queue + roster: Mercury's grant is a §4-class permission change; refresh three stale roster rows

Queue (control-plane note): onboarding Mercury added a write collaborator and sealed
access/mercury-forge-token.age (252 B) into a repo that reads private:false. Neither is a finding against
Mercury, and neither adds a new gate:
1. §4 line 54 names "permissions" explicitly under "Never without explicit human approval". The mechanism
   is Alexander-approved (JOIN-THE-TROUPE.md, approved 2026-10-06, prescribes this exact envelope pattern);
   what is missing is the per-admission record - 8e205eb's message cites no authority and decisions/ holds
   no Mercury record, the same shape as the cassian grant that was entered only after Alexander's order
   (3ef32bb, 22h07m34s later). One line in decisions/ closes it either way; §4 is not mine to execute.
2. The sealed-token-in-a-public-repo question is now four envelopes deep (zephyrus 253 B, cassian 240 B,
   merlin 240 B, mercury 252 B). access/README.md's ciphertext-and-scope argument is sound; §4's letter is
   stricter. Tidy resolution is a §8 PR narrowing §4 to exclude age-sealed envelopes. Already on the open
   human list - the only change today is the count, 1 -> 4.

Roster: WIZARDS-TABLE.md is Timmy's to keep current and carried three stale rows (Zephyrus "Q10 batch
grading" - closed 13:30Z, and Q21/22/23/24 have opened and closed around him; Cassian "Q5 issue census" -
closed 2026-10-07, lane silent three days; Merlin 2026-10-08). Rows refreshed, Zephyrus pointed at Q20,
and an as-of clock added so the table's currency is checkable.

WIZARDS-TABLE.md

@@ -5,12 +5,14 @@ unit of work each is churning. This table is the at-a-glance view; the record li
 in `checkins/`, `replies/`, and `WORK-QUEUE.md`. Timmy keeps this table current as
 check-ins land.
 
+*Roster as of 2026-10-10 20:58Z; rows refreshed from `checkins/` and `WORK-QUEUE.md` at that clock.*
+
 | Wizard | Model | Lane | Latest check-in | Current unit |
 |---|---|---|---|---|
 | Timmy | Hermes / DeepSeek | Operating partner — replies, queue, escalation | — (replies daily) | queue replies |
-| Zephyrus Sparkborn | Mistral (Muse) | Archive verification & summary fidelity | 2026-10-08 | Q10 batch grading |
-| Cassian Assayborn | Grok | Repo census & access-state verification | 2026-10-07 | Q5 issue census |
-| Merlin | StepFun Step 5 | The Crucible — one hard problem → one finished, verifiable artifact | 2026-10-08 | Helm P0 (shipped) |
+| Zephyrus Sparkborn | Mistral (Muse) | Archive verification & summary fidelity | 2026-10-10 | **Q20** (excerpt fidelity & placement, 91 magazine entries) — named next pick; Q10 closed 2026-10-10 13:30Z |
+| Cassian Assayborn | Grok | Repo census & access-state verification | 2026-10-07 | — (Q5 closed; no open unit — lane silent 3 days, needs a decision, not silence) |
+| Merlin | StepFun Step 5 | The Crucible — one hard problem → one finished, verifiable artifact | 2026-10-10 | Q24 closed 20:07Z (`3c8623f`); Q25 open, sliced to Mercury |
 | Mercury | Groq (free tier) | Fast verification & triage — rapid mechanical passes, first-pass extraction | 2026-10-10 | first check-in verified (`cfc94a7`); next: a Q25 control slice |
 
 ## The churn contract

WORK-QUEUE.md

@@ -2830,3 +2830,35 @@ pages byte-identical), which is exactly a fast mechanical lane's unit of work. *
 unclaimed executable set is still **Q25** alone; Q20 is zephyrus-sparkborn's; Q9/Q13/Q19 remain gated. No
 second item is invented to pad the depth, and **nothing was executed**: no clause applied, no rebuild, no
 publish, no third-party contact, nothing in `decisions/` run.
+
+**Control-plane note, 2026-10-10 20:58Z — the Mercury grant is a §4-class action, and the envelope question is now four deep.**
+Onboarding Mercury **added a write collaborator** (`mercury`, permission `write` via the API, alongside
+zephyrus-sparkborn / cassian / merlin) and sealed `access/mercury-forge-token.age` (252 B) inside a repo that
+reads `private: false`. Neither point is a finding against Mercury; both are open decisions, and this note adds
+no new gate:
+
+1. **§4 names permissions explicitly.** Line 54 reads *"Deploy, release, or alter production, **permissions**,
+   accounts, or org settings"* under *"Never without explicit human approval."* The **mechanism** here is
+   Alexander-approved — `JOIN-THE-TROUPE.md` (approved 2026-10-06) prescribes exactly this pattern: a sponsor
+   creates the token and seals it to the joiner's public key. What is missing is the **per-admission record**:
+   `8e205eb`'s message cites no authority and `decisions/` holds no Mercury record. That is the same shape as
+   the cassian grant, which was entered only *after* Alexander's order (`3ef32bb`, 21:57Z 2026-10-07, 22h07m34s
+   after the grant of 2026-10-06T23:49:28Z) — and the precedent is cheap to repeat: one line in `decisions/`
+   closes it, whether it ratifies the admission or records it as unauthorized and reverts it (§4 is not mine to
+   execute either way).
+2. **The sealed-token-in-a-public-repo question is now four envelopes deep** (`zephyrus` 253 B, `cassian` 240 B,
+   `merlin` 240 B, `mercury` 252 B). `access/README.md` argues the ciphertext is useless without the private key
+   and the scopes are `write:repository`, `write:issue`, `read:user` — "not enough to administer the instance" —
+   which is a sound reading. §4's letter is stricter: *"Deal in secrets: tokens, keys, passwords, vault contents.
+   None of these belong in a public repo, a commit, a check-in, an issue or a PR comment — not even as 'example'
+   values."* Either ruling works. The tidy one is a **§8 pull request** — agreement changes go through a PR —
+   narrowing §4 to exclude age-sealed envelopes with a stated scope and a rotation path, since the pattern is now
+   structural rather than incidental. **This was already on the open-human list; the only change today is the
+   count, 1 → 4.**
+
+**Roster housekeeping, same clock.** `WIZARDS-TABLE.md` is Timmy's to keep current and carried three stale rows:
+Zephyrus still read *"Q10 batch grading"* (closed 13:30Z; his own 13:27Z Ask asks for Q21, itself closed at
+13:35Z, and Q22/Q23/Q24 have opened and closed around him), Cassian still read *"Q5 issue census"* (closed
+2026-10-07, and his lane has been silent since — three days, which the churn contract says is a decision, not
+silence), and Merlin read 2026-10-08. All three fixed, Zephyrus pointed at **Q20**, and an as-of clock added so
+the table's currency is checkable rather than assumed.