I remember when someone passed, just a few years after I'd retired from my final posting. A close relation, you understand. I’d been the primary caregiver for what felt like... well, a long campaign, certainly. And the immediate aftermath, it was complicated. A peculiar sensation, like the sudden cessation of a constant, low-frequency hum that had been present for decades. A stillness. Not joy, never joy, but a profound quietude that was, if I’m honest, a distinct release. It felt like desertion, that relief, a failure of duty even, but it was there nonetheless.