Being in no position to object, Ariel stepped to the rock and seated herself. All of the eyes of the pack were on her, judging her. With the alpha's first question, Ariel's head lowered and she sighed guiltily. "What you say... It's true." Ariel crossed her arms tensely, "I'll start from the beginning, then. I don't know how many details you were told about."

Ariel raised her eyes to the Alpha, glancing at her dressed wound a couple of times. "Sabine and I, we were brought up in a witches coven in Vos, poached from the orphanage since before either of us could remember and raised by a community of hags. We would often get visits from various groups of people who wanted to commune with higher powers. Daedric princes, to be more specific. When I was sixteen years old and Sabine was ten, a pack of lycans approached us with the desire to talk with Hircine. They were very insistent.

"You know Hircine better than I do, most likely, but our elders knew enough to give no guarantees about getting any response from him. When there was no response, despite the tribute and payment provided by the pack, they protested. They said that we tricked them into paying us, conned them. Then they attacked."

Sabine snorted in her wolf form and twitched her head at this memory.

Ariel took her breaths slowly at while she continued, still shaken by what she remembered. "They... killed five of us before we could subdue and slay them. Injured at least three more. One of the injured was Sabine. She was infected by them, even though she had nothing to do with the summoning deal. She was innocent.

"Sabine was already chosen to be among the coven for life, as I was. She would not be able to survive among us as a lycan, she was almost killed by the elders if it weren't for myself and a few of my friends to protect her. Without warrant to kill all of us, the elders tasked us with ridding Sabine of her curse. I didn't know at the time that it was impossible, but it is a rule that witches of a coven share their own curses amongst them as a way to support each other. It was the elder's cruel way of reminding us of that rule.

"So my friends and I, we had to contain her while she transformed, so we put her in a silver plated cage, and tried everything we knew. Every ounce of alchemical and magical knowledge we had went into two years of trying to suppress and kill the... well the beast spirit, as you described it. Each time we tried to suppress or kill it, it would come back more enraged. It got to the point where he had to keep it back by more physical means while we worked. None of us realised just how much Sabine suffered. Not until it was far too late. I had realised it when I had fallen asleep amongst my research, and was awoken by her screaming in the middle of the night. Her nightmares were part of her torture, we were only making them worse. A week later, I knew I had to do something, there was no way we were going to find a cure before destroying everything else of her being."

Sabine was shivering as the story continued, but kept her wolf eyes on her sister. Ariel couldn't even bear to look at anyone at this point.

"In the middle of the night, I sedated her and took the cage on a covered cart. I was able to sneak her out of the coven disguised as a shipment of potions to send to various institutions that ordered such things from us. I was trusted, so I had no trouble. I got her to the mainland before I stopped drugging her. When she awoke, I scared her off with an illusion spell, but not before giving her a few implements to take care of herself with, including a note telling her where I would be, and not much else. She was so terrified when she ran that I never thought I could forgive myself, but it served her to escape. We were close to Cyrodiil, and she ran for the border, I thought it would be suitable for her to hide in with the woodland.

Ariel looked up again, "After that, I was banished from the coven for betraying them. I put them under threat by releasing Sabine, they said. I still had the deed to the shop in Vos, however, so I didn't lose everything." Ariel took a deep breath, "And that is all. I cannot explain away what I did. I don't expect any forgiveness either. I just want to make sure she's safe."

With that, Sabine scrunched her eyes shut and began to transform back into Breton form. Once she was finished, she looked at Ariel with the same beady stare she always had. She was unsure what to make of it all, knowing that it was her sister all along that had released her, and that she had sacrificed her life with the coven for it. "Ariel..." Sabine said without any indication of judgement one way or another.

Ariel still couldn't look at Sabine. "Sister. I am sorry."