Bai Jiu set the Dusk Ridge seal on the council table and turned the packet so its wax faced the light. The captured clerk sat across from him with a guard at the door. Wei, Oren, and three route captains stood close enough to read the first page.
“This is the provincial mark?” Bai asked.
The clerk leaned forward. “Yes. The outer stroke is from the northern office. The inner mark is the emergency registry.”
Bai compared the wax to a dispatch seal from the fortress. The edges had the same small nick. He opened the packet and found a folded order beneath the transfer schedule.
Wei read the first line aloud. The celestial storm was expected within weeks, not seasons. The Registry had already begun moving families into registered zones and suppressing alternate maintenance plans.
Oren looked toward the window, where guides were updating the shelter board. “We’ve been planning around a slower timetable.”
Yan compared the route assignments in the packet with Han’s map. Several lower settlements were listed for transfer. The map showed their food stores and alternate crossings, but the order offered no route that avoided the watched road.
“What happens if the barriers fail?” Yan asked.
