Pride & Humility

XXXI

Beta: TaintedLetter

(óヮò)ﾉ*:･ﾟ✧

According to Kimblee, Scar—and possibly Doctor Marcoh—were last seen heading into an abandoned industrial area several miles away from Fort Briggs. Due to the heavy snowfall—a telltale sign of an oncoming blizzard—it took nearly half an hour to arrive, and when they did they immediately split up to search.

Kimblee tried to assign someone with Elizabeth, but she put her foot down and insisted on working by herself. She headed off in the opposite direction of everyone else, hating how cold it was, and hoping they could hurry up and find Scar soon.

She was admittedly a little nervous about leaving her friends alone to deal with them.

After all, Scar nearly killed them before.

'But this time, I'm here.'

Elizabeth felt the snow crunch under her feet. It wasn't nearly so deep that she worried about falling in, but it was enough that she had to exert extra effort to lift her feet back up out of the snow.

She felt a tingle on her leg, familiar and cool, and her heart leapt up to her throat.

"Selim?" she asked out loud, feeling his shadows wrap around her.

"Hello, Ellie."

"What are you doing here?" she asked, genuinely surprised. He could technically stretch his shadows across Amestris, but the further away from Central the harder it was to do. Creating corporal shadows that Elizabeth could feel this far away would take significant concentration and be exhausting for him unless his vessel was nearby. Elizabeth doubted that Selim's vessel was near them, which meant he was expanding the effort to reach her.

She hoped he would be able to get some good rest afterward. About a minute of being this stretched out would mandate an hour of deep sleep to restore himself.

"Not happy to see me?" he teased, causing Elizabeth to hurriedly assure him that she was—as always—very happy and honored that he visited her. "I came to check up on you. You were supposed to call when you reached Briggs."

"I got sidetracked," she sincerely apologized. "I'm so sorry."

"Sidetracked by what? Why are you out here anyway?"

"Hmm... well... to start with I tested the fungus on all of the soldiers at Briggs—" Elizabeth began.

"You what?" Selim's prides went still, his red eyes widening in genuine surprise, and his tone turned a touch incredulous. "Why?"

"Armstrong killed Raven," Elizabeth explained. "I considered the possibility of Briggs going rogue. They're too much of a threat to ignore. Isn't that why I was sent there? To destroy them?"

"You—-no—but—good. Good job, Ellie. We were going to have Kimblee pull in some Drachma soldiers for Briggs to apprehend and give to you as subjects, but this works out well," Selim said, pleased by this. His shadows reached up to tickle Elizabeth's cheeks in a rare gesture of affection. "If Briggs had gone against us it would have made things difficult, and with the Promise Day being so near we do not need them anymore. I take it the fungus will continue to thrive and prevent Drachma from launching an early invasion?"

"Yes," Elizabeth confirmed, her heart warmed by the praise. It made a wide smile stretch over her face. Had the cold not already turned her cheeks red, Selim's words would have done so. "Come spring it should have run out of nutrients and died off to safely collect the bodies."