Isla attends what seems to be another group dinner, already dreading the discomfort of eating before others and enduring Cleo’s insults. When the doors open, Isla finds the dining room filled with nobles from every realm and realizes the meal is likely a Centennial demonstration, a public test meant to expose weakness and help rulers assess one another.

Grim appears beside Isla from invisibility and needles her with flirtatious, unsettling remarks, drawing even more attention to them as the Wildling temptress and the Nightshade ruler. Azul then announces that the rulers will demonstrate their powers, immediately threatening Isla’s greatest secret: she has no Wildling power to show.

Azul calls on Grim first. Grim creates a terrifying large-scale illusion of many versions of himself, a collapsing ceiling, and a splitting floor, revealing dangerous mental abilities. Cleo shapes wine into a monstrous shark and freezes it into ice; Celeste fills the room with silvery fireworks; Azul summons storm clouds indoors and blows them away, leaving Isla with no time and no help.

Isla remembers that Terra and Poppy had prepared a plan involving a stolen enchantment from Oro’s collection, but Isla has not pursued it because she has been focused on Celeste’s bondbreaker plan and avoiding the king. With Celeste visibly worried, Isla chooses boldness and asks Oro to assist her demonstration, hoping audacity will distract from her lack of magic.

Isla positions Oro across the room, removes her rings and gloves, reveals a disguised throwing star from her hair, and blindfolds herself. Using training rather than power, Isla throws the star and knocks Oro’s crown from his head. The room is shocked by Isla’s nerve, and because no one questions her afterward, Isla briefly feels powerful despite having used no magic at all.

Oro performs last and turns the stone table and floor into gold, displaying an astonishing level of Sunling mastery that even his own nobles seem not to have seen before. Azul has the nobles vote for a winner, barring them from voting for their own realm, and Oro wins again. Isla accepts that Oro deserved the victory and wonders what else the king is hiding.