Phreaking — the precursor to hacking — was an art of frequencies. A single blown tone, at the right pitch, opened a line that was supposed to be closed. A single captured recording, played back into a microphone, spoofed an operator into issuing free international calls.
Ainiri showed Shoothis the ledgers. The cells had used their tone-foo not to steal but to listen — to trace where the state was eavesdropping, and to warn those who did not yet know they were being watched. It was the same service the Flowerers now performed, two centuries on, with qubits instead of tones.