Two students trailed behind them like guilty ducklings, trying not to stare.
"Wasn't luck" one murmured. "I was right there. His foot hit, the tiles twitched, and he just... wasn't where he'd been."
"People don't move like that!" the other answered.
"Yeah. That's what I mean."
Esen fell in step backwards, engaging in the conversation.
"I put chalk where Raizen's legs hit" he said, delighted. "The pattern's rude. Like he just told geometry to wait outside."
"Can you do it?" one asked.
Esen grinned. "That dash was kind of impossible. I can annoy geometry, sure. It's a start."
Raizen heard them without wanting to, but he smiled, them not knowing the toll it had on his body.
Kori took them beneath a set of carved arches into a long. Stained glass threw petal colors over the flagstones - crimson, rose, amber - and the images never repeated - each pane was the same badge they wore, in different forms.
