“We should leave,” Mara said. “We should.”
“The eastern road is gone.”
“Then we wait.”
“We should leave,” Mara said.
Across the final exchange, neither character’s information, leverage, or immediate goal changes.
Should this moment increase dread, clarify the plan, or force a relational choice?
Let one character make a binding choice, or introduce the cost of delay.
Related practice: make a change in leverage legible through dialogue subtext.