-and comes up short, as this place is not a tomb.

It's not literally a tomb, anyway.

The sun beats heavily down on her as she stares at a vast, open desert. There are mountains in the distance, just barely visible on the horizon.

How strange. She runs through a quick series of dispels to no effect. If this is an illusion it is beyond her, which makes that exceedingly unlikely. Next she checks her datapad. No Holonet, no GPS, no obvious signs of jamming. Teleportation is not strictly impossible, so that seems to be the going explanation despite the distance and lack of obvious mechanism or trigger.

So. Desert, mountains. Any Force signatures or signs of life in her immediate area?

There seem to be rather a lot of people in the direction of the mountain range. Half a million, or thereabouts.

Isn't that odd.

It's a more promising lead than sitting here, at least. She wraps herself in the Force as a ward against temperature and fatigue and dehydration, and sets off at a quick run in that direction.

As she gets closer, she might be able to tell, through her force sensitivity, that the half-a-million people are packed extremely tightly. So tightly that they're occupying the space of one person.

She slows her approach. That is... intriguing. No Sith is he, nor Jedi, nor in fact any sort of Force sensitive being. With five ghosts bound to her, she struggled; he should not be able to survive so many. What sort of place is this?

The wind blowing over the desert sands doesn't give a very satisfying answer to that question.

Then she'll just have to ask him, won't she. With any luck, he's sane enough to give an answer.

She walks up.

He's been walking for a long, long time. You can see it in his clothing and his face, which are both wrinkled and lined and weathered by the sand.

He doesn't look surprised when he sees her. He says something softly in an unfamiliar language.

"Do you speak Basic?"

He stops and looks at her quizzically.

Then he gestures at himself. "Hohenheim."

Mm. Fine, then. She pulls out her datapad and sets it to building a corpus.

"Occlus."

"Hello, Occlus," he says, in his language. He waves at her. 

"Hello Hohenheim." She gestures at the desert. "Where are we?"

"Desert," he says in response. "Hello or hello?" The second 'hello' is in her language.

"I assume they mean the same thing, which is greetings. It would be helpful if you spoke more than single words, so that I can get a translator going more quickly."

"I have absolutely no idea what you're saying."

"I realize that you probably don't understand me, but it's important that you talk nonetheless." She motions for him to continue.

Sigh. "Do you speak English? Xingese, maybe?" He says, switching languages. "Or Southern Xingese? Maybe a dialect? Roman? Russian? Drachman?" He switches languages each time, saying the name of the language in that language.

"No, I speak none of those languages." She cycles through her own. "You think you are helping but you are not." She reverts to Basic. "Stick to one."

"Those are probably languages. At least now she's mirroring ..." he mutters, then frowns. "One word. One. Then, hello, hello."

She fiddles with her datapad for a second, then holds it up. "Hello," she says in Basic. It echoes her in his language, then repeats his last sentences and gives a best-guess in Basic.

"That is a very impressive device. How does it work? ... right, you can't tell me. Hm."

He holds up his hands. "One two three four five six seven eight nine ten," he says, with as many fingers. "Ten one is eleven. Ten two is twelve ..."

And after some more in that vein she has a reasonable translation program. She pulls the earpiece from its holder and inserts it.

"I think that will suffice for now."

"I've been desperately curious about how that device works since you brought it out."

"It is complicated, and if you do not recognize it as being similar to something you know, I doubt that I can explain it in a short conversation. Who are you?"

"I'm an old man. Who are you?"

"I am Darth Occlus, Lord of the Sith. I sit on the Dark Council at the head of the Pyramid of Ancient Knowledge and I do not appreciate your attempt to play off the power I sense within you."

"Those are some impressive titles. Where are you from?"

Her eyes flash an eerie purple and five ghostly human figures shimmer into view by her sides. "Why do you carry so many souls within you?"

"You can see them. How familiar are you with human transmutation?"

"What is that?"

"Alchemy or alkahestry or similar, performed on a human."

"What has that to do with your state?"

"... if you can see them, you should know."

"I would call such a result the product of ritual magic, rather than alchemy. I suspect we have different frames of reference. Do you know of the Force?"

"No. What is it?"

"An energy field, defined and generated by living creatures, which I," a spark jumps from one upraised hand to the other, "control."

Hohenheim blinks. "No circle."

He frowns. "So you've seen Truth's gate?"

"No."

"Are you human?"

"Yes. But I am not from this world."

"What do you mean by 'not from this world'?"

"I was transported here by unknown means, from a place where I would have been recognized."

"And here it is extremely unusual that you haven't heard of human transmutation. Hm."

"Tell me more of this alchemy."

"Alchemy lets you change the form of objects, or change one kind of matter into another, provided you know enough about the composition of a subject. And have the right materials."

"Versatile."

"There are more rules."

"Doubtless. Tell me of them."

"It would take a while to give you enough theoretical knowledge for you to even start a basic transmutation. Do you know about the smallest components of matter? We call them atoms."

"A probabilistic electron cloud surrounding a nucleus composed of protons and neutrons. The number of protons determine the element. The smallest has one proton, the largest which has practical applications has one hundred twenty-six."

He proceeds to recite the names of the known elements in English, in order of their number of protons. He stops after one hundred and eighteen. "There are theoretically others, but they have yet to be safely and stably transmuted alone."

"There is a series after that with half-lives too short to record unaided before ones that are usable appear again." She provides their names in her language.

"Thank you." 

"So how does this alchemy relate?"

"I'm not sure I have the time to teach you."

"Why is that?"

"There is a danger to the west. There's a ... being ... that controls the country. Hundreds of years ago he sacrificed a million people to give us immortality. Soon he will be able to do it again. I need to stop him."

"If he has immortality, what is he after this time?"

"Godhood."

"And you don't trust him with that?"

"No. I thought you might find it obvious that someone who would sacrifice a million people to grant himself immortality would probably not use his power responsibly."

"The Emperor to which the Dark Council answers has sacrificed at least one planet's population in pursuit of his own power and is largely content to remain within his palace, having little effect on the everyday life of the citizenry."

"... at least one planet?" His face falls. 

"He has hidden almost all traces of his history before his ascension, so it is difficult to say for certain."

Hohenheim seems to have barely been listening. Instead he's sitting down in the sand, muttering to himself. "Yes ... maybe afterwards ... we need to work together on ..." He says softly. His eyes are shut.

Talking to himself? Or his passengers? Does he snap out of it soon?

The conversation ends soon enough. When he stops muttering he opens his eyes and rubs them. "I need food. You can accompany me to a place where I know I can find some, if you'd like."

"Very well."

They walk. Hohenheim's pace is steady. "I'm sorry for being -- the reason why these people have become my body --" He fumbles for words. "It is a regret I have been holding ever since the day it was formed. I shouldn't be this way. Every day, they're suffering. More if they can't see or interact with anyone. I've been convincing them to help take down Homunculus, and I promised that afterwards the ones who want to rest will be able to. But to hear of another leader from another world who's worse? It's ... difficult."

"Allowing the ghosts in your head to rule you leads to nothing but trouble."

"They're still sapient. And they have no control over my thoughts or mental state. If I wanted, I could just use them as a power source and keep them separated from the world. I think whatever condition you're thinking of is only superficially similar to mine."

"Perhaps so. You are certainly vastly more composed than I would expect had you acquired them through the means with which I am familiar."

"Is that so."

"Binding five ghosts was very nearly the death of me."

"It might be optimistic of me to hope that they were somehow already dead."

"They were, in fact."

"And what kind of power do they give you?"

"Their connection with the Force is now mine."

"You've mentioned the Force before, I'm not entirely sure what you mean by it."

"It is a sort of energy field permeating the universe, generated and influenced by living things. Those born with sensitivity can tap it for their own ends."

"Here we have Truth, which is in everything. Sapients have Truth's gates, which allow them to perform alchemy."

"What is a Truth's gate like?"

"Most alchemists never interact with it. It exists in metaphysical space, alongside one's soul."

"Souls."

"... yes, I suppose you could take other souls with you to the gate."

"What benefit would that gain you?"

"The ability to bargain for things from beyond the gate and leave with limbs intact."

"'Bargain' implies an intelligence."

"Truth is ... not friendly. And does not forgive mistakes."

"I will take that under advisement, though I do not possess near enough information to make any judgement about what actions, if any, I will pursue."

"Nor do I know enough about your moral sensibilities to be confident teaching you."

"I have not sacrificed a million people in pursuit of my power."

"Commendable."

"I sense you do not view this as sufficient."

"I'd rather you not sacrifice one person in pursuit of power, except to save another life."

"Does my own count?"

"Yes."

"I gathered such power as I have that I might kill a man who wished me dead, for a fault not my own."

Blink. "I thought you meant sacrificing your own life for no one's sake. I'm sorry about that situation."

"It was resolved to my satisfaction."

"What happened?"

"I took the terms on which he desired to kill me and turned them back upon him. In the sight of his peers, I claimed his life and his station."

"That's an interesting promotion method."

"Strength is highly valued by the Sith. If you are neither powerful nor cunning enough to defend your position, by what right should you hold it?"

"High turnover, probably."

"Among the lower ranks, yes. That is less true at my level."

"Politics? Or is it too risky to try?"

"The politics of the Council are no less lethal than the Councilors themselves, and quicker to snare the unwary."

"I should have been more specific. I meant internal alliances and protection agreements."

"To an extent. If you are useful to others, they may expend some effort on your behalf. But the primary deterrent to killing a Sith is always the Sith herself."

"Seems lonely."

They walk in almost-silence; Occlus hears fragments of conversation when Hohenheim forgets he isn't alone and talks to one of his souls. The desert stretches on.

She keeps half an eye on what Hohenheim is doing while stretching her senses for signs of other people.

"There's a wagon heading for an oasis in about seven miles. We'll intercept it if we go this way." He changes direction slightly.

She follows. "How do you know that?"

"It is a technique I can perform because I developed a sense for where soulstuff exists and how it flows. The Xingese call the flow chi, although usually that word is used to refer to the flow of soulstuff in a human body, instead of the world. The latter is usually called the Dragon's Pulse."

"Some mythological resonance there, I assume?"

"The Xingese have maintained useful philosophical methods from before they learned alchemy, and the flow of chi is one of them. It translates as 'flow' or 'energy'. Dragons are a powerful mythological creature in Xing and the word for them is pronounced nearly the same way."

"It is not uncommon for a culture to cling to its formative stories and repurpose them to new contexts, even as time moves them away from their origin. Where did they learn alchemy from?"

"Me."

"Why did you teach them?"

"Their rulers kept poisoning themselves by drinking mercury. It led to government instability and war that ruined millions of peoples' lives."

"And knowledge of alchemy has not led them to continue to sacrifice their people's lives for their own power?"

"I focused on healing arts. Even then I'm not sure if it was worth it."

Tch.

"You disagree."

"You are trying to make a compromise where none can exist. Share your power or hoard it for yourself. You must choose one or the other. And whichever path you decide to follow, you must live with the consequences you find along it, unless your alchemy grants the power to rewind time. Cease dwelling on that which cannot be changed, and look to the future."

"I've spent centuries talking to the souls that compose my body, trying to convince them that we need to stop Homunculus from killing fifty million people in Amestris and assimilating everyone else. That is what I spend my time doing, and if being regretful and acknowledging that I've wronged them helps me with that, so be it. I will never be able to convince them all to help me kill Homunculus unless I am otherwise morally beyond reproach.

I am running out of time on a project where failure means certain death for millions and eventual death for everyone on Earth."

"How quickly are you running out of time?"

"I have about five years."

"What is stopping you from killing him now, besides uncooperative souls?"

"He has lieutenants that are loyal to him. The strongest is able to manifest physical tendrils of shadow anywhere in Central City, where he is based. He lives in an underground maze of caverns and never leaves."

"I have some experience in navigating underground mazes. As for shadows-" she calls her lightsaber to hand and ignites it with a snap-hiss, twirling it around before bringing it up to a close guard position. "They do not sound problematic."

"Light casts darker shadows. You'd need something blinding that comprehensively lights any space you're in."

She traces three fingers of her free hand in a complex pattern across the blade of her saber, then cast them in an arc about her as her eyes flash purple.

The shadows beneath their feet attenuate, and disappear.

"What else can you do?"

"A great many things."

"If I knew more, I could help you determine whether it would be suicide to take on Homunculus's complex alone."

"Any Force user can enhance their speed and their strength, manipulate objects by telekinesis, and achieve a degree of clairvoyance. Those more adept can heal, control the flow of energy, or turn the minds of lesser-willed beings. Ritual magic can achieve all of this, and more."

"How robust is the healing?"

"I have no talent for healing others and I cannot regrow a limb, but in principle, if an attack does not immediately kill me, I will survive it."

"Do any of the other abilities have range limits?"

"They are most effective in person. The limitation is sufficient awareness of the space, object, or person."

"And what limitations does the ritual magic have?"

"The time it takes to set up, the power required to successfully perform it, and that if no existing ritual fits your need, you must invent one."

"The abilities of Homunculus's lieutenants are as follows: Pride, with the shadow ability I mentioned earlier. Sloth, who has extreme speed when he cares to use it and is extremely strong besides. Lust, who can lengthen and sharpen her extremities to pierce through any material. Envy, who can perfectly shapeshift -- usually into mammals. Gluttony is a failed attempt to make a terrestrial Truth's gate and usually works with Lust. Greed, who can make an impenetrable armor that stands up to Lust's spear. Wrath is newer. He's currently the leader of the country, and his power is in his eye, but I don't know how it works. He has extraordinary combat ability and extreme speed, but those might be more mundane.

"I've encountered his agents before. They don't kill me because they need five people who have seen Truth's gate to be sacrificed for Homunculus's plan to work. But I knew I wouldn't be able to stand against Homunculus alone."

"What does it mean to have seen Truth's gate?"

"If you attempt transmutation that requires energy or matter you don't have, your consciousness is taken to the metaphysical realm. There, Truth gives your soul material from beyond the gate in exchange for a part of your body. Some material can only be gotten from beyond the gate -- soulstuff from people who've died, for example."

"I see. None of this sounds to me like reasons to suspect myself doomed to failure. If you teach me alchemy, I will kill Homunculus for you."

"Thank you."

"A threat to the world is, at present, a threat to me. I would be a fool to ignore it."

"... and rightly. I'll start by teaching you the chi technique, which will help you identify his subordinates."

"I am ready to learn."

He starts with meditation exercises! ... tedious, mind-numbing meditation exercises.

She knows how to meditate, she can pick it up quickly.

It's slightly harder while walking, but he's still impressed. He looks for the right signs in her chi so he can let her know whether she's on the right track with any particular mental trick.

A lifetime of channeling the Force and studying its techniques have given her a great many tricks to try.

Eventually they can see the wagon on the horizon.

Does it seem likely to be dangerous?

At least one person appears to be heavily armed.

Primitive weapons. Not much of a threat.

No, probably not. 

They get closer.

"Hello!" Hohenheim says in Xingese. "Are you headed to Kashgar?"

Armed guy comes forward. "Yes."

"Oh good," he says, smiling, before collapsing into the sand.

She reaches out with the Force, assessing his condition.

... he really hasn't eaten in a while. About a week, from his condition. He could probably fix it with the power he has but he's choosing not to.

Tsk. Foolish old man.

She crouches down over him and holds a hand above his chest, feeding power into him like vivifying ice burning through his veins.

He gurgles a bit, then stands up. He shudders. "That wasn't necessary. I've gone for longer without food."

The armed man stares. "... are you alchemists?" He says in his language.

"Of sorts," Hohenheim replies, shooting a glance at Ellie. "We can heal people or animals if you have any injured or sick."

The man nods. "My wife has a cough. Can you help her?"

"If you can take us to Kashgar."

Scowl. "Fine." He shows them into the wagon. 

Into the wagon, then.

There are lots of boxes and crates of all shapes and sizes. Some are woven, some are made of wood. In front of them is a woman in a long robe. Her feet are hidden and her eyes are huge.

"I don't know how much you'll be able to learn from watching this," Hohenheim mutters, looking the wife over. In Xingese: "What's your name?"

"Ting Lin," she says, in a small, childish voice.

She observes Hohenheim closely.

"I'm an alchemist," he says. "I can heal you if you follow my directions. Okay?"

Small nod.

"Stay as still as you can," he says. "Keep your breathing even."

Most of his work involves staring at her. Then his hand comes forward and clasps her throat.

She feels warm where he touched her and recoils back, startled. Then she coughs -- once, twice, and a black ball of something comes out of her throat. 

"Ash lung," Hohenheim says. "Should be resolved now."

Interesting. That was fairly delicate manipulation.

The girl takes a deep breath and thanks him profusely.

"We should get going now if we want to stay on schedule. Are you two on the wagon?" Calls the man from his place in the front, with the animals.

"I'm ready. Occlus?"

"Yes."

They get going. Hohenheim encourages Occlus to practice meditating as they travel.

She does so.

This new chi is different from her experience with the Force. The Force has a presence, something she can manipulate and mold and grasp. With a thought, she can reach out and twist it. When she tries to take the chi into her grip in the same way, it- doesn't work. It slips away. No. It was never there. It is immanent, not present. Interstitial. The relations between as seen, not as are. So. A certain twist of perspective, of intent. Of looking and not feeling.

-ah. There it is. And... that... would be Hohenheim.

She opens her eyes and smiles as she cracks her neck, stretching out the days' accumulated tension.

"Are you hungry?" Hohenheim asks mildly. He might also sound worried, if she cranes her ear. "Seeing as you haven't eaten or slept in a week."

"I am not unwilling to use my power to sustain myself. But a meal would be welcome."

Hohenheim has spent the time making friends with the young couple. (The armed man's given name is Wei.) Occlus can eat some tack while Hohenheim helps them prepare the main meal.

"When we're done with food I can give you more meditation exercises if you need them. How have you been progressing?"

"I believe I have grasped the principle behind the chi sense, though I have not yet managed to filter your presence enough to sense much else."

"... normally it takes months to grasp the chi sense from a cold start. Is it similar to anything with which you're already familiar?"

"If the Force is an ocean in which all life swims, chi is the linkages of an information network. It is similar, yet not."

"I would not have expected that. Interesting."

"How much farther have we to go?"

"Only one more night after this. That's when we've been travelling, since it's cooler. We woke up about an hour ago."

"I see. You had more exercises?"

"Ah, yes. These ones are for drawing circles." Occlus is handed a stick with horsehair on one end, a pot of ink, and a sheaf of paper. "I've written some designs that don't correspond to actual arrays but use similar geometric elements. You are to reproduce them exactly."

"I see."

"The next exercise is to do it in soft sand or ground. If you're curious."

Then precision and accuracy with a range of materials is of importance. She practices, but not having had previous cause to master the art of freehanding a perfect circle, does not achieve an exact copy before they start moving for the night. And a moving wagon is a less than ideal workstation.

It's a pity she's not more practiced at it, drawing circles while moving is a skill in itself.

In the meantime Hohenheim and Lin can teach Occlus Xingese, unless she wants to meditate some more.

Learning the language is an adequate use of her time.

It goes along quickly, thanks to that device of hers. "Do you still object to explaining how it works?"

"We have more time, now. How detailed an explanation do you wish?"

"That depends on whether I could theoretically reproduce it."

"Perhaps not exactly, but there is a proof that you can construct something functionally equivalent. Fundamentally, this device is an exceedingly efficient calculator. The translation works because it knows an algorithm which defines the process of learning a language in mathematical terms."

"I'm not sure what you mean by calculator."

"Calculator, that which calculates, or performs mathematical operations."

"I believe that Amestris has mechanical adding machines that do arithmetic operations? I've known people who have, when asked about their profession, described themselves as calculators."

"The principle is the same. This is more precisely an electronic calculator, because it stores numbers as electric charge."

"Ah. ... you might find it helpful to broadly assume I don't know about electronics more advanced than radio."

"The precise details of implementation are negotiable, the logic behind the design is more important." And she can give an impromptu lecture on the basics of circuit design.

Unsurprisingly, Hohenheim listens well. He's attentive, interested and has an excellent memory.

An intelligent student is her favorite sort. This is not her primary area of expertise, however, and her lecture doesn't stretch more than a few hours.

When she's finished Hohenheim sits for a minute and processes. He could spend time learning to make one of those devices now. But it's still not going to be as effective when battling Homunculus as talking to his souls, since otherwise they could be stolen from him and increase Homunculus's power.

Perhaps he should start thinking of strategies that don't assume he'll be the main combatant. If he has Occlus to help him kill Homunculus he could spend his energy elsewhere.

... or perhaps he should listen to his hunch that Occlus needs more persuading and isn't entirely won over, even with his promise to teach her alchemy.

"We're almost at the city. Normally I use my skills to heal or do repairs. I can show you some real arrays that fail gracefully if you make a mistake."

"I would be amenable to that."

Occlus learns how to fold paper with alchemy!

Slightly less efficient than doing it the normal way. But she is not so arrogant as to demand to skip the basics without demonstrating mastery.

Hohenheim approves of this mindset. 

They arrive in Kashgar before dawn. Old Ishvalan domes at impressive heights have become weathered ruins, replaced by more modern Xingese installments. The wagon rolls into a bustling market area and sets up for the day; Hohenheim sets up nearby and acquires linens, herbs, ink, and needles.

"People like to feel clean after healing," he explains. "The linens and herbs are useless alchemically, but they help make people calmer. It's the ink and needles that do the real work."

"What are the needles for?"

"They're a distance technique for more intricate work. I insert some into the subject's body and others into the ground at specific points in an array."

"More space to write?"

"Yes. The effect you saw me use earlier on Lin is impossible to reproduce without this method -- or seeing the Gate."

"You didn't draw an array for that."

"Yes. Seeing the Gate is what allowed me to forego the array."

"Is it possible to get there trivially? By attempting to transmute a hundred grams of lead from ninety-nine grams of iron, say."

"That transmutation will simply fail to work. Ironically it is an example of one that will fail gracefully."

"What is an example of one that would not?"

"Resurrection or immortality, because they require interacting with stuff that can only be found beyond the Gate. There is no array I know of that will simply take an alchemist beyond the Gate and return.

I haven't delved into this subject deeply. The being at Truth's gate is capricious, and I've never heard of it taking a fair price for passage."

"I see."

"We will have to stay here for a couple weeks if I am to make enough money to buy teaching supplies and food for the trip to Amestris."

"I have no other plans."

"I'll do my best to make the work educational. But I will have to send you on errands for food. And tonight, once we have a little money, for a room to stay in."

"I can manage that much."

They get to work. Hohenheim strains to shout over other alchemists selling cures and repairs. When he finds patients he negotiates a fee -- if they consent to their treatment being public they receive a discount and Hohenheim prepares his station with small crowds of onlookers. Privacy is a little more expensive. He doesn't have the facilities to really charge for it, but some maladies require a discreet place to be fixed properly.

He does well the first day. Occlus might catch comments on his hair and eyes and whispers about the Sage of the West (and about con-men who dye their hair).

She is sure enough of his veracity. And has little need to correct others' suspicions.

The next day is uneventful.

In two days, when they're tearing down at sunset, someone decides to be suspicious. Physically. He looks about to reach for the pouch at Hohenheim's side while Hohenheim smiles and tries to deescalate. 

Well, if he wants to be subtle...

She reaches out and twists at the would-be pickpocket's mind. "Forget your intention here and return home."

His eyes glaze over for a second. Then he shakes his head at her and glares angrily. "Who are you to tell me that?"

"Your elder and better." She flicks two fingers at him, and an invisible blow strikes his forehead, hard enough to make him stumble. "If you will not be civilized, leave."

"I'm not going to stand down from foreigners taking business from my mother's clinic. Your master's Sage of the West attire is shameful and disgusting and neither of you are welcome here."

Oh dear. "Maybe we could meet your mother and come to an arrangement?" He says weakly.

"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."

"He can't kill me because he needs me for his plan. I cannot be imprisoned. What good do you think would have come if I started a country at his borders and fought him? His country is built to be at war indefinitely and I would have fueled it and put other innocent lives at risk."

"The time you have to prepare, he has also. If he needs you and knows you would oppose him, then he has in mind a way to hold you. Do you know what it is?"

"He needs to prepare his plan, which has far more moving parts. His plan for me ... when I was last in Amestris I felt that the Dragon's Pulse connected to the earth was disrupted. When I studied with him, hundreds of years ago, alchemy was performed using the ground as a conduit and distance arrays were thought to be impossible. I think he believes himself capable of rendering alchemy unusable in his country by disrupting the connection to the ground. But even if he does, the ability to sense the Dragon's Pulse will be enough to counteract it."

"And his servants? Wrath, Pride, Lust, Greed, Envy? What if he has trained alchemists of his own and sets them against you? Or his army?"

"He needs me alive for his plan. I am actually in less danger than most anyone else in Amestris or otherwise."

"Remaining alive is the lowest goal. How do you intend to win?"

"Homunculus's plan is to open the world's Gate and incorporate all the stuff beyond it into his terrestrial body, but he won't be able to acquire it without a large initial energy cost, and he won't be able to maintain it in such a small space without consuming souls. If I reach him as he makes his initial energy transmutation, I and the souls in this body can use the array he is composing to put the country's citizens back. Then his body will be unstable and the only concern will be limiting the fallout as its energy is released and the body dematerializes.

"I admit I don't know how long his body will last afterwards. He may have enough souls to live for years unless he is physically killed. But after the transmutation he won't have a stone, and he won't be able to use me."

"So when he realizes what you've done and that you are of no further use, he will kill you. And you hope that the damage he does in his last flailing is more survivable than what would happen should he succeed."

"If he succeeds he kills fifty million people initially and prevents new sapients from being born for eons, while preventing anyone in the country from using alchemy but him. Then he leverages that power into consuming all life on this planet. Given how freely he spends souls he'll eventually run out. Once I was thankful that at least then he would die and the soulstuff would be released, but now that I know he could travel to a different universe altogether ... any flailing he does in his last minutes -- hours -- years -- will be nothing next to that."

"An eventual end is not enough. The error you are making is that you cannot settle for disabling your enemy. You must want to destroy him utterly. If he turns you aside as you are now, you will achieve nothing. But if you aim for eradication and he deflects part of your attack, you may still have a chance at succeeding. Focus your entire desire, all of your effort, upon this, or you will fail."

"The eventual end is a worst-case scenario. Even being one of his sacrifices is not ideal. If I can do something to disrupt his plan before then ... but that's never been feasible. Until now."

"Never accept the worst-case, even when it comes to pass. Fight against it, to your dying breath and beyond. That is the attitude you must hold, and it does not seem to me that you do."

"The worst case will not come to pass if I spend enough time on this plan. My efforts don't have to look like fighting to be useful."

"It doesn't matter what your efforts look like. It matters what the feeling behind them is. 'Through passion, I gain strength'."

"I suppose if it works for you. You'll forgive me if I'm less inclined to adopt it myself. I've made enough mistakes in passions."

"If you allow your passion to rule you, you will make mistakes. But if you harness it, it will provide you with the fire necessary to see your task through."

"You shouldn't so quickly discount motivating emotions that are different from yours."

"I care not what you feel, so long as you do."

"On that we can agree."

"But do you?"

"I don't find righteous passion as useful as you seem to."

"Hm. Enough, then."

They retire for the night.

And they visit the other healer the next day?

Yep.

In the morning Hohenheim shows Occlus where the Shahidi household is. He also explains how he used his chi sense to find them specifically. Not something he expects her to be able to reproduce immediately, but definitely something to keep in mind. 

"I could have found them with the Force, but only if I knew specifically who I was looking for."

"At some point when we're more isolated I will share more specific information on Homunculus and his lieutenants' abilities. I hope by then you'll trust me enough to return the favor." 

"If it seems relevant to the task at hand."

He starts packing. "What types of information can you discern from your clairvoyance?"

"Everyone has a unique Force signature. Within a certain range and given time, I can identify the location, current emotions, and state of health of each person. If I am already familiar with a person's signature and looking specifically for them, the range is effectively unlimited, though time and concentration required scales with distance. Through meditation I may also gain glimpses of the future, though these should be considered unreliable at best due to the continual flux of events."

"Chi-sensing seems to grant more distance in identifying people than does Force-sensing, but I cannot determine information from passive use to nearly the extent you seem to be able to. Most of my work is active transmutation, which normally requires specific arrays and intent.

I am also unable to see any of the future, even glimpses."

"Strengths and weaknesses. I should see if I can determine a Force signature with the chi-sense."

"You may be able to find out when we do healing today, if it happens that you are not at the level where you can perform all of the arrays I'll be teaching."

"We'll see."

Hohenheim's ready to leave. Does Occlus need to prepare anything?

She has all she needs.

They get going. The streets are dark. Hohenheim turns through them as if by autopilot, humming a tune.

Occlus follows silently, senses alert. Quiet and dark does not mean safe.

Her alertness is rewarded. There's a loud shout from the windowsill and a bottle flying in their direction. 

An upraised hand halts it in midair, and a negligent flick sends it flying backwards along its trajectory.

A woman catches it and shouts "Thank you!"

Hmph.

They continue along their route. The woman lives near the market center. Occlus will be able to sense the boy and eight other people upstairs, while the downstairs, labeled with the name of the shop, is closed and empty.

Only nine. Nothing she can't handle, though she won't be striking first, in deference to her host here.

Hohenheim raps on the door.

A young girl answers it. "Clinic's not open for another hour, sorry."

"We're here to help your mom with the clinic. I'm Hohenheim."

Her eyes go wide. "Oh." 

She runs upstairs. They can hear muffled yelling.

A large, stout woman comes down to greet them. "Hello! Thank you for keeping my Nur in line. Always getting into trouble, that boy."

"More than he will be able to handle someday, if he is not careful."

"I agree." Her lip thins. "Come upstairs. There's some food left."

Occlus follows after Hohenheim.

"Did you enjoy those sweet buns?"

"I did. Were they yours?"

"My Dilraba made them," she says proudly. "She's engaged already."

They enter a small main room with a large table laden with bowls of rice. (The oven seems to be outside.) There's a mattress in the corner. On the opposite wall is a giant, ornate cabinet that smells of herbs.

Hohenheim produces a sheaf of paper from a sack on his back. "This is my gift for you -- simple medical arrays and instructions for how to use them. You should be able to use them with your needles."

She accepts it gratefully and places it carefully out of the way of the food, which they proceed to eat.

Meanwhile Hohenheim entrusts Occlus with another copy. It contains many basic elements of arrays that she has already seen in her practice.

She studies it, attempting to reconstructing the underlying logic and derive the principles.

Pentagrams seem to recur in the designs. The simpler designs seem to generally be the more difficult ones to perform.

Which implies that the detail of the design is doing some sort of work to make the alchemy easier. Better specifying the effects or the mechanism so less power is wasted, perhaps?

One of the first theory pages describe three steps: comprehension, deconstruction, and reconstruction. An elaboration on the first step explains that an alchemist must understand the structure and properties of the material to be transmuted. For some of the examples, this seems to mean knowledge of chemistry. For others, there are symbolic representations of various characteristics of chi. 

She knows the basics, but chemistry was never her focus. It's more than enough to let her follow this. The representations of chi require more thought and translation.

The clinic opens. Children bustle around the lower half of the store, sweeping and cleaning. A man brings clean linens to the back entrance. 

"I can do some basic explanations of some of the arrays, but unfortunately the easier ones are more specialized, so it may be difficult for you to find practice."

"The explanations alone will be helpful -- we should be downstairs, there's usually a line waiting before we open."

"Lead the way."

There's more traffic to this clinic than there was to the little enclosure Hohenheim set up. Their host, Adina Shahidi, tasks her children with preparing more common tinctures.

Hohenheim doesn't cure anyone directly. Instead, he waits until he notices that someone has a malady that can be cured with one of the easier arrays, and coaches Adina through using them.

Quite altruistic of him. Less useful for her purposes, but there is time to work on her other techniques.

"Here, Occlus, you should be able to do this one if you can reproduce it correctly."

The design is hideously complicated. Hohenheim explains that it's diagnostic.

That fits the 'detail is direction' hypothesis. Diagnostics need to have tests and conditions.

She is at this point well-practiced enough to accurately draw the array.

Hohenheim is pleased! "You learn quickly."

"Yes. This is relatively simple."

"Do you have a background in chemistry?"

"Not in particular, though I have never let an opportunity to increase my knowledge pass me by."

"I see. Hmm -- how good is your memory?"

"Very."

"If you can memorize which maladies go with which arrays, you and Mrs. Shahidi could work together while I supervise. That way you both get practice."

"Well enough." Assuming Shahidi is agreeable?

She is! A bit bossy though.

She is Darth Occlus of the Dark Council, head of the Sphere of Ancient Knowledge. She holds her seat by right of others' blood and her own strength, and this backwater healer does not have more force of personality when she chooses to show it.

The lady still insists on wrapping the bandages, it's obvious Occlus doesn't know how to do it properly.

She's only here for the alchemy.

... does that mean she will let the other woman do the bandage-wrapping?

Yes.

Then everything is fine with her.

There's an array that requires precise placement of thin needles at the right points in the paper and the subject. Mrs. Shahidi insists on placing them since she has steadier hands and experience with acupuncture.

Occlus plucks them out of her grasp one by one and drops them neatly into place. Without touching them. And then raises an eyebrow at the woman.

The woman looks livid. But she inspects Occlus's work and finds no fault with it, and lets it go. (Not without some complaining, though.)

This begins to grow... tiresome. For the alchemy, she will bear it.

At least the complaining is mostly good-natured. There are no more disagreements after that.

Hohenheim relaxes enough to start chatting with his soul-people.

After a few hours of working, he offers to get food. Mrs. Shahidi stymies his attempts to purchase something from a vendor and waves at one of her children, who hands all three of them more rice.

Filling, and provided in sufficient quantity. It suffices.

After they eat they get back to work. There are no more disagreements for the rest of the work day, which ends a couple hours before sundown. They end up with slightly more money than they would have had doing the same work in Hohenheim's hut the day before.

"I'm going to talk to Adina about an arrangement for the next two weeks. I would recommend getting started on memorizing the rest of that sheaf."

She nods, and begins gathering their things.

He accompanies Mrs. Shahidi upstairs.

With luck, he'll not give the extra money they made today away by the time he comes down.

Nothing of the sort happens.

Hohenheim announces his return to their room by dumping out his sack onto the floor and transmuting the pile of scraps into a mountain of paper, a giant inkwell, and several pens. "I'll need to use the desk tonight. Will you have trouble sleeping if I leave the light on?"

"No. What will you be doing?"

"Writing more lessons."

"Good luck to you."

"Thank you."

An hour before sunrise then next morning Hohenheim is still asleep, head on the desk. A pile of papers sits finished on the floor beside him, neatly tied by cloth strings.

If he's not awake by the time they should be leaving, she'll wake him; otherwise, she will let him lie.

... yep, still asleep.

Does shaking his shoulder work?

He jumps and starts to transmute his chair into something. 

"Relax. It is time to depart."