Chapter Text
6 Days After Ed gave Pinako the letters to mail
Imperial Residence, City of the Son of the Heavens, Xing
Alphonse had barely been in Xing three full days when May burst into his room. May was not the shrimpy little thirteen-year-old girl he’d last seen on the promised day. The fifteen-year-old in her stead was now almost up to his shoulder.
“Your brother already wrote you!” she said, handing Al the four letters plus an extra envelope or two. Al looked at the dates and ripped open the first one. Fairly standard but Al frowned.
“What did he say?” May said.
“Brother thinks that someone might have a philosopher’s stone, and they’re making twisted things,” Al said, “Maybe he learned more in the next letter.” Al checked the dates and the letter and the larger envelope were the same date. He opened up the larger envelope and found Ed had written out a few reports. Al put those aside and picked up the letter.
“Your brother doesn’t say a thing about experiments or the Philosopher’s Stone!” May said.
“It’s encoded,” Al said, “It’s one we use with each other. We made it up in school to pass notes whenever the teacher tried to separate us. We’ve made it harder to crack over the years.”
Al read the second letter, and his eyebrows raised, and then his face fell. “What’s wrong?” May said.
“Ed fought with the one responsible, and whoever he is, he figured out how to steal bodies,” Al said. “He’s using an old colleague of Ed’s for a puppet.”
“You mean like Greed used Ling?” May said.
“I wasn’t used!” Al and May looked up to see Ling crawling in Al’s window.
“Shouldn’t you be in a court session?” May said.
“So should you, oh Imperial Sister, but I canceled it because most of our siblings had food poisoning from yesterday’s feast,” Ling said.
“That seems convenient for you, Ling,” May said.
“You would accuse your own brother, the Son of the Heavens, of something so low as to give most of his beloved family food poisoning just to avoid arguing with them?” Ling said, “What’s happening to Ed?”
“Weird things are happening in Amestris. Ed went to check something out after Mustang gave him a lead, and it turns out someone is using a strange energy to warp things like others used Philosopher’s Stones, and they stole another person’s body,” Al said. “Also, people attempted to tell brother magic was real.” May and Ling exchanged looks before laughing. Al smiled weakly before he opened up the next letter.
“They tried to convince Ed that he was WHAT?” Ling said. Al hadn’t noticed the Emperor leaning over his shoulder, reading the letter.
“How did you read that?” Al asked.
“He taught Greed and I learned how to read that too,” Ling said, “But seriously, they tried to pull that with Ed?”
“I know. Trying to convince my brother of all people that he is a reincarnation of someone, even after everything,” Al said, “But whoever they’re fighting believes it and believes that there is also someone called Hylia.”
“Hylia?” May said, her eyes widening, “Like that goddess those people in the Shin province worship?”
“I wondered why that name sounded familiar. Come to think of it, those people in Shin have ears like yours, Alphonse,” Ling said.
“My Lord! There is a contingent of Shin outside!” The attendant arrived in Al’s room and then noticed May.
“My Lady. Honored Guest.”
“Send them to my personal receiving room. I’ll be there shortly,” Ling said.
“They requested to speak with the one who also has, as they said, “The ears to hear the gods.”” May and Ling looked confused.
“They mean me. Somehow, they know about me,” Al said.
“Why?” May said.
“Did you know, in Amestris, my race is called Hylians?” Al said, “Mom only said it was because a goddess loved our people and gave them ears to listen for her.”
“Oh, Hylians, Hylia!” May said. Al nodded. They reached Ling’s personal audience chamber, and Al sat on a cushion next to May’s while Ling sat in a simple but ornate chair. The group that entered reminded Al of only one group from home with their darker skin, red eyes, and white hair, except their ears were pointed.
Al may have studied Xingese in preparation for this trip, but he couldn’t keep up and felt unnerved by how they stared at him. The leader, a woman with her white hair in a long braid, spoke with Ling primarily.
“Do you speak Amestrian? Alphonse’s Xingese is rudimentary at best,” May said, in Amestrian.
“We do, only, we still refer to it as Hyrulean,” the leader of these people said, “Young Hylian, we are a remnant of the Sheikah tribe. We left to preserve some of our culture from those monsters. Our other kin stayed among the Gerudo in hopes that they could hold onto something in the homeland.”
“I’m Alphonse Elric,” Al said, “The monsters you speak of, were they led by one they called “Father?””
“Yes,” the leader said.
“He is dead,” Al said, “And so are his creations. Amestris is free of him.”
“How?” the leader said.
“It took many brave men and women to take him and his creations down. My brother landed the final blow,” Al said.
“We were both there,” May said.
“I’ve been rude, Alphonse. My name is Impa,” the leader said, bowing her head. Her white braid fell forward.
“Do you, perhaps, have a picture of your brother?”
“There is one Winry insisted on taking,” Al said.
“Winry?” Impa said.
“If I can go and get the picture?” Al said to Ling, trying to remember protocol.
“No need to act formal here, Al!” Ling said, waving it off. Al nodded and walked out of the room and went back to his chambers. He picked through his papers and noticed something he’d missed from the first letter.
‘She said “yes.”’ She.
“He finally admitted it!” Al said.
“Who admitted what?” Al turned to see that May had joined him.
“Ed proposed to Winry,” Al said, pointing to the end of the letter.
“She actually likes him?” May said.
“They’ve liked each other for years! I thought I’d have to do something drastic to get them to admit it,” Al said as he dug and found the picture Winry had insisted they take after both brothers were fully healed after the promised day. It was like a photograph from when they were children. Winry in the center, Al on her right, Ed on her left. This time she was holding up their hands, each throwing up a “v,” and everyone was smiling, unlike last time.
“You all look so happy,” May said.
“Yeah,” Al said. In the background was the Rockbell house.
Al made sure to grab the last letter, and they returned to the audience chamber, where Ling was laughing and regaling them with the time Ed fed him a boot inside Gluttony’s stomach. “Here,” Al said respectfully, handing them the photograph.
“These are your brother and sister?” Impa said.
“What? Well, he’s my brother, but unless they got married while I was gone, she’s not my sister yet,” Al said, pointing to Winry. “You have the same coloring,” Impa said, “Though your brother doesn’t resemble you all that much.” “I look a bit more like our mother, and Ed looks just like our father,” Al said with a shrug. Impa’s eyes were drawn to the corner of the photograph, and they grew impossibly wide.
“What’s this?” Impa said, tapping the back of Ed’s right hand, which was also visible in the photo.
“Just a birthmark brother’s always had on the back of his right hand,” Al said. May almost spoke, but she remembered which arm HAD been automail for most of the time she or Ling had known him and shut her mouth.
‘Edward had THAT on his real right hand?’ May thought.
“Are you sure he’s always had it?” Impa said.
“As long as he’s had a right hand,” Al said. Ling nearly laughed at how Al worded it.
“This is the same brother who landed the final hit on the monster who conquered Hyrule?” Impa said.
“Yes. I only have one brother,” Al said.
“Why?”
“Because, to us, this is a sacred mark,” Impa said, “It’s the mark of the Golden Goddesses who created everything, even Hylia the White Goddess. If one is born bearing that mark, it means they are destined for something special.”
“I wouldn’t exactly call our road to that moment, “special.””
“No one achieves anything without sacrifice,” Impa said, “But it is clear that it is time for our people to return to our homeland, now that we can be free of those monsters. We thank you, Alphonse, for the news and the hope.”
“No problem, though…,” Al said, “My brother sent me some odd letters and something is running around causing weird things to happen.”
“Was there a name?” Impa said.
“Ghirahim,” Al said.
“It would appear your brother still has a destiny to fulfill,” Impa said.
“How did you know Ed had gotten involved?” Al said.
“It was a lucky guess,” Impa said, “If it is Ghirahim, then we should return to the land as quickly as possible. They will need all the help they can get.”
“I’m going back too. I don’t care if brother told me to stay put,” Al said as he packed.
“I’m going too,” May said. She held up her already full pack. Xiao-Mei was perched on her shoulder.
“What about your duties here?” Al said.
“Well, seeing as I’m only one of over twenty Imperial Princesses, I think they can let me go,” May said, “Plus, it’s better to ask forgiveness than permission.”
“Though sounds like something Ling would say,” Al said. May shrugged. Al finished his packing and looked around.
“Let’s go before-.”
“Before I try to stop you? Why would I do that?” They turned to see that Ling was there. He was holding up a packet of papers covered in Xingese and a couple of scrolls and gave them to May.
“That’s your passport. I sent a telegraph to Fuhrer Grumman, and he sent back his approval for your legal entry to Amestris for the rest of your life. Just stop by Central to get his signature. For now, my seal is what makes that legitimate,” Ling said, “Al. Take care of yourself and I guess take care of her too-OW! GET YOUR PANDA OFF!”
“Xiao-Mei!” May said. The tiny panda let go of Ling’s arm and looked smug.
“Don’t die!” Ling said before he climbed out of his window. A few ministers came running past.
“Your Excellence!”
“I think we’d better leave the same way,” May said after a moment.