Musing over her actions, Naomi washed the blood off her hands in one of the lavishly appointed wash rooms. She'd been talking to the man, Maldanen, after he'd conceded defeat at her hands down in his spell casting chamber. He was a powerful man, not used to losing, and while he was pleading for his life, begging, promising gold alternating with biting curses at Formosa, his eyes were still hard, cold, cruel, mad with hatred, even as he said he'd pay for his own life with his silver tooth, looking with lust at the dryad in her cage. But then, as she had pretended to visibly lower her guard towards him, he'd made gestures as though to cast a spell of harm, so she had to break the negotiations and attack. She was a sorceress, he was a wizard, so neither of them knew what to do when she lunged at him blindly, instinctively, knocking his hands apart causing them both to fall. But as he stared up at her in shock and hate and cruelty, she pulled her magical dagger out of her belt and slashed at his throat before he could cast another spell. But he didn't die! She hadn't made a clean strike! So, in a panic she struck again and again, until the enemy was a bloody mess, and gore coated her in a sticky embrace. But, what was this? Arms were encircling her, restraining her!

"Naomi, dear girl! Enough! He is dead, he can't hurt you anymore!" Linu called to her, worried about her friend's frenzied attack after negotiations seemed to break down with the madman.

"Oh gods…" Naomi stumbled back, horrified at what she'd done. She was going to reassure Linu of her return to sanity when a frightened breathy voice called their attentions to the bars across the room. Recalling the voice calling out a warning when they entered, Naomi rushed over to see who else the insane wizard had imprisoned in his mansion.

A leafy girl looked back at them, out of a haunted face with shadows in her eyes that bespoke of suffering and weariness. They'd found the dryad, the third creature alright. "Are..are you here to free this servant of nature? Oh please help me, I miss my oak so!"

"Stand back, creature! I'll have none of your tricks!"

"Naomi! Surely you cannot mean to be angry with this poor girl? She is a caged victim here!"

"I've met 2 others of the Waterdhavian creatures, Linu, neither were friendly. I won't be fooled by looks and soft words, she might feel vengeful after her ill treatment."

The pretty thing in the cage looked alarmed by this exchange, "No, no! I don't mean any harm! Meldanen tricked me here, and he meant to.. to hurt me to make a cure himself, so I only did what I could to protect myself! I charmed him, but his obsession was almost worse to bear than his experiments! Please, I am weak so far away from my oak. I only want to go back!"

Softened by the poor thing's plight, Naomi softened her harsh stance. "But, I need you to come with me to find Aribeth. We still need your aid for the cure to the Wailing Death."

"I'll give you a lock of my hair, that's all you need for your cure. I wish all the best for your people, but I need to see my oak or I'll die!"

"Alright, Linu, look for a key to her cage. Dryad, I'll collect that lock from you now, if you don't mind," Naomi said, digging around in her pack for a ribbon and scissors from the healing kit. As the dryad passed back a nice sized chunk of golden hair similar to soft dry grass, Linu reported sadly she could not find any such key on Meldanen's person. The dryad gave a soft cry of alarm, "But, you, you won't give up, will you?"

"No.." Naomi narrowed her eyes in thought as she regarded the messy corpse. Formosa wanted that silver tooth, but why would she want something so disgusting? It wasn't something one often saw, it wasn't one of his front teeth either. How would she've known about it, unless she'd been close enough one time to see it? He seemed wealthy enough to receive health care from priests and doctors to take care of himself so he wouldn't have needed to replace missing teeth with falsies unless.. it was a magical pass key to his private domain! Grabbing a pair of pliers out of the healing kit, Naomi braced herself and tore it out of his head. Or tried to anyway. The corpse flopped grotesquely, as the thing was properly jammed in his head. Naomi's intestines rolled and she stumbled off aways to revisit her lunch in a nearby ornamental vase.

"Gods preserve me. Linu, hold his head down. We'll pretend we're performing emergency dental surgery on someone and we need to remove that tooth. I think it's a magical key to his personal spells and wards. Don't worry, dryad! We'll have you out soon!" With Linu's help, the tooth came out at last. As it sat, small and bloody in her palm, Naomi felt it grow warm and tingle with magical energies. As she approached the doors with it, it resisted her mental magical probe with the dead mage's signature. Gritting her teeth, Naomi pressed insistently onward. "I command here now! Your magic is mine! Your possessions are mine! Your power is mine!" It buckled before her greater will, and at last the door to the dryad's prison swung open.

"Can… this poor servant of nature go, am I free at last?" The dryad pleaded.

"Yes, but won't you come with us? We can take you to safety in person, I don't know what other enemies lurk in this city." Linu interjected, worried for the fey's safety.

"When I came to your city, the wizard who brought me said that I need only touch another tree to return home. Meldanen kept one such tree in that alcove, to taunt me with prospects of freedom, if only I should succumb to his desires." She shuddered with the memory and looked very eager to be off.

"Well, yes, go on then." Naomi moved off from the doorway, to let the dryad pass her, watching as she went. To her surprise the dryad turned back as she reached the tree, sitting in bags of damp loam, "I hope we meet again someday, Naomi Bloodstalker. So that I may thank you properly for my rescue." And with that, she pressed up against the tree like a child would to a long-lost mother and melted into it and away.