Outside, Celeste waited on a broken branch near the Egg Tree’s outer roots.

Or, more accurately, she tried to wait.

One paw had somehow stuck to the candy-bark coating left from the previous night’s attack, and she was now tugging at it with growing concern.

“Um,” she whispered to herself. “That’s not ideal.”

She pulled.

Nothing.

She pulled harder.

The bark stretched in a gummy strand.

Celeste’s ears flattened.

“Oh no. Please don’t make a noise.”

With one last desperate yank, her paw came free with a wet, humiliating schlup.

Celeste stumbled backwards.

Directly into a sack of mana crystals.

The sack tipped.

For one terrible second, it balanced on the edge of disaster.

Then it spilled.

Mana crystals scattered across the ground in a sparkling avalanche, clinking and rolling under roots, benches, boots, and broken barricade planks. They were the reserve crystals meant to keep everyone’s mana topped up during the fight.

Celeste froze with one paw still raised.

“…Oh stars.”

The door opened behind her.

Ray stepped out.

And saw everything.

Celeste beside the overturned sack.

Crystals everywhere.

The sticky pawprint on the branch.

The girl who had got up late.

The girl who had embarrassed them in front of the Council.

The girl who, somehow, had ended up kneeling in the middle of Ray’s shattered birthday mug.

The girl who was supposed to lead them into battle.

All Ray saw was incompetence.

A commander who would drag them all down.

A disaster with soft eyes and apologies and too much power for anyone to control.

And Ray was powerless to stop it.

Weeks of frustration, fear, resentment, and sleepless rage surged up in her chest.

This was the tipping point.

Celeste turned, confused but still trying to smile. “Did you want me to—”

Ray cracked her knuckles.

The sound carried through the morning like a gunshot.

Celeste paused.

“…Oh,” she said softly.

Ray’s eyes flicked over the spilled crystals.

Then back to Celeste.

“First you get up late,” Ray said, voice flat and dangerous. “Then you ruin our image with the Council. And now this.”

Celeste’s ears sank.

“Ray, I can pick them up—”

“We’re late as it is, Astallan.”

The name hit harder than it should have.

Ray stepped closer.

“So this is how it is now,” she said. “First you leave me to fight alone. Then you destroy my stuff. Then you scatter our supplies all over the ground five minutes before a battle. Tell me what I’m supposed to think, Celeste—because from where I’m standing, it’s pretty clear.”

Celeste swallowed. “Ray, really—it was a mistake.”

“A mistake,” Ray repeated, sharp and humourless. “I’m sick of your mistakes. First you’re too scared to make a decision, so I have to hold your hand through everything. Then you do make decisions—and don’t include your own damn team. What the hell are you doing, girl?”

She stepped closer.

“Because you know what I see?” Ray said quietly. “Someone who’d backstab me just to avoid feeling uncomfortable.”

Celeste’s eyes widened. “No—no, I’d never—Ray, I just—listen—you never let me pick. You just shout. And no matter what I do, it’s wrong.”

“Because it is wrong,” Ray snapped. “And it’s going to get us killed.”

She shoved Celeste hard in the chest.

Celeste stumbled backward, slipped on a crystal, and hit the ground, breath knocked out of her.

“I’m sorry,” she said automatically, voice small.

Ray laughed—a cruel, cutting sound. “Sorry. That’s all you ever say. Sorry, sorry, sorry.”

“Hey!” Mezzo rushed forward, hands up. “Alright—enough—”

Ray didn’t even look at him. “Stop being her emotional-support jester already. Either she does exactly what I say on missions, or I’m drilling it into her.”

Mezzo’s jaw dropped. “You can’t fecking do that, Ray!”

“I’m saving our asses from the Council,” Ray shot back. “Someone has to.”

Celeste pushed herself up, hands shaking. Under her breath—barely audible—

“That’s not saving us.”

Ray whirled. “What did you just say?”

Celeste froze.

Then—something new. Something steadier. A shiny, unfamiliar spine she hadn’t known she had yet, but refused to put back.

“I said,” she repeated, voice trembling but clear, “that nothing I ever do is good enough for you. I’m trying. I really am. And all you do is shout.”

Ray scoffed.

“I don’t care if you shout at me,” Celeste went on, tears burning but unfallen. “But leave Mezzo out of it. At least he’s patient with me.”

Ray tilted her head, mocking. “Oh, that’s precious.”

Celeste’s hands clenched into fists. “At least people like me,” she said, voice breaking and strengthening all at once. “Even if I’m dumb. Even if I make mistakes.”

Ray’s lip curled.

“There it is,” she sneered. “The brave little speech. Stars, you really think that changes what you are?”

Celeste’s chest hitched. “Please, Ray—don’t do this.”

“No wonder your dad isn’t around.”

The words sliced through the clearing.

Celeste went still.

Ray’s voice dropped, bitter and brutal.

“Probably embarrassed.”

For a moment, Celeste looked like she had been struck.

Not shoved.

Not punched.

Struck somewhere deeper.

Her mouth parted, but no sound came out.

Behind them, Mezzo’s face changed.

“Ray,” he said, low and horrified.

Ray’s eyes flashed, but she didn’t take it back.

Celeste’s lower lip trembled once.

“My dad…” she whispered.

Then she swallowed it.

All of it.

The hurt. The confusion. The sudden, awful fear that Ray had found the secret thought Celeste carried everywhere and said it out loud.

Ray’s eyes hardened.

“Yes. Your dad. The great Commander of the Silver Arrows.”

The words came out like sparks spat from a fire.

“Keeps his own kid in a mansion and throws away the key. And, honestly? I can see why now.”

Mezzo’s face went pale. “Ray—”

Ray didn’t stop.

“You’re clumsy. You’ve got some freaky core in your chest no one understands, and the survival instincts of a moth in a barbecue. You can’t hold a sword straight half the time, and yet today we’re supposed to stand behind you in front of the Council and fight a kraken.”

Celeste’s breath hitched.

“I… I—”

“You’re going to get us all killed, Celeste,” Ray cut in. “And you’re supposed to be a Knight Commander.”

The words broke something open.

Tears spilled down Celeste’s face before she could stop them. She hugged her sides, shoulders curling inward as if she could physically hold herself together.

“I’m trying,” she said, voice cracking.

Ray scoffed.

“Oh, come on. You can’t even take criticism without sobbing.”

She pointed at Celeste, turning slightly as if presenting evidence to the whole yard.

“This is what I mean. What on earth are you going to do when a general shouts at you? When you have to stand before the Council? When you have to put your life on the line for us?”

Celeste shook her head, crying openly now.

“Ray, please stop.”

Ray grabbed her by the collar and dragged her forward.

“For once, Celeste, back yourself. Make yourself useful. Grow a backbone and start acting like the leader we need.”

Something snapped.

Not loudly.

Not visibly at first.

But Ray saw it.

A tiny shift behind Celeste’s wet eyes. Something frightened folding itself away. Something bright and strange slipping into place instead.

Ray didn’t understand it.

Celeste stopped crying.

She smiled.

Not her usual nervous, apologetic smile.

A small, cheerful one.

“Okay.”

Ray blinked. “What?”

Celeste drove her forehead into Ray’s face with every bit of force she had.

The crack of the headbutt rang across the clearing.

Ray staggered backwards, stunned.

For one impossible second, nobody moved.

Mezzo’s mouth fell open.

Pitch froze mid-step.

Hughes’s brows shot up.

Topsy, from somewhere near the doorway, lowered a crisp from her mouth.

Even Ray looked confused.

Celeste stood there, breathing hard, tears still shining on her cheeks, fists clenched at her sides.

Then Ray touched her nose.

Saw the blood.

Her eyes burned.

“Oh,” Ray said softly.

Celeste tilted her head.

Still smiling.

“You’re too close to your commanding officer,” she said, voice bright and shaking. “Learn distance.”

Ray’s expression went flat with disbelief.

Celeste’s smile twitched wider.

“Since I’m a dragon, you now know respect.”

For one impossible second, nobody moved.

Then Ray grabbed Celeste by the front of her jacket and swung.

Celeste reacted on instinct.

She ducked—twisting under the blow—and caught Ray’s wrist.

For a split second, everything clicked.

Power flooded Celeste’s veins—raw strength, hardened defence, that iron-hot resilience Ray carried like a second skeleton. It surged into her, violent and overwhelming.

Ray screamed.

“CHEATER!”

Her fist connected anyway.

Celeste went flying—skidding across the dirt—

—but she didn’t break.

She hit the ground, rolled, and came up coughing but standing, shock written across her face as she realised she was still whole.

Then the smile came back.

Too quick.

Too sharp.

“Step two,” Celeste shouted, voice cracking but loud. “Now I’ve got your strength, so it’s fair!”

Her hands trembled at her sides.

“But I’ll be a good girl,” she said brightly, tears still running down her face, “and be better!”

Ray charged again and slammed her straight into the Egg Tree’s outer roots.

Bark splintered.

“What the heck is wrong with you?” Ray snarled.

Celeste caught Ray’s fist.

Twisted.

Ray wasn’t used to fighting against her own strength.

Her body turned with the force of it, momentum betraying her, and she screamed as she went tumbling hard into the dirt.

Celeste stared after her.

For half a second, her face flickered—caught between oh no, I’m in trouble and keep smiling, it’s fine, this is fine, she asked for this.

Ray pushed herself up slowly.

For the first time, uncertainty cut through her rage.

She didn’t know what she was looking at.

Celeste straightened, breathing fast.

“I’ll do as you asked,” she said. “I’ll be better. And to be better, you’re breaking form.”

Her eyes brightened.

“I’ll correct it for you.”

She lunged and bit down hard on Ray’s arm.

Ray screamed.

“Celeste!” Mezzo shouted.

Ray twisted violently and tore free, then grabbed a fallen log from beside the roots and hurled it at her.

Celeste barely dodged.

The log smashed into the ground behind her, spraying dirt and splinters.

But while Celeste was distracted, Ray closed the distance again.

“You bit me, you psycho!”

Celeste straightened, cheeks wet, body tense as a drawn wire.

“I’m a dragon and an alicorn,” she said, too formal, too bright, too wrong. “You are a phoenix. Would fire help you understand rank?”

Ray stared at her.

Then laughed, wild and furious.

“Oh, I’m gonna kick your insufferable ass.”

Celeste squeaked.

“Please don’t.”

From the sidelines, Hughes’s face tightened.

He turned slightly toward Arcade.

“I don’t think Celeste is willingly doing this.”

Arcade, frowned sharply. “How do you know?”

Hughes kept his eyes on Celeste.

“Look at her limbs.”

Arcade looked.

Celeste moved again, too stiff, too precise, too tense. Her shoulders locked before every strike. Her fingers twitched before she corrected Ray’s stance. Her smile kept snapping back into place like a cracked mask someone else was holding up.

“She’s not angry,” Hughes said grimly.

Arcade swallowed. “No. She’s complying.”

Ray wiped blood from her nose with the back of her hand.

“You headbutted me. You think I’m walking away from that?”

Celeste blinked at her. “You wanted me to be a better leader, and you were in my face. Best response I could give.”

Ray’s eyes narrowed.

“You’re insane,” she said. “Absolutely insane.”

She drove a fist into Celeste’s stomach.

The impact folded Celeste in half.

From the sidelines, Mezzo sucked in a breath. “Feck—”

Celeste skidded backwards but somehow stayed upright, coughing hard, one arm wrapped around her middle.

Mezzo stared. “How the hell did she survive that?”

Ray didn’t give her time to recover.

She rushed in again.

Celeste spun, caught Ray by the tail, and yanked.

Ray’s eyes went wide.

Then Celeste threw her.

Ray hit the dirt hard, rolled, and came up with fire licking along her arms.

“I’m going to kill you,” she snarled.

Celeste tilted her head again.

Still smiling.

“Why?”

Ray laughed, sharp and ugly. “Because you’re a walking bomb who acts like an innocent baby. When were you planning to realise that? When were you going to do something that won’t blow up in our face?”

Celeste’s smile faltered.

“I don’t know how,” she said, suddenly small beneath the strange brightness. “I need help.”

Ray’s laugh came out cruel.

“Help? You’re beyond help. What is your problem?”

Celeste’s hands curled against her chest.

“I don’t know my dad,” she said. “But I’m trying to be like him. Like everyone wants me to be.”

She paused.

Then her eyes flicked down to Ray’s feet.

“By the way, you’re putting too much weight on that stance. I’ll correct you.”

She punched Ray backwards.

Ray stumbled, shocked more than hurt.

Celeste immediately clapped both hands over her mouth.

“I’m sorry!”

Ray’s fury sharpened into something vicious.

“You’re nothing like your father,” she shouted. “Stop trying to be like him already!”

Celeste’s eyes burned.

“I’m trying,” she said, voice breaking. “But everyone is asking me. I didn’t want this! I just wanted to go home!”

Ray swung again.

Celeste ducked—barely.

“Wake up,” Ray snarled. “The world you want is dead. This is it. So wake the hell up—”

Celeste lashed out, claws scraping across Ray’s arm.

Ray hissed and jerked back, staring at the bright red marks.

Celeste tilted her head.

“You weren’t paying attention,” she said, voice light and wrong. “Perhaps this will help.”

Ray’s eyes flashed.

She spun suddenly, faster than Celeste expected, and sank her teeth into Celeste’s tail.

Celeste shrieked.

Not dramatically.

Not heroically.

Like a cat whose entire soul had been stepped on.

“OW—!”

Ray released her and spat fur from her mouth, fire licking between her teeth.

“You’re no Commander.”

Celeste went very still.

Then she punched Ray squarely in the nose.

Ray staggered back, stunned.

Celeste stepped close.

Too close.

Her smile returned, small and bright and terrible.

“Correction,” she said softly.

Ray blinked through watering eyes.

Celeste leaned in.

“It’s Knight Commander Astallan to you.”

For one heartbeat, even the fire seemed to pause.

Then Ray snarled and lunged again.