Cardinal Sin (1) : Rebirth of the Fullmetal Alchemist

5 - The shifting arsenal

Ed easily abandoned his reading marathon to follow Phil and Frederick. He hadn't learned anything at all and so basically wasted a week of his life for nothing. Besides, what these two young men were going to show him sounded promising for his debut in research of Western Alchemy. There was, too, the pressing issue that he needed to find something for the letters about the progress he and Al had promised to send each other every three weeks.

Phil and Frederick lived together in a shabby little house that comprised of a three-room, ground-level floor and a basement near the edges of Hiven. It was even smaller than Granny's house in Risemboul, but at least the yard was roomy, surrounded by a tall fence.

With a small smile that suggested he was somewhat embarrassed by their living environments, Phil showed Ed around the house. The first room was both a kitchen, a dining and a living room at once, while the second was a messy bedroom. There was also a very small bathroom connecting to the bedroom. Out a wide window, they indicated an outhouse, then, through a trap door on the floor of the bedroom, Ed and the other two went down to the basement.

This part of the house was far more agreeable, though it was below ground. It was sparser, its widths much bigger than the floor above. Inside, there were full bookcases on alchemy, a large table on which studying papers were spread out, and traces of rubbed-out transmutation circles were all over the stone of the ground. A large safe on the ground attracted Ed's interest particularly, though he stayed silent and let Frederick and Phil introduce him to their laboratory.

"We spend most of our time here studying," said Phil proudly. "Ever since we got out Alchemy permits."

Ed nodded along. He pointed to the safe and demanded, "What's in there?"

"That's what we wanted to show you." 

Frederick crouched down and unlocked the safe with the right combination. He looked back at the other two young men, saying, "Ready?"

Phil nodded. Glancing from him to Frederick, Ed raised his eyebrows. He was now extremely curious at the contents of the safe. Leaning in closer, he watched eagerly as Frederick sung open the door.

A single, small, empty glass cup sat in the dead center of the safe.

"WHAT THE HELL IS THIS?!" Ed screamed, grabbing Phil by the shoulders and shaking him roughly. "AM I A JOKE TO YOU?! YOU DRAGGED ME ALL THE WAY HERE TO SEE A CUP?!"

"No, look!" Phil cried, pointing to the safe.

Ed glanced at the safe again, shocked to see the glass cup had disappeared, replaced by a dagger that was covered in bits of dried blood. Letting go of Phil, he rushed to the safe and crouched by it like Frederick.

"Where'd the cup go? What's with the knife."

"It was replaced," Frederick responded.

Peering over their shoulders, Phil cried, "Ugh! There's blood on that!" He then escaped the basement up to the first floor, leaving his friend alone with the Fullmetal alchemist. 

Ignoring Phil's sudden departure, Ed said, "Replaced? Why'd you do that?"

"I didn't do it," Frederick explained. "It happens by itself."

"I don't get it," Ed said, frowning.

"It's complicated. Look, every half hour, the object changes. Just like that—there's something one second, then it just switches. I don't know how. We don't know why it changes, but it hasn't failed to change at the 30-minute mark in the three months that we've had it."

"What does it change into?"

"Mainly weapons. That's why we call it the shifting arsenal. Most times they'll have blood on them, but, other times, it'll be harmless stuff like cups. We don't know what it means, but there is one thing."

"Which is?"

"Every day, at exactly 1:29PM, it turns into the same thing. Every day it's the same."

There was a pause in which Frederick said nothing.

"Well?!" Ed shouted. "Don't just say stuff like that and stop talking!"

"Oh, yes, sorry. Well, it changes into this weird, shining red stone and it stays there for about an hour. We've just missed it by about sixty minutes."

Ed paled, "Red stone?"

"What do you make of it?" Frederick asked.

He had a pretty good idea of what it was, but he wouldn't tell this to Frederick when he was still oblivious to the grim secrets of the blood-red stones.

 "I don't know," Ed lied, "but I won't let this pass by. I'm coming by tomorrow morning to study this thing. Al will be fascinated."

"Al? Who's that?"

"Oh, just be my little brother. He's in Xing researching alchemy, too."

"Ah." Frederick locked up the safe again, Ed watching the bloody knife vanish behind the door with narrowed eyes.

It was imperative that he found out why these two young and probably inexperienced alchemists had in their possessions a philosopher's stone.

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If the concept of the shifting arsenal isn't clear, I'll try to explain it more in Chapter 7.

—Annalise