"Ignem Arcanus"

Fandom: Fullmetal Alchemist/Hagane no Renkenjutsushi

Universe: Manga/Brotherhood

Rating: K

Summary: Half-remembered phrases in a foreign tongue tumbled from her mouth, aided by a soft melody.
All he could do was listen and try to jot it down. "Judicare saeculum per ignem..." A different take on the revelation of the tattoo. Mangaverse.

Notes: Because it's hard for me to imagine, based on the real alchemy research I've read, that the entire context of Flame Alchemy was carved on her back. In regards to the Latin title... I'm pretty sure it means "[ancient] secret fire" I've never taken Latin, so I know none of the grammar. But from what I know, 'ignis' is masculine, and must agree with 'arcanum', so 'Ignem Arcanus?'. It sounded right to me. XD

She sat backwards in a chair, shirt pulled tightly against her chest and her back bare to see. It was awkward at best, but at least the secret was out. She didn't have to hide anymore. They'd been working together to decipher it for the better part of an hour, and had discerned next to nothing.

Roy grumbled under his breath. "If this is like most alchemic notes, it consists of two parts- a coded message, and a key." She nodded, so he continued. "Are you sure there aren't any written notes at all? Perhaps a scrap of paper with some numbers or a drawing?" He seemed to be getting a bit desperate, not to mention down on himself.

She shook her head, frowning. "Nothing. Father said that he'd burned all his notes after giving me this tattoo." The two of them exchanged depressed glances. Was all of this knowledge going to go to waste just because the puzzle was too difficult for either of them?

"Then maybe..." he began, an idea striking him suddenly. "The key is hidden withing the message. Ingenious, but possible." He began to scan the array for anything that looked as if it might not belong. "The lines are a coded reverse array, I think, or else they correspond to different angles, meaning different elements. Twin snakes, for hermaphroditism and balance. The salamander obviously refers to fire, but I think that's supposed to be in the array itself,
so it's not unusual. But the text..." he paused, staring at it. "I can read it, but... it doesn't seem to make sense."

Riza blinked, then stared at him for a long moment. "You can read it?" she asked hesitantly, not sure if she was understanding correctly.

"Of course. It's the language most alchemists use in their notes." he answered, as if that ability wasn't related to the task at hand in the least."But what it says is almost irrelevant and doesn't make sense. It seems to start with a poem of some kind... 'Libera me, domine', but then it goes into something completely different. And even that doesn't make sense. It's like it's missing something." He let out a frustrated sigh, wishing that the answers were more obvious.

"Wait." She turned to try to look at her own back, though she only managed to strain her neck. "That sounds familiar. Say it again." Turning back, she shut her eyes, trying to recall something from years past.

Black eyes lit up like fireworks. "It does? It was 'Libera me, domine'. Literally, 'Free me, Lord'. Where could you have heard that before?"

"Ssh." her eyes were screwed shut in concentration. After several moments, she began to half-recite, half-hum barely-remembered words from her childhood.

"Libera me, domine... de morte aeterna... in die illa tremenda..." The foregin, meaningless sounds came with difficultly, but the melody aided in their retrieval. "Quando coeli movendi sunt et terra. dum veneris... judicare saeculum per ignem." She opened her eyes now, unsure. "Does that help at all? It's a song that my father used to sing to me, and later made me commit to memory."

"Deliver me, Lord... from eternal death..." Roy translated, hardly daring to beleive it. "On that awful day..." He was beginning to grin with the light of new knowledge. "when the heavens and earth shall be shaken... and you shall come to judge the world by fire. That's brilliant, Riza! That's exactly what I'm looking for! That has to be it, the key!" He began furiously jotting down notes, eyes moving back and forth at breakneck speed.

She smiled for the first time in a long time, and began the second stanza. "Tremens factus sum ego et timeo... dum discussio venerit atque venture ira... quando coeli movendi sunt et terra."