Water dripped from Kael's hair, tracing cold lines down his chest and back. He stood near the window of his dormitory, a towel wrapped loosely around his waist, watching the evening light paint Planet Orion's skyline in shades of amber and violet.
Aria sat cross-legged on his bed, scrolling through her wristband. She'd barely looked up when he'd walked out of the bathroom, though Kael had caught the slight pause in her scrolling rhythm.
"What's the current ranking situation?" Kael grabbed a shirt from his closet, pulling it over his head without bothering to dry his hair first. "I assume I dropped while I was unconscious."
"You're still in the top ten." Aria's voice carried that particular flatness she used when delivering information she considered obvious. "The Hevaria mission gave you an enormous amount of points. Enough to keep you afloat even with three weeks of inactivity."
"Where exactly?"
"Your ranking dropped from third to ninth."
