Disclaimer: Kirby belongs to Nintendo and HAL Laboratory.
Vesa spent the rest of the week practicing her spells each day with Fecto Elfilis supervising her, cycling through her barrier spell, wind augment spell and water augment spell. The ultimate life-form could tell the blessing she had was still lingering.
At the end of the week, Vesa and Elfilis stood out in the training area alone. She kept her gaze fixated on the angelic lancer, her eyes filled with confidence.
"Ok," she told them, "I'm ready."
Elfilis nodded as their feelers perked up. They remembered Kirby's training with his astral projection went well last week, as he could now use up to two other copy abilities he picked out ahead of time during a fight; meaning he'd have those options on standby, so to speak.
Still, Elfilis focused on their girlfriend as she widened her stance, held out her right hand and straightened her spine. She closed her eyes and began to concentrate, letting her mana reserves flow freely in her body. She didn't have to worry about the lack of wind this time. Concentrating the mana into her hands, it took her a few minutes before small wind gusts started appearing around her.
Elfilis observed carefully, noticing small papercuts forming even if it wasn't as bad as last time. Vesa held out the dagger in her left hand as she gathered the wind gusts into her right palm. With a gentle telekinetic push, she levitated the wind gust onto the dagger's blade. Soon enough, the dagger absorbed the wind.
Honestly, Elfilis was astounded their girlfriend learned telekinesis on her own, even if the application was a bit crude.
Having completed her spell, Vesa scanned her surroundings and spotted a nearby straw dummy. Switching the hilt of the dagger into her right hand, she did a swipe on the straw dummy. It left behind a mere scratch. She returned her gaze to Elfilis, who gave her a little nod.
"You're doing fine so far," they told her, "you can probably start trying to put more power into the spell now and increase the charge."
"Thanks," Vesa gave them a soft smile.
Vesa handed the dagger back to Elfilis, who put it back into their pocket dimension before she followed them back into the tower, making their way down the hallway. Once Vesa and Elfilis set foot into the foyer, they noticed Hyness greeting Magolor at the front door. They seemed to be having some sort of discussion. Vesa tilted her head sideways.
"Magolor's here?" she paused, "I wonder where Marx is."
"Probably doing something crazy," Elfilis shrugged.
Vesa and Elfilis continued their stroll through the foyer, approaching the two mages which caught their attention.
"Oh, Elfilis!" Hyness exclaimed, "perfect timing. I was just discussing with Magolor the advantages of a teleportation array over a teleportation spell! Tell me who do you think is right?"
Elfilis placed a finger on their lower jaw as their feelers twitched.
"Yeah, the spell is clearly superior," Elfilis reasoned, "one mage can carry a group of three other people with a spell and can use it at a rapid pace if they have the mana, or even stay on the other side of reality for a period of time and wait."
"Personally, I prefer the spell over an array," Magolor shrugged, "but both have advantages to their use. An array can carry fifty people at a time to a different location, but its downside is that it's more costly and you need to have it prepared ahead of time. It has a chance of failing to trigger and wasting mana if it isn't prepped on both sides as well. However, the teleportation spell allows rapid movement in combat that is hard to predict and skilled users can disappear and reappear nearby minutes after they vanish; allowing for even more unpredictability in combat. However it's also possible for a skilled mage to disrupt the spell and force someone's teleportation spell to miss, or even rebound. That is not possible with an array and an array is much safer. Though, my preference is still the spell since I'm a more combat focused mage as opposed to an artificer or enchanter."
"Good to see you, Magolor," Vesa smiled, tilting her head sideways.
"It's a pleasure to see you too, Miss Vesa," Magolor gave a little nod.
Vesa and Elfilis backed up a little, allowing Magolor to step inside.
"I should've guessed you'd side with him," Hyness huffed in mock irritation, "you're more combat focused, so it makes sense."
With a flick of his arm, the front doors closed.
"All right," Hyness sighed, "anyway, I finished setting up the printing press today, so we can go take a look at it."
Hyness led Vesa, Elfilis and Magolor down the hallway and into another room. Vesa noticed a large metal box with runes all over it has been set up, with a couple of metal plates sitting next to it, welded together into an L shape, and covered in runes. The box had a slot on the side to insert paper into it and another slot where the finished product leaves it. The box also had a spot to insert leather and glue.
Immediately, Vesa recalled when she learned of her people's earlier history of their own version of the printing press, probably during history class. She knew humans didn't have magic available, and electricity wasn't invented yet, so the parts the humans had to assemble were meant to be operated by human hands.
Maybe Hyness being more magically inclined than technically inclined could be considered a bit of a blessing.
"This is incredible," she commented.
"Oh, this was a parlor trick," Hyness waved the praise off, "it was just a bit time consuming."
Vesa and Magolor approached the printing press, carefully examining the details. The human couldn't understand the runes and complex spells littering the box.
"You really overcomplicated this thing," Magolor commented.
"You really did," Elfilis added, pointing to a string of runes near the bottom of the box, "I don't even know why you would add this one."
"This one's a redundancy," Magolor chimed in, "I don't think the press needs redundant functions…"
Hyness comically headed over to a corner of the room to sulk. Vesa sighed, feeling pity in her heart, and approached Hyness, giving him a pat on his hooded head.
"I don't know why there's this apparition," Elfilis continued, "why can it make physical copies of fictional characters? Why would you…?"
Elfilis sighed and pinched the bridge of their nose. The whole printing press felt like a parlor trick. The copies wouldn't have any kind of strength or skill, it would basically be a trick to use at parties. Vesa took a step back and glanced over her shoulder.
"Has it been tested yet?" she asked.
"It has, the main functions anyway," Hyness admitted, "it works perfectly fine, though I suppose it's a little over designed."
Vesa turned on her feet and clasped her hands behind her back.
"Maybe this way," Vesa added, "I could distribute the bedtime story I recorded to the rest of Dreamland."
"I suppose you could," Elfilis agreed.
Soon enough, Magolor finished examining the printing press.
"It seems silly in a lot of places," the floaty manipulative mage said, "but it should work well enough."
"I told you I already tested it," Hyness pouted.
Vesa placed her hand behind her head.
"Yeah, that's all that really matters to me," she admitted.
"You made copies of the book you wanted to put out, right?" Hyness asked.
"Not yet," Vesa shook her head.
"Well," Hyness suggested, "let me know what you're ready."
"Ok," Vesa nodded.
Vesa left the room and sprinted down the hall. When she entered the foyer, she went down the staircase into the library. She searched the bookshelf on the library's first floor until she found the book title in the fiction section. When she pulled it off the shelf, she left the library and returned to the printing room. Elfilis still sat in the room with Magolor while looking over the runes on the printer.
In fairness, Elfilis noted their father was truly a master of his craft, able to fit so many runes on a single surface. Hyness was a prodigy in his own right while the ultimate life-form was born with the plenty of knowledge of runes that he implanted in them. Still, he surpassed them in skill. It still didn't mean he always applied it in the best way, but when he needed to get serious about it, he couldn't be beat in magical artifice.
Vesa approached Hyness with the book in her hand, holding it out before him.
"I found the book I was looking for," she told him.
Hyness turned around to face the human.
"Oh, good!" Hyness blurted, plucking the book from her hands, "how many copies do you want?"
Hyness inserted the book into the slot. Vesa placed a finger on her chin and tilted her head sideways.
"I'll start with twenty copies," she answered.
"Of course!"
Hyness started up the printing press machine. Vesa watched as it released twenty copies out of its slot over the course of two minutes. She smiled softly as Magolor picked up a copy and flipped through the pages at a rapid pace.
"Looks like pretty standard fairy tale stuff," Magolor commented.
"Yeah," Vesa agreed, "I'm sure someone out in Dreamland would appreciate an old tale preserved from my world."
"Probably," Magolor shrugged, "for historical reasons if nothing else. There are some people down at Capupu Village who are into that kind of thing."
The printing press released the original book from a slot, allowing Vesa to retrieve it.
"So what do you want to do now?" Elfilis asked her.
Vesa tilted her gaze towards her partner.
"I'm thinking we can go get some jigsaw puzzles for the game room," she suggested.
Elfilis perked up their feelers and nodded before they stood up. Magolor blinked twice and set down the copy, approaching the two.
"Oh?" Magolor blurted, "I know a place where you can get puzzles!"
Vesa shifted her gaze towards the floaty manipulative mage.
"Go on," she beckoned.
"Well," Magolor explained, "I think I know somewhere you can look if you're interested in puzzles. Capupu Village has a toy store. Probably a good place to start."
Magolor pulled out some sort of tablet, taking notes of some kind. Elfilis's enhanced vision interpreted the new runes their father used and the style of how he was using them.
"Sounds great!" Vesa smiled, "you mind leading the way?"
Magolor sweated nervously.
"Oh no, I can't," Magolor blurted, "I have left Marx on his own for far too long and need to get going. I swear it's like babysitting a child most of the time, since he's absolutely not responsible to any capacity. I'll be pleasantly surprised if I only find a crater somewhere or some kind of 4 dimensional art project. Leaving him alone for more than an hour is never a good idea."
Vesa and Elfilis exchanged glances as she sighed.
"It's not all bad, though," Magolor continued with a slight chuckle, "he's funny and a good person…to an extent. He just has some issues and I'm there for him. When he is around people and loved ones, it's minimized by a lot and he's much more stable. When left alone, however…"
Vesa tilted her head.
"Do I want to know?"
Magolor closed his eyes for a brief moment.
"Well," he clarified, "I believe King Dedede technically rules all of Dreamland, but his efforts are mostly centered in Capupu village, where his subjects reside. Marx tried to apply as a Court Jester once, but he was quickly banned from ever entering the castle again after he turned the king's entire wardrobe pink and ran through the halls of the castle with a bucket of paint he enchanted to be endless. The endless enchantment created fluid that existed for a limited time so it went away after a while, but he was still barred from ever going inside again. He tried to plead Jester's Privilege, but that didn't seem to help. Meta Knight dragged him away personally, if I remember correctly. I was busy at the time, so I wasn't involved at all."
"Oh, brother," Hyness sighed.
"All right, you go on ahead and check on Marx," Vesa shrugged, "at least the village isn't too far from here."
"Alright, take care!" Magolor nodded.
Magolor spread out his arms and vanished in a teleportation spell. Vesa and Elfilis shifted their gaze towards Hyness.
"We'll be getting ready to head out soon," Vesa told Hyness.
"Have a great time!" Hyness smiled.
After Vesa grabbed some shoes, she and Elfilis left the tower. They traveled along the dirt path across the plains. Along the way, Vesa brushed her hand along some nearby pop flowers. These flowers ended up giving her the paper currency she still knew.
Once they arrived in Capupu Village, Vesa and Elfilis meandered down the street, passing by some of the locals who took a brief notice of the ultimate life-form. Elfilis didn't bother to react and kept walking beside their girlfriend. The two stopped at the entrance to the toy store minutes later. Elfilis had to duck their head as they followed Vesa into the store. They began meandering down the aisle until they spotted a shelf holding various boxes of jigsaw puzzles. She lit up and crouched down, browsing the images on the boxes. Her partner simply sat back and watched.
Vesa picked out a box labeled 500 pieces and a box labeled 1000 pieces. She stood up and gave Elfilis a gentle smile.
"These are a good start," she said.
"Glad to hear it," Elfilis nodded at her.
Vesa and Elfilis walked back down the aisle and approached the checkout counter.
"Heya!" a cappy clerk greeted, "what do you need?"
Vesa set the jigsaw puzzles onto the counter, the cappy clerk rang them up, a final price appearing on the cash register. Elfilis reached into their pocket dimension and handed over the matching amount of star coins to cover the cost, including a ten percent tip.
"Thank you for stopping by Gengu's Toy Store," the clerk stashed the boxes into a bag, "have a pleasant day."
"Thank you, sir," Vesa smiled.
Gengu handed Vesa the bag.
"Want me to hold onto it?" Elfilis asked.
"I got it taken care of," Vesa shook her head.
"All right."
Vesa and Elfilis left the store and made their way back to the tower. When the ultimate life-form opened the door, Elfilin was at the other side waiting to greet them.
"Heya, guys!" Elfilin chirped, floating around Vesa and Elfilis curiously.
"Hey, Elfilin," Vesa replied, holding up the bag, "we just got some jigsaw puzzles for the game room."
"Oh, that's neat!" Elfilin did a happy back flip.
Vesa and Elfilis entered the tower and made their way to the game room with Elfilin following them. She pulled the boxes out of the bag and put them on a shelf. Her finger traced the box with the label 500 pieces.
"Elfilin," Vesa asked, "have you ever tried a jigsaw puzzle?"
Elfilin tilted his head sideways.
"Nope," Elfilin admitted, "I don't think so. Sometimes, after the whole thing where they absorbed me…"
Elfilis lowered their head.
"Sorry," they sighed.
"I get flashes of their memories of things back at…uhm, you know," Elfilin added, "so I know what they are and remember a little of that, but I haven't tried it personally."
Vesa pulled out the box and placed it on the table, running her fingernail on the seal and slicing it open. After a moment, she handed the box to Elfilis, allowing them to carefully remove the lid.
"Thanks," Vesa smiled.
Vesa opened the box and sat down before she started searching for the edge pieces. Elfilis already saw the outcome of the puzzle mentally laid out for them, mentally running simulations of what would go where. While they merely watched, Elfilin decided to join in on searching for matching puzzle pieces.
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