Sela read the files in the morning.
She read them the way she read everything that mattered, completely and without stopping, from the first record to the last, in the room at the end of the hall with the window that faced the courtyard and the tree that had grown without being planned for. She had asked for the terminal to be brought to her room, and Tal had brought it without asking why, and she had closed the door and she had read.
No one disturbed her.
This was not a decision that was discussed. It was simply understood, the way certain things were understood in groups of people who had been through enough together to know when presence was needed and when space was what the situation required. Kael made tea and left a cup outside her door. Tal and Suri worked at the main table with the particular focused quiet of people who had something to do and were doing it. Nia updated her maps.
Aiden sat at the window in the main room and watched the street below.
