The sustained note had the strange effect of seeming to distort the air around them - the creature in front of him doubled, and then the ground beneath them began to vibrate. But suddenly, the deer clamped its maw shut, whipping its head towards the heart of the woods as the trees behind it rustled, parting to reveal a small and familiar figure that paused in shock. Roo stared at him, one hand on the tree, the other clasped around a luminescent blue bottle.

There was no denying the fact that he'd been made, shadowed against the trees as he was. His eyes flashed at Roo from the darkness as they narrowed. "I didn't expect to see you out here."

"Gio?" she asked, confounded, as the deer gingerly stepped around her and disappeared into the brush. Her face, bracketed by branches, was pale and drawn against the light of the bottle. Rather than shock, anxiety seeped into her voice and pooled in her dark eyes. "You-- you shouldn't be out here. How did you--?

"I saw an opportunity to escape in the chaos," he confessed with a tone of quiet frustration. "I didn't plan on running into a Lumanlisc in the woods."

She stared at him with trepidation, heart hammering against her chest. The dark pressed in on them and the creatures it brought along were stirring - she could feel it in the air. But the fact that the man in front of her was entirely mortal didn't make him any less of a threat. And he didn't even know what was going on... which put them both at the end of a fraying rope. "Gio, listen to me please and go back to the Hold. It's not safe out here."

At this, he scoffed. "You want me to walk myself back?"

"What is it?" He urged, ducking in response to the sudden burst of movement.

Giovanni spared a glance behind them but kept pace with the woman, wondering what the hell he'd gotten himself into.

She kept running but veered away from the Hold, instead moving weaving between the trees to the right, her hand laced in the Sangrian's as she led him. They couldn't bring the creatures straight to the Hold, but she wasn't sure where Rhea was relative to their current position - catching sight of their escaped prisoner had thrown their plan completely off. "We need to hide," she pressed her lips together, glancing back at him. He'd escaped - he was clearly far more capable, and far more dangerous, than she had ever assumed, but... "... we need to cooperate if we want to survive the night."

As he pulled her, she raised her arm and threw the storm bottle at the demon with as much force as she could muster, yelling at Giovanni to turn away. The bottle shattered upon impact beneath the steed and a tinny, pitched note sustained in the air. Then the world imploded, a force billowing out and throwing them forward.