Cardinal Sin (1) : Rebirth of the Fullmetal Alchemist

16 - The Ultimate Sacrifice

When looking for one of the most important things in a fallen city, where was the most sensible location to search? Most would say the ruins of the castle.

Ed was not of that opinion.

He winded his way through its very borders until he met only sand, did a full circle of the city (just this took him several hours, but once he retrieved his camel it went a little faster) then progressed inside. Until the sun's bedtime, he looked, examining everything closely for signs of what Herman had spoken of. Occasionally he'd glance up at the ravaged castle in the center of the city, but he discarded the thought of it being there for he thought that would be much too obvious and easily found.

In the end, that's where it was.

Having gone through the entire city, utterly exhausted, Ed ate quickly and left his camel with Phil and Frederick who were setting up camp at that late hour to go to sleep. He said he'd check out the castle and then come back, for, at this point, he was certain that he'd made a huge mistake and Xerxes was not the city of ruin in the desert he needed to find.

The castle of Xerxes must have once been an incredible and impending piece of architecture when its people were still living. Even half crumpled to the ground it was impressive.

Ed was very cautious about the business of entering. He spent a careful few minutes climbing the irksomely tall staircase, trying each step before he placed his foot on it, scared his weight would make the stone crack and break.

Once this obstacle was surmounted, Ed—along with a reassured drop of his shoulders—ventured deep inside the castle. He went through rooms he could vaguely identify to be the throne room, kitchens, servant's quarters and possibly a bed chamber. When going under archways or areas whose ceilings had not collapsed, he would hurry through on light feet, pausing only briefly to look for signs of an engraved message, fearing dangers might come falling down from overhead. Occasionally, he'd need to climb over a large pile of rubble, or else make bothersome detours.

The time spent exploring did not allow him to find anything of use until he came to a particular, small room. For a place that had been abandoned for 400 years and had gone through the destruction of Xerxes, was in relatively good condition.

One might think of the room as an overly large closet if it were not for the bed and the desk tucked in separate corners. Cobwebs and dust were gathered in such large amounts, Ed had to pull his shirt over his nose and mouth while batting away the spiders' silk with his sleeve. Furthermore, the near complete darkness did not help in the matter.

The bed's sheets had been chewed away by rats and mice and were stained from many disgusting things over the ages. Ed suspected that under the cover of the fabric, the bed itself was home to pests and vermin. Needless to say, he steered clear of it.

Of course, seeing as the bed was to be neglected, the only other thing of interest in the room was the desk. Ed cleared away a great deal of the dusk that covered its surface in one quick swipe, making it so that the crippling papers beneath only fluttered slightly, staying in place on the rotting wood. He reached down and was about to carefully pick up those few stray pages when he spotted a very curious something on the side of the nearest sheet of paper.

A fingerprint.

Ed narrowed his eyes. Someone had been here, in this room, and quite recently at that. In picking up that particular sheet of paper, their greasy finger had left behind a print that was most definitely not 4 centuries old. The fool. Edward was certain that the person in question was the boss Herman had spoken of, meaning this might very well be where he would discover what the ultimate sacrifice was and its connections to the philosopher's stone.