Disclaimer: Kirby belongs to Nintendo and HAL Laboratory.
Dedede and Escargon spent the next morning in the throne room. The penguin king overlooked the pamphlet while the snail paced around the room with a phone in his hands.
"So sire, this seems really shady and I'm almost convinced this is a scam," Escargon cautioned, "that little jester didn't exactly seem to be a paragon of honest intentions."
"Well," Dedede shrugged, his eyes expressing skepticism, "it couldn't hurt to give it a shot at least once."
"Yes, it could!" Escargon snarked back, "if this is a scam, you could lose money in a way that's financial harm!"
It seemed that Escargon and Dedede were questioning the morality of getting involved in something as heinous as using a monster summoning service. The snail gave the penguin the phone and he checked the pamphlet for the phone number.
"Well," Dedede frowned, "it won't hurt much."
Dedede immediately went to dial the number. On the other side, someone picked up almost immediately.
"Hello," the voice greeted over the phone in a polite tone, "this is Holy Nightmare Enterprises! How can I help you today?"
King Dedede stiffened. He could practically already feel the man's hooks in his wallet. That man's voice sounded like it belonged to someone who either worked in the movie industry, a big celebrity or the scummiest car salesman. The penguin and the snail shared glances in a moment of silence, remembering the earlier exchange they had in regards to Kirby's preparedness for more dangerous threats.
"We wanted to ask about what exactly this whole thing is about," Dedede explained, "we were given a pamphlet talking about this whole service, but I had some more questions."
"Well, that's not a problem, allow me to ease your worries," the man smiled over the phone, "first of all, who am I talking to today?"
Dedede took a moment to clear his throat, preparing to put on an air of self assurance. Since having been beaten by Kirby so many times, he started refreshing himself on his old attitude down to a perfect mask; that arrogant tone and easily upset attitude suitable for this kind of thing.
"This is King Dedede of Popstar," he proclaimed, "ruler of Dreamland."
"Well," the salesman chuckled over the phone, "nice to meet you, Triple D. What questions did you want to ask?"
"I wanted to ask you what kinds of things these Nightmare Monsters are for?" Dedede continued, adding a fake cruel tinge to his voice, "I have a pest I need disposed of and I'm hopin' you guys have the answer."
"Oh, that's our specialty, sire!" the salesman crooned over the phone, "I have the feeling that this is the start of a wonderful and profitable partnership."
After that, the discussion of payment was arranged.
"We will have the summoning device sent to you right away," the salesman continued, a pleased tone in his voice, "if it's not there within the day, then we'll give you a discount on it."
Dedede and Escargon let out a sigh of relief.
"Hope we get your call soon, Triple D!" the salesman declared, "have a wonderful day."
The salesman hung up, leaving Dedede and Escargon to share a glance.
"Well," Dedede commented with a shrug, "that was—"
Without warning, a strange robed figure with an eye symbol on its hood teleported into the throne room with a massive box.
"Delivery for a…King Dedede?" the NESP asked, looking up at the penguin.
"Uhh," Dedede stammered, his forehead sweating nervously, "yeah, that's me."
The NESP pulled out a clipboard.
"Great! Just sign here."
The NESP handed the clipboard to Dedede. The penguin king looked over the document, not seeing anything strange about it. He signed it and handed it back.
"Ok," the NESP announced, "we can have this installed in twenty minutes."
A couple more NESPs and a few Gims showed up with hard hats and tools. Dedede and Escargon watched as they opened the box and pulled out the device's components. The penguin's eyes widened in shock as they started to rip the floor around his throne apart.
"Hey!" Dedede demanded, "what you think you're doing?!"
"That's where the device is going to be installed," the NESP explained, holding up some blueprints to the castle, "this room is perfect for it and it's secluded, since there's only one way in."
Dedede shuddered and narrowed his eyes at the sight of the blueprints.
"And where did you get those?" he barked, "give those back when you're done!"
Much to Dedede's relief, none of the secret passages in the castle, installed by the Waddle Dees, were listed in the blueprints. The Waddle Dees were the only ones who knew where all of them were and as far as Dedede knew, they haven't stopped making them. The penguin could only keep watching as the NESPs and Gims began assembling the device.
Meanwhile, Fumu waited outside the entrance to Zan Partizanne's tower.
"Ok," Fumu said to herself nervously, "this is it."
She might have talked big game yesterday, but she still had concerns over how dangerous magic could be. At the same time, it was also interesting especially for a young child like her. Fumu had a talk with her parents last night, she was more aware of what she was getting into. As much as she still wanted to learn magic, she now had her excitement tempered.
After a moment, the mechanical door slid open and Zan Partizanne emerged from the tower.
"Welcome," Zan greeted, "come right in. We can get started with the basics. Before that, though, have you had breakfast?"
Zan was just as nervous about teaching someone magic as apprenticeships were a big deal back in Halcandra. It was a little deeper than just being a teacher in most cases, as it normally ended up with the apprentice joining the family; maybe not in a literal sense every time, but there was a close bond between teacher and student usually.
"I did," Fumu answered.
Fumu followed Zan into the tower.
"Good to hear," Zan told her, "we'll figure out your affinity…that way, we can decide how best to teach you. Some affinities could have issues with our lessons, so it's best to figure out what you are best at, and how to direct your training. I don't have my sibling's power of divination, so we'll be using some specialized equipment instead to hopefully glean something of the true nature of your power."
"Got it," Fumu agreed.
Fumu and Zan set foot into the tower and gathered around a crystal ball sitting inside a large bowl.
"I need you to prick your finger gently," Zan instructed, "just enough to draw blood, but not too much."
Zan pulled out a small blade and handed it to Fumu.
"This blade will heal the cut right after it's made and is enchanted to be painless," she continued, "it will draw blood and there will be no wound left behind."
"Good to know," Fumu breathed.
"The crystal ball here will tell us what the 'shape' of your affinity is more or less," Zan added, "but sometimes, the details can be a bit hazy."
Fumu held up her hand while her other hand held the blade. Taking a deep breath and shutting her eyes, she gently drew the blade over her finger, not feeling any pain even when she instinctively flinched. She let out a sigh of relief when a couple drops of blood filled the bowl.
"Ok," Zan announced, "we can begin."
Zan put her hands on the crystal ball and channeled her mana. Fumu put down the blade. Before long, a shape started to appear in the foggy glass of the ball; a five-pointed star with soft curved edges instead of sharp ones.
"Oh?" Fumu paused.
"This is…" Zane's breath hitched slightly.
There was only one thing that it could represent…the core magic of her people, no less. Fumu gave Zan a blank stare. The thunder mage took a moment to clear her throat.
"It's an affinity for Dream," Zan clarified, "or what was essentially the core and most important magic of my people before we were all wiped out. It's one of the four greatest magics that we currently know of."
At that moment, Fumu's face brightened.
"I expect you have a bright future ahead of you," Zan continued, "I have a lot I can teach you, although you'll specialize in Artifice. Luckily, that's something I'm quite proficient in."
Fumu couldn't help but smile.
"I," Fumu clamored, "so what can you tell me about dream magic? It sounds like it's about sleeping and invading people's sleep."
"It's not just about the dreams you have when you sleep, although it pretty well could be," Zan corrected, "it's also about making dreams come true, it's about fighting back nightmares and monsters, it's about protecting the mind from doubt. Dreams are a versatile branch of magic since there is so much it can apply to. Its main use, however, is in the creation of tools that'll be used for the protection of yourself and others. The downside is that they can never harm another person unless they have ill intent for you or others. The tools will only harm if the person they are being used against is trying to harm another first. Or in more rare cases, is so evil and vile, and their soul so black and tainted that the power of these tools will function anyway, seeking to end the threat as they will surely cause harm in the future, as their soul is too black for redemption."
Fumu nodded slowly.
"And no one else has been seen with Dream magic?" Fumu asked, "unless Kirby counts?"
"Not since my entire race was wiped out," Zan shook her head, "it is one of four great magics…heart, soul, dream and dark being the big four that govern the universe as a whole. None are good or evil entirely, but they all certainly lean in one direction or the other. Heart and Dream are usually considered good while Soul and Dark are considered evil."
Zan Partizanne took a moment to recall that moment she and her sisters traveled to collect the scattered Jamba Hearts.
"As for Kirby," she continued, "he doesn't have much of a potential for magic. He can certainly use it, but not unless he uses a Copy Ability. If I were to guess his affinity, it would likely be Heart."
Fumu raised her index finger into the air.
"So why Heart?" Fumu mused.
"Heart is essentially the magic of friendship and understanding," Zan answered, "he has that in spades and people tend to just gather around. After fights, no one ends up dead most of the time unless they're legitimately evil, so that's probably one of the best indicators."
Fumu blinked twice and smiled softly, taking some time to jot down notes.
So when do we start doing practical work?" Fumu shot a glance at Zan, "I'm pretty excited to get started whenever you feel I'm ready."
"Well," Zan shrugged, "let's make sure you have the basics down before we get started on helping you sense your own magic properly. Here are some books on the subject, since I get the feeling you're more of a visual or auditory learner."
"No worries," Fumu replied.
Zan browsed the bookshelves and plucked off books one by one before handing them to Fumu. The young girl sat down in a lounge chair and opened the first book from the stack. All the while, the thunder mage went back to work on one of her own personal projects. The magical batteries on her desk weren't anything new, but she was using subpar materials compared to what she had access to on Halcandra. Fumu carefully studied the text in each book and each page, memorizing as many details she could sink into.
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