“You’re going to leave it like that?” Acantha raised an eyebrow as she looked between Roy and the sphere. Perhaps there was a lot they could teach each other. She wouldn’t think of leaving the earth shaped like that. Her kind of magic was a give and take game of borrowing. You borrowed the magic from its element and you returned it when you were done. If Acantha ever had a use to shape earth she would return the soil to its original state. That was only fair to the earth and the gods.
“Are all alchemists scholars?” She asked with curiosity, “In my world anyone can do magic. But we don’t need a circle to do it. Just a heart and an open mind.” She replied with ease. “We have scholars of magic in my world, but also those who simply use it to heat their homes or communicate with loved ones.”
“Here.” She took the fire force stone off of her sword again and held it to Roy. “Try your flame trick again. I want to see what happens.” She sounded more curious than using a teaching voice.
Acantha stepped aside and gave a wave, “It’s not whatever you called it. Just concentrated fire magic.” She explained briefly again and gave Roy a nod, “It could use a charge anyway.” When he tossed it back she shrugged, “Fine I’ll just toss it into the fire tonight I guess.” She put it back into her sword, “I’m not sure what powers your form of magic, but mine is powered by the element of its concentration. This one requires to be exposed to fire every once and a while to keep its power. Earth gets buried, put water in water, leave air by a window, etcetera.” She explained her reasoning from before. -- “Leave what like..?” Roy glanced at the sphere of sand. “Oh? Absolutely not.” Roy mentioned casually about the giant sphere. Plus on top of that, he was nothing like Ed, and his haphazardous use of alchemy. Not that was a case anymore. Considering that he sacrificed his Alchemy to save himself and his brother’s bodies. Joyous day for those two, despite Ed’s despair and missing the use of said Alchemy. Though, the young man was tenacious and achieved his goals. Roy would always credit the young man for that. Walking over where the sphere was, Roy clapped his hands together and touched the sphere and it disintegrated back into a pile of sand. Seeing he saw the gate, and was healed via the philosopher's stone, he didn’t need circles like normal Alchemist, but that’s a different history lesson.
Roy nodded approaching Acantha again. “If you were with the military and a State Alchemist, you were. You were give a annual research budget, and you had to make so much research breakthroughs or progress.” This though brought Roy’s mind to a dark place, with Shou Tucker and the horrible acts with his wife and daughter. That destroyed Ed, and even pulled Roy into a dark place. Ultimately, Scar dispatched the Shou and the Nina chimera. Disgusting. “That being said, there were plenty of independent alchemist too.”
When he was handed the gem, Roy stared at it. Immediately, Roy knew this thing wasn’t anything that was particularly the philosopher's stone. Just a innate ability to know, when you hold and use one. This? This was whatever Acantha said it was. Charge? Power? Explosion? Whatever. Roy at this point in time, had little interest in the little stone and using his Alchemy as little parlor tricks.
“Alchemy on a base level is ‘Comprehension’, ‘Deconstruction’, and ‘Reconstruction’.” Roy smiled some. “If you understand the chemistry and the ancient alchemical theories, you can do Alchemy.” He shifted his weight some as he pondered his statement. “Normally. Some people still just don’t have the abilities to do it.”