An Alchemical View on the Presence of Deities in the Universe

Chapter Seven Part Two: The Godless Alchemist is Somewhat of a Genius Herself!

"How the hell do you even play solitaire..." Auria murmured to herself, placing a Red Ace on top of a Red King, "Yeah, that looks right,"

"Crane, this is serious! Stop playing solitaire!" Senwell yelled out, "Tell us what you saw from the General and the homunculi,"

"Hold on... I think it goes like this... Just gimme a second, Grenadier..." Auria responded, placing a Red Two on a Black Seven, "Perfect! Now, what were you saying?"

"The General. The homunculi. What. Did. You. See?" Senwell repeated.

"Oh, right right! General Raeder was talking with Greed. They knew about Pride too, so that's something to watch out for, definitely," Auria said, "Probably working together or something, I dunno,"

There was a somber silence that swept through the group, only broken occasionally by Auria's flipping and placing of cards.

"Grenadier, chin up," Auria said, still focusing on her cards, "It won't be the end of the world, I mean, I'm here, you know? I'll save everyone if things get rough,"

"Yeah but-"

"Grenadier, I don't think you realize, this isn't something that you or anyone else can do alone, so let me take a crack at it, alright? And if that doesn't work, I'll come running right back to you guys, same as before,"

"Yeah... Alright, what do you think, Lieutenant?" Senwell asked.

"Well, what does you 'taking a crack at it' entail? If you're implying that you want to fight the homunculi alone, absolutely not," Ross stated.

"Pffft, I could barely do anything with Pride, I'm not ready to face down homunculi on my own, but I mean, I want to take a bigger role, you know? That's why I fought him to begin with," Auria replied, flipping yet another card. A Black King.

Auria placed the Black King on a Red King, "Perfect, that's exactly how good I am at this game,"

"Your cards make no sense," Senwell said, "This isn't how you play Solitaire,"

Auria looked to him and smirked, "Oh, don't worry, it turned out exactly as I needed it to, don't worry your little head about it," She said, patting Senwell's head like one would do for a dog, "Good boy, now then, I think I'll go take a nap, it's been a long... Two hours,"

Auria was engulfed in a blinding white light, and as it began to fade, she was able to clearly see the end of the hallway, a woman in a cage, she was much taller than any woman she had ever seen but she just looked... Sad. Even from a distance, Auria could tell she was crying, the small weeps, the occasional teardrop that fell from her face, just everything about her exuded an aura of pure sadness.

"Excuse me?" Auria said, "I'm Auria Fulbar, I think I got a bit lost..."

The woman whipped around to meet Auria. They locked eyes for a moment before the woman began to speak, "Another child, here to greet 'God'?"

"Actually... I don't really know how I got here, I was just in bed and I don't even remember coming here or even where I am, can you please help me?" Auria asked.

The woman smiled at Auria, "I remember now, you pleaded with the gods to save you," She remarked, "Well, I am the one to save you from your eternal torture, for a price, that is,"

"How did you... No, that doesn't matter, what do I give you? I have a bunch of coins back at my bed, oh and I have a match stick here!"

"None of that, I'm looking for something a bit less tangible, oh! I know what you can give me,"

Auria awoke to the sounds of glass shattering and instantly jolted up and grabbed her staff to investigate.

Just outside of the room, she heard multiple voices, a few of which she recognized! There was Raeder, Greed too, all talking with Rockwell and Ross!