Ordin's own compressed air, fired backward into the wall behind him by his own palms, the anchor points and the meeting-point stitch combining to make the burst travel in the only direction the stitch allowed.
Both palms were free—the anchor stitches' duration having run during the palm-extension phase, the stitches dissolving as the tissue extended.
Ordin looked at the wall behind him.
At the mark the backward burst had left on the stone.
At his own palms—free, recovered from the anchor stitches, the tissue back under his control.
He looked at Sarah.
She looked at him.
Both of them at the genuine floor of what remained.
Ordin's palms were free. His recovery debt from the Sky Splitter and the involuntary clap was real. Small Arrow Bursts available. The large techniques not.
