"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!
"I'm going in either way!" Raeder proclaimed as she then heard footsteps booming towards the door.
Auria braced for the worst. Gritting her teeth, tensing up, and firming up her grip on her staff, she pointed it towards the door.
Raeder pounded on the door, "Wake up, Crane! Come out now!"
Auria heaved a sigh and opened the door, "Hello General Raeder…" She said in the most unenthusiastic way she has ever sounded, "How may I help you on this perfectly fine morning?"
"Come with me," Raeder commanded, "We must go,"
"Uhm, why exactly? Don't know if you realized, we aren't exactly friends…" Auria said, "Honestly, you don't inspire confidence with me,"
"This doesn't concern you or I, and believe me, if given the opportunity, I wouldn't take you along, but we need an Alchemist for this job, and you're the only one in Lameanr currently,"
"Psssht, yeah, okay," Auria remarked, "Let's just get this over with, what do I need to do?"
"So when I said I'd help, I didn't mean I wanted to be left in the dark about everything, where the hell are we going? And stop driving so fast, I keep bouncing up and hitting my ass, get some comfier seats," Auria snapped.
"Are you done?" Raeder asked.
"Done what?"
"Complaining," He simply said as he continued driving, not even batting an eye to Auria, "It'll make the ride go much faster,"
Auria sat and pouted, bouncing and almost hitting her head on the roof at every bump and turn. Pain was the game, and she was… Playing the game?
"When are we getting there?" Auria asked, using the most annoying voice she could.
"We'll get there when we get there!" Raeder yelled out.
"Alright… So when are we getting there?"
Raeder heaved a sigh, "You know, Crane? You should treat your elders with dignity and respect,"
"Well, yeah, dignity and respect go hand in hand, luckily for me, I have neither!" Auria laughed.
Raeder heaved another sigh before brushing Auria off and continuing to drive, though considerably faster by this point.
"Are we there yet?" Auria piped up after a while.
Raeder groaned, stopped the car abruptly and turned to face Auria, "Yes, Crane, we're here, now get out,"
Auria opened the car door and hopped out. Fresh land! Though, as she glanced around, she realized they were in the middle of nowhere!
"Hey, uh, Raeder? You know where we are?" Auria asked.
"Bandit camp," Raeder said, not wasting any time and quickly marching off into the distance, "Come quickly,"
"Uhm… Yeah, alright, totally love knowing the bare minimum when going into a fight," Auria murmured before she began to follow Raeder on foot.
The two walked for a while, Auria did her best to start up conversations, but Raeder wasn't exactly the most enjoyable to talk with. Honestly, it was like talking to a brick wall, nobody in that situation is happy, not the person, not the wall, and not anyone who is unfortunate enough to stumble upon that scene.
However, they eventually made their way to the camp. It was less of a camp and more of a small opening in the ground that led to a large underground system.
"Very covert," Auria remarked, "Definitely doesn't look like it'd be the site of a bandit camp or anything, super not cliche,"
Raeder approached the opening and jumped in, he didn't even look first! How careless, Auria had to jump in after him, after all, Raeder was getting pretty old!
Whether Auria looked left, right, up, or down, all she saw was a black void, though eventually, her eyes adjusted, and she saw Raeder, sword drawn, dodging and slashing in an almost inhuman manner, killing indiscriminately. Honestly, Auria was scared to approach, just in case he attacked her too.
It must have been her imagination, because she could have sworn Raeder made direct eye contact with Auria before continuing his massacre.
Auria wandered over to the side, waiting for Raeder to finally either tire or finish off the rest of the bandits, and sure enough, eventually, there were no more bandits in sight, that were alive, that is.
However, just as Raeder was about to sheathe his sword, a half-dead, barely breathing bandit, shot Raeder's hand, forcing him to drop it instantly! Raeder inhaled sharply, but then heaved a sigh, drew his handgun, and shot the bandit, right in the forehead.
"Blasted tools, not good for anything," Raeder lamented before placing his handgun in its holster and picking up his sword, finally sheathing it.
"Uhm… General Raeder, your hand…" Auria perked up, "If it isn't too much trouble, I'd like to test something my father showed me… I know you hate Alchemy, but if you'd just-"
"Fine, go ahead," Raeder murmured, "But be quick, before I change my mind,"
Auria set down her staff and placed her hands over Raeders, "I've never done this, so it might not turn out as expected,"
In a flash of light, the cut on Raeder's hand began to vanish, though a small mark still remained, right where the cut was closed off and a small cut appeared on Auria's hand instead.
"Hmm, interesting enough, is this what you Alchemists call equivalent exchange?" Raeder asked.
"Well, yeah, oh, but equivalent exchange isn't really equivalent, there's a lot of leeway, so it's really the law of almost equivalent exchange, so I guess if I really wanted to, I could go from a pile of dirt to a diamond with enough time, but I can already do that with ashes and coal so…" Auria rambled.
"Enough, I need you for one more task, come with me, further into the cave," Raeder said, finally ending the conversation and pushing onward.
"What's the thing you need me for?" Auria asked after a few moments of silence, "I bet it's something super cool!"
"It is, there's a certain artifact- Oh, here it is," Raeder said, "Do you see the cube that lays in front of us? If any human attempted to touch it, they would instantly fry, but if an Alchemist…"
"Ohhh, I getcha, don't worry Raeder, I got this, one-hundred percent!"