker, but her head was still too fuzzy to be sure.
“I wasn’t doing anything,” Pride complained, “Envy was the one who had to play with their food,”
“At least I did something. You tossed like one shadow and called it quits! I thought for sure you were Pride and not Sloth,” Envy argued.
“I said ENOUGH!” Lust snapped, “We can’t waste time squabbling like children,”
The pain in Allura’s head slowed down to a dull throb, allowing her more focus. A quick glance saw Hunk and the lieutenant sprawled on the dirty floor, bleeding heavily. She needed to escape soon or they would surely die.
Allura began to struggle in vain against the spear-like fingers pinning her to the wall. From behind her, Lust stopped arguing with the others and chuckled coldly.
“Poor thing. You’ll never escape you know,”
That voice . But there was no possible way, she’d been dead for years.
“Give up your fighting and I might let you live,”
Against her better judgement, Allura turned her head to look at her attacker. The hair, the face, the eyes; there was no mistaking it: Somehow this woman was Romelle, her friend, her love, her stardust.
But the hatred in her eyes and the cruel set of her jaw, none of that fit with the girl she’d loved at all.
“Romelle?” Allura gasped.
Romelle glared sharply at her, “I do not know that name,” she hissed lowly, “I am Lust the Lascivious, and you are merely a target.”
“Allura!”
She looked up from her books to see Romelle dashing towards her, with a basket in hand, unfortunately, she tripped over her own foot and tumbled to the dirt before she could catch up.
“Romelle! Careful!” Allura chided as she helped her friend to her feet.
“Sorry,” Romelle giggled, “Hey, whatcha got in that book?”
“It’s my father’s alchemy notes!” Allura said proudly, “Hey, watch this!”
She bent over and scratched a circle into the dirt, scribbled a few markings around the outside, and placed a small stick in the middle. Then she closed her eyes and brought her hands down over the arrangement.
There was a flash of light when Romelle opened her eyes, she saw a tiny dog figure where the stick had been a moment ago.
“That’s amazing Allura!” Romelle gushed, “How’d you do that?”
Allura shrugged and passed her friend the dog, “Father says it’s science, not magic, but I don’t know if I believe him. Since sometimes alchemists get pulled into other worlds if they do something bad,”
“Other worlds? What kind of things would they do?”
“Father and mama never told me, they just said that I should never try to do it.”
“Hey!” Nyma shouted from the deck of the house they approached, “There you are!”
The little girl waved to them with her left arm, while Coran tinkered with the right. Romelle dashed over and pulled out a small fruit tart, carefully dusted with sugar, still a little squashed from her earlier tumble.
“Nyma!” Romelle gushed, “How’s your arm? Does it hurt? Mrs. Krolia says automail hurts a lot!”
Allura caught up to them a moment later, “Hi Nyma,” she said, much quieter than Romelle’s greeting, but still happy to see her friend recovering.
“Uh-oh,” Nyma stage whispered to a giggling Romelle, “Allura’s in thoughtsville again,”
Allura heard them and flushed, “Am not!” she challenged, “If you keep saying that I won’t show you my alchemy!”
The three stuck together all afternoon, their laughter carrying over the trees and down the hill.
“Romelle, please,”
“I’ve told you already fool, I don’t know that name,”
Pride scoffed, “you keep humouring her Lust. Just kill her and get it over with,”
Envy cracked their knuckles menacingly, “Or I could do it for you…” they singsonged
Lust shook a dismissive hand. “Get out, I’ll finish with them and burn this dump down,”
The other two stalked off, leaving Allura alone with the doppelgänger of her first love.
“You bore me, always pleading for ‘Romelle’, kinda hurts a girl’s feelings knowing she’s such unwanted company,” Lust said idly, as she studied her fingernails.
“You do have me pinned to a wall while my cohorts bleed to death, can I be blamed for wanting more friendly companionship?”
“Oh, she’s feistier than I first thought! Shame I’ll have to kill you now,”
“Don’t do this, Romelle,” Allura begged.
Lust just glared at her.
“Please, stardust, I don’t know what to do,”
That snapped any illusion of Lust’s composure. Confusion flashed across her face and a muted snarl rose in her throat. That gave Allura enough of a distraction to grab her gun and fire a round into the homunculi’s head. She fell backwards.
In a flash, Allura has freed herself from the wall, Hunk had come to but the lieutenant was still completely unmoving. “Lioness,” Hunk groaned, “what’s going on?”
“I’m not sure, but we don’t have much time, we need to leave. Now.”
Suddenly, lieutenant Wazir shot upright with a gasp and a hand clutched tightly to his bleeding side. His expression beneath his shattered glasses was blank, probably from the blood loss, Allura assumed.
“You two, there’s something I need to-” Wazir’s statement was cut off by the stirrings of Lust in the corner. Hurriedly, the trio slipped out of the warehouse and into the night.
“Allura, we have to leave now,” came Coran’s voice from the doorway.
With one last shaky breath, Allura straightened her pale blue gown and rose to take the hand Coran offered her.
“I still can’t believe she said yes,” Allura whispered giddily. Her guardian nodded and dabbed his eyes with a silk handkerchief.
The two left the tiny room that separated them from the congregation arm-in-arm. Allura stood at the front of the chapel with butterflies swooping through her chest when the music started and the guests rose, she had to pinch herself to make sure this wasn’t another lovesick daydream.
But no, there at the end of the aisle, looking as lovely as ever, was Romelle.
The ceremony itself passed in a blur of loud sobs as Coran blew into his handkerchief, and soon the newlyweds sat at the afterparty watching as Coran made his third drunken speech of the night.
“I’ve known llllura and mellie here since they were this high,” Coran slurred and pointed in the direction of his ankle, “NOW look attem, all big and married,” he broke down in tears, “t’s beautiful,”
“Beautiful!” Nyma hiccuped over her drink. Plaxum patted her awkwardly on the back and discreetly dumped the last of her cup into the grass.
That night as they lay in their bed for the first time as wives, Allura rolled over and looked Romelle in the eye.
“I promise you, stardust, I’ll cherish you for as long as you’ll have me,” she declared quietly.
“Where did ‘stardust’ come from?” Romelle giggled in reply.
“Dunno,” Allura yawned, “Felt right,”
“Well alright then,” Romelle leaned over and kissed her forehead, “I’ll be stardust, and you’ll be sunbeam,”
“Sunbeam,” Allura babbled as she fell asleep at last, “I like it,”
She awoke in a tiny hospital room, warrant officer McClain slumped in a chair beside her bed.
“Lance…” she choked. Immediately he was alert and scooping her into a bone-crushing hug.
“You’re squishing me,” she grumbled good-naturedly.
“Sorry,” he grinned, “You’ve been out for three days,”
“And the others?”
“1st officer Garret was released last night, he’s probably at eastern command drafting a report about this mess. Lieutenant Wazir is stable but he’s not awake yet, the colonel hasn’t left his side at all yet.”
Allura worried her lip between her teeth, it was oddly convenient that the one person who knew something about the lanky homunculus was injured badly enough that he wouldn’t be able to reveal anything.
Lance sighed and stood to leave, “Get some rest, Lioness, I’ll alert someone you’re awake.
As soon as he disappeared, Allura hauled herself upright and set off in search of a phone. The encounter with Lust had shaken her badly, and she needed to confide in the one person who knew her secret.
Coran picked up on the second ring, “Coranic Automail Mechanics! How can we be of service?”
“Coran, it’s me,” she whispered.
“Allura!” her guardian chirped, “It’s always lovely to hear from you, how are you faring?”
“I just woke up, according to Lance I’ve been out for three days,”
“Out? Why?”
“It was after a warehouse ambush, I called because one of the creatures that ambushed me-” her voice wobbled, “-It was stardust,”
“Are you sure?” Coran’s cheery voice fell away, replaced with something much darker.
“Yes,” she replied shakily.
“Allura,” Coran said gently, “It’s barely been three years since she died, and less than two since-” he paused and they both felt the tension rise, even though they were many miles apart, “-Since the incident. I worry you might not be the most emotionally stable if you stay involved in this,”
“I feel the same way,” Allura replied, “But I need answers, Coran,”
“Please, princess,” Coran pleaded, his old nickname for her getting caught in his throat, “Stay safe,”
“I’ll try,” she promised. In the background on Coran’s end she heard the pleasant chime of a bell as someone -probably Nyma, given she was the only other person in town with an automail limb- entered the shop.
“Coranic Automail Mechanics! How can I help you?” Was Coran’s cheery greeting, as though the previous conversation hadn’t happened.
Allura put the phone back in its cradle and took a deep breath to try and settle the churning mess of emotions raging through her.
Another terrible hacking sound rang through their tiny house as Romelle coughed.
Allura passed her wife a handkerchief, trying to bite back the painful twinge of panic at the sight of the vibrant red blood staining Romelle’s lips and the tiny square of cloth she held. The vivid blood made such an ugly contrast with Romelle’s sickly pale skin and tired, dull eyes. When the coughing fit passed, she groaned weakly and tried to sit up.
“Please, stardust, try to keep still,” Allura chided as she gently eased Romelle back down.
Romelle made a tiny noncommittal noise and looked out the window, which had been thrown open in the futile hope that a fresh breeze would drown out the scent of illness and rotting sympathy bouquets.
“Isn’t it lovely outside today, sunbeam? Such a lovely day today,” Romelle babbled feverishly.
“Tomorrow will be just as beautiful, I’m sure,” Allura answered.
“Sunbeam,” Romelle’s eyes lost their feverish delirium for a moment, “I want you to promise me something,”
“Anything,” Allura responded eagerly.
“No… no matter what happens, you have to keep going,” her wife pleaded, “You have to let me go,”
“I-”
“Please, Allura, be at peace,”
“For you, my love, I’ll try,”
“I wish we had more time together, darling,” Romelle smiled, then the dull colour returned to her eyes as the illness once again overtook her mind, “Look at the clouds today sunbeam, they’re lovely, aren’t they?”
Allura tried to stop the tears from welling up and didn’t answer.
But when Romelle breathed her last not even an hour later, she made no attempt to restrain the howl of grief that ripped her apart.
The funeral was a blur she couldn’t remember if she wanted to. All the while when the minister gave his speech, her thoughts were back at home, in her small study, flickering through the stacks of alchemy research her parents left behind. She didn’t notice Nyma’s concerned gaze on her back.
A desperate plan formed in the depths of her heart. Taboo or not, she would get her stardust back.
Colonel Takashi Shirogane hadn’t left that hospital room in days.
His subordinates had tried to persuade him to sleep or eat something, or even shower. But he couldn’t. Not when he could lose the only remaining link to his old life.
Distantly, he registered the door clicking shut as someone entered the room, he looked up, expecting officer Mcclain, or lieutenant Holt.
The blonde woman before him was a complete stranger.
“Greetings, colonel, lovely to see you,” she said, though something in her smug tone suggested she thought the opposite.
Shiro’s eyes narrowed, “Have we met?”
“I’m afraid not, but don’t worry, I’m a friend of a friend,” she slipped primly into the chair beside him, “Tell me, do you have any family back home? Parents, cousins, brothers , perhaps?”
“Why should I tell you anything?” Shiro replied.
“I’m not going to hurt them, I’m merely doing a little research. Now tell me, or I’ll reveal your little secret to your superiors. You’ll be stationed across the country from your loyal men in the blink of an eye,”
“I-”
“Don’t lie to me,” she snapped. “We both know you didn’t lose that buff arm of yours in any glorious battles,”
“It was my brother!” he cried out at last, “I didn’t know what else to do, he was my only living family left,”
“And your lieutenant?” she pressed on, “Did he know your brother?”
“They’d met.” he said, “Please miss, whatever you’re planning, don’t hurt my troops,” the colonel begged her, “Kill me if you have to, but don’t do anything to them,”
“Nonsense,” the blonde woman dismissed with an airy wave of her hand, “I was merely testing a theory,”
“Goodbye, colonel,” she said as she stood to leave.
“Wait,” he cut her off, “Tell me who you are,”
The woman’s smug expression crumpled. Where she just before sported the grin of a cat who’d eaten the canary, now she looked like a tiny lost child.
“I wouldn’t know myself,” she finally replied as she disappeared into the hallway.
Allura put in her vacation request the moment she was released. As soon as she was able she was on the first train back to Pollux, suitcase in tow.
The walk uphill was practically engraved in her memory, and she waved to familiar faces as she made the trek. Some, like Plaxum, welcomed her back with elated smiles, Rollo clapped her on the back and invited her down to the tavern that evening, Nyma however, slammed the door in her face. Given their last parting, it wasn’t an unfair reaction.
It was good to see her old friends, she mused as she knocked on the door that had been her home for most of her life. Then the door opened and she burst into tears.
It was the avalanche of old memories and unaddressed grief that caused her outburst, Allura reasoned once the sobs slowed down to hiccups. That didn’t stop her from clinging to her guardian’s neck the way she had done when she had nightmares as a little girl.
Coran just let her cry, uncharacteristically quiet as he brushed her tangled hair away from her face. When he finally spoke, his voice was soft and free from judgement. “Welcome home, princess,”
“Coran!” shouted a tiny voice from inside the shop, “Who’s she?”
“It’s alright, Bandor,” he assured the child who was now peering out from around his legs, “This is Allura, I looked after her when she was little,”
Allura set down her suitcase and crouched so she was at Bandor’s eye level, “Hello there, it’s nice to meet you, Bandor,”
The boy’s eyes grew wide as dinner plates, and Allura felt a pang of nostalgia at how similar he looked to Romelle when she was that small.
“YOU’RE ALLURA?” he gasped, “Like the alchemist?”
“Not like,” Allura smiled and pulled her pocket watch out to press into his hand, “I am Allura the alchemist,”
“Can you teach me?! I want to learn alchemy too!” Bandor cried, gazing at the watch in his hand like it was something precious.
“Now, now, I’m sure Allura’s very tired after her journey, Bandor. We should let her get some rest and something to eat before we do anything too drastic,”
“Okay,” the boy deflated a bit and reached up to pass Allura her watch. “Here you go, miss,”
Allura shook her head and pressed it back into his hands, “I don’t see any harm in letting you hold onto it for a while longer,” she chuckled as his face split into a grin so wide it would give Lance a run for his money and picked up her suitcase. “Now, why don’t we all go into town for something to eat? I happen to know an excellent little bakery down by the market on main street!”
Bandor and Coran clapped their hands and the trio made their way down the hill to the market square, oblivious to the blonde shadow that crept into the house they’d just left.
Allura groaned as someone pounded on her door, disrupting the progress she’d made so far. Nyma was waiting for her, arms crossed and a furrow in her brow. “You’re up to something,” she said in lieu of a greeting.
“I’m busy,” Allura tried to shut the door, but Nyma’s automail blocked the door frame before she could. “I mean it, Nyma,”
Her friend’s frown deepened, “Allura, you haven’t left the house since the funeral, you aren’t talking to anyone, Coran says you barely even eat anymore. We’re worried about you,”
“I’m fine, Nyma, please leave,”
“Like I believe you. I know you better than that,” Nyma’s scrutinizing look softened into something sadder, “You can talk to me, Allura,” she said reaching to comfort her, “I miss Romell-”
A caged look danced in Allura’s eyes and next thing Nyma knew, an alchemically warped panel of the door lashed out and left a stinging gash across her cheek, a finger put to her cheek came away tinged with blood.
“You have no idea what I feel,” Allura snarled. Her expression shifted from rage to apologetic when she saw the red gash staining Nyma’s face. “I-”
Nyma shook her head and chuckled sourly, “I don’t know who you are anymore, but you sure as hell aren’t the Allura I know,”
“Nyma…”
“I’ll see you around,” she said curtly. Then turned around and vanished downhill.
Allura watched her go and disappeared into the house. She still had work to do.
Lust the Lascivious knew nothing of her life before she had awoken in the cold embrace of the man who called himself “Father”, yet the whimpering mess of an alchemist who’d taken her down seemed to recognize her all too well. When father had forced her to her knees and demanded to know why she’d allowed herself to be beaten, she had no answer, not even the foggiest idea of why the sappy nickname had caused her such confusion.
Father had ordered Pride to see to her punishment, which he had more than obliged to. Torturing her for hours on end as envy cackled and she begged for her Father’s nonexistent mercy. She would surely be punished even more severely for escaping, but she desperately needed to know what the lioness seemed to know.
A cursory glance around the front rooms revealed nothing except some scattered tools and an abandoned coffee mug laying on a table. Someone had scratched “AA + RL” onto the ageing wood, but other than that it was empty of anything useful.
The bookshelves were next. Medical books and mechanical guides shared space with children’s fantasy novels and colouring books. But it was the dusty tome labelled “Photographs” that caught her attention. Heart pounding in her throat, Lust let the book fall open.
There were many of a ginger-haired man and who she presumed was lioness in her youth. Then there came the wedding pages. An aged photograph of the alchemist sporting a youthful grin as she and her guardian stood in front of a chapel, another of a four-tiered cake decorated with frosted purple roses, various guests, and the woman lust knew the moment she saw the picture was Lioness’ Romelle.
Now she understood the confusion in the eyes of the lieutenant when he’d seen pride and the anguish in the alchemist’s pleading for stardust. Romelle & Lust were one in the same, indistinguishable minus the ouroboros tattoo missing from Romelle’s shoulder. Mentally she combined the new information with what she’d learned while investigating the colonel & his lieutenant.
Colonel Shirogane’s half-brother Keith Kogane: died August 15th at age 17, a product of the foster system who had turned to criminal activity shortly before his death in a bar fight. Appearance matched perfectly with the homunculus Pride.
Romelle Lequin-Altea: Wife of state alchemist Allura Altea, worked as a nurse, which was how she’d contracted and died of consumption at the age of 22 on September 4th. Appearance matched perfectly with the homunculus Lust.
The pieces clicked together, a bereaved alchemist commits the taboo to bring back a dead loved one. The organic mass left behind by the failed attempt allowed Father to create his children.
The door creaked open and Lust turned around, now face-to-face with the alchemist Allura.
“Greetings,” Lust said in a hopefully casual voice, “I believe we need to talk,”
This was the one and only taboo among alchemists, yet she didn’t care.
It was remarkable, really. The materials needed to transmute a human body could be purchased by just about anyone at a local market. Carefully she combined them in a dish placed in the center of the circle she’d created.
A piece of Romelle’s DNA was next, she opened the locket at her neck and pulled out a single lock of golden blonde hair. That too was placed into the mix.
This was it, the point of no return. She was going to see her stardust again, she thought as she brought her hands down atop the carefully-drawn matrix.
It took about a moment for things to go awry. Cold blue light erupted from the sigils, a sinister red glare flooded the room, and a great eye sprang open in the centre. Allura’s vision was overcome with harsh white and she screamed for help.
Then she was standing outside a door in a long white hallway with no beginning or end. The outline of a person was her only company.
“So,” it snarled. “You committed the taboo, didn’t you?”
“It-”
“No need to beg or make excuses, I’ve heard them all already. I’m just here to show you the truth,”
“The truth?” Allura asked feebly.
“Look behind you,”
The door opened and she was pulled backwards into a void of everything & nothing. Pain & knowledge, fear and truth. In her agony she saw Romelle, reaching out a hand to help her.
Then she was back outside the door with the figure from before.
“Now you know,” it said in a voice devoid of expression.
“What will become of me?”
“You’ll see in a moment,” it replied cryptically. A biting pain raced up her leg and she saw it only for a moment before the entire limb dissolved into white light.
The figure stood up, flesh standing out against the blank white outline of its body. “Goodbye,”
She awoke to a blinding pain and a darkened room, she tasted blood & the earth of the cellar floor on her tongue and the place reeked with the bitter metallic scent of it. Her leg was missing in the same place that the figure from her vision had taken it.
Dread pooled in her gut, slowly, she turned her head to the place where the dish she’d piled the materials for her transmutation.
The sight that awaited was not Romelle.
A skeletal half-formed figure lay there, bones visible as it gasped for breath, beady red eyes glared back at her as it reached a bony finger towards her, at the last second, the arm flopped back to the ground along with a gush of blood.
Allura wept bitterly, wept in pain, wept for the grief of losing her childhood friend & love, wept in pity for the thing she’d created, bound to a short existence of pain and misery.
The weeping didn’t stop even as Coran burst through the cellar doors, shock and horror bloomed in his eyes at the sight of her & her creation. Quickly, he scooped her up like a ragdoll and brought her up the hill to his workshop.
Less than an hour later, a man with long silver hair slid into the cellar like an eel would slip into its cave.
Lust was gone as soon as quickly as she’d arrived. Allura still had difficulty processing the information she’d borne with her.
Whoever Lust was fleeing, they were apparently dangerous enough that the unshakable embodiment of Lust herself didn’t want to stay around long enough to meet them again.
“So where are you going now?”
“Xing, he can’t leave the country,”
“Be safe, then,”
Lust peered at her through disbelieving eyes, “I’ve stabbed your men, stalked you to your hometown, & broke into your house. Yet you wish me a safe journey,”
Allura shrugged, “You’ve given me something useful, the least I can do is offer well-wishes as you flee the country to avoid your relatives,”
“You are a curious woman Allura Altea,” Lust said oddly. She stood and pulled a broad-brimmed traveller’s hat over her blonde hair, “I wish I could have known you longer,”
She gave Allura a quick kiss on the cheek. Then she was gone. Vanishing like sand in the wind.