The Darkness That Devours Fire
Si-eo's voice grew smaller and smaller. Ansi, it seemed, was chasing the arsonist far away.
It's too soon to breathe easy over this.
I set down my spoon and rose from my seat.
"Your Highness, one moment, please."
"Why, what is the matter?"
"I'll just step out and be right back. Wait for me a little while."
With that flimsy excuse, I slipped out and headed for the small side kitchen attached to Unyeondang.
Nearly all of the palace maids had been sent away, and those remaining were taking their meals in another room, so the kitchen stood utterly empty. I approached the hearth. Set into the earthen shelf along the wall above the great iron cauldron, I could see the royal water bowl — the vessel placed there to enshrine the Kitchen God.
"Lady Jowang-gaksi."
At my summons, the figure of a tiny woman no bigger than my palm — apron worn over a flame-patterned skirt — appeared as smoothly as smoke rising from the hearthstone. It was Jowang-gaksi, the guardian spirit of this kitchen. Floating above the water bowl, the little woman fluttered her hands in a bow.
[I, Jowang-gaksi, spirit of Unyeondang and servant of the Kitchen God, pay respects to Her Highness Princess Cheonmyeong.]
Even among spirits there is a hierarchy. Those at the very top — beings who govern and preside over their entire domain — are called gods. My mother and father, Grandmother Samsin, the twins Cheongsil and Hongsil, the fate-deity Gamunjang — these were gods. I govern no domain of my own, yet I rank among the gods by exception, by virtue of my innate standing and the sheer measure of my divine power.
Beneath the gods serve the immortals, spirits entrusted with more specialized or finely divided duties. Gangrim Doryeong, the Flower-Fate Inspector, the four guardian beasts, the sisters of Gamunjang who never rose to become fate-deities — all of these were immortals. Below the immortals are the ascended: the functionaries who serve beneath them and the ordinary residents of the celestial realm. Simply put, every being living in the heavens other than gods and immortals counts among the ascended.
And then there were those standing between immortal and ascended — beings charged not with the heavens, but with a specific region of the lower world. These were the divine spirits.
Nearly every mountain worth the name has its own mountain god, for a start.
Jowang-gaksi was one such spirit — a guardian of the mortal world's kitchens, serving under Jowangsin, the god of fire and the hearth.
"You knew me at first glance. Did the Kitchen God tell you something?"
"Yes, Your Highness. The Kitchen God summoned me and commanded: the Princess shall be living as a mortal in this place — serve her well. It is an honor beyond my deserving, Your Highness."
"Good. Bands of men may come here tonight meaning to set this place ablaze, so guard it well—"
[You mean that creature?]
Jowang-gaksi suddenly cut me off and pointed behind me.
An arsonist really has come to Unyeondang itself?
I had made preparations just in case, but had they truly come all the way here to burn this place down? The moment I turned in shock, I understood: whoever stood behind this scheme — the Left State Councilor or someone else entirely — was no ordinary human. For there in the doorway, upright as a guardian totem, stood a hulking man wrapped head to toe in living flame.
That thing was not human.
"A Fire Ghost……!"
Jowang-gaksi whispered the words in a trembling voice.
Fire Ghosts — spirits that wander about setting things ablaze — draw power in proportion to their size. Most are no bigger than a palm, and those are easily dispatched by spirits the likes of Jowang-gaksi, who is of a similar size.
But this Fire Ghost towered far larger than any human. At that scale, it was less a stray spirit than something closer to a stray god.
At least it's not some named fiend like a Jigwi……
That changed nothing. It was still far beyond anything Jowang-gaksi could hope to defeat.
Commanding a spirit of that caliber is no easy feat, is it? This is no ordinary sorcerer.
Besides — a human arsonist had gone to Jamryongdang, while a Fire Ghost had come here. Setting aside the difference in power, the methods were nothing alike.
Could there be more than one hand behind all this?
Just as the mastermind who had cut down Seruhwa was different from the one who sent assassins after our wedding.
"I shall hold it off as long as I can! Flee while I do, Your Highness!"
Jowang-gaksi's desperate cry jolted me back to my senses. Through the doorway, I could see the hulking Fire Ghost bending low to squeeze itself inside.
"Just hold it as long as you can, then save yourself!"
I shouted after Jowang-gaksi and sprinted out of the side kitchen.
Cheoyong's warding talismans repel attacks and curses carrying true murderous intent, but they were vulnerable to accidents like this. My Zhuque robes, however, could not burn. All I had to do was pull them on, and fire itself would be no threat.
Once I've gotten the palace maids and the Crown Prince to safety, I'll change into the Zhuque robes I have ready and—
A flash of grim premonition seared through my mind. Trusting the instinct, I whipped my head around toward the great wooden hall. Another Fire Ghost was lumbering slowly across Unyeondang's front courtyard. It was somewhat smaller than the totem-sized one that had entered the side kitchen, but still large as a grown man.
Wherever its feet touched, they left behind fresh charcoal-black scorch marks.
Two of them?
If there weren't just one Fire Ghost but two, there might well be more.
My instincts seized me, and my eyes darted across the hall — to the men's quarters where the Crown Prince and I had been taking our meal. Beyond the papered doors, the shadow of flame flickered and swayed.
A chill crawled down my spine.
The Crown Prince brat!
I tore across the space without thinking and flung the door open. A wall of heat surged out. Fire that had spilled in through the windows rippled hungrily.
Thankfully, the room was empty. The Crown Prince must have left as soon as the fires began to catch.
In his place, perched on the windowsill, a boy-sized Fire Ghost stared at me with its soot-smeared, eyeless, mouthless face.
Just as ordinary humans cannot see ghosts, they cannot see Fire Ghosts either. And the ghosts know it well. If one of them ever discovers that you can see them, you all too often become their mark.
I avoided meeting its gaze and closed the door as if I had noticed nothing.
Where did he go?
Standing in the hall, I frantically scanned my surroundings and turned my gaze toward the back rooms where the palace maids had gathered.
I have to get them to safety!
I was racing toward it when the door burst open and Court Lady Kim and her maids tumbled out, white as ash. Flame licked through the gap of the open doorway, and the crackle and heat of the blaze came pouring into the hall.
"Milady!"
"My lady, there's fire! You must evacuate at once!"
"Fire! Fire!"
Amid the maids' screaming, I seized on the most composed of them, Court Lady Kim, and shouted my question.
"Is everyone out?"
"Yes, my lady!"
"Then get out of Unyeondang — now!"
"Not without you, my lady!"
"Have you seen the Crown Prince?"
"You have not met him? He came just now to tell us of the fire, and then went off searching for you, my lady!"
Did we miss each other on the way?
No — in this Unyeondang, tiny as a freckle compared to Sangra Palace, how could we possibly have crossed paths without meeting?
"Understood! Get to safety, quickly!"
"My lady! You must come out with us! My lady!"
Ignoring Court Lady Kim's frantic stamping and cries, I bolted. The Crown Prince hadn't been on the side of the kitchens and back rooms, so the odds were high he'd gone around behind the men's quarters.
My bedchamber is on that side.
Had he gone all the way there looking for me? Out of worry for me?
This infuriating little brat — honestly, who's supposed to be worrying over whom!
As I ran back toward the men's quarters, I could see a Fire Ghost swaying and dancing beyond the papered doors. Following the ghost's gestures, flames climbed up the pillars, raced along the great crossbeams, and scattered sparks into the corridor.
The smell of burning wood filled the air. The overheated air itself seemed to shimmer.
Unyeondang is burning.
The home of "Seruhwa" that I had tended so painstakingly this past month. My space.
My teeth ground together. I was not accustomed to having what was mine destroyed.
Whichever of you is behind this — just try and get caught by me.
With the fire spreading through the corridor, crossing to my bedchamber bare-skinned would be difficult. Just as I was drawing the Eight-Beaded Bell from my robe to summon the Zhuque robes, the Crown Prince burst out of the bedchamber on the far side of the flame-lit corridor.
"Your Highness!"
"My lady!"
The Crown Prince called to me with a face drained of color, then turned to look around me, his features lit crimson by the glow of the flames. The boy shouted at me with eyes in which fury and terror were tangled together.
"Stay exactly where you are!"
"Pardon?"
I hesitated to summon the Zhuque robes in front of the Crown Prince, and while I stood there clutching the bell, torn, he moved without a flicker of doubt.
He strode straight into the corridor, where the Fire Ghost's dancing trails scorched every inch.
"Your Highness, that's dangerous—!"
The cry burst from my mouth — and then I froze, lips parted.
An expression of cold, sunken calm. Darkness gaped open like an enormous maw, trailing in the wake of the Crown Prince's footsteps, and swallowed the corridor whole.
Wherever the darkness spread, the flames lost their strength and went out. Devoured.
Ah. Of course.
Eodukseoni's darkness snuffs out the light around it.
And flame is the very wellspring of light. As the light-devouring dark claimed the corridor, the Crown Prince's domain expanded with every step.
The Crown Prince walked the path the fire had left behind.
The darkness rippled outward until it engulfed even the men's quarters where the Fire Ghost had been dancing. The boy-sized ghost popped out, plainly startled. The Crown Prince, still closing in on me, snapped his head around and locked his gaze directly onto the thing.
So he can see ghosts too. Because he's become Eodukseoni?
The moment the Fire Ghost's gaze met the Crown Prince's, it flinched. And then, across the burning creature's body, darkness clung and spread like a spider's web.
"Kkeeeeek!"
Overwhelmed by terror, the Fire Ghost shrieked a tearing scream, spun around, and fled in blind panic — tumbling, tripping over itself, yet never once stopping.
The Crown Prince left the creature to its flight and ran to me. The darkness racing ahead of him coiled around my vicinity, smothering the flames, yet it did not swallow the light surrounding me.
"My lady! Are you all right?"