"I do not," he replies. "Sustain injuries, that is. If I am too damaged in too short a timeframe I lose... coherence... and need to reform later. But up until that point, I am not impaired."

"Huh! That's interesting. Sounds like it's less like a body that functions and more like a container that is filled. Which does mean you wouldn't be able to use blood roses at all, but probably means I can in fact make a potion for it. Can you tell if you're close to being, er, dispersed?"

"Yes. There's an associated subjective feeling."

"Ahuh. So a potion that resets or refills that would be helpful." She's totally going to figure out how.

"It would be useful," he agrees, "though I am not sure how I would carry such a potion in battle."

"A fair point! But then, how do you have. Clothes. Weapons. Do you make those yourself??"

The door ahead of them opens, and through it is... some kind of fountain. Of what almost looks like, but isn't, blood. It stirs and swells with power, pouring not-quite-liquid from a floating orb into a pedestal below, then splitting off into separate streams that feed into the castle floor and disappear. This feels like the nexus of the castle around them; it's pretty obvious why it's called a castle heart. It's sort of like his, but on a larger (and more blood based) scale.

Huh. That's interesting. Though he has no idea how it works.

"I do make every weapon I use, yes. Clothes—some."

"Hm. And do they all come with you when you become intangible?"

Iovetra leads him up to the castle heart and reaches out to touch the floating orb.

"Everything that is on me does. ...well, most things. I have not experimented much. Larger and heavier things do not."

"I think I can work with that, then!"

She does... something... while touching the castle heart's core, then takes his hand and pulls it to touch it, too.

It feels... like how he feels when he's making a weapon. That touch of possibility in the heat of the forge, of something that isn't, yet, but could be. Something that he could shape to his will, but with something else able to assist him. This castle will let itself be guided by him to shape things he directs it to. It doesn't feel quite like he's in full control of the castle, there are almost certainly things he can't ask of it, but. ... There are many things he can. The walls themselves will reform under his will, if he wants.

Okay?

"What does the lady require of me?"

"Oh, I just figured it'd be much easier if you didn't have to go through me to get your forge set up as you like? Sorry, is this uncomfortable?"

"It is not. Milady wishes for me to set up the forge? Is there somewhere in particular that would work well?"

"Uhhhhhh ground floor's probably best for forging, correct? Easiest spot is to scootch the storage room out of the way, or maybe move it up a floor, and have your forge to the north. That's where I've set up a lot of the material processing, so it'd be easier for you there."

"Understood. If milady shows me where, I can move everything."

"Sure, this way," she agrees, and leads him back to the central room, and then off to another that looks like it was used for storage.

He... does not need to physically move things, actually. She just sort of. Waves her hand, and the boxes of materials rise up to float, and start making their way upstairs. The castle is apparently responsible for this kind of labor.

"Let me know if you need any major architectural changes for the layout you want? ... I think I'll extend this wall out a bit, give you a bit more room, both here and on the second floor. Hmm... and maybe a set of stairs from this side...?"

This does not appear to be directed at him, because the walls are indeed slowly rearranging themselves to make more room.

...ooh.

..................

"...I have a layout in mind that might be the most efficient to produce whatever milady requires."

"Oh? Well, go ahead and make it, you should now be able to pull from the connected stores. Also let me know if there's any specific thing you need that I don't already have."

Okay but this is a bit more freedom than he'd expected. Um.

"How, exactly, does this work?" he asks. "As in... are there material costs? I'm afraid I know nothing about vampire castles."

"Um - yes, material costs, but I've got a lot stored up. In essence, the castle is moving around things that are already there. Some things are better refined elsewhere and then moved around, like stone bricks instead of raw hunks of stone, but you don't really need to worry about that side of things. The castle will follow the path of least resistance to get the end result it's directed at."

Okay that's better, constraints breed creativity. "If it would serve the lady, I would find it useful to understand the limitations in more detail as well as the resources at her disposal."

"Oh, uh. Sure. So, the moving of things is pretty inexpensive, but the reshaping of objects is more expensive if it's just done directly by magic. So the less that has to be reshaped directly by magic, the better. I specify directly here, because there's a trick with efficiency that's important to understand. If you set up the infrastructure to make things you'll need a lot of, like turning logs into planks or cutting stone into bricks, that will end up a lot more efficient in the long run. The resources of stone and wood are, well, they're approximately 'yes,' to be frank. When my sire had me set up this castle's predecessor, it was a lot bigger than this. And I've since torn that all down and either used it to make what is here, or stored it away for a time such as this. The wood's similar, though that's more because we're in a forest and trees are often in the way. If you need much more space than this I'll have to pop outside and menace the local flora."

"I think I understand. So I should ask the castle to create the bricks for the forge I am planning, since there are so many, but anything else I should try to work on myself?"

"Generally, yes, though I've also got a glass furnace and blower set up, so that's fine too, and, er. ... How about I just show you where things are made and explain what is generally made, and you tell me if you need anything else to build your forge?"

"That seems like it would be useful," he agrees.