Surek is quiet when the duo arrive.  Ariadne relates to Philip the wisdom on fighting lupines that was passed down to her from her stepmother, Lysia.  During their conversation, however, they hear a wolf's howl.  Out of the darkness, a single werewolf attacks.  It manages to throw Ariadne aside easily, but finds Philip to be a more formidable opponent.  In the end, the werewolf gains the upper hand.  Afraid that Philip might be bitten, Ariadne swipes at it with her silver dagger.  She cuts the werewolf above the knee and black smoke oozes out of the wound.  Before their eyes, the werewolf transforms into a gypsy boy and dies on the spot, just after uring Philip to take him  back to the gypsy camp, set up just south of the Phoenix House.

 

Shocked and frightened, Philip and Ariadne take the body of the boy, Luca, back to the gypsies.  They are greeted by Viola, the elderly matron of the camp who has met Philip before and also by Veruca and her young followers, a faction of gypsy youth who are angry and fierce.  Veruca becomes enraged when she learns that Luca has died and immediately threatens to kill Philip.  Ariadne steps up and takes responsibilty for what happens.  Veruca is ready to hurt her, but Viola sends her away.  Her friends follow after her.

 

Viola explains that all the gypsies are cursed by werewolfism and that they came to Shaldani hopeful that the Ebene barrier would prevent them from transforming around the full moon.  Now that the barrier is gone, the younger members of the tribe, who are resentful at being caged up by their elders, are eager to explore their power and prowess as werewolves.  With this information, Ariadne and Philip depart, but on the way, a young gypsy attacks Ariadne.  Philip blasts him away, but he makes off with a lock of her hair.

 

The next morning, Ariadne wakes up to find she's gone completely blind.  Philip immediately surmises that the gyspies are behind it and, despite Ariadne's protestations, he returns to the camp.  Viola, upon learning of the situation, tells him that Veruca must have used a Blind Passion curse with Ariadne's hair.  Since Veruca and Luca were deeply in love, Veruca is the only one who could have cast the spell and, therefore, the only one who can remove it.  Unfortunately, her emotions have gotten so out of control that she had become stuck in her wolf body.  Philip immediately declares that he will go after her, but Viola warns him that should he be bitten, he will become a werewolf himself.

 

Despite these warnings, Philip uses his newly inherited Andorian abilities to track Veruca down.  He encounters her in a forest.  The two of them fight, Philip using his Hylian magic to fend her off.  As they fight, Philip talks to her, relating how he once lost the one he loved and how terrible it felt.  Eventually, between the magical blasts and the sympathetic words, Veruca breaks down.  She turns back into a Human again and agrees to break the spell.  Admiring her strength and prowess, Philip offers to make her, and her young friends, members of the new Shaldanite army under his direction as Captain of the Guard.