Chapter 10: The Philosopher's Flower

The Iron Sole Alchemist (Chapter 10) The Philosopher's Flower

by Howlin

(Disclaimer: I don't own any rights to this universe, places, or characters, and only claim the protagonist, Loki, Sloth, The Gunslinger Alchemist, The Swarm Alchemist, and his subordinates as my own creations. This is fan fiction, and I don't profit from it. Please don't sue me.)

. . .

Xenotime was a mining town in the grips of a depression. The buildings were poorly maintained and all the colors were faded and washed out. The town was surrounded by sparse forest and a few orchards.

I asked around about any local alchemists and was directed to a lemon orchard owned by a man named Belsio. I knocked at the door and waited, but no answer came. Loki started sniffing around and got agitated.

"What is it, boy?" I asked, placing a placating hand on his head.

Loki wuffed and took off at a dead run into the orchard, pausing to sniff the air and let me catch up. The dog led the way among the lemon trees to a group of four people harvesting.

There was a blonde haired young man at the top of a ladder, a young boy wearing a green cap, a brown haired girl, and an older man with wavy black hair. The older man shifted his basket of fruit to one hand to wave a greeting to me.

Loki excitedly sniffed around the two kids, making the boy nervous. The girl greeted Loki delighted, but quickly feel into a coughing fit from the excitement.

"Loki, come!" I ordered, and the dog ran to my side. "I'm so sorry. He isn't usually this excitable."

After confirming that the girl's cough was easing, the older man replied, "No harm done. My name is Belsio. This is Russel, Fletcher, and Elisia." He gestured towards the young man, the boy, and he girl respectively. "What brings a State Alchemist out to our old, washed up gold mining town?"

"I'm here following up on a previous visit by Fullmetal Alchemist Edward Elric."

Russel dropped off the ladder and strolled toward me. "Has there been any word about what happened to him?"

"I'm afraid not. This visit is regarding his last trip here."

"Last time he was here..." mused Russel for a moment. "So, he did leave a message for someone to come look at our research! We're finally going to get the recognition we deserve."

. . .

Russel and Fletcher led the way back to the farmhouse, leaving Belsio and Elisia in the orchard. Once inside, the brothers turned to each other, practically giddy with excitement.

"We should take him down to see the lab and go over the process," suggested Fletcher.

"No, we should show off the result first."

Russel opened a drawer and retrieved a small, rectangular box. He held it out to me and opened it. Inside there were half a dozen glowing red crystals.

"Where did you get those?"

"We produced them in the lab downstairs," said Russel. "After Mugiar's mansion collapsed and we lost our backing, the development process slowed down a lot, but we've kept at it and had some real breakthroughs."

"It's better this way," said the younger brother. "Too many people were getting hurt before."

"Let me show you what it can do. I'm sure the military will be interested."

Russel withdrew one of the stones, held it in his open palm, and touched a potted plant. Red arcs of alchemic light arced from his hand and the plant grew from a small seedling into a small tree in seconds.

"You made these stones?" I demanded angrily.

"Well, yeah," replied Russel, a bit confused.

"I'm placing you both under arrest!"

"Arrest?" asked Fletcher. "Not again!"

"Don't worry, Fletcher," said Russel, guiding his brother behind him protectively. "I won't let anything happen to you." Then to me, "Do you honestly think you can just barge in here, steal our research, and lock us up to cover it up?"

"I don't answer to murderers," I spat, sparing a glance at the blood red stones he was still holding.

Fletcher flinched at the accusation and started to say, "But we've been refining he process and making it safer-"

"Don't bother, Fletcher," cut off Russel. "This guy's spoiling for a fight. Lucky for him, he's found one." With that, Russel slapped his palm against a wall, using the red stone to transmute a nest of a half dozen spiked tentacles, which struck towards me like spears.

I stomped a foot and flipped a rectangular section of floor upright. A purple wave of alchemic energy washed up it, crystallizing the carbon in the wood. Russel's spears impacted on my shield and they shattered against the impenetrable barrier.

"It's going to take more than a couple common killers with a red stone to take the Iron Sole Alchemist," I said. Then, duplicating Russel's transmutation, I stomped and launched my own set of spiked tentacles at him, diamond hardening the tips of mine.

Russel dodged forward, ducking under the spears and coming at me bodily. Violet light swirled beside me as Loki took his combat form. As usual, the transmutation broke down some of the ground beneath his feet to provide the necessary mass. Unfortunately, the floor of this building wasn't very thick, so as soon as Loki's body had changed, he immediately fell through the newly formed hole in the floor with a loud crash. I looked over to where Loki had vanished and took my eyes off my opponent.

Russel's punch landed square on my face, tossing me backward a few feet before I fell limply to the ground only semi-conscious. I tried to get up as he approached, but my limbs wouldn't respond. Russel pulled m pocketwatch off my belt and smiled.

"With this, getting access to funds and books should be easy. As for you," Russel grabbed the handle of a drawer and transmuted it into a knife.

"Brother, no!" called Fletcher. "Killing him won't help anything."

Before the brothers could debate any further, Loki leapt out of the basement. Faster than I could process in my current state, Loki grabbed me in his teeth by the back of my shirt, slammed his club-like tail into Russel, knocked down the door with his powerful forepaws, and took off away from the farmhouse at a dead run.

. . .

"Not our best showing, was it boy?" I said to Loki after I'd recovered from that blow to the head. "That's what had you so agitated earlier, isn't it? You could smell the alchemic byproducts of the stone on them. Well, we're not going to let them get away with this. Besides, the Swarm Alchemist'll kill me for losing that watch."

Loki and I returned to the farmhouse and approached cautiously. Not too much time had passed, and they'd want to destroy any evidence before skipping town. They'd be expecting us, so to maintain the element of surprise, I transmuted a shallow tunnel. We would be entering straight through their basement lab's wall without any visible approach at all.

Loki was already transformed when I opened the wall with alchemy and took the two brothers completely by surprise. The lab was more cluttered than I was expecting. Notebooks and research journals were strewn across desks and tables. Potted plants were being used as paperweights, and there were several tanks of red water. Russel and Fletcher wore face masks, and were frantically packing papers when I arrived.

"I'll be wanting that watch back," I announced as I opened the wall.

Russel grabbed a pen and transmuted it into a sword. In response, I drew my sidearm.

A burst of red light accompanied the transmutation of a large tree trunk to reseal my opening. I quickly deconstructed it, and found the brothers had taken advantage of the delay and had transmuted a wreaking ball that swung down at my head.

I ducked the ball and rushed forward into the lab. Loki cleared the tables in a single bound and landed on Russel. Russel's blade shattered against Loki's scales as he tried futilely to fend off the snarling chimera.

With Loki handling Russel, I turned toward Fletcher, and saw him holding a red stone defensively in my direction.

"Two can play at that game," I said, and I popped the lid off a tank of red water. I reached in to grab a portion and Fletcher's eyes went wide. The red water didn't crystallize like I expected, and I stared confusedly at my soaked arm. The equally unexpected fumes threw me for a loop, and I barely managed to say, "What is this?" before losing my balance and falling to the ground.

Fletcher ran toward me and held his red stone towards my arm, and the red water staining it started to disappear under his transmutation. Loki looked back when I collapsed and Russel took advantage of the chimera's distraction, transmuting chains onto Loki.

"You idiot!" called out Russel as he darted out from under the immobilized chimera. "What were you thinking?" He quickly resealed the container as Fletcher continued to transmute away the residue.

My head started to clear, and I said, "This isn't the red water I thought it was."

"Don't talk," said Fletcher. "Not until we get you a mask or get the last of it off your body. Try not to breathe too deep."

I submitted to the treatment, and my calm reassured Loki, who relaxed and transformed back to his dog form, which was small enough to slip out of Russel's chains. When, at length they had finished, I spoke.

"I thought this was a different substance. Another alchemic amplifier made using live humans in the forging process."

The brothers looked at each other and sighed.

"We should have realized," said Russel. "You're talking about the contingency."

"I tried to tell you," added Fletcher. "We've been refining the process. No one has to get hurt to make the stone if we're careful."

"Look, I'm sorry about all this," I said. "Can you walk me through the process?"

"Told you we should have started there, brother," said Fletcher with a wan smile.

"Sure," Russel said to me, "but first, we should clean up this mess we made before Belsio gets home."

I looked over the wreckage of the house, a testament to our alchemic battle, and started transmuting things back the way we'd found them alongside Russel and Fletcher.

. . .

I was invited to stay for dinner, and the two brothers happily went over their work. A purely chemical alchemic amplifier produced from a toxic cocktail of substances. If handled properly, not one human life would need to be spent to produce it.

They reluctantly talked about the contingency, a method that involved introducing the toxic substance to the drinking water of pregnant women. They vocally denied ever having taken part in it, nor had their father, Nash Tringam, who had discovered the red water in the first place.

After a delicious lemon pie as desert, the Tringam brothers brought e down to their lab to show off the products of their research.

"The big breakthrough was when we discovered that a similar biological refinement process could happen in plants," said Russel proudly.

"After Mr. Mugyar died," noted Fletcher, "my brother and I focused on safety and efficiency."

"Not every plant crystallizes the red water the same way. Fletcher and I experimented with hybrids until finally perfecting this." Russel indicated a thick stemmed flower with white petals with thin black stripes. "We're calling it, the Philosopher's Flower."

Fletcher grabbed a vial of red water and said, "The petals are an indicator. When they're white, nothing has happened." He poured the vial over the plant's roots. Almost immediately, the petals started to turn pink. "This hybrid absorbs and metabolizes red water quickly. The more red water it absorbs, the darker its petals."

The brothers brought me to another flower. This one's petals were almost as red as the stone itself. "This one's ready to be harvested," said Russel. The young man produced a gardening knife and slit the plan's stem vertically. Separating the fibers with a gloved hand, Russel extracted a thumb-sized red crystal.

Fletcher used a transmutation circle inscribed in the soil to repair the damage to the plant. As he did so, the petals turned blue. "The crystallization process takes about three days using our hybrid. Using alchemy to try to accelerate the plant's metabolism disrupts the process. That can detoxify the red water faster, but at the price of rendering it alchemically neutral."

"I hope you two realize how important what you've accomplished here is," I said. "This is the biggest discovery in alchemy since the transmutation circle. The new avenues of research these stones could open up..." At that moment, I realized that this was the key to finally accomplishing my own goal. "A philosopher stone analogue that can be inexpensively mass produced and that doesn't require a human sacrifice."

"I take it this means you're interested," said Russel smugly.

"I'd like to duplicate your results in my lab. If it works, this will change everything. I'm sure my superiors will want to fund your further research. You might consider taking the State Alchemy certification."

"Now, we get the credit for the discovery," started Russel. "No one's going to be claiming-"

I cut him off, "The Tringam Method is going to find its way into the textbooks."

. . .

I took copies of the research notes on the red water with me back to Ishbal along with a few seeds for their Philosopher's flower. On the way, I placed some orders for the precursor materials to make red water.

The Swarm Alchemist listened dispassionately as I related the fact that Shao Tucker was alive and responsible for the troubles we'd been encountering. He accepted, without comment, the copies of the Tringam brothers' notes I'd made for him, and when prompted acknowledged that they'd receive proper credit for their discovery. The only point I held back was the secret to permanently killing a homonculus.

"Have you taken advantage of your travel time to prepare for your recertification?" asked the Swarm Alchemist when I'd finished.

"Recertification? Has it been a year already?"

"Eleven months," noted the Swarm Alchemist. "In one month, a report will need to be on the Fhurer's desk detailing the results of your research under the program and justifying your continued value to the military."

"I see. I'll get that prepared immediately."

. . .

I took Loki, Frank, Melvin, and Ken out into the desert, well away from both the Ishbalans and the military base. Each of us hauled containers of chemicals that had arrived for me that morning.

"Shouldn't you be writing up your recertification reports instead of dragging us out to the middle of nowhere?" asked Ken.

"This experiment involves significant waiting time," I told Ken. "I'd like to have it set up and running while I put together my report."

"Is there a reason you couldn't do this back at the base?" asked Melvin.

"The chemicals I'll be working with are extremely toxic. I'm planning on keeping them safely contained, but if there's an accident, I don't want this lab anywhere near other people."

"Well, I don't think you'll need to worry about that out here," said Frank.

"True, this is probably far enough. Wait here."

I set down my container and stepped away from the others. After giving the sand dunes one last once-over, I stomped my foot. Violet lightning accompanied the emergence of a squat cylinder surrounded by steps leading up it. I climbed those steps and confirmed the presence of a spiral staircase leading down. About halfway down the steps, I scribed a transmutation circle on the wall and continued down.

Holding a flashlight in front of me, I confirmed that the underground structure had been transmuted without incident. Basic stone benches, tables, and bookshelves were, for the moment, the only furnishings. Places to run wires and install a generator were set up, and I'd be bringing that equipment and furniture out here after the initial setup. The quartz holding tanks for the red water were intact and properly sealed.

My inspections complete, I headed back up and got the men to carry down the supplies.

"Is this a living space?" asked Frank on seeing the layout of the lab.

"I'm planning on more than one all nighter, and as much as I would just love hiking here and back every day, I'm thinking it's more reasonable to have the place set up as a comfortable living space.

"Well then," said Melvin, "that means we're going to have to help you decorate."

. . .

Over the next four days, I cultivated a few dozen Philosopher's Flowers and produced a stock of red water. The actual laboratory section of the structure was set up with an independent ventilation system, allowing Frank, Melvin, and Ken to bring in and arrange furniture, food, and even relocate my books without exposing themselves to the toxic red water fumes.

By the time I'd gotten the Philosopher's Flowers processing the red water, there was nothing more to be done setting up the living space, so I was free to work on my reports.

I decided that a chronological order made the most sense to me, so I started with a paper on chimera production and maintenance. I supplemented my initial research with notes on Loki's performance in a variety of real-world battle conditions. Next was a paper on the use of destruction alchemy in manufacturing applications, noting both its success in the Ishbal reconstruction, as well as its superior speed and energy efficiency compared with conventional alchemy-aided manufacture.

I prepared a second set of reports after those, expecting that the military would wish to classify some of these later reports. I started with detailing what I'd learned on the subject of soul attachment, going over the blood seal process employed by Dante in Xerxes and the different method pioneered by Majahal and perfected by Karin. I included a comparison of the strengths and weaknesses of each method, with a focus on how to fight such constructs.

Finally, I prepared a paper on alchemic disruption, the process of interfering with the transmutation of an enemy alchemist. I started with the basic techniques I'd used fighting Psiren and moved on through the more advanced techniques I perfected during my classified fights with Sloth, and included an aside about how I'd protected Frank, Melvin, and Ken from the creation of the Philosopher Stone in Liore.

I was able to harvest four batches of Red Stones using the Tringam Method while I prepared my reports. Hopefully they would be enough for my experiment.

I handed over the papers to the Swarm Alchemist along with a leave request form. Officially I was taking a month off to recover psychologically from the incident at Lab 5 and the general accumulation of battle stress over the past year.

Unofficially, I returned to my newly constructed lab and wrote up some new reports. Knowing how dangerous what I would be attempting was, this was more a last will and testament. I detailed my experimental protocol in the hope that if I didn't survive, someone else might benefit from knowing what I tried to do and how, and hopefully avoid whatever mistakes led to my death.

. . .

Author Comments:

It always bugged me that Ed just ignored the fact that the Tringam brothers managed to make a stone that works. Able to violate equivalent exchange, boosting alchemic power, and doesn't require a transmutation circle. To quote Ed on the stones he encounters later "Who cares if it isn't perfect? It was made by human hands and it works!"