Fullmetal Alchemist Fan Fiction ❯ Veritas Hominum ❯ Veritas Hominum ( Chapter 25 )

Veritas Hominum

 

Human kind cannot gain anything without first giving something in return. To obtain, something of equal value must be lost. That is Alchemy's first law of Equivalent Exchange. In those days, we really believed that to be the world's one and only truth.

 

The younger Elric brother, Alphonse, had often been fond of saying that.

 

The older Elric brother knew a Greater Truth: there was no such thing as Equivalent Exchange.

 

The flood of images at the Gate was quite clear: we are all connected, and we are all One.

 

We are all made up of energy.

 

Einstein had been right all along; string theory was proven by alchemy. Equivalent Exchange can't exist if you're simply trading out energy for energy.

 

Human Life, the Human Experience, they are all manifestations of that energy. The energy that fuels alchemic transmutations also fuels suns and causes atoms to spin in space. It is fueled in turn by human thought and love and experiences.

 

The Philosopher's Stone was a mean to all ends, but those who searched for it were destined to be unhappy because they did not realize that the real power lay in not having everything, but in being happy with what you have.

 

He had lost a brother, but gained a wife. He had lost his parents, but gained his own children. He had left his home but discovered a new world. There is no happiness without sorrow.

 

Life wasn't perfect, but it wasn't supposed to be. The True beauty of life lay in its imperfections.

 

And that was the Veritas Hominum - the Truth of Men.