The upper Registry hall had once been a courtroom. Its stone benches still rose in tiers around the central floor, though the old witness rail had been removed. Wuchen stood behind a raised desk where the rail had been, the command ledger open before him. Copper seals along its edges glowed with orders addressed to provincial nodes.
Two scribes worked behind the desk. A third stood at the far table with the station returns, sorting them into a stack. Yan stepped into the hall as Wuchen lifted his brush.
“The network cannot survive if every village decides for itself,” Wuchen said.
“The villages are keeping their neighbors lit while isolating damaged equipment.” Yan held up the station list. “The western casing split. The local release prevented it from taking down the next barrier.”
Wuchen glanced at the page but did not lower the brush. “A broken station can be repaired. A broken network cannot.”
“Then repair the station before sending power through it.”
The nearest scribe moved the returns closer to the ledger. Wuchen turned the brush and began to write a command to reconnect the western node. The order seal beneath the page brightened, drawing power into a line that ran toward the provincial mark.
