Power continues while the Master explores
The city cannot be governed through Graham's feelings alone. Services must be coordinated, officials instructed and opposition assessed. Ostrog already knows the people and systems through which those tasks can be performed.
His usefulness becomes a source of independence. The more effectively he handles the practical demands, the easier it becomes for everyone to treat Graham's participation as optional. The Master can be informed of completed actions rather than asked to determine their purpose.
Reports reaching Graham do not necessarily present the full character of the disturbances outside his immediate circle. Trouble can be minimised through the language of administration. A conflict affecting people's freedom becomes a matter that the competent official has under control.
The arrangement suits the household around Graham as well. They can provide movement, comfort and fascinating experiences while leaving the difficult business to the man who appears qualified to conduct it.
A victory's promises become inconvenient
The population has expectations that do not disappear when the Council surrenders. People who fought in the name of the Sleeper have reasons to demand more than a new person at the top. Returning them to routine without meeting those hopes requires political choices, not merely efficient management.
One small sign of the change is the treatment of the revolutionary song. What helped mobilise the people can become unwelcome once the new government wants them quiet. Graham is not directing that transition. Important decisions about the public meaning of his own victory can occur without his knowledge.
The distance between him and the crowd is also reinforced through ceremony. He can be advised how to receive acclaim and discouraged from forms of spontaneous contact. The same recognition that seemed to connect him to the people can be organised into a ritual that keeps them apart.
There is no single moment in these days when Graham signs away everything he might have done. Control consolidates through many ordinary decisions about attention, access and who is assumed to know best.
Reading the record
The title is deliberately plain. Ostrog governs because he possesses the practical means of governing. Graham's legal position does not remove the need for those means, nor does it ensure that their operator shares his eventual aims.
This is more complicated than a capable villain deceiving an innocent owner. Graham genuinely needs expertise. A world of immense systems cannot be administered by the intuition of a newly awakened stranger. The unresolved issue is whether expertise remains answerable to any purpose beyond its holder's authority.
Ostrog's problem with the people is already becoming distinct from Graham's. For the administrator, popular mobilisation has helped win power and must now be brought under direction. For Graham, the people are the source of a responsibility he is only beginning to grasp.
The record explains how a revolution can change its character without immediately changing its symbols. The black banners, the title of Master and the memory of liberation can remain while decisions move away from the hopes they once expressed.
Helen's next conversation with Graham will give those hopes a more specific human content. Once he hears what the Labour Department means in ordinary lives, he will no longer be able to leave the question of government entirely inside Ostrog's reassuring account of his own competence.