As we get closer and closer to central the feeling that we felt on the edge of Amestris is getting stronger. A deep perverted feeling below the ground getting stronger. I move as if to glance towards Zig who nods in agreement. He must feel it too.

“Ugh, what’s that feeling?” This time both Zig and I turn our attention to Edward in surprise. He’s already starting to get a feel for Chi? He’s scrunching his face and looking in the direction of central.

“We’re not sure… we started feeling it as soon as we started to enter Amestris. It’s good to see your training is showing progress though. You’re not just turning into a glutton.” He snickers at that a bit. Before Al responds for him.

“I’m not going to complain. I’ll gladly take any chance I can to taste food again. I just wish I didn’t only feel the extreme sensations through him. I guess it’s only while he’s using Chi, but I still wish it was more controlled.”

Edward just pats him on the shoulder with a smile. “It’ll be alright Al, we’ll get your body soon.” He turns back towards me.

“So, what does this mean exactly? I can sense something, but it doesn’t feel like this Chi stuff? It feels dirty… like I’m tasting soggy socks through a sense I’m not used to.” His nose scrunches a bit at the thought.

“It’s a bit of an extreme version of what we sensed from the philosophers stone but different. Rather than screams or moans the closer we get the more it feels like a domineering presence… like they are cowering and raving. The fear and… madness is a bit distracting to our senses though. It’s making it a bit difficult to focus on any particular Chi signature here.”

Edward starts looking at us worriedly. “Shouldn’t we tell some authorities that there is something crazy under the city?”

I turn to Zig and he shrugs. I do too. “Well, it’s not like we can do anything about it. I’m sure whatever is down there is probably in contact with the government somehow. It’s probably the source of the philosopher's stone person we found before.”

“Isn’t that even more of a reason to then?” His voice gets a little shrill near the end.

“It’s not really our problem? We’ll help out where we can, but we are primarily here to learn. I want to investigate a little bit sure but depending on what it is telling the government about the potential source of malevolent power beneath them could turn into them using or making deals with it directly.”

Zig nods to this too. “Assss my lord ssssayssss we are not from here. While my lord helpssss he issss not required to. If anything, doing sssso putssss him at great rissssk.” I can see the frown in his eyes at the last part.

“Hey, it’s not my fault people keep needing help. I just want to heal the people in front of me and learn some stuff along the way.”

Edward frowns and it looks like he wants to say something, but he stops himself. He takes a moment to get himself rained in before turning to us. “I-I guess your right… If it’s some ancient being or something it might not be doing anything… It just feels wrong? We can see if it’s a threat then if it’s not we can check it out after we get our bodies back… If it’s old then it can wait just a bit longer.”

Glad to see he’s not blowing up immediately at that. “Besides I’ll still lend a hand if it’s hurting people or something. Even the Philosopher’s stone lady was just threatening things and only acted after we did. She may be just a radical member? We just need more information above everything else. I hope that Mustang can get it out of her… it whatever they were.”

The rest of the ride is just teaching Edward techniques on how to best ignore the feeling of the Chi from below.

After we finally arrive in central we make our way towards the 1st branch library… from afar it’s pretty easy to see that something went wrong…

“You’ve got to be kidding me!” Edward is the first to voice it though. In front of us, the building has two large swaths cleanly cut in circular portions.

Whoever did this… they deserve to die. So many books… so much knowledge lost forever. I will find them and kill them. But first I need to know how they did this so it doesn’t happen ever again. Rubbing my chin, I get closer. Several military soldiers are sorting through the remains of the building. Edward snags the attention of one of them.

“Hey! I’m a state alchemist and came here to perform some research… what happened?”

The soldier looks a little nervous after seeing Edwards pocket watch. He snaps to attention quickly saluting Edward.

“Sir! Two nights ago a strange disturbance occurred where portions of the building suddenly disappeared. We are still unable to find the source but progress on recovering the books from inside is going slow. We think that it may have been some sort of alchemy discovery gone wrong.” He frowns at that. “No offense sir but I hope whatever caused this is never rediscovered. We found marks from the vanishing in clear 40ft swaths…. One late night worker was caught partway through the event. They only remember hearing extreme winds before losing two of their limbs and nearly dying from heavy bleeding if not for the work of someone right next to them being well trained they would have died.”

Interesting… while Edward talks with the guards I inspect the circular cuts. They are extremely sharp… I press a cheek against the wall letting analyze feel the structure and general shape. I may get a few odd looks but I do learn something interesting. Whatever caused this didn’t rip or cut… the object that was once here just simply seized to exist. The outermost layer of the stone is extremely smooth and the bonds on some of the outermost edges are different substances all together after being broken and reconnected without the rest of the structure being lost.

I’m shaken out of my thoughts by Al lightly tapping my shoulder. “Hey… we found a lead to potentially learning something. I guess there was a resident expert, but they were recently let go due to negligence. They have quite the collection of books back at their home they would potentially have a record of who checked out the research notes or may even have them there.”

I just nod absentmindedly. “Sure sure…” I follow behind him a bit distracted going through the different potential scenarios that could lead to such a clean-cut and clear vanishing of matter.

I’m led to a car and just climb in with Zig helping to guide my movements so I don’t run into anything. I’m disturbed once again by someone new in front of me asking a question.

In front of me are two military soldiers that after a quick mental search both worked along with Major Armstrong. One man in his mid-20’s with medium-length dirty blond hair, he looks a bit green like he’s new to his position in an ill-fitted suit too big on a child. The one next to him is a slightly older woman with short black hair and a mole under her left eye.

Stolen story; please report.

“Sorry, what was that? I was lost in a bit of thought.”

He looks around a bit nervously at that glancing at Edward then me again.

“Well… I was just asking why your friend climbed on the roof of the car?” I reach out with my limited chi senses and feel the familiar form of Zig on the roof.

“He’s just being courteous. Both him and Alphonse are quite large and it would have been awkward for everyone to stay inside. I’d be up there with him if a distraction from my senses up there may cause me to go tumbling off into the road.”

The dirty blond-haired man just nervously chuckles… “Right…” He turns to the girl beside him and they share a few scant whispers about how they got stuck watching over the crazies and speculating as to who our group was that Armstrong sent them there himself.

“I can hear you, you know? I’m blind, not deaf.” He cringes even more and the woman seems to shrink a bit at that too.

They look at each other with a brief nod before soluting. “We’re sorry sir it will never happen again sir!” they aim that more towards the general group though likely not knowing who holds the military rank here.

“A-anyways… It looks like we are here!” The man just scuttles out of the car quickly opening the other door for us and Edward.

As we head up it’s a moderate apartment complex likely for medium to high-income housing in the area. Each apartment seems to span around the size of a one-story house in sections of the large building on each floor rather than a small studio.

“Alright, third-floor room 303.” The Woman this time seems to sprint to get away from us as we follow in behind. She gives a quick knock on the door. “Hello? Anyone home? We’re with the military we just want to ask a few questions!” After a moment of silence Edward slowly tries the handle and it’s completely unlocked. As he pushes the door open though it’s clear that whoever lives here has great taste.

All along the walls on either side are mountains of books. There are layers upon layers covering a majority of the space of the apartment with a singular path leading forward not currently booked.

“What’s with this mountain of books!?” Edward just looks both ways completely mystified.

“I’m not sure… But I don’t think I’ll be leaving this place for a while.” I can’t help but have a smile tug at my lips as I feel the different titles of the books. Gently picking up one and pressing it to my face I gain an understanding of the book and move on to the next.

“You guys go on ahead. I have to gain an understanding of this person's reading taste.”

He sighs but they keep moving. I briefly overhear “Miss Sheska? Are you here?” As I continue to go through the section of the massive inner library on this end. I believe the whole place is mapped out by sections of genre. I’m currently perusing the historical records on past ownership of various properties… Not sure if they should even be here… They likely picked them up as a part of a large bulk pick up not even noticing the contents besides where to organize it…

“Help! There’s someone trapped in a bookalanche!” Haaa I guess I should meet the person that’s amassed such a collection. As I make my way over I see the various sections. They don’t discriminate every subject is here. Some books have clearly been more read than others. You can tell by the more outrageous titled ones tend to be near the bottom of the stacks while the more worn-in ones have their own dedicated shelves.

I come into a clearing just in time to see a woman in her early 20’s with wide square-framed glasses bowing to both Edward and the pair of soldiers. “I’m so sorry! I accidentally knocked over a mountain of books… I thought I was going to die under there… Not the worst way to go.” She briefly smiles then readjusts her glasses. “Thank you very much!”

Edward just looks at a book in his hands before tossing it onto a random pile… He didn’t even put it in the right place. I can see it bugs the other woman too but she doesn’t say anything.

“So uh are you Sheska?”

“Yes.” She seems to gain a little bit more life from that.

“And you worked at the library before it became a giant block of holed cheese?”

She almost seems to cringe in on herself at the memory before smiling to herself. “Oh the library, how it started off so beautiful! I’ve loved books my entire life! Ever since I was born. So when I wound up securing a job there it felt like heaven!” She seems to be lost in reminiscing for a moment as I gently move the books that had been tossed aside by Edward to their proper spots.

She dramatically goes to the floor. Almost crying now. “But I forgot that I was supposed to be working when all I did was read the books… So they fired me… If I don’t find another job I’ll never be able to afford to put my poor elderly mother into a better hospital…”

This catches my attention. “What’s wrong with her? I might be able to help out a fellow reader in exchange for access to your library here.” I smile looking around at all the books around me.

She looks up with a snap. “You like to read too? Um… as for my mother she’s just gotten old… She has pains and her eyesight has started to go. I can’t take care of her as well anymore as I used to. I keep getting a little distracted….” She looks around at the books. “So I don’t really trust myself to be the sole caregiver for her.” She rubs the back of her head slightly embarrassed.

I can’t help but chuckle at that. “I understand fully…” Zig glares at me as he normally needs to help keep me on task.

“As for helping your mother though I may have something to help her. I’d need to give her a once over though first. I’m a doctor from Xing.” She looks up at me with a smile. “Well, if that’s the case then consider this place your own library too! Who am I to deny a fellow book lover anyways!” She gets right up in my face before giving me an odd look.

“I-I’m sorry if I’m looking into this a bit too much but… can you see through that cloth?” She looks a little bit worried about that.

“Nope, totally blind. I see through alternative means.” She just goes wide-eyed.

“Well… you did mention you were from another country… that’s so interesting! Do you have any books from there? Can you show them to me? Can I get copies of some of your countries more famous literature?” I can’t help but laugh a little at all the questions and hold her shoulders since it was almost like she was going to start hopping around. “Relax! I’m sure I can whip you up some things from memory.” She seems to smile at this part too but before she has a chance to say anything Edward awkwardly raises a hand.

“Excuse me… Miss Sheska?”

She turns to him. “Yes?”

“Do you remember seeing any research material belonging to someone named Tim Marcoh?”

She stops and thinks for a moment. “Oh! Yes, I remember! There were a bunch of handwritten notes stuffed into a bookcase where they didn’t belong so I remember them well.”

“Ah, so they really were there! Um, do you know what section of the library they were in? There was a bit of a problem with most of the books.” She seems to think for a moment longer.

“I know where I last saw them but… I haven’t worked at the library for nearly a month… I left them in the sorting area so whether they are still there or not I have no idea. If they were sorted then they would be where the library was… damaged.” She almost chokes out the last part like it physically hurts her to acknowledge that the library is gone.

“That old man…. Shit… we went so far and I had to deal with that grumpy ass hag and Wenry for nothing…”

“Did you want to read them? Is that why you’re asking?” She looks questioningly between Edward and Al.

“Yeah… but I’m not sure how we’ll find them now. We might just try our luck searching the rubble… maybe search for Macoh again. If not it may be lost forever.”

She just cocks her head to the side slightly. “I remember everything that was in them… Would that help?”

Edward and Al both turn to stare at her with bug eyes.

She starts to get a bit embarrassed. “I-It’s just the way I am! I can remember everything I’ve ever read haha… I sort of thought you’d be used to that sort of thing… your friend mentioned something that seemed like he was similar?” She looks over at me.

I can’t help but smile at that. “Yep! I can’t wait to swap stories with someone else that’s read so much. If you have some spare ink and paper I can copy some famous stories for you.” She nods seriously and starts to move towards a desk in the back.

Edward seeing she’s starting to leave to grab something he chases after her. “H-hold on!” She turns to him surprised with a look that almost shows she’d forgotten he was there.

“If you can duplicate the notes I can pay you?” She smiles brightly.

“Of course!” He starts shaking her hand vigorously. “Thanks so much, bookworm!”

Ha, right… I suppose I should start the process of changing my title back to bookworm. I mentally flick through my options.

Now something far more important. “I’m going to probably stay here for a few days helping and chatting about books.” I look over at Edward.

Edward and Al share a glance. “No problem! I’m sure Al and I can find something to do. Just let us know when everything is finished!”

And so the reading marathon began... writing stories back and forth for one another. The original task given by Edward almost completely forgotten.