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"Salbei is not here," she said with a sweet smile. "I remind you that it was you who came here, woke me, and it is you who is inappropriately holding me against my will. It is not I who needs to remember her manners."

She uncorked the bottle. "It won't kill you," she assured Hel with a mild twinge of disappointment. "Release me and I will tolerate your presence. Persist with this behavior and I will dump you somewhere in the forest. That is my final decision."

Unfortunately for Hel, Na'ima was too stubborn and tired for this. The bottle was tipped over and its entire contents were poured on Hel's face. No word, no warning, no ******** given.

Na'ima had been working on something after being disturbed by the little brat. When Hel returned she would find Na'ima sitting at a small table chopping up and crushing herbs and spices into a fine powder. One would think a wise person would avoid bothering a horseman with a knife in their hand.

The chopping stopped mid-cut when she felt Hel cling to her again. There was a sour look on her face as if she had smelled something nasty. Wonderful. She was back. Rolling golden eyes, Na'ima returned to her work with a quiet sigh.

"You are lucky Salbei likes you otherwise I would be cutting off your arms and feeding them to hungry beasts," Na'ima warned Hel while she chopped away at her work.

Na'ima gave a mildly disinterested "mhm" when Hel said Salbei loved her. Chop chop chop, crush crush crush. She was very focused on her work, scraping the powders into individual little bottles and labeling them in neatly written script. When asked what she had been up to she glanced down at Hel with a raised brow as if asking 'are you serious?' before she simply went back to doing her work.

It was several minutes before Na'ima said anything. "I was in the human world," she answered distractedly. She dipped the pad of one finger into a power and licked it away, humming as she looked down at it. With a quiet 'bah!' she scraped it off her cutting board and onto a candle. The candle burst for a moment, very briefly growing in size and flickering wildly until it calmed again. "And before that I was collecting myself." That was where she ended that.

"Open your mouth," Na'ima suddenly demanded. She pinched a bit of powder between her fingers and held it. There was a pause.. "...It is not poison." Promise.

"Many places, I went all over testing my work and research." Na'ima spoke with an air of disinterest, as if she was already bored of this conversation and had mentally checked out. For now Na'ima said nothing to Hel's second question, but perhaps her lack of answer was answer enough. Her home, her entire life, had been uprooted and practically destroyed and she had been forced to adjust to it with absolutely no warning whatsoever. Salbei helped, he and her sister were the only things keeping her sane, really.

When Hel at first refused to help her she shrugged. Fine. Be useless and annoying. "No. It is simply for flavor. I still have the taste from the last test in my mouth, I need you to tell me if this tastes bitter."