Lady of Curses

Opening her eyes Aella was greeted by a dark space that was dimly lit. Looking around the first thing she saw was some wooden crates that were put next to the stone wall, then when she looked around she could find many things, it looked like she had summoned inside some kind of storage. 

Aella's first instinct was to go and look at what's inside the wooden containers, but she resisted and decided to find who summoned her because she needs to know what's the reward and the task she needed to do. 

It didn't take long for Aella to find some suspects, all she needed to do was turn around. After tuning around Aella found a big metal square cage that contained 5 people inside it. 

The light from the torches was dim, so Aella took some steps in the cage's direction so that she could better see the people. After a few steps, Aella was right next to the cage, she looked inside, and what she saw was a little surprising but not unexpected. 

There inside the cage sat 4 naked dirty beastkin, all of them somewhat huddled in one corner all looking at her with their eyes. But what caught Aella's attention was the dark-skinned elf that was some distance away from the rest of the group. She was the only one that was in shackles both her arms and feet restricted.

''Hello there ladies and gents, but I have to inquire about who summoned me, as I need to know what kind of deal this is.'' Aella has no idea why she started to talk to them like this, but it got the message across, so it was acceptable in her books.

''I-I did!'' After Aella said what she needed, one of the beastkin crawled closer to her and told her that she was the one who summoned her. Looking at her Aella could tell the beastkin was a younger female from one of the canine clans. The young woman was dirty, especially her hair, Aella could tell that they were originally meant to be brown, but with all the dirt and filth it was hard to say what shade. But even though the woman was covered in dirt from head to toe, her hazel eyes practically shined when she looked at Aella.

''Wonderfull, now that we have found my employer, I need to know what you want me to do and what are you ready to give for my services.'' Aella started this weird act and she didn't want to stop, so she didn't.

''Hihihihi...'' The woman started to laugh as if she had gone mad. ''I want the dead, I want their filthy lives to end, I want their corpses to rot as maggots eat them from inside, I want you to kill the ones who captured and put me inside this cage, everyone from their group, hihihihi...!'' Aella was a little taken aback, she could see the rage and hate in the beastkin's hazel eyes. The hate, the mad smile as she laughed, this woman really wanted them dead.

''Well, I'm not really an expert in killing stuff, I'm more familiar with cursing things, but I'm willing to kill, but now the question is, what are you offering for my services?'' Aella smiled a little as she asked the question. 

''You can take anything you want, my limbs, my hair, my life, heart, organs!'' The woman crawled to the edge of the cage as she said this, she even took two metal bars in her hands and tried to press her head through them, Aella could tell the woman was getting frantic or even desperate. '' You can take my, eyes, people from my village have said my eyes are really pretty!'' The woman let go of the bars, and used one hand to open her eye fully and with the other hand formed a two-finger claw as if she was ready to take her eye right now. 

''You can even take my soul!'' When the young beastkin woman said those words something came over Aella. When Aella heard the woman offering her soul, it was like some kind of primal instinct took over Aella's body. Aella's lips formed a face-splitting smile, her dark eyes looked at the woman with glee, and she couldn't help but offer her right hand for a handshake as if offering the hand to seal the deal so that Aella could get the woman's soul. 

The woman seeing the offered hand looked at it, and then started to offer her own, but before she could make contact she was pushed away by someone. 

Aella looking from the side saw, how the beatkin woman got tackled to the ground by the shackled dark elf. After the tackle, the elf looked if the woman was alright. The woman was okay but a little shocked by what just happened as she just laid there on the floor. 

After the elf checked if the beastkin was injured, she made eye contact with Aella. Aelle could see discontent seeping through those yellow eyes as they pierced her own gaze. 

''The victims and the one who rescues them usually get a part of the bandits loot, so if you help us you will get the first pickings.'' The elf spoke without breaking the eye contact. ''Will that satisfy you?'' Aella looked around to see one more time what was inside the room before answering.

''Yes.'' Aella slowly pulled back her hand as she answered, she wasn't angry at the elf for her stunt, but she felt disappointed for not making the deal with the beastkin. But it soon went away as Aella started to think about how to start this massacre.