Victor slipped out quietly.
No announcement. He caught Mariabell's eye across the table and said something to her that the rest of us didn't catch and then they were simply...gone. The chairs were empty. The table had a Victor-shaped absence where there had been a Victor.
It was quieter.
Not in an uncomfortable way. The way a room got quieter when the person who filled space by existing in it had left.
We all settled into the new arrangement without much difficulty.
I looked around at who was left.
Liliana had her tea. She was holding the cup with both hands the way she held things when she wasn't thinking about holding them... her elbows on the table, her eyes on me in the particular way that meant she had been waiting to say something for a while and was deciding when to say it.
Aisha was quiet. She had a cup in front of her that she hadn't touched since Victor left.
Eva was watching the window. The city outside. The grey-gold light on old stone.
