I am Weakness

Sister

Humankind cannot gain anything without first giving something in return. To obtain, something of equal value must be given. That is alchemy's first law of Equivalent Exchange. In those days, we thought that was the world's one and only truth.

Fawn and I ate in silence, him eating a small sandwich while I was poking at my salad with my fork. Right now, the process of retelling everything was going more smoothly than I expected but I did feel this streak of discomfort from the whole thing. As I poked around I heard Fawn quietly calling my name, motioning my attention to him. He had his sandwich set down, an eyebrow raised, inspecting me carefully. "Hey Penelope, I have a question."

"Shoot."

"You went on these crazy adventures, you had a wild time being a State Alchemist and you had these awesome friends, but why leave? What happened?" Fawn asked quietly.

My lips pressed together, looking aside and setting my fork down in the salad. It was a reasonable question. Only rumors floated around, there was a never a set reason for my departure, and I tried to make it as private as humanly possible. After my leave, even more rumors went around, blurring the truth. I closed the packaging. "Well, a lot happened, it was all too fast. I can't explain it all in one sitting, and it doesn't help that I don't even know how to explain it."

"So you're stalling?"

"No." I quickly objected before pausing. "Okay, maybe a little. But I feel that it's best for me to start from the beginning so I have time to think it out." Setting the food aside, I replaced the space with my headphones, holding them in my hands. Fawn lifted his head and batted his eyes before furiously pointing at his sandwich, referring to its half-eaten state. A small laugh came from my mouth as I placed the headphones back on my head. "Relax, you can eat as long as you don't smack in the microphone."

He sighed in relief, while he grabbed his sandwich now rolling away from the microphone. I chuckled out of the side of my mouth before turning on the microphones and bringing my voice back to the public. "Now that I've given everyone a taste of what's in store, I'll explain my background and how a girl like me ended up going into the military as a State Alchemist..."

I was born in Dublith on June 7th, 1899 to a newly wedded couple. A year after they had my sister Jamie, who was born on April 16th, 1900. When my sister was born my parents soon discovered they didn't have the money to care for us. They made the hard decision to give us both up for adoption, not wanting to leave one child alone. They decided to do this, to give us a chance at a getting a family with financial stability or for us to wait until they could take us back when they got back on their feet. For that, I didn't care to pursue a search for them. A couple of years passed, we weren't adopted yet, and both Jamie and I began to form some hobbies. We would go to the libraries around town and read about anything and everything.

On this specific day, I picked up a book on anatomy and medical practices of all sorts, which didn't take long for me to dive head first with interest. Even opening the book halfway through I still found something that I could pick up on and keep me hooked. Really the only risk of getting so caught up in these books was that Jamie could easily slip away and find herself getting into trouble. Sure, she would find herself a book but every once and awhile she would find humor in annoying the librarian, thus getting herself in trouble and I would have to get her out of it. So when I lifted my head and saw her nowhere, I felt instant exasperation. I closed the book I was reading before walking forward with my eyes darting around for Jamie. "Jamie?" I quietly called out, now stepping into walkways made from filled bookshelves. Looking around, my eyebrows knotted together. "Jamie?"

I poked my head around the corners, checking around the area with keen eyes. Yet, she wasn't anywhere around. Before I could turn around I felt a pair of small fingers jolt into my shoulders, releasing a scream from my throat as my whole body jolted around. When I turned around, I saw Jamie with a joyous grin and began to hear her giggling in glee at the sight of me. "That wasn't funny Jamie." I breathed out now placing a hand on my chest in hopes to calm down my speeding heart.