Impasse

Li cut through the crowd like a hot knife through butter. He was taller than most, but his lanky build meant that people were not moving aside for him because he was some intimidating ball of mass.

No, it was because when he set his eyes on the square, directly at Old Thane, and focused, all the regular humans around him felt chills run through their spines, spreading all throughout their bodies, drawing out gooseflesh and shivers that made them, at a primordial, instinctive level, evade Li as much as possible without even knowing why.

Sylvie moved much more discretely. She had to face the crowd directly, but she weaved through it with expert ease. It almost seemed as if she were a shadow, something immaterial, flitting across people with such agility it almost felt like she was phasing through them.