Candie and Alemun’s relationship began in isolation, two grubs growing up together and becoming each other’s entire world. Candie knew Alemun before he could speak, and loved him in the quiet, complicated way only trolls raised together could on alternia but after being trapped underground for two sweeps he kills his abusive lusus ,he was free of snake mom but trapped underground something in Alemun changed. He survived by killing his lusus, breaking one of Candie’s deepest values,not killing defenseless animals and in isolation and boredom killed animals for fun and taught himself that strength meant control and vulnerability meant being buried alive. By the time Candie and Equius found him, she expected to save the boy she remembered. Instead she found someone who had survived by becoming everything he once feared.
Seeing how close to Equius Candie has gotten made makes him envious which only sharpened the belief that their history entitled him to her, and he quietly weaponized her guilt for not finding him sooner without ever saying it outright. Candie feels herself pulled between memory and instinct she remembers the grub she loved and sees flashes of him still there, but she also feels in her gut that something is wrong. After nearly destroying each other trying to bring him back, she becomes apprehensive, not because she doesn’t care, but because she’s terrified that loving him again might be her downfall