Iris Vale makes her living softening memories-removing the sharp edges of grief and leaving the shape intact. It's quiet work, done above a noodle shop, with tools that hum like bees and a crown that tastes thought. But when a client's memory carries something it shouldn't-an echo threaded with a time, a number, a disappearance-Iris finds herself pulled into the city's hidden architecture.Here, rooms behave like people. Doors keep grudges. Announcements arrive three seconds late on purpose. And somewhere between stations and shadows, Iris's brother-missing for years-still waits to be returned.With a monk who measures policy like pulse, a watcher who testifies only to what can be denied, and a boy who sews near-times into lantern light, Iris navigates markets of lost things, dead letter offices, and wells that carry absence like water. Together, they fight a chorus that wants to turn memory into spectacle and refusal into product.In a world where no can be stamped, late can be holy, and maintenance is the only revolution that lasts, Iris must decide what to keep, what to return, and what to leave unedited.The Lattice Between is a lyrical, genre-bending novel about memory, refusal, and the quiet heroism of saying no.