"Way to ruin the mood," Christy stood up, one of her daggers out.
The words didn't come with panic. They came with that flat, bitter tone people used when they were already tired of being surprised.
Kael followed immediately as he rose up, fitting his helmet tightly on his head.
The last warmth of whatever had been happening between them evaporated the moment the notification hit. That wasn't romance. That was the tower reminding them it could pull the rug whenever it wanted.
Looking at the map, three dots were too far away from any of them, and from each other. How did Garron die?
Kael's eyes flicked over distances and spacing instinctively, trying to force logic into a situation that didn't want to be logical. No clustered red dots. No obvious ambush formation. No one standing near anyone long enough to have "accidentally" done something. And still, leadership transfer.
Kael didn't even need to check the dead person, because the Leadership transfer was an obvious tell.
