Ink and Rain

Suyi was fixing a fever chart when the court pulled her into the Hall of Last Breath. She had to draft an edict for the magistrate's public exam day, then watch her father disown her in front of the whole hall. That should have ended her place in the world. Instead, the new prince came to her residence the same day and asked for her help with the borders no one else could map. He spoke to her like a person, not a tool, and that was the first thing that made her hands shake. She could read pulse lines, rain shifts, and hidden seams between realms. She could also copy the strength of anyone she had watched for an hour, but only while they slept. The key in her desk had waited three years. The ...