The silence on their side of the wall felt different. Heavier. More complete.
It carried the weight of absence rather than just the absence of sound. The negative space where Kael's nervous commentary and Seris's calm observations should have been. Three people where there had been five.
Two voices missing from the conversation that had kept them functioning as a unit through horrors that should have broken them individually. The group dynamic that had held them together was now reduced by forty percent. A significant tactical disadvantage.
Tank stood staring at the stone barrier for three more seconds. His tactical mind clearly ran through options with the methodical efficiency of someone trained to find solutions to impossible problems. He found all of them insufficient this time.
