"Explain?" Flames surged higher around her form. "Explain why you hid your deteriorating condition? Why you didn't trust me enough to help? Why I had to learn from LUNA that you've been dying by inches all this time?"
Tears glimmered in her eyes, catching the firelight and transforming each droplet into a tiny inferno. The raw pain in her expression belied the fury in her voice, revealing deeper vulnerabilities beneath her commanding presence.
From deeper in the laboratory, a sound of muffled laughter grew progressively more pronounced until it erupted into full-throated cackles. Yue, her childlike form doubled over with mirth, wiped tears of amusement from her eyes while her daughter Litty stood beside her, trying and failing to suppress her own giggles.
The flame-wielding woman—Elara—whirled to face them, her expression darkening further. "What exactly is so amusing about this situation?" she demanded.
