Kael felt it when Seori connected.
The Node "brightened" in his view, old routines spinning up.
[HUMAN PARTICIPANT DETECTED: SEORI (CITY EVALUATOR).][SCOPE: LOCAL.]
A ghost of ADMIN_0's presence hung around the Node's older comments.
Kael could almost hear their irritated muttering.
"I told them tunnels matter. No one listens until something floods."
Seori's input manifested as a new vector slot opening in the Node's evaluation layer.
[VECTOR: CITY_EVAL_LOCAL.]
Kael stayed silent.
This wasn't his line to write.
The Node pushed context at Seori.
Flood maps.
Old collapse probabilities.
Maintenance logs for pipes no one remembered.
Potential effects of a minor undercity shift on Block 11's foundations, nearby transit lines, the little park where kids played after school.
Seori's breath caught.
"Wow," she whispered. "You're paranoid down there."
Kael heard her through the link.
"Welcome to ADMIN_0's brain," he said softly.
The Node asked its question.
[QUERY: GIVEN LIMITED REINFORCEMENT RESOURCES, WHICH SEGMENTS DESERVE PRIORITY?]
It offered options.
Stabilize the collapsed chamber to preserve access.
Reinforce an old tunnel that ran near a school.
Patch a minor leak near a commercial block.
Old baseline leaned toward the commercial block—economic optimization. The collapse chamber, secondary. The school tunnel, last.
Seori frowned.
"Kids first," she said automatically.
The Node waited.
She forced herself to slow down.
"Okay," she muttered. "Think like a network. School tunnel collapses: kids at risk, yes, but also… emergency route blocked. Evac path compromised. That's double bad."
Kael smiled up at the Node.
"She's good," he murmured.
The Guard captain eyed him.
"We already knew that?" she said.
He shrugged.
"Now the Node knows it too," he said.
Seori took a deep breath.
"Priority one: reinforce the school-adjacent tunnel," she said, clearly. "Priority two: stabilize this chamber only enough to keep it from triggering more collapses. Priority three: commercial leak."
She added, almost without thinking:
"And don't sacrifice future flexibility just to keep one weird room alive. If something has to be sealed, seal the chamber, not the arteries."
The Node processed.
[HUMAN INPUT ACCEPTED.][UPDATING LOCAL WEIGHTS.]
Kael felt it shift.
The value of "children's routes" ticked up.
The weight on "unique weird Node chamber" ticked… down.
He winced.
"Hey now," he said. "Rude."
The Node did not care.
Old pipes hummed.
Support routines reallocated reinforcement foam, structural spells, Guard repair crew assignments.
Above, city displays quietly updated.
[MAINTENANCE SCHEDULE – UPDATED.][BLOCK 11 SCHOOL TUNNEL: PRIORITY ↑.]
Seori's badge pinged.
[CITY EVALUATOR DECISION REGISTERED.][VERDICT (BETA): POSITIVE.]
She sagged against the railing, suddenly exhausted.
"So?" she called down. "Did I just break the undercity?"
Kael grinned up at her.
"You did the opposite," he said. "You made it slightly less likely that a bunch of kids will fall into a sinkhole. ADMIN_0 would approve."
"Good," she said faintly. "Because I am not coming down there. It smells like antique mildew."