Lady of Curses

Aella was again making her way down the cave-like hallway, accompanied by her heels hitting the ground and her thoughts. Her head was full of her situation, more precisely about her capabilities. 

She had just discovered that she was wrong about her own capability. Aella knew that her body was stronger and better than before but not to this extent, because before she was sure that any close combat would be detrimental to her, but that wasn't true, well at least fully. She still believed that one-on-one close combat would be disadvantageous to her, but by using surprise attacks she could do it. 

Another thing she was surprised about was her body's movement. She could run with her heels almost without problem, and she could similarly move freely even in this dress. Yes, the dress was restrictive in some places but it was like her body adapted to it and instinctively moved so that Aella couldn't feel those restrictions as much as she would normally.

It was interesting to think about and uncover these things, after all, who wouldn't like to discover that their body is more capable than they thought. But even with this new revelation, Aella didn't let it get to her had, because she had no idea how strong are the rest of the bandits, that's why she was happy about her sack of fire potions. 

While in her thoughts Aella failed to see the corridor widen, and she only saw the change when two wooden doors appeared before her. The closer one was on her right side and a little distance from that there was another on her left side, but it looked like none of the doors had someone guarding it from the outside, so that was a plus. 

Unfortunately, Aella couldn't tell what's behind the door without opening it. She tried to look through some small gaps to see what's on the other side, but she had no luck on either of the doors, all she could see was darkness. 

So she had two choices either move on or risk opening them and finding out that way. It didn't take long for Aella to decide on this because it's probably riskier for her to just leave and not see what's inside and not check what's behind the doors. 

Now with her mind made up Aella put her sack near the first door, and took one fire potion from it. With her free hand, she grabbed the handle and slowly opened the door. *Iiiii...* Aella's eyes shot open when she heard the sound that came from hinges, but she didn't move her gaze and looked inside the room. 

What she saw was a dimly lit room, full of wooden bunk beds, and people sleeping in them. It didn't take long for Aella to connect the pieces and see that this was probably a place where the bandits slept or at least some of them. Many of the beds were empty but there were still plenty that were full, and she could see some of the beds were occupied by two people instead of one.

Aella was happy that it seemed that everyone was sleeping, so she didn't have to worry about being outnumbered, and even if the door made some noise it was unlikely that it would wake someone up because there were plenty of bandits sleeping here that were snoring loud enough that even if Aella slammed the door shut it would probably be drown in all the snoring. 

With this sight in front of her, Aella dropped the potion she was holding near her, right before the entrance so it would lower the chance of someone going for the door, she let the fire spread for a second before she took three more potions and just threw them randomly in the room with the aim of hitting some of the wooden beds.

When the last potion left her hand, Aella closed the door and moved on to the next door. She was pretty sure that the other door was another resting place, and she didn't know if that group will wake up when the screaming starts, so she moved fast. 

As Aella anticipated the other room was the same, so she used the same tactic as before, one potion before the exit and another three around the room, with that done she closed the door. 

Now it was time to wait, she took her sack and stood some distance away from both doors, waiting to see if anyone runs out of them. With fire potion in hand, she waited until she heard something. 

''WAKE UP, THERE IS A FIRE, THE ROOM IS ON FIRE!!!'' Aella heard how someone tried to wake everyone up, ''AAAAAA... Cough, cough!'' she heard the panic and the sound of coughing as the smoke got inside someone's lungs. 

Aella watched as she saw the smoke slither from the doors gaps, and as the smoke slowly filled and traveled across the stone corridor Aella was standing in. 

Seeing this Aelle decided it was time to move, it was kind of unfortunate that she couldn't wait a bit longer and be sure that everyone here died because even as she was moving right now she could hear the panic, but at the same time she didn't know how far will the smoke travel and she had zero information what's up ahead. So moved on so that the smoke doesn't alert the rest of the bandits and make it known that there is something wrong going on.

But before she fully continued her adventure of bandit slaying she there a few potions outside both wooden doors, in the hope that if someone gets out they may get stopped by this fire outside. 

Done with that Aella turned her back to the panic and screaming and with a steady gait made her way further down the cave. It didn't take long before she stopped hearing the screams and was left again only with her thoughts.

But fortunately or unfortunately she didn't have time to get deep in them before she was greeted by another wooden door, the door was right in front of her and the tunnel curved to the left, leading somewhere. This door looked a little different, it was bigger and looked better made, so Aella presumed that it had something important in there. Before she opened the door she looked to the left where the cave continued, but she didn't see far because after a few steps, it again turned but this time to the right. 

Keeping this in mind, Aella turned her attention back to the door and got ready to open it. She put the sack on the ground took a fire potion and with her free hand opened the door. It took some effort to open the door, and she had to use some of her weight to open it, but fortunately, after she got a small gap open the door opened smoothly. 

The door didn't much sound but she was confident that if someone was on the other side of the door, they would see how the door opened, so she hid behind the door for a moment, to see if someone came to look who opened the door. Aella stood there for a moment but, she didn't hear or see anyone so she peaked her head to see what's behind the door. 

Behind the door, Aella saw a small tunnel that led to an open area. Aella took another look around and then with her free hand put the sack over her shoulder and moved to the open area.

She moved slowly and carefully, the tunnel was short so it didn't take long before she was close to the other side, when she was close to the opening she put down the sack and made the rest of her way without it. 

When she got to the opening she saw the open space on full display and after a moment she quickly went back inside the tunnel, hoping that no one saw her. 

The open space was full of bandits, moving around and doing their thing. The tunel she was in right now was on an elevated surface, so she hoped that none of the bandits saw her, because she wasn't ready for them. 

She needed a plan, at least a basic one, but to make a plan she needed more information because she didn't see much in that brief moment, so she will need to risk it and get a better view of the open space and hope no one spots her when she does that.