Orlov's smile slipped half an inch, the very first crack in a face that rarely moved at all. Gold pulsed through the sand again, brightening the whole grid beneath Hajin's trembling feet and the pooled blood.
"Fall," he said, pressing the word down like a thumb on a beetle.
The command struck Hajin square in the chest and slid off like rain from a tarred roof. He stayed upright with blood drying on his chin, one eyebrow climbing slowly toward his sweaty hairline.
"Was that supposed to do something?" he asked.
Orlov flung the word again, louder this time, "Fall!"
[Rank Court]
[Rank One: Kaizer Orlov]
[Command: Fall]
[Rank Sixty-Four: resisting]
"It cannot find you, you are standing on a rung that does not exist," Aria whispered, thrilled.
'Right, the Rings aren't on his ladder, so the root is stuffed full of them and can't even hiccup.'
Juna's ears snapped upright, her claws loosening from the railing, "That's the face he makes right before the stupid thing works."
