"So. To be sure he's dead it'd be safest to check." She sighs, then shakes her head. "Anyway. Uh, could I have my ring back, please? I'll need it to get us home in any kind of reasonable timeframe."

That's a very weird way for her to phrase it but sure she can have her ring back.

Yeah. Iovetra's not convinced he would take anything she asked of him as a request, instead of an order, but the phrasing makes her feel a little bit better.

They gather up the most easily carried materials and weapons - the major barrier is size, not weight, for the two of them - and then they can head out. She sets a small torch just outside the tavern door, then lights it; apparently it won't last as a beacon forever, but it'll let her find her way back to gather everything they're leaving behind.

His new lady considers the mists outside critically, then offers Cyllian her hand. "You should probably keep hold of me. I don't know how the woods handle groups of people yet, but I expect there will be all sorts of bizarre tricks to separate us."

"...tricks?" he asks, accepting the profered hand.

"The forest is magically belligerent, and it wants us to get lost in it forever and then probably die," she informs him, very seriously. "Moving thorn bushes, shifting trees, and occasional murderous beasts that come from the depths, to mix it up a bit. It doesn't mess with the underlying topography as much as the foliage, so it's just barely navigable with a proper map and methodology, but that doesn't make it easy. Without cheating. Which I am."

"Hmm. Would it be thwarted by going intangible and walking in a straight line?"

"... Maybe! That's an interesting question, and I'm now very curious." She smiles at him, even as she tugs him through the mists while perfectly corporeal. "But it should wait for testing until I've got you back home, and gotten you a ring of your own to navigate to it in case it doesn't. I don't want to lose you in here."

"A ring...? Like the one you used to show me my heart?"

"Exactly like it. The way I'm cheating is that my coffin is in my castle, and, like your heart, there's a piece of my soul inside. So I can use that as a beacon to navigate by, without making a giant obvious beacon to anyone that might wander into the woods. And then I'd just do the same for you and your heart."

"And the torch back there?"

"Not a part of me, just a very obvious magical thing that others would be able to notice. It's possible that when I return - or we, if you want to make the trip back with me - there will be exciting visitors waiting, attracted to the only landmark they can find. Really, I'm hoping it'll attract your previous master like a very dumb moth to a flame, and then he can be killed."

"Hmm. I see."

"Any opinions on that, one way or another?" she asks, hoping to maybe prod him until a preference pops out.

"...if it would serve the lady, I believe I am more than capable of taking him out."

... close enough. And probably two people to carry stuff back is more efficient, even if they don't run into any sort of trouble.

"I didn't doubt your abilities, but, all right. We can go back together, once everything's dropped off and your heart is squared away."

"Understood."

There's a bit more tromping through muddy swamp until they reach their destination, but it's not particularly notable. Through either luck, or the way being cleared in advance, or perhaps looking like a less tempting target as a pair than instead of a lone traveler, nothing comes out to try and kill them.

"Almost there," she says, as they ascend out of the marshlands and reach a particularly dense thicket of (thorned) trees. "My castle's just on the other side of this, it's just finding where the hole in the trees has been moved to." Because, of course, it doesn't stay fucking still. Nooo, that would be too reasonable.

"Would it be easier to find the hole from the other side?"

"Probably, but. ... It might get testy with us. The wall, I mean. It was hard enough to convince it to keep a hole at all."

"I see." He supposes they'll just need to search, then.

Yep. That is the way of things. In this forest, anyway. It's not too difficult to find, but it is a bit tedious. And she continues to keep hold of him the entire time they look for it.

"See," she tells... the hole in the thorn wall... "what a good and useful spot this is." She pats a slightly less thorned bit of the hole with her free hand. "... I have no idea if talking to it works, just. This is much better than accidentally teleporting into the thorn wall." Because, see, her teleport only works a certain distance, and it's hard to judge how thick this thing is from the outside. And the whole thing is possibly inclined to be hostile to her in particular. Finding out she could teleport in between thorny trees was not a fun experience.

On the other side of the thicket of trees is a garden, and a modest and vine covered castle. The garden is tidy, artfully laid out, and about half of its flora are glowing various colors. A large fraction of them are roses that match the unnatural color of their tender's hair, but some of them are a pale blue evocative of moonlight, and others burn a warm orange like they're made from fire itself. The vines grow up subtle trellises; the upper vines are an ordinary green, but clusters of blood red blooms seem to be waging and winning a war to take over real estate on the side of the castle. It might very well be swallowed by roses at some point.

He can sense the magic in the castle from here. It's subtle, but... alive. Pulsing steadily like a heartbeat. It seems to recognize that they share a mistress; while it doesn't say hello, one might get the impression that it is acknowledging him and allowing him to enter.

...huh. Well, hello to you, too, castle.

"Are the plants... not decorative?" he wonders aloud. He is not, himself, familiar with any kind of herbalism, so it's all kind of very mysterious to him.

"These are all practical, and can be used in various potions." But then she smiles. "But they're also decorative. They can be both. The blood roses can make healing potions. ... For vampires, anyway, I'll probably have to figure out something else for you."

"I reform. I do not need healing."

His mistress rolls her eyes as she leads him inside. The doors open by themselves, and reveal a lovingly decorated foyer, with a double staircase leading to a second level above. There are several doors; one directly ahead of the entrance, one to either side, and several that are visible on the second floor.

"Okay, well, I do too, but ordinary reformation is slow. And you - sustain injuries, too, right? Those also take time to heal. Healing potions just... make that happen faster. I find it irritating to be out of commission when it can be avoided."