Lady of Curses

''Ghaw...'' ''CHRAA!''

''How long have they been at it?'' 

''From the very beginning.'' Looking at the two green humanoid figures, Aella answered Sam's question.

The fight between two mad goblins was brutal. Both of them were bloody, one had a missing eye that was punctured by the other's claw, but the other had a huge chunk missing from one of its shoulders that was bitten off by its opponent.

Both of them were injured and bleeding quite severely, so by Aella's prediction it shouldn't take long before victor is decided. And Aella was right, not long after the one with the injured shoulder made a mistake which the other goblin used to its advantage and landed a successful attack on its neck. 

The goblin saw its opponent try to make a last attempt to retaliate, but before the opponent could do anything it fell limp on the ground. The one-eyed goblin's face bloomed with a smile of madness when he saw his enemy's dead body.

''Thut.'' ''GA!'' But his celebration was short-lived, as the next moment his brain was impaled by an arrow, and his body went limp. Now there were two dead goblins, with blood-stained grass all around them. 

Looking to her left Aella saw the brown-haired archer putting his bow down from his shooting stance. Without saying anything Aella turned back her gaze at the goblins and approached them. 

After getting close enough she squatted down and adjusted her cloak so that it didn't get in her way, after doing that she started to dig out the goblins monster cores. Aella got some blood on her hands but it was nothing much. 

After she got her cores she went back to where the party was, and it looked like they were ready to go. So without saying anything Aella fell in loose formation with them and continued moving. 

It was a little unexpected that they encountered a group of goblins here, because by what Kayle said before the party encountered the goblins, the town should be pretty close. And usually, goblins are found further away from this town.

''So what are you planning to do with those monster cores?'' While on their way Sam started some small talk with Aella. The catkin was a little curious about the monster cores because she thought that Aella would absorb them then and there, but instead, she was just holding them in her hand. 

''Probably absorb them after a while, but before that, I want to see if they can be useful in another way.'' Keeping her head straight, Aella answered the question without looking at Sam. 

''Well, you could sell them, but two goblin cores won't give you much.'' Sam took another glance at Aella's closed hand. ''Another use for them is in magic tools, but the goblin core won't be able to power much, maybe something really small and simple, and even then I don't think the core will last long.''

''I see.'' Aella nodded while listening to Sam. Although the information wasn't positive she already guessed that the goblin's cores in small quantities wouldn't amount to much, but at least she got some information and the magic tools that Sam mentioned piqued Aella's interest. 

***

''Looks like we're here.'' Hearing Alex's voice Aella and the rest of the party looked up, but they looked up, but personally, Aella couldn't see anything yet. Only after they walked for a moment, did she start to see something.

Getting closer, Aella saw a stone wall and gates that were guarded by two guards on each side, and another guard who was checking the people who were going through the gate into the settlement. 

Without saying anything the party lined up and started waiting for their turn to enter. The line didn't move particularly fast, but it felt like it was fast for them because while the party was chatting amongst themselves they found that there was only one person before them before it was their turn, they were so immersed in their conversations that they didn't see how the time flew.

''Welcome, I will need your identification.'' When it was finally their turn the guard asked for the party's identification.

Without saying anything everyone except Aella and Grefured, pulled out some metal cards that had something written on them. Aella couldn't read them before they were handed to the guard.

After the guard checked those five cards, he gave them back before turning his gaze at Aella. '''Don't have one.'' Aella said that before the guard could speak.

''She's my summon.'' Hering this the guard got a little confused. It wasn't that he hadn't heard about humanoid summons, but they were rare, so he wasn't so inclined to believe June.

''We will need to confirm that.'' After saying that the guard signaled one of the guards that were standing guard to go get something, and with a nod the guard went to find something. 

It didn't take long for the guard to return, he handed a crystal-like sphere about the size of a baby's head. ''Please put your hand on it, so we can confirm if you're truly a summon.'' Without complaining Aella did just that.

The sphere that was just a moment ago clear, light up blue in color. She saw the guard was concentrating on something as he looked at the sphere, so Aella didn't say anything and just continued to hold her hand still.

''Thank you, you can take your hand off.'' After the guard presumably confirmed that Aella was truly a summon he asked a few questions, before letting the party through.

Aella didn't really listen to the conversation they had with the guard because she was intrigued by the sphere, which by her guess was a magic item. She wanted to know what was the item's capabilities and what it was used for. She already knew that it somehow could confirm if she was a summon and that it could clean itself or something similar. Because although her hands weren't bloody anymore because she peeled most of the dry blood when she was on the road, she was still surprised that not even one small speck of dried blood stuck to the sphere.

So Aella only connected back to reality when they went through the gate and heard Kayle's voice. ''Welcome to the town of Aramoor.''