As soon as we approach the doors with our prisoner in tow a few men in blue uniforms come up.

They place their hands on their weapons but don’t draw them. “State your business and purpose of the person currently handcuffed.”

Edward quickly fumbles around in his pocket making the guards tense. One of them even starts to slowly lower his rifle until Edward finally fishes out his locket that shows he’s a state alchemist.

Immediately upon seeing it the guards all snap at attention. The one that was lowering their rifle looks slightly embarrassed. “Edward Elric, full metal alchemist here. We have a prisoner from an attempted upraising in a town. The military doesn’t have a strong presence there and he has enough clout that he could escape so we took the liberty of bringing the detained prisoner here.”

The nearest guard moves over. “Sir, we’ll deliver him to a jail cell for you right away.” They grip father Cornello roughly and start moving him out of the way. The ones nearest to the door open it for Edward. Is he actually someone important? I get that alchemists are probably rare but he’s just a kid, they can’t all be this naïve right?

As we walk along the hallways several people stop what they are doing to acknowledge or say hello to Edward and Al. Eventually we come into a room that has six people working at desks with a door going further in.

A man that looks far younger than any of the other military so far is working a radio. “The receiver on this thing has seen better days, I’ll probably need to change it’s parts.” Edward just gives me a cocky smirk before walking up and with a clap shots of transmutation lightning light the room and the radio is repaired… That’s interesting. Does he know the intrinsic components of the radio by heart and can replicate all of it at once?

The young guy looks surprised looking up at Edward. “Hey! It’s Edward and Alphonse!”

A girl with bunned up hair looks at them with a professional smile. “Welcome back, you two. The Colonel is expecting you. Also, who are your friends?” her eyes dart between me and Zig. It’s hard to tell but she’s been eying us since we entered. Most of the people may be acting casual but they all look coiled and ready to strike.

Edward just looks slightly annoyed at having to go into the meeting. “Aww mannnn, uh these are Jiang and Zig, I met them while out on that last assignment. They offered some advice that might help my goal.” I don’t think he can tell how on edge they are about Zig.

“Well, the colonel only wants to meet with you so they can wait outside for now. Were they involved in the Liore case?” Edward just nods and absentmindedly waves off at her as he walks by into the office.

I turn to her raising an eyebrow. “Are all state alchemists this… eccentric?” The steel glint in her eye slightly wavers as the small hint of a smile tugs at her lips. “Eccentric, yeah that sounds about right.” She walks around from her desk to stand in front of me and Zig.

“Where are you two from? You don’t look Amestrian and big and gloomy back there isn’t exactly dressed like a local.” I look down at my clothes. We do sort of stand out. I also look racially different but no one has really questioned it much until now.

“We came from Xing.” That makes her slightly tense again.

“Oh, don’t worry we have travel Visas in Zigs bag. I’m actually one of the princes of Xing. But that doesn’t really mean much considering how many there are. I’m just traveling the world learning about Alkahestry or what your people call alchemy.” Zig removes his bag with a loud thud on the floor and starts going through it. She gives a pointed look at the golden statue or Leto and other fine objects that are sitting on the top of the bag.

I chuckle and shrug. “Well sometimes you find interesting things in your travels.” She thankfully doesn’t push any further as Zig produces our identification. After a glance at mine she she’s somewhat startled by Zigs.

“Is there something wrong with him? He doesn’t look… right in this photo.”

“Oh that’s part of why Edward and Al want my assistance with a few things. He’s actually the product of a bit of an accident with my Alkahestry from home. After an accident I was attempting to save his life and I fused him with my pet snake.” Her eyebrow arcs at that.

“Interesting, I’m not an alchemist so I don’t know that much about that subject. But I’m sure The colonel will want to talk to you at length about it.” Right as she finished that Al pokes his head out of the room. “Hey Jiang, Mustang wants to talk to you.”

I smile at him. “I’ll be right there.” I start walking but the girl stops Zig.

“Only Jiang was invited in.” Zig hisses slightly back at her but she doesn’t even flinch. The guy behind her at the radio does though.

“I’m sorry, but where I go, he goes. I’m a bit disarmed you see and I need his assistance with things.” She looks down at my state and reluctantly gives a short nod. She pokes her head into the office for a moment before coming back out and sitting at her desk without further comment.

I’ll take that as an okay. Walking back forward Zig gets the door for me.

Walking in it’s a fairly bare room just having two benches in front of a desk with a few national flags of a lion around. A man with short black hair and intense eyes sits behind his desk steepling his fingers together. “Welcome, I’m Colonel Roy Mustang. I’m led to believe you are a prince of Xing? Which clan did you say you were from again?”

Ah, a few of the clans have probably caused some problems over here. No matter I know at least mine hasn’t. “I’m from the Du clan. We mostly just sell medical supplies made by our Alkahestry, what your people call Alchemy. I specialized in healing specifically and development of new technology and techniques.”

Thinking about it with Analyze I can slowly steal the blue prints for everything here and bring into a future era. I may not know how to make something now but it doesn’t mean I shouldn’t save it for later. Hell it will probably even come in handy for the next wo-

“Ahem.” Zig clears his throat behind me. I look up and realize I’d zoned out in a thought bubble again.

“Sorry about that, sometimes my ideas just can’t be contained. What was it we were discussing?” He gives a sliding glance to Zig in thanks.

“Well I was wondering what exactly you are willing to teach Edward and Alphonse and in exchange for what? You see I’m also an alchemist.” Oh? That’s promising he seems to be in a position of power, and more importantly not an idiot.

“That’s wonderful! I’m willing to trade information for information. I have techniques used by our healers that I have developed for various drugs and medicines. I also have knowledge about the properties of a lot of different substances.” This got both Edward and the Colonel interested. But Edward has a bit of a frown on his face.

“Your not mentioning the most important thing though.” I turn toward him.

He goes on his hands and knees. “When are you going to make me taller!” Right… that. I mean I can do it in two ways one is Chi training to make him mature faster alternatively just a health supplement… I guess I should go with the first option.

“That is an individual deal. I don’t want those techniques to be spread to the rest of the Amestrian government. I’ll discuss the specifics with you later in private but know that the method does far more than just make you taller.” He looks up at me with a bright smile.

“Great! Well Mustang it’s been great talking to you but as you’ve seen we really have to go and I don’t want to bother you.” He starts trying to drag me away.

The colonel lets out a chuckle. “Hold on Full Metal. I still have some questions for him.” With a pout Edward stops trying to drag me out of the office.

I settle into the seat. He turns to me. “Now, is the band around your eyes religious or part of your customs? I’d prefer to speak to you eye to eye if you don’t mind.” I can’t help but laugh a little at that. Everyone just looks at me a little confused except Zig.

“Sorry, sorry. You’ll just find it’s a little hard to see eye to eye with me even without the cloth.” I can’t help but smile at that and I hear an annoyed sigh come from Zig.

“Did I offend you or something? I’m just not aware of any sort of custom from Xing.” The Colonel looks thoroughly confused.

“Zig if you wouldn’t mind.”

“Are you ssssure?” The moment Zig lets out the hiss the colonel tenses. He doesn’t make a show of it but he puts on a pair of white gloves. On the side of it I spot a transmutation circle. Hearing the ding of a notification as I do.

“Yes I’m sure it will be fine.” Zig gently pulls off my blindfold and everyone else in the room gasps. The area around my eyes is riddled with scar tissue. I can’t hold a knife at the moment, so I haven’t been able to remove any with treatment. But the more impressive thing is the hollowed out sockets I have.

The first to speak up is Edward. “B-b-but I’ve seen you look around? I… You walk around without any worry at all?”

I nod gently towards him. He starts making faces at me and holding up a number of fingers.

“Edward! That’s enough!” It’s the colonel that stops him after a moment.

“Are you truly blind?” He looks at me with interest.

“Yes, I mentioned that the process I was going to show Edward would have additional benefits. One of them is my ability to see without my eyes.” Not really but Chi sight was a beneficial lie that my family believed so Zig does too. Speaking of he grunts in annoyance at that because while he can detect living things, he’s still not able to detect objects like I claim to which annoys him.

“Well… That is impressive. Are all people in Xing able to do… that?” He points at my eyes.

“Do what sir?” I can’t help but smirk. He points at my eyes again before realizing what he’s doing.

He coughs slightly embarrassed. “Ahem, I mean is it normal in Xing to learn that method? Also, I heard a hissing coming from your companion is that also a… side effect of this method?”

“No no, like I explained to one of your workers out there. While saving his life from an accident I accidently fused him with my pet snake into what you’d call a chimera.” He looks slightly impressed. Letting my none answer of his first question go.

“Impressive, you said accidental though? Do you not know what caused it?” I shrug. I haven’t exactly had the means to try again since it happened.

“No, I was a bit preoccupied as the same accident cost me my arms and eyes.” He winces at that.

“Well, perhaps you should consult one of our specialists. The sewing life Alchemist, Shou Tucker. He’s done some heavy research on Chimera transmutation I’ll introduce you to him.”

“Wow! That’s great! He might be able to help us with making a new body for me!” Al seems excited by the idea. I’m not sure it’s that simple.

“In case you’ve not noticed something I’m still a little… disarmed? I’d like to get that problem solved first.” The Colonel nods knowingly.

“I can recommend an automail mechanic if you’d like as well. From the sounds of things, you’re going to be a font of knowledge, so I’d prefer you to be happy.” I look over at Edward.

“You promised you knew a good one?”

“Yeah, she’s the one that set me up with my arm and leg. We can probably hit her up before meeting this Shou Tucker guy.” I smile and nod back to him.

The colonel walks around his desk and stands before me.

“Whatever the case welcome to Amestris. Hopefully this can be the start of a great relationship between our countries.” He puts out his hand for a handshake. I look down at it. It takes a few seconds for him to realized what he was doing and slowly shifts it towards Zig who also just stares at it. He slowly slides his hand back down into his pocket.

“Ahem, I’ll leave the information on Shou Tucker with Edward. It sounds like you lot need to have a private conversation. I’ll be in touch for an information exchange. I primarily work with flames though if you have anything to offer about that I’ll gladly take it.” Flames huh? I know a few recipes. I’m not sure how useful some of them are with alchemy though.

“Thank you for your time, Colonel.” With that we leave. On the way out Edward says his goodbyes to everyone as we head out.

“Now, it’s probably best if we head straight for Wenrys place. We don’t know how long it will take for you to be outfitted with your automail and I’d rather get stuff rolling right away. Can we talk alchemy in the train compartment now that we won’t have that father guy with us?” He looks up at me pleadingly with big sad eyes.

“Haaa suuure. I’ll just need to make sure no one listens in on our conversation first. Can’t be giving away free stuff after all.” I smile as I watch him start pumping his fist in excitement.

“Yes! Besides we have some other leads to investigate over that way anyways. There’s supposedly this blind alchemist that works for a private family that brought their daughter back to life… Wait that wasn’t you right?” Edward rubs his chin and looks at me.

“Haha no no, that wasn’t me. I only just came to this country but I’ll gladly meet another blind alchemist if they want to trade notes while I’m getting the new arm.” I can’t help but smile at the idea of two blind people trading notes on something when realistically it would be hard for me to read brail like this if not for my skill.

Edward smiles at that but Al is clearly uncomfortable by the blind jokes. We board the train again. It feels like we just got here and already we are heading back off towards the east.