[color=ed1c24][b]Camilla & Phirra[/b][/color]
Collab with [@Ciaran][hr]

On the second day at Lancelot’s castle, Phirra decided it would be well-advised to pay Camilla a visit. The “girl”, though more than a little odd, had demonstrated her capabilities well enough, and, ultimately, taking the path of action in which a capable healer was readily in hand seemed correct. Of course, Phirra had already seen one application of Camilla’s capabilities (having thankfully arrived late for her experiment with Ester), and it had been just as disturbing as impressive.

Phirra wondered how she’d react to the metal that laced her bones, the entirely missing section of her arm and the magical liquid held inside. After busying herself until a reasonable hour of the morning, she braced herself, then knocked on the door. 

Once again, Camilla turned towards her door, a smile forming as she realized another person was there to be examined. The lab was already set up somewhat, with a half assembled machine in one corner, and the table, for both experiments and assembly, properly set up. By now the girl in the wall had was already growing across the entire wall, with the girl herself looking listlessly around. 

[color=ed1c24]”Come in.”[/color]

Phirra did so, looking across the room at the same time. The machinery was unsurprising, and in fact not entirely dissimilar to what she had made to assist in installing her augmentations. As for the wall, well, if it wasn’t clear why Phirra had been bracing herself before, it was now. She managed to keep her appearance fairly neutral, though she was more than a little discomforted by it.

“I’m here, as requested.” She began, stepping towards the middle of the room. “What do you need?”

Her glance at the fleshy material covering the wall was not lost on Camilla, as her smile widened slightly. 

[color=ed1c24]“Ah yes, welcome to my… workshop.”[/color] Camilla chuckled. [color=ed1c24]“Do not mind Matilda there. I’ve taken out her throat so she would not disturb us.”[/color]

Working quickly, she cleared the table of any instruments and parts, before patting on its surface, signalling for Phirra to lie down upon it.

[color=ed1c24]“Kindly take off any garments. Tis far easier for me to examine you then.”[/color]

Phirra nodded in response to Camilla’s comment about Matilda, before trying to ignore it - her - as best she could.

She was slightly surprised at the request to undress, though more because the thought hadn’t occurred to her previously than that it was at all unreasonable. Still, Camilla hadn’t made the same request of the half-dragon.

Regardless, after a moment’s hesitation, she obliged, lying down on the table. [i]If nothing else, this’ll be a new experience. I wonder if it’ll hurt.[/i], she thought.

Camilla grinned all the wider as the lady lay naked willingly upon her table. Like the warrior knight before her, her body was well toned, well fed, and well treated. Healthy, and attractive. Then again, all forms of flesh was attractive to her. 

[color=ed1c24]“Relax. I’ll be gentle.”[/color]

Her right hand first stroked the inside of Phirra’s neck, as if tracing her muscles, before her fingers entered her flesh without any resistance. Her pulse seemed steady, her muscles there wasn’t stressed, and her bones… seemed to be hollow? Camilla was getting a bit flushed; no matter how many times she did this, it was always exciting for her. Laying a hand on Phirra’s chest, again, she simply enjoyed the feeling of her skin for a moment, before pushing through her chest. Flesh parted around her hand without resistance, though, all of a sudden, Camilla’s hand caught on Phirra’s rib cage. Frowning slightly, she felt around it for a moment, before realizing what it was.

[color=ed1c24]“Ah, I see your bones are reinforced with metal. That explains why I felt your bones were hollow.”[/color]

Thankfully, Camilla kept her promise. Being examined didn’t hurt, but it felt very wrong. Almost a violation of privacy, and it wouldn’t be almost if Phirra hadn’t consented herself to it. It also made Phirra feel very vulnerable, for the first time in a long time. Camilla could just reach in and crush her heart, or kill her in any number of other ways someone that unstable could probably think of. At least it seemed she didn’t plan to, yet.

“Yes, that was my own design, actually. Better than lugging around a tank of Ether on my back, like other artificers have done. The metal was a necessity, or my bones would snap from my own weight alone. Could’ve used you then, actually. The operation was probably as painful as you’d expect, and it didn’t help that I was the one performing it. This won’t be a problem, will it? I can fix the metal if I need to.”

Perhaps it was irrational, but Phirra felt slightly relieved to discover that Camilla’s power was blocked by the reinforcements. It eased that sense of vulnerability, though it might cause a problem for her later on.

[color=ed1c24]“Oh? By yourself you say?”[/color] Camilla’s hand surged around the metal, feeling around the organs inside. Everything seemed to be working correctly, though Phirra’s heart was beating faster than it should. [color=ed1c24]“It would not be a problem. The metal I cannot affect, but if you want, I could do some alterations on your bone structure.”[/color]

Her hands went lower on Phirra’s body, still keeping that slow rhythmic movements across her belly. Her right hand had moved lower onto Phirra’s chest, acting as support while Camilla’s other hand moved lower and lower on Phirra’s body. There were some unknown structure in her hands, which she could feel to be something mechanical. Whatever it was it should be some sort of equipment she didn’t understand, not that she was overly interested in them at the moment.

[color=ed1c24]“Hey,”[/color] Camilla moved closer to Phirra, a slight flush evident on her grinning face. [color=ed1c24]“Do you need... want any sort of alterations? For starters, I could reinforce your bones. After that, anything you would like changed. Hair color perhaps? A different eye color? Perhaps you want to be taller? Slimmer? Stronger? So, would you like to?”[/color]

Phirra had no interest in cosmetics. She looked nice enough as she was, and she wasn’t exactly in the trade for drawing attention to oneself. Because of this, she was only really half listening to Camilla as she spoke, waiting for her to finish so she could politely decline. That was until Camilla said the work “stronger”.

This was, after all, the reason she had answered Lancelot’s call in the first place. She had hoped to acquire resources, artifacts, followers… whatever would help her kill Armas. Granted, she hadn’t expected it to come in this form, but it would still help, right? Maybe it would be a violation of her body, but the same could be said for what she’d already done to herself. It definitely didn’t feel right, but was that as important as the goal she’d been chasing for twelve years? At this point it was essentially her life’s work, and she might not get an opportunity like this again. Right. Decision made.

“Yes.” Her voice was a little unsteady, so she repeated, herself, more firmly. “Yes, I would like some things to change. I’m quite happy with how I look, though. I’m more interested in… the other side of it. Simply put, there is someone very powerful I mean to kill. I’ll need every advantage I can get. What can you do?”

Camilla’s red pupils seem to gleam against the black sclera of her eyes. What [i]can[/i] she do? She could think of giving her the ability to rapidly generate bones to shoot at projectiles, literally shoot out dragon fire from any existing orifice or any new ones she wants made, or even give her the ability to generate poisonous mist.

“What can I [i]do[/i]?” She let out a small snicker at that. “What do [i]you[/i] want? A third limb to hold another weapon? The ability to shoot out venom with your eyes? Tell me what you want, and I’ll see what I can do.”

This posed an important question to Phirra. How far should she go? She’d already determined that her campaign of vengeance was more important than her humanity, but by how much? She had been prepared to simply let Camilla do whatever she pleased and make do with the result, but apparently that wasn’t happening. Instead, to pick and choose whatever changes she desired, made it seem more malignant. She certainly wasn’t on the side of good anyway, but she considered herself closer to it than some of her accomplices. This… was difficult.

Two things came to mind, in terms of making things more specific. First of all, she wanted to keep a humanoid form. Further than that was definitely too far. Secondly, whatever happened, she didn’t want her Ether constructions to be wasted. She spent too much time working on that crossbow to end up having it clatter to the floor as her arm changes to something new.

To simplify things, Phirra decided that whatever she chose, it would be something that would cover her primary weakness: melee combat. Even then, there was so much that might be done. Claws? Strength? An extra arm, as Camilla had said?

But then, why limit oneself? Perhaps she could be as the vampire, Ester, and never age. Maybe she could be as a phasm, changing form at will. It was a difficult decision.

“Laugh, then. Be as confident as you wish. A few minutes ago I’d have called you arrogant. Oddly enough, having someone move through your body like it’s nothing can change your opinion of their capability. Still, let’s see if I can’t give you a challenge. Have you ever met a gorgon? Their eyes can turn someone to stone, but they can be easily recognised by the snakes that cover their head instead of hair. Give me the first, but not the second. And do let me suppress the ability, I think we can agree that both of us are better as flesh than as stone.”

Camilla stared at the woman lying on the table for a moment, before she burst out laughing. “Perhaps I am overconfident of my skill. The second I start working on the eyes, I would be turned to stone, for the eyes itself is magic. I am but a craftsman, working not with wood or metal, but with flesh. I have no magic to speak of to suppress eyes with such power.”

Feeling as if Phirra might be overwhelmed with her choices, she simply followed her intuition, honed in the years of dealing with customers as a clockmaker and mechanic, offering her a suggestion.

“While cursed eyes might be far beyond my abilities, perhaps something something like enhanced strength and speed be sufficient for now?”

“That does not surprise me. I imagined there would be something making the concept impossible, though I didn’t know what. I merely intended to gauge your powers. No doubt at least some of the other knights would react poorly to such an occurrence. In any case, it is quite comforting to me that such a thing would be impossible. Yes, speed and strength would be wonderful.”

Though she was not lying in that she never had really meant to gain such powers from Camilla, a part of Phirra was a little disappointed. On the other hand, where would the challenge in killing her targets be if she could simply petrify anyone she could see? Yes, it was definitely for the best.

Besides, the whole thing was slightly embarrassing. Something more subtle would be fine.

Camilla licked her lips as Phirra made her decision. Deftly she jumped onto the table, straddling the unclothed woman lying there. 

“Relax. It would be harder to work if your muscles are tensed.”

Her body melted slightly into Phirra, establishing a contact link between both of them. With this, she could feel what Phirra was feeling, and vice versa. Already Phirra should be able to feel the waves of...excitement and desire from Camilla, as her hands moved rapidly in a pattern inside Phirra’s body, laying first the latticework upon which she would layer on the muscles.

Despite Camilla’s advice, the first thing Phirra did upon Camilla melding with her was to tense up. It was hard not to, but in a moment Phirra remembered herself and, despite how every instinct she had screamed no, relaxed. “Relaxed” might have been the wrong word, though, as soon the strangeness passed, and Camilla’s happiness to be working was equally her happiness to be worked on.

The actual process, the work being done, was nothing like Phirra had ever experienced. The feeling of growing stronger, doing something that would otherwise take countless hours of work instead in minutes, was exciting even without Camilla’s influence. Oh, how Armas would regret every moment he’d spent that would have led him to that one moment. How he would suffer. How Phirra would take it all back.

Accompanied by dreams of her retribution, Phirra relaxed fully, and waited for the process to be finished.

With Phirra now relaxed fully, Camilla worked quickly, weaving first Phirra’s own muscles as she compressed them, before pouring out her own flesh. All the time, waves of euphoria washed over them, with some big enough to make Camilla to just stop for a moment as she convulsed slightly over the lady. But with time, she finished her work, as she just collapsed on the lady entirely, breathing heavily. 

“My... apologies, but I need to… to rest for a short while.” Still speaking from where she was, she continued. “For now, you’d be able to lift a man one handed with no problem, as well as react quicker and just barely outrun a horse. It is far from what I can do, but doing everything all at once would probably destroy your body if you do not get accustomed to it first.”

Finally able to move a little bit, she pushed off Phirra, sitting up on her. There was a satisfied smug grin on her face as she continued. “You would probably feel the need to eat more, but that effect is normal. For now, continue on doing what you do, and… if there are any strange side effects you feel you should not have, come to me again.”

Camilla separated her flesh from Phirra, severing their contact link. Getting off the table, she wobbled over under Matilda, before leaning against the wall and sinking down. “Examination.. Over… I… going to… rest now… thank…”

She nodded off, without ever finishing her sentence, having exhausted herself to sleep.

“Thankyo-” Phirra began, before Camilla passed out. Feeling slightly awkward, she walked to the door quietly and left.

Lift a man one-handed? Outrun a horse? This would do very well. Yes, Phirra imagined she’d be taking full advantage of these capabilities very soon. And again, another time. But that could wait. For now, she had a task to perform, and she needed to make sure she was ready.

[center]***[/center]

Days later, while attending to the mass of flesh now covering most of her workshop, she was told to go and get on a carriage. Her services was needed, it would seem, to either fix machine or flesh, as both were part of her repertoire. Obviously she had waited until one of the people she still wanted to desperately dissect live arrived. 

Which was why she was sitting close — uncomfortably close some would say — to the dragon girl. 

That said, it was a very long journey, with nothing of interest to her along the way. Twice now she had fallen asleep, and woken up to find the carriage still trundling around. Perhaps she should make a better horse. A faster horse with at least eight legs. In fact, she could very well go out and do it right now. If only she wasn't so sleepy from the utter boredom of travel. Perhaps she could pretend to fall asleep as an excuse to grab that dragon girl's tail this time. 

All of a sudden, Camilla realized where they were; in a foggy path with odd noises coming from around them. She started to grin. It was starting to feel like home, though the goblins seemed on edge. Perhaps there will be an ambush soon. She could certainly use the entertainment.