Lady of Curses

Opening the wooden door, Aella was greeted by an empty cave-like hallway that was lit by some torches on the walls. Aella closed the door behind her and started to walk straight, the only direction that didn't lead her back. 

*Tud, tud, tud...* The tunnel was empty and quiet except for Aella and her footsteps, it was kind of eerie. 

It took some time before Aella saw something change. Some distance away Aella saw that on the left wall, there was a door but the door had a guard. But it looked like the guard was slacking because right now he was sitting on a chair left to the door and just taking a nap. 

Aella had no idea how deep the sleep of the supposed guard was so as carefully as possible, Aella got one of the fire potions out of the sack and got closer. This guard didn't have anything protecting its head so it was a nice target for Aella. 

When she got close enough that she was sure she could accurately throw the glass bottle Aella, put the sack down, took aim, and threw the fire potion. The moment the potion left her hand Aella ran, the high heels made enough sound to wake up the guard, but it was too late. The next second he was hit with a fire potion, and as the guard was still in shock, and started to scream Aella got close enough and using one of her knives stabbed the man in the neck, silencing him.

Aella pulled the knife out and let the man drop to the ground. She watched as the guard clenched his neck with his hands and struggled for his life but in a matter of seconds, the struggling man became an unmoving corpse. Now Aella had to get ready if anyone was behind the door because she was sure that they probably heard the noise she made. 

''AAAAAA!''

''Heheheh, come on scream louder!'' But it looks like they didn't hear anything because of what they were doing. Aella leaned closer to the door, intending to get a better idea of what was going inside, because this door wasn't shabby like the one before, and she couldn't just peek through the gaps. 

Surprisingly it didn't take long for Aella to get an idea what was happening. Aella heard four voices in there, a woman's voice that was screaming in pain and sorrow, a man who was enjoying that as he laughed, then another woman who was talking to someone and from her moans enjoying herself too similar to the man, and fourth person didn't talk but just groaned, it sounded that their mouth was blocked by something. 

Now this revelation that there possibly are people inside that aren't bandits meant that Aella couldn't just throw some fire potions inside and hope everyone burns to death. But there was still hope, they hadn't heard the commotion that Aella caused meaning that she still had the element of surprise on her side. 

Leaving the dead man, Aella went to get her sack. She moved the sack closer to the door and moved the man's body out of the way. Now ready Aella initiated her plan. 

*KNOCK, KNOCK.* ''HEY, I HAVE MESSEG FROM THE BOSS!'' Aella knocked on the door as loud as possible so that they could hear it, and then practically screamed, so that even if they didn't hear the knock they could hear her voice. 

It looked like of worked because, not long after she heard the room go quiet, and then some shuffling. Aella stepped back from the door and prepared one of her knives. 

Aella waited as the door opened, and she was greeted by a tall naked woman with some muscles on her. The woman looked at Aella but before she could tell something the man diverted the woman's attention. 

''Who's at the door?'' Aella couldn't see the man because her view was blocked by the woman, but she could still hear him. 

''Some chick.'' The woman looked back inside the room, as she answered the man. 

After answering her head turned back to get a better look at Aella, but as she turned her head Aella stabbed her knife in the woman's eye. She used both her hands and all her straight to get the knife as deep as she could, and then without missing a beat she twisted the knife and with a smooth motion pulled it out.

All that happened in a moment, so the woman was dead before she knew it, and as her dead body fell, Aella stepped to the side so that she didn't get crushed under it. 

*TUD* ''WHAT?!'' The landing wasn't quite, and the man probably saw and heard it so now Aella had to get ready for the next bandit. 

She quickly moved to the sack, grabbed one of the fire potions, and started to wait for the man to come out. It didn't take long for the man to appear. He was a little less naked with some pants and a simple shirt on him and a shortsword in his right hand. The man kicked the door so that it didn't block his sight. 

The man didn't even glance at his dead naked comrade and just looked at Aella, knowing that she was the perpetrator. 

''You!'' With anger in his voice, the man gripped his sword and charged at Aella. 

Aella was ready for this, she used [Curse of weaknes] to impair the man's vision and then threw the fire potion. Quick and easy the man's face was now on fire. And the moment the man screamed and threw his sword to the ground Aella closed the distance and stabbed the man in the neck, and with that, the man was just another dead body. 

After confirming the man was dead Aella sidestepped the body and went to look what was inside the room that these two bandits came from. 

Walking inside Aella got a good look around the room. The room had a table and some chairs on one side, a wooden drawer on to the side near the table, with a bunch of keys hanging above it on some metal hooks. On the other end of the room, she saw two beds some distance apart from each other. 

On each bed, she saw a beastkin. On the closer bed, Aella saw a mature woman, naked and with a metal color and chain around her neck, she was just lying on the bed looking at Aella with tears in her eyes, Aella could see some bruises on the woman's skin, this was probably the woman that screamed earlier. 

On the other bed, Aella saw another beastkin but this one was a younger male, if she had to guess, he was in his late teens or early twenties. He also was naked but his mouth was gagged by what looked like a piece of clothing, and his hands were tied to the bedrest. 

Seeing all this Aella had an idea of what had happened to those two. So she didn't say anything unnecessary, and just went and got the keys. She didn't know which key was the right one to get the metal color off of the woman, so Aella just grabbed all of them. 

There weren't too many keys so Aella just took them all and put them in front of the woman on the bed. The beastkin woman didn't have her hands restricted so she should be able to unlock the color herself. 

Next Aella went to the male beastkin, and used one of her knives to cut open the ropes that were restraining his hands. The moment his hands were free the beastkin pulled out the peace of clothing that was stuffed inside his mouth. 

''Thank you!'' The young beastkin thanked Aella and automatically rushed to help the other beastkin. 

''Mother, are you alright?'' The mother-son pair hugged each other. Seeing this Aella got ready to leave, with intention to let them rest, but before she could do that she heard the mother call her. 

''Thank you for freeing us, but if I mind ask who are you?'' Aella could hear some skepticism in the beastkin's voice, but it was understandable, she would too if suddenly someone covered in blood came and freed her without saying a word. 

''I'm Aella.'' Aella turned to them as she spoke. ''In short, I'm here to help you, if you want to know more you can ask the others, who right now are still in the cage. I wouldn't be surprised if one of those keys opened the cage so it would be in your best interest to go and let them out.'' With that said Aella gave a small bow and left the room. 

Exiting the room Aella looked around to see if someone was nearby, but she didn't see or hear anyone, so she again used the gem to clean herself, and then took the sack and went on her way, ready to kill more bandits.