Wuchen drove his wrist against the ledger’s copper binding. A second oath seal closed around the joint. The mark fixed his hand to the command line, and his grip on the book strengthened. He had traded freedom of movement for a firmer hold over the provincial seals.
Yan saw the choice in the way Wuchen’s elbow locked. “You’ve bound yourself to the page.”
“I’ve bound the network to its authority.”
Wuchen swung the brush in a wide arc. Yan ducked, then drove a shoulder into the table. The impact jolted his reopened shoulder wound. Pain ran down his arm, and he pulled it close to his side. The table shifted. He used Heaven-Burial Step to move around the desk, following its practiced sequence. The art strengthened his foundation; he did not need to mark the floor or rely on the relay.
He caught the ledger’s corner before Wuchen could close it. The exposed pages listed disconnected nodes and the dates each village had opened its release. Local crews had left their decisions in the Registry’s own record. The new commands had not yet erased those lines.
Yan held the page long enough to see the river date and the western mark. Wuchen pulled against the oath seal. Yan let the book slide rather than tear the paper, then moved away from the next brush stroke.
