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Jade looked genuinely startled, which only made it worse.

"Fine," I said once I'd recovered. "Don't get used to it. Argue every time if you need to. Just make sure you do it before someone gets bitten."

Her mouth twitched, and that was enough for me.

I dismissed the session and turned toward the Illusion Master to confirm the final settings while the others started clearing equipment. Behind me, Jade went directly back to Halver and resumed the conversation she'd started during the break.

"Why did you protect the right side?"

"Because you said it would be open."

"So you knew what I'd target."

"Yes."

"That isn't how a Cinderhound normally thinks."

"I wasn't one."

Jade frowned. "You looked like one."

Alex started laughing from the equipment rack, but Jade ignored him and kept her attention on Halver. "How much does the animal's instinct affect you?"

"Enough to matter."

"But your reasoning stays yours?"

"Yes."

"Does the instinct ever override it?"

Halver considered the question before shaking his head. "Influences. Doesn't override."

Jade nodded slowly, already rebuilding the encounter in her head. She asked another question about whether familiarity with a form changed the strength of the instinct, and Halver answered while Alex abandoned the equipment rack entirely so he could listen.

I watched them for a moment before looking back toward the Illusion Master.

The Council's file called Jade qualified.

The word was becoming useless. It didn't explain how she could take command of a creature engagement with barely any hesitation, yet still ask whether she was allowed to use her own knives.

I didn't need another file. I needed her to tell me things, and that was going to be the harder part of integrating her into Nephrite.

Somewhere along the way she'd learned that information flowed one direction. Masters asked, she answered. Disagreement was something to defend, not something anyone might actually use. A soldier who followed every order without question looked disciplined right up until the moment she saw something her commander didn't and stayed silent anyway.

I needed that gone before we deployed. Not to make her easier to command. The opposite.

I turned back toward the Illusion Master before Jade caught me staring.

Yesterday she'd needed someone to tell her she could walk out of her own front door. This morning she'd challenged two of my assumptions, adjusted to a squad habit that accidentally excluded her, argued when one of my comments was unfair and taken control of an engagement the moment she stopped forcing the situation back into the shape she'd been taught to expect.

That was the direction I wanted.

My job wasn't to teach Jade obedience. The Council had already done far too much of that.

My job was to make sure that when the field changed beneath us, she trusted herself enough to speak and trusted Nephrite enough to believe we would listen.

Chapter Six: Boundaries and Man-Buns