Central Square is the principal public stage of the Darkwing Squadron’s passage through Wallaria, the capital of the Skatian Empire. It first receives the Kinai as an awe-inspiring diplomatic spectacle and later becomes the place where Teresa witnesses their true nature, recognizes the scale of the journey ahead, and begins to understand the freedom Kenner has offered her. The square therefore changes from an imperial showcase into a threshold of revelation: a stone city’s open center becomes the launch point for a hidden people’s return home.

Setting and Diplomatic Display

The Darkwing Squadron reaches Central Square after the Council of Elders arranges its landing and lodgings in Wallaria. The squadron does not enter the capital inconspicuously. Its members glide over the city, using their enormous wings to manipulate the air currents and maximize the spectacle before descending onto a clearing prepared for them. They shapeshift during the landing, making the square the first place where the Kinai’s controlled public presentation becomes visible to the citizens of the Skatian capital.

The square also marks the uneasy diplomacy between the Kinai and the Skatian Empire. Kenner has no affection for the Empire’s soil or for the imperial officials who host his party, but reports of Skatian ships circling Obsidian Ridge have made the visit necessary. The Kinai remember that Skatia once tried to enslave them and that, nearly a millennium earlier, Kinai forces proved capable of turning the Empire’s forces to ash. The delegation’s presence in Central Square thus carries an implicit warning: the Kinai have arrived peacefully, but not submissively. Their wings, altitude, and command of the air make the square an arena of deterrence as much as a civic space.

The Departure Ground

Before the return journey, the Darkwing Squadron gathers in Central Square before sunrise. The Emperor of Skatia and his entourage come to see the visitors off, preserving the formal frame of the imperial invitation even as the Kinai prepare to leave the palace. The square’s physical conditions immediately undermine the ceremony’s grandeur. Although Wallaria is a desert city built of stone, the early hour does not make the exposed gathering comfortable; Teresa is sweating by the time she reaches the square.

The scene gathers the political tensions of the visit into one compact public moment. Lady Esplyn is among the imperial party, and Teresa recognizes the hostility in her former mistress’s gaze. A Kinai woman also looks at Teresa with open rage, reminding her that liberation has not erased the resentments attached to her former status. Yet the square gives Teresa room to stand in public rather than hide. She realizes that she is now a free woman, or as free as she can be, straightens her back, lifts her chin, and turns her attention toward the future. The departure ground consequently becomes the setting for a change in Teresa’s self-understanding: the place where she might once have sought concealment becomes the place where she publicly refuses shame.

Teresa’s Crate and the Hidden Vehicle

Kenner assigns Arul to look after Teresa while he completes the diplomatic formalities with the Emperor. Arul guides her to a wooden crate prepared for transport. It is padded with woolen blankets, large enough for her to sit or lie down, and supplied with water, bread, and cured meat. A leather-fastened panel can close the opening at the front, allowing Teresa some protection from the cold during the journey.

The crate makes Central Square appear, at first, to be the beginning of an ordinary and uncomfortable overland expedition. Teresa sees no vehicles anywhere in the square and cannot understand how the party will travel to Kinai. Her confusion is intensified by the mismatch between the imperial setting and the improvised-looking conveyance: the Palace offered luxury, but the square offers a wooden box secured with straps. Because she has chosen to trust Kenner, however, she enters the crate despite the strangeness of the arrangement. The square becomes a transitional space in which the familiar categories of travel fail, preparing both Teresa and the reader for a more radical explanation.

The Dragon Revelation

The decisive event at Central Square begins when the Darkwing Squadron lines up at its far edge and runs toward the opposite side. Teresa initially watches in bewilderment. Then, while still moving, the Kinai bodies split open into another form: tails and wings emerge, hands and feet become powerful limbs armed with enormous claws, necks and heads lengthen, armor seems to merge into their growing bodies, and the figures expand until they rise from the ground with roars that shake the roofs of Wallaria.

Teresa recognizes the truth in a single stunned realization: the Kinai are dragons. The revelation transforms everything she has seen in the square. Their flight is no longer a military maneuver or a theatrical display, and the crate is no longer an inexplicable vehicle. It is cargo for an airborne journey. Their privacy behind the jagged teeth of Obsidian Ridge also takes on a new meaning, since the people who avoid the wider world are not merely a secluded community but a concealed draconic power.

Kenner’s own transformation completes the revelation. While the squadron circles overhead, he kneels to meet Teresa’s eyes and expresses pride in the spectacle before promising to carry her crate himself. He then changes form in the open space of the square. His dragon body is covered in large dark scales except for its leathery wings, which account for much of his size. Crests run from his brow along his spine to the tip of his tail and can rise or retract. His eyes remain recognizably the same as in his humanoid form, but enlarged, while his claws scrape across the stone and his serrated teeth make Teresa fear that he might treat her as prey. Instead, he reassures her through a simple blink and prepares to take her with him. Central Square therefore stages not only a species revelation but also a test of trust: the terrifying body that could destroy Teresa becomes the body entrusted with carrying her to safety.

Narrative Significance

Central Square functions as a threshold between imperial confinement and Kinai belonging. Teresa arrives there still surrounded by former ownership, diplomatic hostility, and uncertainty about her destination. She leaves it with a new understanding of the people around her and with the possibility of a future in which she is no longer hidden or controlled by a mistress. The square’s openness contrasts with the Kinai’s deliberate secrecy, while its stone architecture provides a stark, human-scale surface against which the dragons’ immense bodies become almost mythic.

Its significance also depends on reversal. The imperial capital appears to possess the wealth and authority: the Emperor offers hospitality, the Palace provides a luxurious suite, and the public square is prepared for formal arrivals and departures. Yet the apparent guests possess the force that truly commands the scene. The Skatian court can witness the Darkwing Squadron, but it cannot dictate the form in which the Kinai travel. In Central Square, ceremony is overtaken by transformation, and an imperial send-off becomes a demonstration that the hidden Kinai remain powerful enough to cross the world through the sky.