Kett has a compact, sturdy frame and the forward-tilted posture of someone who has spent years ducking under low stone arches. Her movements are economical until she hears water, when she turns her head sharply and goes very still, as if the sound has become a map. Her broad palms are crosshatched with pale, smooth patches where wet rope and stone have worn away her calluses; the nails are kept short and stained gray with mortar. One unexpectedly conspicuous detail: she wears a tiny, bright yellow child's mitten on a cord beneath her work shirt, an absurdly cheerful keepsake amid her grim tools. People often remember the little mitten before they remember her face.

Kett is generous with effort but stingy with trust. She can be brisk and unsentimental while solving a practical problem, then unexpectedly tender toward anyone frightened or out of their depth. Under pressure she becomes exact and decisive; when asked about her own losses, she deflects with dry jokes or technical explanations. She wants to be forgiven but resents anyone who treats her as helpless.

Kett grew up in the damp lower wards with Drauvana, learning to swim in overflow basins and to tell a blocked channel from a healthy one by sound. As adults, they joined the municipal aqueduct squad together. Kett handled braces and access grates; Drauvana surveyed the upper runs. During the collapse at the old eastern aqueduct, Kett sent the rest of the squad back with a hand signal and stayed to hold a jammed sluice long enough for trapped workers to escape. The passage gave way before Drauvana could reach her. No body was recovered, and Drauvana has never declared Kett dead. Kett survived in a sealed maintenance pocket and eventually crawled out through a forgotten drainage spur, but she has stayed hidden since returning to the city. She discovered that the collapse was worsened by an unauthorized diversion, and that the diverted water now serves a district whose residents would suffer if the route were exposed. She is trying to find proof and a way to restore the aqueduct without cutting off the people who rely on it. She has not yet found the courage to face Drauvana, who may believe Kett abandoned the squad or died saving them.