Ken looked at Vaughn across the arena floor.
At the free feet.
At the contact points those feet could make with the stone at any moment.
He looked at the arena.
At the lighting—the overhead system, the illumination that produced the shadows his ability depended on. He looked at where the light hit fully and where it didn't hit fully. At the base of the barrier walls. At the corners where two surfaces met and the overhead angle left darkness.
The arena wasn't uniformly lit at floor level.
More shadow material in the corners.
Ken moved toward the nearest corner—not away from Vaughn, toward the corner of the arena floor where the barrier wall met the floor surface, the location where the architectural shadow was deepest.
Vaughn read the movement as retreat and pressed his palm to the floor—pulse, traveling through the stone toward Ken's moving position.
Ken was still moving—the pulse arriving at his previous position, the movement having carried him clear.
