It's probably just a translation metaphor? Nobody talked to Orphan about neurobiology at any point, she just has concepts about lightlines which involve them having many-to-one reception and one-to-many transmission.
She can't sense population at this distance without an instinctive effort to stretch her magical senses that gets noped by the interfering magical current from her chains.
...her golden prison could plausibly be approaching this foreboding castle-like in space, notable for its lack of any concession to centrifugal design.
