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Proximity reduced.
Body language altered.
Reaction time… faster.
More aligned.
A pause.
Then—
The moment.
He watches it once.
Then again.
Then a third time.
Not because he needs to.
Because he wants to understand it.
Connection.
Not dependency.
Not weakness.
Something else.
Chosen alignment.
That’s… inconvenient.
“They’ve reinforced again,” the man beside him says.
Sentinel doesn’t respond immediately.
Because this isn’t reinforcement.
This is consolidation.
“They’ve removed the final variable,” he says quietly.
The man frowns. “I thought that was doubt.”
Sentinel’s gaze sharpens slightly.
“It was.”
A beat.
“Now it’s distance.”
Because distance creates hesitation.
Distance creates misinterpretation.
