Princess Adila breathes in.

Little cloth bags on each of her wingtips are torn open. The glittering sand cascades down them surrounding her in a storm of jewels. She tosses her head back, wings up, and the tiniest spark passes from her lips - like a kiss on the breeze for the world she loves.

The sand ignites, coursing down her neck and bursting through the air in flames that for a moment seem like a mane as wild as her heart. She steps forwards, claws clacking sparks from the stone floor, causing lines of fire to run up her legs in spiral patterns. Her eyes are closed and this one step, this first step, feels so much like dancing. All along her body the black burns orange and the fire of her heart is visible for all to see.

Then she snaps her wings in close and pivots about in a single devastating motion, spreading that fire with her pirouette. The flaming sand expands out in all directions and then the flames finally catch the partially filled bags and there's a detonation like a bad day at Hobling Keep.

As the smoke clears Adila shines. The sudden burst of dragonfire-heat has melted the prismatic sand that had delicately coated her scales into glittering stained glass. For a moment she's radiant, shining black gloss that reflects Alina's light of gold - a dark and crystal moon around that radiant sun. 

She's freed from pride and fear both. She fights by expressing herself, and she fights only to buy time for her friends to express themselves. She's not striving for victory, she's striving so that Dandy has time to cast her magic - all the magic of love and life - so that Hornet has time to realize whatever inspiration takes her, that Alina has time to properly kiss her wife. There's no strategy that can be higher than this; to live your best life and help all of your friends to live theirs too. There are more wonders in each heart she fights for than she could imagine in all her days of dreaming.