Disclaimer: Kirby belongs to Nintendo and HAL Laboratory.
In a quiet morning at the tower, Vesa sat across from Fransisca in the library. The human flipped through the pages of a book she was still in the middle of filling in. To their right, they could see Fecto Elfilis and Elfilin sitting across from one another at a table as the small chinchilla studied a book provided to him. It only took her a minute before she stopped at her latest entry.
"So I assume you made progress?" Fransisca asked.
Vesa glanced at the ice mage and smiled softly.
"I'm almost finished with the historical origins of a cultural custom of Ioskaria," Vesa answered, "you understand that a nod usually means yes, right?"
Fransisca gave Vesa a puzzled look.
"Why do you ask that?"
Vesa placed her book on her lap.
"In Ioskaria," Vesa answered, "it's the complete opposite. To be fair, my father told me the meanings were different from outside Ioskaria."
Fransisca scratched her head at the thought of someone meaning yes when they shook their head and someone meaning no when they nodded.
"Well," Fransisca requested, "is it alright if I read the entry?"
Vesa smiled before she handed the book to the ice mage, already flipped to the specific page.
"Several centuries before I was born," Vesa explained, "there used to be the Tamrion Empire which occupied several countries, including Ioskaria. It's said when the empire conquered my country, the Tamrions wanted to convert my ancestors to their religion. Those who declined were killed."
Fransisca felt a chill down her spine as she read the text.
"Oh dear…"
"The survivors at the time caught on," Vesa continued, "so they swapped the head gestures. This time, when they nodded, they still meant no but it spared their lives."
"And how long did the Tamrion Empire last?" Fransisca asked.
Vesa took a deep breath.
"For less than seven centuries," she answered.
After Fransisca handed the book back to Vesa, the human closed it.
"That's quite an interesting origin," Fransisca commented, "what will you be working on next?"
Vesa smiled softly as she closed her eyes.
"I'll be recording the custom of Xhiro next," she answered with pride.
"I see, well let me know if you need anything," Fransisca nodded, "I'll just be here writing some records of Halcandra's history. It seemed like a good idea after hearing what you were doing. It'll mostly be of the more recent history before its destruction. Most of our history before that point is already recorded here in the library thanks to Elfilis rewriting much of it by memory, or just adding books he already had in his pocket dimension."
Vesa couldn't help but smile as Fransisca pulled a book out of her pocket dimension.
"Now," Fransisca continued, "before we end the session, was there anything else you wanted to talk about?"
Vesa paused for a brief moment. Part of her mind flashed to one of the days where she had to stay home from school when she was sick. She could remember her mom keeping an eye on her once in a while as she tended to domestic matters in the house. She remembered the times her siblings would come home from school and show her some notes they retrieved from her class that day. She remembered the evenings when her father would come home and do a jigsaw puzzle with her after dinner.
Vesa didn't expect the memory to give her some feeling of sadness in her heart.
"I'm…still dealing with the times I feel home sick," she admitted, "even with the home and friends I have now."
"That's natural," Fransisca replied, "I still feel homesick quite often myself. I don't particularly miss my own birth family that much and sometimes I feel guilty for the times I'm happy about their ultimate demise."
Fransisca blinked twice.
"I apologize; I'm getting a bit off topic," she blurted, "what you're feeling is not uncommon, we all have feelings like that; my sibling and sisters too. Father doesn't mention it, but I think he's actually happy about our civilization's destruction. The people who sealed us away were our own neighbors and acquaintances, after all. They feared what we were capable of, what Father was able to create in Elfilis, and so they sealed us away inside and abandoned us, only to perish when Halcandra was destroyed. Some say it was probably by Galacta Knight. Although, I have been considering potential… alternatives…to that theory."
Vesa tilted her head sideways.
"Alternatives?"
"Well, it has recently come to my attention that a dark artifact belonging to one of our foulest mages was discovered by Magolor a short time ago," Fransisca explained, "we were unable to destroy it, and so we placed it in the care of the dragon Landia. However, I fear that somehow it may have caused some of the events that led to the destruction of the planet. It's nothing more than idle speculation as I have no proof. But during one of our chats, Magolor mentioned his experiences after being bested by Kirby, and it started to get me to think a bit more about things."
Fransisca placed her hand on her chin.
"I plan to investigate more soon. I want to return to the place our planet was with Elfilis. Allegedly, Magolor was pulled through a portal and into an alternate world with signs of an ancient civilization. It's possible that large parts of Halcandra ended up there."
Vesa thought over what she heard as she stashed her book into her pocket dimension.
"Well," Vesa proclaimed, "I'll catch you later! It was nice talking to you."
"I'll see you later," Fransisca shook Vesa's hand, "if there is a path to another dimension that was opened near there, then Elfilis will find it."
Standing up from the lounge chair, Vesa climbed a flight of stairs and met up with Elfilis and their smaller fragment at the nearby table. The angelic lancer locked eyes onto her as they perked up their feelers.
"How'd it go?" Elfilis asked her.
"It went pretty well," Vesa answered.
Vesa sat down at a table end while locking eyes onto Elfilin. The small chinchilla happily waved his paw at her.
"That was pretty short, though," Elfilis pointed out, "did you get everything you needed to talk about done?"
"I did," Vesa assured him.
Vesa checked the stack of books on the table and reached for one titled "Elemental Barriers". Elfilis simply nodded as they dropped a silencing ward they had surrounding themself. Elfilin took a moment to stretch his limbs.
"Are you ready to practice?" Elfilis asked him.
Elfilin locked eyes onto his larger fragment as he nodded.
"I'm ready to give it a go!" he chirped, doing a back flip.
Vesa stood up as she clutched the book to her chest.
"Very well," Elfilis proclaimed, "It's best we do this now. I can feel that our souls are becoming less the same with each passing day. Since magic is connected to the soul, the longer we take to teach you this, the less familiar my own experience will become to you. Right now, you have something of a magical equivalent to muscle memory that can aid you in this. It's how you know how to fly, and also how you managed to aid Kirby in initially defeating me several months ago. I imagine it's also how you were able to rip my soul to shreds in little crystalline chunks."
Elfilin lowered his gaze for a bit and sighed. He and Vesa followed Elfilis out of the library, climbing the stairs to the first floor. Taking a turn down the hall, they stepped out into the training area. Their fur bristled as their thoughts still lingered at the past a little.
"Sorry. I won't lie and say that I'm still not mad, but I don't blame you for it," Elfilis drawled, "I'm mad at the event in general. Having your soul torn to shreds isn't exactly something you get over easily. Especially not when you have experienced several lifetimes of torture and isolation even before that."
"Yeah, I know," Elfilin shrugged.
Gazing into their little brother's eyes, Elfilis ran their finger along the top of his head.
"Alright," Elfilis declared, "let's get started. Now that you have a little bit of magical knowledge and have been reading the primer books I gave you, I'll start teaching you how to cast a spell like how I was taught."
Elfilin followed his larger fragment to the center of the arena.
"You're able to feel your own energy, correct?" they asked him.
Elfilin placed his paw on his chest, taking a moment to feel for his mana reserves.
"I think so," Elfilin nodded.
"Well," Elfilis mused, "you are able to operate with your pocket dimension, so I would hope you had some idea of how you're doing it."
Elfilin nodded in agreement while Elfilis conjured their spear.
"Focus on that energy," Elfilis instructed, "I'll attempt to help you channel it better."
Elfilis used their spear to carve some temporary runes into the ground, forming a runic circle. Elfilin didn't hesitate as he began to concentrate his mana. Once the angelic lancer finished forming the runic circle, they noticed the energy exploding off of the small chinchilla, radiating off of him like a soft blue fire. Elfilin held his paws out, focusing on the energy he was emitting.
"Just get a feel for it and when you think you can push it back down, then we can start."
"Ok," Elfilin nodded.
The small chinchilla closed his eyes and continued to concentrate. Elfilis sat down and rubbed their head gently, calming themself from the minor anxiety episode. Elfilin kept up his focus until the runic circle beneath him began to react, fading away and burning up some of the dirt. Elfilis took a moment to redraw the circle. Their little brother went back to concentrating until moments later, light particles began to dance in his paws.
"Push it down and back into yourself, just hold onto the feeling of controlling it for now," Elfilis instructed, "then we will practice a simple space spell. You might still have my affinity, if not then we will need to experiment a bit. If we can't figure something out then we can get your affinity tested tomorrow."
"Ok," Elfilin nodded.
Vesa noticed as her partner sat on their spear which floated midair sideways. Elfilin went back to concentrating as he pushed the magical energy back into himself. Elfilis perked up their feelers as they stood back up.
"Good," Elfilis praised, "now I will teach you a simple space spell."
"Yay," Elfilin fluttered his arms, "I can't wait to try it!"
"Alright, allow me to demonstrate."
Elfilis put their hand out and Elfilin soon sensed something changed in his immediate surroundings.
"Ehh?" Elfilin paused.
"I just removed all the oxygen in a ten-foot radius around you," Elfilis informed their brother, "this is handy for suffocating people and forcing them to either pass out or die. But I'm sure you don't have a need to breathe."
Elfilis let the air back in slowly as their eyes glowed. When the tall space rodent put their hand out again, Elfilin heard a sudden loud bang ringing in his ears.
"Ow!" he yelped, "what was that?!"
Elfilis kept their eyes locked onto the small chinchilla as his eyes began to spin with dizziness.
"That was air rushing back into a total void at high speeds, creating a large noise," Elfilis explained telepathically, "your hearing should come back in a moment. However, you shouldn't do this to anyone who can't regenerate their eardrums. I only did it to you since you can, and you have a pain resistance above that of most creatures."
Elfilin simply nodded as he rubbed his ears.
"All you need to do is focus on your mana and imagine absolutely nothing in front of you," Elfilis continued, "not just nothing, but absolute nothing. No air, no gas, not even light if you can. Just empty space. A total vacuum of space in its purest form."
"Ok," Elfilin nodded.
Having memorized what his larger fragment demonstrated, Elfilin closed his eyes and began to concentrate. The mana in his body reacted quickly like when he had to close the massive portal between the Forgotten Land and Popstar. This spell should be smaller this time and he wouldn't have to worry about passing out, right? The small chinchilla went to thinking what it would be like to be in the vacuum of space. With just enough concentration, Elfilin created a small bubble around him, expelling all of the air. He slowly opened his eyes and turned his head towards his larger fragment.
"You're doing well so far," Elfilis praised, "keep it up."
Elfilin nodded and went back to concentrating his mana, hoping to cause a reaction from the bubble he encased himself in. After a moment, he released the mana and the bubble burst, allowing air back in. The small chinchilla immediately covered his ears. Not a second later, he heard a loud bang burst his eardrums, his fur bristling in shock. After a moment, he quickly healed the small damage. While rubbing his ears, Elfilin shifted his gaze between Vesa and Elfilis.
"How did I do?" Elfilin clamored.
"You did good, you struggled a bit more than I expected though in some places," Elfilis told him, "so I do feel we should check your affinity."
"Thanks!" Elfilin chirped.
"You have a natural affinity for magic, as do I," Elfilis continued, "father made sure we would be smart enough to make connections and deductions most people would be unable to in short amounts of time. You may not be able to sense it or feel it, but you have a powerful mind that fills in many of the blanks in spells for you, memorizing spell circles and applying them as needed. It can get to the point where you no longer need a circle, as we can control the mana to such a fine degree that we can create the effect almost instantaneously. This is much more costly to do, but it's possible. I wanted to tell you this because I want you to understand we are a species made for combat—magical combat primarily. Despite my use of a spear, I'm more proficient in the use of magic, the spear merely compliments my existing skills."
Elfilin tilted his head.
"Magic will come easily to you when it comes to your affinity, and other closely related ones will also come with an unnatural ease compared to that of most people," Elfilis added, "we have a bit of an unfair advantage. This was obviously on purpose as I was made in a lab in order to be a perfect being, something that would be capable of fighting Dark Matter and preserving life. I just want you to understand this so you don't get a big head over it, getting an ego is almost always a detriment."
"Ok," Elfilin nodded slowly, "I'll keep that in mind."
Vesa smiled as she watched Elfilin nuzzle his larger fragment's cheek.
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