Xerxes was not a dead city. Phoenix could feel it in her bones, but she mostly felt it in her skin. She could feel life tingling and crawling across her with the barest whisper of a touch. She stood there, letting the life caress her and wrap around her. There was no one there to watch her, alive as Xerxes was. She found she didn't care how she appeared.

She wasn't sure how long she had been there, though she had seen the light of the sky die and resurrect several times. Every time it resurrected, she was amazed, even if she had seen it happen several times already.

Whenever the light of the sky was alive, she did the same, walking through the city and letting the life flow around and through her. There was something in this city she couldn't explain. It spoke to her through the ruins and the sand, she felt it welcome her like an old friend.

She especially liked the mural with all the different symbols carved on it. Sometimes, when she sat in front of it, she felt something old and familiar stir in her, and she felt as if she had stood there once before, a long time ago. Sometimes she would copy the symbols into the sand with a stick. Sometimes she would just sit there and try to figure out the strange feeling. That was where she was sitting when the strange men with black hair found her.

The first thing they did was throw a large covering over her, yelping about something to do with "naked". Then they started asking questions.

"What are you doing here?"

"Walking," she said, gesturing at the sand around her. "Reading the wall with symbols. Watching the light in the sky."

The three men were quiet for a minute, crinkling their eyebrows in a funny way at her.

"Why were you doing that naked?"

"Don't ask her that, Yamazaki, obviously she's some sort of alchemy kook, just listen to the way she talks."

Alchemy. Phoenix tried the word silently on her tongue while the men talked about people learning things while naked. Alchemy was a good word. It felt smooth across her lips, and familiar, in the same way the wall with symbols felt familiar.

"Alchemy," she said, and the men went quiet to look at her. "In order to create, something of equal value must be lost. Energy cannot be created or destroyed, only redistributed."

One of the men nudged the other. "I told you she was an alchemist!"

"The sounds like Amestrian alchemy," the third man said. "Are you from Amestris, Miss?"

"Of course she's from Amestris, dummy, look at that blond hair and blue eyes. Where else would she be from?" Phoenix reached a hand up to grab her hair. Something about the way the man said the words made her feel as if she needed to worry about what they thought of her hair.

"We should take her with us. Obviously some jerk just dumped her here without anything."

"Maybe she wants to be here. Maybe it's a part of her... studies or something."

The third man looked over at her. She stared back at him, trying to figure out what was going on inside his eyes.

"Miss," he said. "Would you like to stay here and keep... uh, walking and reading the symbols and... stuff, or would you rather go back to your home with us?"

Home. Now there was a word that felt even better to her. It was a word full of warmth and love. She didn't fully understand what it meant, but she knew it was good, very good.

"Home," she repeated weakly.

"Home?" the man said. "You want to go home? You want us to take you there?"

"Yes," Phoenix nodded, and her hair flew in a tangle of gold. "I want to go home. I want to go home."

Okay, finally putting up my first full length story on Fanfiction! Sorry this prologue is so short, I just don't know how to elongate it without making it lose meaning, but I feel the story really has to start here, too. :P Annoying when stories pull that on you. I'll be back again soon with a full length chapter for you guys though, so hang tight! ;)