Conall is still very much cursed. Still wholly reliant on Arlo and his magic to keep any piece of his own mind from being overcomed by the lycanthropy. But they've found their balance at last. They still fight and bicker, but they never go to bed angry or allow their tempers to get in the way of their happiness.

Arlo keeps expecting it all to end. For it all to just crash down around his ears like every good thing in his life always does. He loves Conall so so much, and the world loves taking from more than anything else.

And it does.

Asena, Conall's little sister whos curse he took on himself to spare her a lifetime as Arlo's daughter. She's grown now. A woman trained by the same witches who oversaw Arlo's and his family's execution. She doesn't see her brother's joy, only a monster who's destroyed everything he's ever touched holding his heart captive. Asena trained and trained, studied herself into something more than her predecessors would have ever dreamed possible. The witches saw the same brew in her that they saw in the queen they helped dethrone those years ago.

But her goals were more focussed, single minded was she in her quest to save her only living family. The night she was turned was a blur of blood and red, but the sun had come up, and she could still remember Conall clutching her to his chest, Risking everything to himself between a gnashing monster and a hunter come to lay her to rest.

It was time she repaid that favor.

Her spell work wrenched away Arlo's control. She sought every path he could take and blocked him from ever controlling Conall again. Her rage at that long standing injustice blurring the truth till it all looked like lies. Arlo wasn't keeping the wolf at bay, he was the source of it. Conall didn't Willfully put himself between her and him out of the same love he'd shown the day their family slaughtered eachother, it was all just a demented puppeteers work. Conall would be free to live as himself once more if he was free of Arlo's influence.

She broke the spells binding the two. Ripped and ripped until Arlo would never be able to control Conall again.

When it was done a beast with deep black fur and an animal's eyes looked back at her. There was no recognition in them. No love for her or acknowledgement of what had been done. Asena called his name, held out a hand to him. Hoping.

He turned in that slow uncanny way, from her to the stark white beast on the other side of the room, his fur stained scarlet, the thinner patches mottled with bruising and burns the blistered from within him. Their fight having been more than enough to push him to nearly destroy the stolen body he pranced around in.

Conall was still, his breathing coming in even pants, the fur along his back and shoulders rippling as Arlo pushed up to brace on his scorched hands. Coughing up something that smelled acrid from far accross the room.

Asena thought that this was it. Conall would get his revenge. She was exhausted, just as burnt as her defeated foe, but hope, foolish hope that came from only ever considering one way this moment could go, overwhelmed her.

Conall whimpered, Conall, her brother, whined and fought and fought a battle she could not see before it was lost, and only the wolf remained.

He moved fast, barking as he pounced to maul her with decades of repressed and redirected violent intent pouring out all at once.

Time felt sluggish, she tried to dodge, but there was no escaping a monster that size from this close.

A blur of black fur, a sickening crash and crack, an agonized wail, And Asena was left shaking but alive. Conall pinned to the wall under shimmering bounds that could barely hold him. His ribs were cracking with the force of his struggling. His mind gone and only the instinct to protect the unicorns and destroy all that might do them harm was left.

She had done the last of them so, so much harm. Asena looked to where Arlo was barely holding himself up, one hand raised to keep the spell as he burned and burned what little he had left.

He called for her to run. Shouted Conall wouldn't forgive him if he let what should happen now occur.

Asena promised Conall she would save him, She would be back. He would be free soon.

and ran as fast as her legs could carry her. The maze beneath that hill unwinding to allow her an escape before collapsing behind her. Trapping her brother with the two monsters once more.

---

Within the hill, Arlo dropped his spell as soon as she was safely away. Let himself collapse. He couldn't lose this body. All the years he'd dreamt of his freedom and return to his death where he would be with his family once more didn't matter. Because Conall was family, and he needed Arlo more than any of them.

His eyes had burned away early into the fight. He saw nothing, he felt agony when a wet tongue attempted to clean the blood from his face but dislodged sloughing skin instead. He just needed to rest.

Is it my executive disfunction, extreme introverteness, my body’s opposite reaction to caffeine, or the cold that’s keeping me exhausted in bed.