Lady of Curses

When Aella started to walk up the stairs, it quickly turned dark, and Aella started to trace one of the walls with her hand. She climbed the stairs slowly and carefully so that she didn't trip and fall. Her body was already in shambles, she didn't need another injury on top of that. 

With her careful walking, it took some time before she saw some light. The light wasn't bright, but it was enough to barely see the steps. Now with some light in her vision, Aella could traverse this staircase more confidently, and her gait hastened. The further up she got the stronger the light got. 

It didn't take long before she saw the source of light and the end of the staircase. Aella could see that a few steps in front of her, there was a wooden door, and right above it was a crystal that was emitting a dim light. The wooden door looked well made, and Aella could see some engraving on the wooden door, in the shape of two trees growing inwards, with some chains binding around both trees and their branches.

The design was masterfully created, and Aella spent some time looking at it, but eventually, she had enough and decided to see what's behind this door. 

With a little push, the door easily opened and Aella was greeted by a lavish room. The room was bright from the light that came from the big crystal cluster that was growing from the ceiling. Aella's bare feet were protected from the stone-cold floor by the red and gold carpet that covered every single corner of this room's floor.

Looking more Aella got the impression that this was more of an office than a simple room. Further in the office, she saw a solid wood desk, and it also had beautiful art on it, depicting nature with chains here and there, similar to the door. The desk had some papers on it just lying there. 

Without reservation, Aella went to the desk and took a look at the papers. She grabbed a few from one of the piles and then sat down on the comfortable-looking chair that was behind the desk. Her blood-stained fingers left some smudges on the paper as she went through them, but she didn't care and continued with her thing. 

Going through the papers Aella didn't find anything too interesting. The papers mostly were reports about their inventory and the supplies they used, and some were about how their raids, and the casualties in them. The most interesting thing Aella found in these reports was how a group of bandits encountered a demon, they succeded in driving it away but both without many casualties, and the only thing they got from that encounter was a horn that one of them cut off the demon's head. 

Aella didn't go through all the papers, not even half, because she got bored reading them, and it served no point to her except to quill some of her curiosity. She threw the papers on the desk and started to go through its drawers. There were six of them, three on each side, so Aella picked on and started from that. 

In the first drawer, Aella found more papers and some letters. She didn't have any interest in them and just shut the drawer the moment she saw what was in it. In the second drawer, she found a pouch of coins and a small wooden chest, that unfortunately was locked, and Aella couldn't open it. She took out the pouch and chest and put them on the table. After that, she looked at the drawer to see if she had missed the key, but no, the drawer was empty.

In the third drawer, she found some ink, a quill, and a stack of empty papers, but nothing else, so she closed it without taking anything. opening the fourth drawer Aella saw something that looked like a journal and three ornamental daggers. She took the journal and the daggers and put them beside the chest. 

''What is this... dirt?'' When Aella opened the fifth drawer, she saw that it was full of small jars that contained what looked like dirt. There were multiple different colors, but when Aella picked some of them most of them looked like they were filled with dirt, sand, or stone. Every jar had different components by color, but they still were stone, sand, or dirt. 

Aella was confused as to why someone would keep a drawer full of different colored dirt, so she ignored it and put the jar she was holding back in the drawer and closed it. 

In the last drawer, Aella found a grey stone cube, the stone cube wasn't big about 10x10x10(cm) if Aella had to guess, but she used both her hands to lift it out of the drawer. The cube had a weight to it, but it wasn't surprising taking into consideration the material it was made of. 

The cube was cool to the touch, Aella rotated in her hand and quickly found a slit going around it. This gave Aella the impression that she could open it, so she put the cube on the desk, and carefully with both of her hands opened it. The cube opened without any resistance. 

When the cube opened Aella saw its content, and it was a crystal sphere about the size of a golf ball. The crystal ball had an earthy green-brown shine to it. Aella was mesmerized by it as she carefully picked it up, out of the box. Aella had no idea what this crystal ball was or what it did, but by the looks of it, it was important, so after admiring it in her hands, she put it back in the box and closed it. 

Now that she had explored the desk drawers, Aella looked around the office once more to see if she could find anything else that could be of interest to her, but a quick glance later she found nothing, the only thing left in the office beside the desk and chair, was a bookshelf, that had some books in it, but nothing that interested Aella, and a comfortable couch. 

Aella wouldn't mind taking the couch, but she couldn't really take it with her, so that was that. With nothing better to do, for now, Aella decided to take a peak inside the journal. 

''Somone here?'' But before she could even open it, she heard someone's voice. Aella didn't expect someone to come here, so she stood up ready to fight, but before she could draw her weapon she saw who it was, and then just sat back down. 

''Hello.'' Aella greeted the dark elf, it looked like they successfully got out. The elf on the other hand didn't greet her back, she just looked around the room and then at Aella, or more precisely at her blood-stained visage. 

While the elf looked over Aella, the dark lady did the same. She saw that the elf was no longer naked and was free of restraints. Instead, now the woman had some kind of plate armor on her, without the helmet, and a sword in her right hand. 

''Can you open this?'' Aella got bored, and to break the silence she asked the woman if she could open the wooden chest that was on the desk. The elf woman looked where Aella's finger was pointing, but didn't say anything. ''Please?'' Aella asked again with a smile on her face. 

Again the elf didn't say anything, but this time she moved. She got closer to Aella and raised her hand that was holding the sword. After the blade stayed in the air for a quick second it came down and shattered the chest's top, revealing what was inside. 

Inside the chest was a black curved horn, with bright red stripes on it, and the moment Aella laid her eyes on it she couldn't help but frown. A disgusting feeling came out of her very being, it was as if the horn itself was her enemy. Aella couldn't control this feeling of disgust and hate. 

She didn't know why she had this feeling so she put the horn in one of the empty drawers and closed it. After it was out of her sight the feeling subsided but it still left a nasty aftertaste, and just knowing that the horn was close to her made her uncomfortable, but she could bear with it. 

After all that the elf was still standing in the room, looking at her. So Aella decided to ask for another favor. She opened the stone cube, where she found the crystal golf ball. When she took it in her hand and showed it to the elf, Aella saw how the elf's eyes opened wide, even though the elf quickly tried to cover that mishap of expression. That was all that Aella needed to confirm that this ball she was holding was something valuable or important. 

''Can you tell me what this is?'' She just needed to know its function.