Three weeks into the territorial work something changed in the way the network operated.
Not changed — revealed. The change had been building since they left the kingdom's boundary and was now visible in the data Nara was tracking through the Framework Memory and the threads Wren was maintaining and the Cost Sense readings Oren was providing and the pattern documentation Dael was updating daily.
The network was finding itself.
Not through their actions specifically. Through the between-walker presences in the territory responding to the combined signal's reach and the Framework Inscription in the connected nodes and the threading Wren had established and the between-space wound healing as root nodes were disrupted one cluster at a time.
Isolated correction workers emerging from their isolation.
Not coming to the group — finding each other.
