Before the Painted Screen Opens

Sae slips into painted spaces and brings things back, which makes her the perfect woman for a war house that needs quiet hands and clever eyes. She works best when everyone else assumes she is only a clerk, a messenger, or a harmless girl at the edge of the room. That mistake helps her survive, but it also leaves her carrying too much on her own. She notices torn seals, half-finished notes, and the way powerful men lie when they think no one small enough to matter is listening. The one person who keeps meeting her through work, then through anonymous messages, then through the wrong name, begins to matter in a way neither of them can safely fix.