It was not Silenos’ first time attempting to craft flying entities, indeed he’d done so on more than one occasion. Even gone so far as to imbue his own combat form with the power of flight. Today’s attempt, however, brought with it a new order of practical issues he’d never been beset with before.

And it all came down to a matter of weight.

Shaiagraznian combat forms tended to be heavy things, of course. Four thousand kilograms in Silenos’ case, and he’d known peers to go so high as triple that. There were simply natural advantages which came inherent to a great size and mass. Strength, resilience, yes. But momentum, too. A resilience against the hurling effects of battle-magics could be vital when war was waged in the hostile conditions his people had become accustomed to. Pools of shadestuff, chasms running down core-deep, there were any number of hazards which might slay even the sturdiest enemies if they did not anchor themselves against shifts in momentum.

But it was a different grade of mass altogether which he was trying to provide lift for, now. Lift and propulsion.

The fundamental task before Silenos was crafting a substitute for Swick the Swift’s flying vessel. Such a thing was actually rather primitive by Shaiagraznian standards, which tended towards larger aerial vehicles of far more advanced armour plating and weaponry. Unfortunately, House Shaiagrazni achieved such creations with a far broader scope of power than Silenos had available to him.

Aside from his knowledge of biochemistry, he had no ability at all to create inorganic materials. If something was not an approximation of a substance native to some eukaryotic or prokaryotic life form, then it was beyond him. Which meant he could not build the kinds of power generation or propulsive technology which permitted such towering vehicles.

Naturally, that brought about his first concession. Size. Silenos had been intending to craft something in the order of many hundreds of metres’ length, weighing thousands, even millions of tonnes. That wasn’t happening, not unless he was content with a near-stationary vessel, and so he reluctantly scaled down his designs. One third, one quarter, eventually one seventh. It was a painful lack, but if nothing else it simplified his work. Not enough to leave it unchallenging, however.

The rest of it would have to wait, though, for it was around that time that his door opened. Silenos turned to gaze upon the Vampira Lilia, strolling into his laboratory as if it were hers. He decided to wait a moment, and obliterate her only if her justification was particularly sub-par.

“Good evening.” She began. “I see you’re hard at work, as usual.”

It always irked Silenos when the short-lived ordinary people outside his Household insisted on the tedium of small talk, and his surprise at seeing similar behaviour from a being as ancient as this almost outweighed his fury. He buried both. There was surely some order to her behaviour, after two millennia.

“One of several vital projects.” He replied. “But you have not come here out of mere curiosity, what is it that you want?”

The Vampire smiled.

“Very well, to business then. You are centuries old, I believe.”

“Not yet two.” Silenos corrected. “But close.”

It seemed to surprise the creature.

“Really? You carry yourself like one of considerably greater age, interesting. Well, either way, you are certainly among the greatest experts of Fleshcrafting and Necromancy to set foot in this world.”

“The greatest that ever will.” Silenos corrected. The Vampire did not contradict him, nor did it agree.

“As you say. And my visit here is to inquire as to whether you might use that knowledge to free my kind of our greatest weakness.”

Ah, Silenos might have known. She had come to him for preservation from the sun. He would have done much the same. Vampires were an interesting breed, he had decided, and demanded further study. Certainly inferior to the purer forms of immortality his people had discovered- even within the soul bounds of Necromancy, Lichdom was by far the better choice. They had considerable power, longevity, and a degree of other advantages over even a potent enough caster to become one.

But their reliance on blood, their bestial instincts. Their vulnerability to sunlight and enfeeblement during the day. It was all simply untenable. Yes, Silenos would be doing just what Lilia did now if he were in her position.

“You are aware that what you suffer from is a supernatural affliction.” He noted, confirming the fact with a hasty glance from his arcane sight. Vampiric magic was strange, and…Yes, Abyssal in nature. Touched by an Entity. Clearly Esotericism was at work in it. Whether Lilia knew that, he was not sure.

“Of course.” She replied. “That much has been obvious for quite some time. You know a man once tried to destroy me using magic he claimed to have been perfected in its ability to conjure the same style of light as the sun.”

“Ultraviolet?” Silenos inquired. The Vampire looked at him, blankly, and he sighed. Expected, he supposed. “Continue.”

The narrative has been illicitly obtained; should you discover it on Amazon, report the violation.

She did.

“Well, to cut a long story short- at the cost of removing all the most entertaining parts- his false-sunlight did me no more harm than might the warmth of a campfire. And then I drained his blood.”

Once more, the Vampire’s tongue ran along her lips as she said that, gaze seeming to intensify as it fell upon Silenos’ eyes. Was that some sort of verbal tic? He decided to investigate the idiosyncrasy later.

“May I examine you?” He asked.

The Vampire smiled.

“Of course, I would be remiss to deny such a vital step of the process.”

She stepped forwards, splaying her arms, and Silenos approached cautiously. With a single touch he could feel the woman’s millennia.

Aside from the raw, crushing power which came naturally to any caster whose life continued for long enough, there were certain tells of a person’s age to be found within their magic. Skill, obviously, though that could easily be mistaken for raw talent. As could a simple weight of power for that matter. Indeed, the rate at which any two individuals accumulated magical prowess varied so much that Silenos had found, in his many decades studying it, there was truly only one way that even approximated a fool-proof metric for assessing another’s age.

It was the density of traps, pitfalls, feints and misdirections wrapped around them.

He carefully navigated the labyrinthine preparations of Lilia’s magic, allowing himself to study each one as he bypassed it, and consider them all fully. There was not a dual-nature, as he had seen in the Vampire’s spawn Hexeri. Silenos saw at least three distinct kinds of magic. Blood and Shadow, yes, but Necromancy, too. True Necromancy, and…

No, four. Because he found a mastery over wills and minds among many of the defences as well. Even in House Shaiagrazni, four distinct magic types was a rarity- the inherently exceptional ability of any caster to consort with Entities aside- that few could claim. Perhaps one in ten who shared Silenos’ name did so, and almost all were over one thousand years into their studies.

Among all of his Household, a scarce handful had ever reached the height of five. Even Silenos’ own Master, he believed, grasped only six. It was a chilling sight.

The purposes of Lilia’s defences were varied and inscrutable. Some were almost crude in their design, boasting techniques and measures made redundant in House Shaiagrazni before even the Vampire’s birth, while others involved techniques that actually exceeded even theirs.

It truly was like meeting an Elder of his Household. One who had acted independently from all the rest, and grown disparate in their knowledge as a result. Silenos would have been humbled, were he not studying a Necromantic, subhuman automaton fit only for carrying out his glorious will.

He persevered in his examination, noting that each of the defences was turned from him and laxed, but not deactivated. At a thought, the Vampire might ensnare him in all of them. With their magic so interwoven he would be destroyed, instantly, if she did. And so Silenos kept his mind focused carefully on ensuring that his own thought of breaking the connection came first.

“A waste.” He murmured, deciding that distracting her was just as much a boon as focusing himself.

Fortunately, the Vampire took his bait. Unless she was merely pretending to.

“What is?” She frowned.

“You.” Silenos clarified. “Your power is breathtaking. Had you been inducted into House Shaiagrazni a thousand- even a hundred- years ago, you would be far beyond my own abilities now.”

The Vampire studied him.

“Most men would never say that, regardless of its truth.” She noted. “Pride would stop them.”

Silenos felt the disgust creeping into his cognition like grease in a whirring machine.

“Pride.” He echoed. “An odious concept. There is no pride, nor is there humility. There is only the basic fact of one’s excellence, and either an ability or inability to properly assess it. Everything else is illusory.”

He had not said those words in over a hundred years. He had not needed to, and they took his thoughts back a moment to his days as an aspirant. Young. So, so young. And foolish. Silenos had not yet been taught of the world, all he’d known of it was the burning fields of so many wars, and the simple, bare fact that those who could not produce such carnage were doomed to suffer beneath it.

“You really believe that, don’t you?” The Vampire asked.

Silenos was in the present once more, irritated for a reason he could not quite grasp.

“It does not matter what I believe, it is the truth. Pride serves nobody, least of all the people feeling it.”

“But are you not pleased to be so potent a caster?” She challenged. “Delight and relish at knowing your magic to be so totally unrivalled, that could surely be called a form of pride.”

Silenos was almost halfway to answering before he realised what he’d almost fallen for, and paused. He decided to reply anyway. The information was far from sensitive.

“I am not the greatest caster I have ever encountered.” He told the woman. “I am not even counted amongst them. Within House Shaiagrazni there are dozens whose power, skill or intellect surpass mine- at least for the time being. My talent is unprecedented, but that is all.”

Surprise did not appear to be in the Vampire’s facial arsenal, for she didn’t flash so much as an instant of it.

“Fascinating.” She replied.

They drifted to silence at that, and Silenos let his wits drift further. Finally, he broke contact.

“I have seen enough.” He told the Vampire, eying her warily now. “You know, I take it, where your magic comes from?”

She smiled.

“We call them Demons here.”

Silenos did not roll his eyes, her power and knowledge was just barely sufficient to earn that courtesy.

“Entities,” He replied, “Are a common sight among House Shaiagrazni, for reasons I imagine you well know. Summoned properly, bound well, they are forces beyond the magic of any caster. Even ones of my creed.”

“Which makes them even more dangerous than they are useful.” She noted. “And, of course, immediately raises questions about your ability to overcome the side-effects of a curse borne from their blood and power.”

It did, and Silenos did not bother mustering any surprise to see Lilia’s deduction either. He would have been rather disappointed to witness anything less.

“The Entity from which your power stems is more tightly woven into it than I have encountered personally. The magic is…Considerable, and it is…Entity magic.”

She considered that.

“It doesn’t follow the rules both of us have grown accustomed to.” Lilia guessed.

“It does not.” He concurred, considering the problem. “It would be a considerable investment to put the necessary time into fixing this, even if it is possible.”

The Vampire smiled.

“And yet, as someone who has just seen both the weight and sharpness of my magic, you must surely realise that granting me the ability to walk unimpeded by day would be a greater reward still.”

She had orchestrated it all on purpose, from the start. Silenos nodded.

“I concur.”