'Hey, ladies, which piece of arse is mine tonight?' Garth strutted in with that overly chipper tone in his voice that said he was far into his cups, but not far enough. 'Two for one special!' He cried happily when he saw them hugging, completely oblivious to the expressions on their faces.

Both of them sighed heavily. Tonight, neither of them were in the mood to cope with his drunken exuberance, which meant it was best if they just went along with it. He rarely drank and when he did it was always the same thing. They could only hope that Maldorm had been allowed to safely leave Armiron's keep and that he had not fallen afoul of the wizard.

Aren jerked from her sleep when someone touched her and she was instantly wary, Stella was already awake on the other side of Garth and the giant cat-man was fast and deeply asleep. Waking him now would not be a good idea. She glanced around and frowned when she spotted Shalimar beside the bed.  She indicated for them to follow her.

They grabbed their clothes and complied.  She took their leashes off and they followed her to the rear of the room where a bookshelf stood.  This was the place where Armiron kept her diaries in a secret room behind the bookcase.  She opened it with ease and they followed her inside.  She lit a candle with a touch of her finger and then lit another and another.

Stella would have spoken, but Shalimar held her finger before her lips to silence them.  She walked over to a book and when she lifted her hand, that same wall that Armiron used to ensure his privacy was there.  She paged through the book until she found something and she glanced at them before she read a spell.  

Lights blinked to life and swirled about the room, before they centered on Shalimar and seemed to infuse her being, she was so bright that they had to shield their eyes from her and then it was over, she looked more like the Shalimar they remembered, but she was still not the same and she would never be.  They knew what she had done, they knew the memories Stella had allowed her to see were now allowing her to access her entire past.

These books held spells, but there was more here than her spells.  She used a potion on a piece of parchment, then quickly wrote words with a quill in strange ink. She read the words over twice before she read them out loud.  Whatever magic Armiron had used to bind Shalimar's magic, disappeared.  He had made a grave error by bringing her things to his lair and if Stella had not grown angry at Shalimar, they would have never known.

She turned to Aren and Stella and as she spoke more words of magic she touched them and just like that, their magic was unbound.  The power surged through their veins and it felt odd to have it back.  She reached forward and touched Aren's throat, Aren felt a tingle and when she opened her mouth, she could speak.  

'I think it is time we did what we came here to do.'  Shalimar said quietly and they glanced at each other as they prepared to go back into the room.  When they got there, Garth was standing in their way, a heavy blade in his hands.  Shalimar looked him right in the eye.

'Beast that was man and man that was beast, be a man once more.  You are free.'  She said with a wave of her hand a little water rose from the well, it glittered in the darkness and when it splashed on his skin, Garth turned back into a man.  He looked down at himself as if he saw his own hands for the first time.

'Now Garth are you our friend or are you our enemy?'  Shalimar asked and oddly he glanced at Stella, who was still half cat.  

'Friend, mistress.'  Garth said quietly and Aren Stella frowned.

'She is your Queen, Garth.'  Stella reminded and he bowed to them. Shalimar reached for the waters again to return Stella to herself, but Stella stilled her hand.

'We might need my strength.'  Stella decided and together they walked from the room.  Aren took her sword down from the wall and the words of magic to unlock the sword, came as easily as breathing, with every breath she was more Aren and physically less human, but the humanity in her soul remained.  

Stella claimed her bow and arrow, along with a dagger that did not belong to her, but which had belonged to one of the men they had killed.  Together they moved into the corridors, a guard tried to sound the alarm and an arrow lodged in his throat, Aren slashed his head from his shoulders in passing.  They encountered several more guards along the way and one of them managed to rush ahead and warn Armiron.

He was waiting for them in his chambers.  He glanced from one to the other with a frown.  It occurred to them that he did not know that they possessed of Shalimar's memories and that by allowing her free reign because he was secure in the knowledge that she could not remember on her own, he had created a loophole which they could have accessed the second he brought Shalimar's books into the castle.  A loophole they discovered by accident in a moment of anger.

He launched a series of lightning strikes at them and with their mind link returned, they used their magic as one, to create a shield.  This time they were not unprepared and caught unawares.  This time they were not the innocents caught by the spider in the trap they had not seen.

The power of Stella and Aren was far stonger than it had been before, because they were far stronger than they had been before and it was a strength Armiron had forged at his own peril. They struck as one, each using their affinity to attack him, lightning, fire and force.  He grinned briefly as he saw their attack and frowned as they managed to do what he had not, they shattered his shield and actually hit him.

He was back on his feet in an instant, he had underestimated them, something he would not do again and he threw a bolt of lighting at them with such force that they were knocked from their feet, but like him, they were back up in a second as they attacked there was chaos, each of them were hit in some way as the fith broiled across the room and destroyed everything in its wake.

There was a moment when Stella was out of his sight and she used an arrow to hit him right in the heart, Aren launched her sword at him with all the power of her wolf and she hit him square through that arrow and as he staggered to his knees, Shalimar shared the words of spell and as they said it together, the arrow and the sword started to glow and a dark light cracked from his chest as a bright light emanated from the weapons.  There was a swirl of wind, a clap of thunder, a moment of silence and then Armiron seemed to erupt into light and darkness.  They were slammed from their feet and when they finally manged to orientate themselves there was nothing left of him or their weapons.

Shalimar was hit and bleeding heavily, Stella was also hit badly and she was dying.  Garth was at the edge of death and Aren herself was hurt, but all she could see was her family and all she cared about was her family, she felt the words come from her being and as she spoke them, a white light erupted from her and filled the room until it reached a crescendo.  She collapsed and even as she did, she saw that the wounds on Shalimar and Stella were healing.

She was on her knees and a weakness was in her soul, her wolf was very near the surface, but nowhere near feral.  She needed the strength of the wolf, so they could leave this place. She allowed the wolf back into her soul and it was elated, she felt a smile tug at her lips. She hadn't realized how much she missed the wolf, missed it being a part of her and not something she shut away in the darkness.  She felt whole for the first time in years and she knew she would never reject it again.

Garth got to his feet, just then Darwaine stumbled into the room and he was no longer under the thrall of the well. Aren glanced at him and she frowned.  He helped Garth to his feet and the men helped Stella and Shalimar to stand.  Aren picked up a discarded sword and straightened her spine.

They made their way into the corridors and maybe out of habit, some of the men attacked them, they fell before Aren like straw men and she should have felt bad about killing them now that they were not fighting for Armiron, but she wanted her family out of this blasted mountain castle and home. Whatever got in her way, she would destroy.  

They finally reached the big doors that led outside, doors she had never seen for herself and she stormed forward to fight whatever would barricade her way as she noticed the doors were askew and barely hanging from their hinges and then she skidded to a standstill.  She frowned and hesitated, momentarily confused as she saw an army before her.

Armiron is dead. Good riddance.