Sequestered behind screens, shielded from the world, Shiori hates the life of a noblewoman in Heian-Kyo.

She endlessly paints the mountain home she misses. She longs to convey all, the sights and sounds and even the smells.

Then she finds a most evocative technique, one that costs her dear.

A short story from the ornately structured world of tenth century Japan about an unusually committed artist,