Yaga Stones

Wondrous item, rare (requires attunement)

Yaga stones come in pairs and are given to followers of especially vicious hags. They're also not made of stone: one is made of iron, and the other is made of bone. You can attune to one or both of the stones; regardless, they only count as a single item for the purpose of the number of items you can attune to. Each stone has 2 charges, and it regains all expended charges daily at dusk.

While attuned to a stone, you can use an action to expend 1 of the stone's charges to summon a flaming, ethereal skull, which appears over your shoulder and floats there. If you're attuned to both stones, you can expend 2 charges (from either stone) to summon a skull from both of them. The skull is made of iron (Toil) if it's summoned by the iron Yaga stone, or bone (Trouble) if it's summoned by the bone one. While a skull remains, you can use a bonus action to have it fly out and bite a creature within 20 feet of you; both skulls fly out simultaneously if each one is summoned. Make a ranged spell attack roll, using an attack bonus of +7. On a hit, the target takes 2d6 fire damage and is affected by either the hex or bane spell (no concentration required). A creature is affected by hex (Strength, Dexterity, or Constitution checks only) if it's hit by Toil, or bane if it's hit by Trouble. If both skulls bite the target, the attack roll is made with advantage, and on a hit, it's affected by both spells. Only one target can be affected by hex or bane in this way at a time; a spell ends when its corresponding skull disappears. A summoned skull disappears after 1 minute or when you use a bonus action to dismiss it.

A gift? Mayhaps. A promise? Without question.