KAEL'S POV
I had been pacing for the better part of an hour. The base was still quiet in a way, though everyone was awake but it was like the silence of people choosing to be quiet because the person doing the pacing needed the space to do it without commentary.
Twenty pairs of eyes that had learned to read a room's atmosphere the hard way, through years of existing in spaces where misreading the temperature could cost you something significant. They moved through their routines with the careful awareness of people who understood that today felt different from yesterday and were waiting to find out exactly how.
I continued walking front and back the training space, my wrists had stopped burning, my shoulder was better. But my heart kept burning...my mind racing in her absence.
Eliana was still in there.
