"Yeah, but - a soul's a soul. Alchemy doesn't care how much you like something or if it's usable to humans, just how much raw material you've got. Bet we could trade a living human for a dead one. End with the same amount of alive people you started with."

"Maybe if souls are real there's quantifiable differences between good ones and bad ones. Like, an apple's an apple, but I won't trade a fresh one for a rotted one."

"Alchemy would. Still got the same elements, just reordered so humans don't like them, but it's a usable ingredient. Alchemy isn't smart or anything, it's just - you get out what you put it, and only humans are adding opinions on top of that."

"You can turn a bunch of wood into a house and it's usable, but it now having extra value to humans doesn't mean you broke equivalent exchange."

"Or it could be more like a fresh apple versus half an apple. People talk about lack of virtue like it damages you; they mightn't be all wrong."

"Bet that's more like making a piece of iron ugly or beautiful. How would a soul even have a size?"

"I don't know! How would a soul even exist? There's no soul gland. Where's it come from? There's a lot of questions we don't know the answers to or even if they mean anything to ask."

"Maybe we can do experiments. Start with people who are mostly similar so they'd have similar souls if souls vary. And Miss Dante might know stuff, if she was trying to get sensei to research it."

"Could also probably go overboard. Really unlikely a soul's the size of ten whole other souls unless your soul gets way bigger as you age. Use a lot of people at first, and the unneeded ingredients won't get used."

"Sensei could be wrong about souls, too, and something else weird happened to her."

"Experiments would probably be hard for us to set up now, especially without Professor Curtis knowing. But we can think up ideas and keep a list, maybe."

"We shouldn't while we're her apprentices, anyways, since it's illegal, and we promised we wouldn't do illegal stuff without asking her first."

"Yeah, that too."

"She's been a good teacher."

"She has. Probably will keep on being one, if we follow the rules."

"Yeah. I don't wanna break promises or anything, too."

"We won't be apprentices forever, though."

"Yeah! We'll know lots more then, too!"

"Yep!"

She hugs her book.

"I can't wait."

"You're going to have to. That's how time works."

"Maybe we should figure out time alchemy!"

"That sounds even more complicated than soul alchemy."

"We'll make ourselves immortal first. Have lots of time to investigate it."

"Yeah, that sounds smart."

"Wonder if immortality's more medical or soul?"

"Dunno. It's at least some of both, based on Dante's notes here."

"Wonder how much she actually knows? She said she didn't make that lordling immortal, not that she couldn't."