Petra had never been a regular at the full table.
This wasn't unfriendliness — she'd been at the wedding, at the anniversary dinner, at most of the major gatherings. But the day-to-day rhythm of the compound's communal meals had never quite included her, and nobody had really questioned it. Petra trained. Petra ate separately, usually early, usually alone, in the small room off the training hall that had become, over the years, more hers than anyone else's.
Sera noticed her absence properly for the first time about two years in — not because Petra was absent, which was normal, but because Sera realized she had no idea why.
She brought it up with Aldis, during a perimeter walk.
"Petra's been here longer than almost anyone," Sera said. "Longer than Cole, I think. And I don't actually kno
