"Yes, we were going to do that, weren't we," he murmurs in agreement, recalling their experiments on the portal, before they were called back to the fort. 

"Can you control how powerful your enhancement is? If you can find a power like it again," he adds, assuming he's likely gone through a few in the meantime.

"The enhancement is one of my permanent powers." Zephyrinus explains. "But yes, I can control how strong the improvement is."

"Since we don't want a repeat of my last experience with it," he says, wry. 

"But enhancement does seem like a good experiement to do - the Nomad does it for me, so perhaps it won't be as dangerous, now that we know our magics interact that way." 

"Yes. We could test with something that won't be dangerous. Maybe some form of telekinesis that makes the object stick to a place? That way it won't give us anything more dangerous than a new obstacle."

"Yes," he agrees, narrowing his eyes in thought. An already cast spell would be best - sidestepping the chance that suddenly having a greater volume of free magic to control might do something unexpected - and a simple 'stay in place' one would be difficult to mess up in a dangerous way, he hopes. 

Shall they finish their dinner so they can get to the magic tests? 

They shall!

Food! 

Jaim hums in thought as he stands from the table, leaving his plate to be returned later, "We should move to another field for this," he considers, "In case something should somehow go wrong, with any of the experiments we end up trying." 

"I was going to suggest that. Also, I am going to need a few minutes to create the spare wings. Which is not as bad as shifting, but not exactly pleasant to watch."

"Your magic really likes pain," he comments. He nods, "I can wait," he says, "I should change into another shirt, anyways, if we're going to use the adamantium on this one." Ilek should have a few he can borrow briefly - Jaim's shorter than him, and they won't have runescript, since most people just wear their coats instead, but they'll do for a little while. 

Nod. Zephyrinus finds a private place to shift and to create his artifact wings.

He can draw the partition down, covering his part of the tent.

Jaim spends a few minutes cutting the runescripted bits off of the shirt he's been using - no one will miss it - before attending to finding a new one. 

When Zephyrinus finishes his own business and comes back out into the rest of the tent, he'll find Jaim going through what's left of Ilek's things, still, looking for something that is 1. Not stained and 2. Not ripped up. The teen goes through shirts like no one else Jaim knows. 

He's shirtless - his back is covered in scars, what looks like dozens of deliberate cuts, all over his shoulder blades, and extending part way down his lower back. 

He is carrying two net sets of wings and only notices the scars after a moment. Then he blinks. "How did you get those scars?"

He whips up and around when Zephyrinus speaks, holding what he's concluded is the best shirt of the lot. His other hand goes back to touch a bit of the scar tissue on his lower back. He must've taken longer cutting up that shirt than he had thought. 

His cheeks redden a bit, "They're..." from a series of poor decisions he made once, and kept making after that, until someone else stopped it for him. He clears his throat, "An... idiotic decision I made once," he decides to finish his thought.

"Several decisions, actually," he adds, "And several times." 

Istaim continues to this day to insist that he has the worst taste. He can't always argue with them, given. It's why they get veto on anyone he wants to make an elite, nowadays. 

"Decisions...?"

He hesitates. He shouldn't have said anything, he knows. Nothing Zephyrinus has said has confirmed - but if transitioning is accepted - but they don't necessarily correlate - 

"...My first lieutenant," he says, after a moment. "The choice to accept him into my elites was a mistake." He pauses, then, "As was the decision to sleep with him." 

"Oh. I am sorry. Are you alright?"

He snorts, "He's dead," he says. 

(The lack of reaction is a relief.)

Whether this means he's ok or not is up for debate. 

(Das can't hurt him anymore but he didn't even mind, really - sometimes he even liked it. It was the blackmail that was the problem - the implicit threat to go public if what they had ever ended. Istaim didn't see it that way when he went to them for advice. His view on the matter is why they insisted on swearing themself to him, afterwards. 

He doesn't really regret any of the decisions he made. He didn't really want Das dead, either. But that's Istaim for you.) 

"That's technically neither a 'yes' nor a 'no'."

He huffs a laugh. Is he alright? Who knows - certainly not him. That's not Das' fault, though. 

His lips twist into something like a wry smile, "No one around here is alright. Anyone who tells you differently is either lying or delusional," he says - answering his question, technically. 

Nod. "For reasons other than the war?"

He looks down, stilling his hands when he notices he's been twisting Ilek's shirt. 

"The war, most of all," he answers. "We haven't been winning. Maybe something can be done about that, now. But for a long time it's looked entirely inevitable, that soon enough, in five or ten years, we would lose. And of course that many of us would die, along the way.

"Many of us for other reasons, as well, though." 

He gives a knowing nod. "The exchange of different kinds of magic should help. Both ways, even. If we can manage interworld contact."

"Yes," he agrees, "It will fix many things, I expect. And... I hope we can help your people as much as you will be helping mine."

He untwists the shirt, shaking it out and pulling it on, finally. It's long-sleeved, to combat the cold air. 

While he buttons it up, he glances up at Zephyrinus from under his lashes. "...We were going to do magic experiments," he reminds him, tentatively. Also: wings. Assuming he hasn't ruined that with inconveniently timed revalations. 

"Correct. Uh, the wings sort of hook themselves to your back, it should be fine to keep your shirt on, but it will involve... pressure in the area."