The Temple of Caedis food hall at the last meal hour of Umbrath held fewer occupants than its first meal hour had held .
Four of the group's ten were absent from the stone tables — the news of four Shadow Novices who had departed with the expedition team at first light had propagated through the cohort's shared institutional space with the specific efficiency of information that everyone found significant and nobody had been officially told .
The remaining Shadow Novices had discovered about the expedition during classes .
