He was being threatened, which itself told Silenos that the King was preparing to cooperate. One did not give such ultimatums to a man one had no intention of further interacting with. That he’d had a hand raised to him, however, could not be forgiven. Any man fool enough to strike a Shaiagrazni would find the limits of human cruelty extended before him, that had been the case for millennia before Silenos had even been born.

But he did not now live in the lands of House Shaiagrazni, and it was not a normal man who had struck him.

If Silenos fought King Galukar, he would find himself disadvantaged. In close quarters, without his war form, there would be a scarce chance of victory. He could certainly buy time enough to flee and absorb the necessary external biomass to meet his enemy with all of his power, and yet even that would cause issues.

Galukar was a proud king, a warrior king, and such kings would only be further enraged if retaliated against. He was considering Silenos a potential ally, and that might be changed if he had his pride crushed before him.

Threats were another option, a simple demonstration of power, and yet that too ran the risk of causing a prick of the ego and an escalation of the conflict. Silenos ran through one option after another, trying to find some way of asserting himself without compromising the alliance he’d come to Abaritan in search of.

He found none.

Silenos swallowed, both the salty blood in his mouth and the bitter fury mounting in his throat. It was an irksome compromise that he had to accept the emotional stabs in order to enjoy the intuitive empathy that had served him so well in his assessment.

“Understood.” He replied, after a moment, but did not look away from the King. “You will be accompanying us as Ensharia asked, then?”

Irritation sparked upon Galukar’s face. Silenos let himself enjoy it, however disadvantaged he’d found himself by circumstance, he could at least remain certain he’d find little intellectual rivalry in this world.

“I will be accompanying you.” Galukar spat, literally spat, though not at Silenos. “My Hand was left alive, I noticed. Did you do that on purpose?”

Silenos said nothing, and the King’s lip curled.

“Casters, you’re all snakes.” He sneered. “In any case he’ll be remaining in control of Abaritan in my absence. He’s a traitor, and I’m having him whipped as a traitor, but…He’s the only one beside myself and my sons who’s established enough in our city to take command without disrupting things. And my people have suffered enough already.”

Silenos saw a flicker of half-buried emotion at mention of the King’s sons, but there was otherwise no chink in his armour of idiocy besides that. He tucked all of the information briskly away into his memory, nodded to show he’d comprehended, then stood.

“Will that be all?” Silenos asked, enjoying the seemingly perpetual fury upon Galukar’s face.

“Yes, damn it.” The man growled. “It will be all.”

Silenos took his leave without another word, finding himself rather eager to be out of the giant, fist-throwing barbarian’s presence. He was beginning to grow tired of being ambushed, beginning, almost, to regret his pursuits of magic. Beginning to look forward to the day when he’d have the luxury of preparing his forces the way he had for House Shaiagrazni.

But his pondering was interrupted as he stepped out through the doors and found Ensharia awaiting him beyond them, her eyes on the floor, her arms folded with hidden nerves. Her armour as ruined as it had been when she first brought news to him of Falls.

Any other time Silenos might have expected another lecture from the Paladin, but she seemed somehow past such things now. He weighed her in silence, deciding to simply wait for her to speak and see where it took them both.

“I would like you to…Improve my power.” Ensharia said at last, mumbling the words so quietly that even Silenos’ augmented ears strained to pick them out. He didn’t let his gaze waver.

“And this will not be something you change your mind on later?” He asked, rather eager to avoid the inconvenience of having her commit suicide in a dysphoric frenzy. She nodded, then raised her eyes to his.

Silenos could see a certainty burning behind them, the one that seemed to imbue all other things Ensharia did. He knew there would be no second thoughts on this one’s behalf.

“Very well then, but I must attend to something first. Meet me beside Falls’ resting chambers.”

The matter demanding Silenos’ focus was securing a rider, and he was careful to threaten the Hand into getting him the fastest one possible. It did not take too long, Necromancers had a way of intimidating the new world’s denizens that went beyond any tangible power.

With that seen to, he met Ensharia in their agreed upon place, and found the woman in the room beside Falls’. Her armour had been removed, and much of the clothing beneath that, revealing a body of hardly cloven musculature covered only by her undergarments. He could tell she was embarrassed at the exposure, which begged a rather important question.

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“Why did you remove your apparel?”

She blinked, stared at him, then stared at the wall as her face slowly began to turn red with pooling blood.

“You need to…It’s like a medical procedure, right, like a chirurgeon’s treatment?”

“No.” Silenos told her. “I just need physical contact and I can observe every facet of your body at once, would you like to-”

“-Turn around.” She demanded, standing and reaching for her discarded clothes where they were neatly piled beside her. Silenos did so, waiting patiently for her to finish clothing, then turned back around.

Ensharia looked rather like she’d just found out what sexual intercourse was from her parents, whilst watching a demonstration. Silenos wished he had less pressing issues and less grim moods concerning him, any other time he might have enjoyed the emotional distress Instead he just started forwards.

“Sit.” He advised. “This will take some time.”

She did not flinch as Silenos’ hands came down upon her shoulders, nor as his presence probed the insides of her body for points of improvement. That made things easier. The process of a large-scale, permanent Fleshcrafting always started with a proper survey of the body in its original state, for good reason. The human form was a fiendishly complex machine, however inefficient it was, and there were thousands of potential points of failure that an ignorant, hasty or stupid Fleshcrafter might trip upon to ruin their work.

He mapped each one out, making notes of the places in which Ensharia’s proportions differed from a conventional human form, then got to work. His first focus was the muscle fibres, and it was here that Silenos found one of his hypotheses confirmed. Though he extended more than enough power to improve Ensharia’s body, reshaping the tissue just as he had Falls’, he found the changes coming slowly, awkwardly and tediously.

The magic that made her stronger, faster and more durable than would otherwise have been possible, clearly, had the secondary effect of interfering with efforts to Fleshcraft her. Silenos took a moment to acknowledge the issue, then compensated for the resistance by simply flooding Ensharia with mana.

She gasped, quivered in shock, and he felt a stab of annoyance.

“Hold still.” Silenos instructed her. He sensed embarrassment in the woman’s voice as she replied.

“I’m sorry but…It stings. Like sitting next to a bonfire.”

“It’s your own fault for having a body that interferes with the application of my genius.” Silenos replied, calmly, “Now hold still and stop interfering more.”

He could sense her annoyance, but it did not go so far as to manifest as further inconvenience. Ensharia slowly stilled as he continued his work.

“The next Hero, tell me about them.” Silenos instructed, just as he moved his work onto the woman’s nerves. “It seems there is a considerable chance we will be meeting them in combat, and I would like to ensure we do so with prior knowledge of their capabilities.”

“Of course.” Ensharia answered, seeming to have calmed somewhat as the procedure continued. “His name is Swick the Swift. Or rather, that’s the name he’s most commonly known by at least.”

“His powers, capabilities, resources?” Silenos prodded.

“A translocator.” Ensharia replied. “I don’t know if you know-”

“I do.” Silenos noted, finding himself suddenly less confident in their mission. Translocation magic was more than just known to him, it was one of the most infamous and challenging kinds that had ever existed. The power to disappear and reappear elsewhere within an instant had been known to only a handful of House Shaiagrazni over the course of their history.

Ensharia sounded hesitant as she spoke next.

“Are you okay?” The Paladin asked, and Silenos found himself redoubling his efforts, irritated. He’d been concerned, thinking back to his last encounter with a translocator, and it irked him to have her notice something was off so quickly.

“It’s a difficult magic to contend with.” Was all he said.

“But a useful one to get on our side.” Ensharia noted. Silenos paused, then hummed, acknowledging the point. It concerned him slightly how his emotions were affecting him, these days. It was quite unlike him, and very unbecoming of a Shaiagrazni, to spend so long concerned over a potential enemy, rather than plotting to seize the potential asset.

That it was worth considering the advantages of Swick’s aid did not mean it was worth jeapordizing their mission to obtain it, however. In all likelihood the Necromancer would reach him before they did, given her seemingly superior travel speed.

Silenos moved onto Ensharia’s bones, replacing them with the same organic carbides he’d sustained Falls with, reworking the marrow to produce antitoxins, then adding a dozen other small advantages that might make the difference between life and death.

“What does he do, then. You have told me of this Swick’s magic and abilities, but not of his profession, allies, skills or anything else.”

She told him shortly. A sky pirate, furthering the recurring trend of new world names being loathsomely uncreative, and one of some renown. Swick was famously fast, famously cunning, and infamously crooked. Along with his crew. He had all the markings of one who would be more than a little tedious to track down.

Yes, better to pursue the fifth on their list rather than him.

“I am finished.” He finally said, once he’d completed the delicate process of encasing her brainstem and spinal cord in a somewhat thicker protective bone.

Ensharia pulled away, standing with a thoughtful look as she flexed her fingers and tested her weight.

“I don’t feel much different.” She noted.

“That is by design.” Silenos told her. “I altered your nervous system and motor cortices, essentially adding muscle memory designed for this level of physical potence. Your body has changed in many ways, most slight, some large. It will take time to relearn, but I have given you a head start.”

Only a head start. The human brain was too complex for any precise manipulation of motor neurons to be applied. For now. Ensharia still had many hours of practice and adjustment awaiting her.

“I would advise you to find someone substantially more powerful than you used to be if you wish for a sparring partner.” Silenos advised. “And, on top of that, make sure you hold back. You are several times your previous strength.”

The Paladin looked caught between displeasure and excitement, settling for a dutiful, severe nod. If nothing else, she had a healthy respect for power.

“Thank you.” She replied, and Silenos dismissed her with a gesture.

“Begone, I have my own work to do.”

She took her leave quickly, and left Silenos with nothing but his own company. Perfect.

His second direct confrontation had exposed yet more weaknesses, and this time Silenos’ enemy had escaped being killed. They would almost doubtlessly fight again, and he began preparing his countermeasures with outright relish.