Descent

Chapter Six

Mai ran over to the kids and began to untie them. Alphonse, however, ran the other direction, fetching the horses they had left tied to trees several hundred meters away. He led them to the clearing and Transmuted a large horse cart, big enough to fit himself, Mai and the fifteen children comfortably. He made sure it was light, so the horses wouldn't have too much difficulty pulling it. The slavers, now prisoners, would be tied and tied again to rings he had made onto the cart, and they would walk all the way back to the Imperial Court, where they would be trialed, convicted and sent to jail the rest of their lives. If they were extremely lucky, though, they might be sentenced to work in the fields.

Alphonse sighed. Now that this was almost over -the Imperial Court was a mere two days from here by horse carriage- he would have nothing more to do than research.

He wondered if perhaps he should go and visit Edward? After all, it had been quite a few weeks since he'd left Amestris.

A little while later, back in Amestris, Winry was attaching auto-mail to a customer. As she connected the nerves to his hand -it was the full thing, just the hand- his face contorted in pain and he let out a short scream, which he did his best to bite back. His name was Jeremy. He was a tall, strong man, late forties, and he'd lost his left hand in the Ishvalan war. She felt about as sorry for him as she did for the rest of her customers, and that was very sorry indeed. While she didn't actually need auto-mail herself, she knew how terribly painful the connection was. She had witnessed it so much throughout her life that she had no doubt whatsoever. "Sorry." She said to him when it was done. "I know it hurts."

"Ah, don't worry about it, Mrs Elric. It's nothing." He said, twisting his lips into a smile she could tell he was struggling to maintain.

"Mrs Elric?" She laughed. "What do you mean by that?"

"You're married to Edward Elric, aren't cha?" Jeremy said.

"No, not yet. We are engaged, though." She clarified.

"Oh." He said shortly. "Where is he?" He asked, twisting his head around from side to side as though Ed might magically appear from behind the couch.

"He's in Central." She told him.

"Why's that?" He asked. She hung her head, her brilliant blonde bangs falling around her face.

"He needs to be close to the doctors right now." She said, her voice low and almost defeated.

"Really?" Jeremy asked. She almost wanted to yank his hand off. Did this guy never stop asking questions?

"Yes." She said, her tone implying that he should shut up.

He didn't take the hint.

"Why does he need to be close to the central doctors?" He pressed, flexing his fingers, testing them.

"I don't think he'd appreciate it much if I told anyone, to be perfectly honest with you." She said, an edge to her voice that he would hopefully notice and shut up. Thankfully, this time around, he did. She finished giving him his maintenance and he paid her the fee, which was cheap, considering all he had was that one hand that needed doing. He left, thanking her for her fabulous work, smiling and waving, and she forced on a smile and waved back, trudging back inside the house which she had reluctantly left. She dragged her feet to the room she shared with Edward and collapsed onto the bed, perfectly ready for sleep right now. She wasn't hungry. To be perfectly truthful, she hadn't eaten any food for two days straight now. Her stomach was constantly rumbling, but she ignored it, certain that any food she ate would just make it's way back up again. So she sank into bed and, from under the covers, pulled out the red cloak she'd been hiding under it. She knew Edward lost his in Drachma. She'd since taken up needlework, and had bought a cloak almost identical to Edward's in shape and size, dyed it the exact shade of red that Ed always wore, and took a ball of black wool and began to carefully sew the alchemist's symbol onto the back, in the exact spot where Edward always had it. When Edward was, for want of a better word, healthy enough, to come home, she would give it to him as a welcome home present.