Lady of Curses

''So where are we going?'' Aella had finally finished the drink and now they were making their way to apprase her new item. Aella looked around the lively settlement, and the sun that was hanging above them, and decided to ask Suria about their destination. 

''We're going to visit a friend.'' Suria didn't say much more just that they will be paying a visit to her friend. Well, that didn't give much information to Aella, but at least it was good that Suira knew this person and considers them a friend, meaning that they are trustworthy. 

They walked through the city for a while, and as Aella didn't know the location of their destination she just followed the smiling Suira. While looking at her she saw that Suria gave a completely different vibe from Zira. While Zira gave the reserved introvert kind of feeling, Suria was almost the complete opposite as she walked with a smile and confidence and greeted some people from time to time, and some people came to her and greeted her. 

It was an interesting sight to see. While thinking about them Aella didn't really know what's the relationship between the two, are they somehow sisters, lovers, or maybe just housemates, but they were close that was for sure. Aella had a theory about Suria's and Zira's relationship, but she hasn't confirmed jet, so she didn't jump to conclusions and just kept an open mind. 

While Aella was thinking about Suria and Zira they arrived at the location, well at least Aella presumed they arrived at the location. Right now they were standing in front of what looked like a warehouse. Before them was a big wooden door, that Suria knocked on with some strength. 

*TUND, TUND.* The sound of her knocking reverberated through the surroundings. Suria put enough strength in her knocks that Aella could see the whole door vibrate a little, which was a little unexpected, Aella thought that Suira was a more delicate healer type, but looking at the strength of her knocks Aella was proven wrong.

Aella hadn't taken a good look at Suria's body, but now that she took a better look she could see some hidden muscles on her. So this changed a few things that Aella thought about Suria, one of them was how Surai hunted. At first, she thought that Suria used ranged attacks to defeat her opponents, but maybe she was more of a melee fighter, but again Aella could be wrong, so who knew. 

While Aella thought about Suria's unexpected strength, she looked around and saw that they were in a place surrounded by warehouses and storage units. If she needed a place to store some of her stuff Aella now knew where she could rent or buy the space needed. 

*TUN, Iiiiiii.* While Aella was still looking around she heard how the door opened. It wasn't the big wooden door that was right in front of her, but a smaller wooden door that was a little bit right to her. When the door just started opening Suria was already on the move, ready to greet her friend and move inside.

''Suria, can you stop trying to knock my doors down?'' From the open door came out a short man, he looked pretty young and the first thing that caught Aella's eyes about him was his curly, fluffy yellow hair. Aella's instinctively wanted to touch and feel his hair, but she refrained. 

''Don't worry these doors are really sturdy.'' Suria said as she walked inside, with Aella right behind her. ''It would take some real effort for me to knock them out.''

''It might be as you say, but it still doesn't stop you from almost giving me a heart attack every time you do it.'' The short feminine man sounded annoyed at Suria's antics, but it sounded that he was used to it to some degree. 

''Anyway, why are you here?'' He asked the question while closing the door after them. 

''I wanted you to appraise something, my friend here got something interesting, but has no idea what it does so I brought her here.'' Suria pointed at Aella while she explained her reason for the sudden visit. 

''I see.'' The man finally turned his gaze at Aella, and scanned her for a moment, before introducing himself. ''I'm Carl, nice to meet you.'' Carl stretched out his hand for a handshake. Aella formed a smile while shaking the hand because it looked a little comical when Carl had to get his hand out of the oversized lab coat sleeve he was wearing. 

''Well let's go a little deeper so that we can look at what you brought for me today.'' His hand retracted back into the coat's sleeve, and he turned around and started to lead the way deeper into his warehouse. 

While they walked deeper into the warehouse, Aella could see some interesting stuff. She could see some unfinished projects or experiments, or at least what Aella presumed they were. The inserting thing was that the majority of them were some kind of potions, she could see some plants or beasts with some papers and potions around them, so Aella got the idea that Carl was some kind of alchemist and was testing his potions. 

As they got deeper Aella started to see less and less of these experiments and more of the crafting tools used for making the potions, it was kind of messy from Aella's point of view so it gave a mad scientist look to the place, but maybe this was the norm for the alchemist lab. 

''Okay, here we are.'' In the middle of the messy lab and equipment stood a lone desk, with papers, books, and some glass vials with some liquids in them all around the desk, it was pure chaos, except for a small part of the desk where there was nothing on it.

''So what do you want me to look at?'' Carl sat down on a chair that was near the desk, and then looked at Aella and Suria, ready to inspect the thing they wanted to know more about. 

''This.'' Aella took the necklace from the hip and put it on the table's only clean spot. Carl didn't hesitate and took the necklace in his hands and started to inspect it. 

He turned the wooden skull around in his hands, he tested the jaw that opened and closed and he traced the marking with his fingers. While he was doing that Suria and Aella just stood there, waiting for his verdict on the matter. 

''Interesting little thing you got here.'' Carl didn't stop looking at the wooden animal skull as he started speaking. ''If you don't mind telling, where did you get this?'' He looked inside the skull's mouth as he asked that.

''I got it from someone's collection, but they said that it originally belonged to a dark shaman.'' Aella didn't see the harm of disclosing this information so she didn't mind telling him where she obtained this item. 

''A dark shaman you say.'' Carl's gaze was still glued to the necklace. ''That would explain some things, but I have to compliment him on his craft, the dark shaman was quite skillful in that regard.'' 

''Well, you have an interesting piece here.'' Carl finally put the necklace back on the table and looked at Aella. ''And it is well crafted too, so you don't have to worry about it breaking.'' Carl looked somewhat impressed when he talked about the necklace.

''So can you tell what it is?'' Suria asked the same question what Aella wanted to ask because, by the sound of it, it was something really good or at last a high quality. 

''Of course, this is a quite useful item for people who deal with curses. Carl started talking and explaining. ''Most people who use curses would love to have something like this especially in the early days of their curse using.'' Aella was starting to get a little impatient, because this little, man with his fluffy hair was saying a bunch of stuff without getting to the main point. 

''Yes, you can go on a tangent after you tell us what it does.'' Suria probably caught on Aella's frustration and made the little man hurry. 

''Impatiant.'' Carl looked a little offended but he continued.