"She doesn't deserve to spend time on the likes of you."

She clenches her fist, constricting his throat and raising him up off the ground.

"I'm not sure that you deserve to spend any more time with her, rude little boy that you are."

A wall rises from the ground, separating Occlus and the boy. Unrelatedly the ground underneath Occlus's feet softens and turns to quicksand.

"We are not here to make trouble with locals," he says.

The lack of line of sight does not cause her to release him. "This local is here to make trouble for us."

"We need money to cross the desert at a pace that will allow me to teach you. There are no cities this size for hundreds of miles. Put him down."

Tch. She drops him, carelessly.

He scampers away, wide eyed, shouting slurs.

Sigh. "Why don't you finish teardown and take things back to the inn while I follow up on this."

She makes a note of the young man's Force signature as he flees, that she might find him later.

"Very well. But in my experience, such things are best finished firmly."

"If his mother is in fact a respected member of the community then it will be prudent to make amends." 

He departs. The wall collapses behind him as if it was never there, and the ground smooths out likewise.

Soft and foolish. But useful, for now.

She finishes packing away their things and returns to where they're staying.

Hohenheim returns soon after with a bag of sweet buns. "I met with his mother. Tomorrow I'm going to their clinic to introduce some healing arrays with which she is unfamiliar and help there for the rest of the day. You are of course welcome to join."

"You are too willing to bend yourself for the sake of others."

"If all goes well I'll be able to get referrals from her for difficult patients, since my expertise is more extensive. That way we won't have to waste time on common ailments."

"Her son threatens and slanders you, and attempts to steal from you, and in return, you are going to teach her?"

"I've been assured that her son will be punished. He has odd, nontraditional ideas about alchemy."

"If you projected the appearance of power, he would not have dared approach in the first place."

"You don't know enough about this city to know who has power and what that projection looks like. And I think that strategy would make it difficult to find customers."

"I think it's an approach you do not consider. Or have decided to not consider. And I think you should change that. If our positions were reversed and you the visitor to my world, you would not long retain your freedom."

"If it is common to have the powers you have demonstrated, that is likely true. I'm used to working among people who are far less physically powerful than I am."

"No. That is not it. You would be a match for most you encountered. But you hide your power and carry yourself as one of low stature. You lack the will to employ it. This marks you as a weak target, and any who desired your capabilities for their own would feel free to coerce you."

"There is safety in obscurity and anonymity."

"Not if you wish to effect change in the state of the world."

"The only change I wish to effect is to kill Homunculus. Which, until now, required only time and that I eat and drink enough to keep this body from dying."

"He has as many souls as you, and a country at his bidding besides. I suspect you will need more than that alone."