The Dangsan Tree Burns
Hui-yeong and Baek-yeong, who knew Cheon-young possessed not a shred of divine power, went rigid with shock. General Hong and his men, sensing only that something was terribly wrong with the shrine maiden, dropped to their knees on instinct.
While Cheon-young held every eye, Yang Ho-gun, Kang Geon-bok, and Ji-suk finished their preparations.
"Now!"
Yang Ho-gun, hidden beneath the cloth-draped offering table, signaled Cheon-young.
Cheon-young's eyes snapped open. She looked down upon General Hong and his company, and from the child's mouth came a voice scraped raw.
"Hong-ga. And you children gathered before me."
It was a voice that seemed at once benevolent and unyielding — low, coarse, and still unmistakably a child's. To General Hong and his men, there could be only one explanation: the spirit of the Dangsan Tree had descended into the shrine maiden.
In truth, Cheon-young had merely dropped her register. But the atmosphere crushed doubt before it could take shape.
"I took pity on you and sought to offer much aid. But even I cannot defy the will of Heaven."
"S-Spirit! What are you saying?"
"Do not be deceived by wicked tongues. Those who would rise against the one Heaven has ordained shall not escape calamity."
It was not a direct accusation, but the meaning was unmistakable: a warning against treason. General Hong's face flushed a deep, furious red. Hui-yeong rushed forward to salvage the situation.
"General! Something's gone wrong—"
"How dare you!"
Cheon-young's voice cracked down on her like a whip.
Even Baek-yeong, who had been following behind, faltered at that presence. A fear took root in their minds: perhaps a god truly had descended.
Cheon-young caught the shift and pressed on without pause.
"How long did you think this child would live as your puppet? Did you truly believe I would never take her into my embrace?"
"No... that's impossible!"
"A puppet? What is she talking about...?"
Hui-yeong was stunned. General Hong, through the spirit's words, grasped what Cheon-young was driving at: that until this moment, Cheon-young had been nothing more than Hui-yeong's puppet, and that the girl standing before them now had, for the first time, been possessed by the spirit.
The latter, of course, was also a lie. But General Hong had no way of knowing that.
"This shaman bitch deceived me! She bewitched me into believing the rebellion would succeed!"
"That's not true, General! The rebellion will succeed!"
General Hong lost all reason and lunged at Hui-yeong. Baek-yeong intercepted him while Hui-yeong scrambled to regain control of the situation.
But to those who believed in the shrine maiden more than they believed in Hui-yeong, her words meant nothing.
The chaos among the leadership began to spread to the soldiers. The scene teetered on the edge of a riot.
"Hong-ga."
Cheon-young spoke again, still wearing the spirit's voice.
"Do not let rage drive you to spill meaningless blood. What crime have those who trust and follow you committed?"
It was dressed as a matter of principle, but the true meaning was clear: do not sacrifice your soldiers for a personal vendetta.
Hot tears ran down General Hong's face as he crumpled to the ground.
"But, Spirit! What am I to do with this bitter heart?"
"Why ask me of your own heart? The one from whom you truly seek an answer is not me."
General Hong's eyes flew wide, as if something had just become clear. Cheon-young held his gaze and slowly stepped backward.
"What? What sin could you possibly have committed, Spirit?!"
"I embraced children who defied the will of Heaven. That, too, is a sin."
"You must not, Spirit!"
Leaving General Hong's desperate cry behind her, Cheon-young closed her eyes. While she held every gaze, Yang Ho-gun had slipped behind the Dangsan Tree and set it alight.
The tree, which he had slathered in a special oil of his own devising — known as Bulnayu, the Non-Spreading Oil — erupted into flame in an instant.
"Th-the Dangsan Tree! The Spirit!"
To every watching eye, the Dangsan Tree appeared to have set itself on fire. Worse, the flames spread from the trunk in a spiderweb, blooming up among the ranks of soldiers standing in formation.
"Aaaagh! Fire!"
"It's hot! Aaaaah!"
"Run! This is Heaven's punishment upon the Spirit!"
Kang Geon-bok, who had slipped in among the soldiers amid the chaos, worked the crowd for all he was worth.
It was not, of course, Heaven's punishment. They had simply buried cords soaked in Bulnayu along the ground. However the oil had been formulated, the fire refused to spread without it, and so few people were actually burned.
Cheon-young completed her part by collapsing in a heap. Ji-suk rushed forward, shielding the child from the flames as she pulled her to safety.
"General! What do we do now?"
The soldiers fled in a panic. Only the remaining leaders stood helpless at General Hong's side. He stared blankly at Cheon-young, now held in Il-yeong's arms. Hui-yeong and Baek-yeong were nowhere to be seen.
Following the natural order of things, he had a sudden, certain feeling that he would be the next to pay the price.
He had not expected, however, the familiar face that emerged from behind the still-raging Dangsan Tree.
"You know well the crimes you have committed."
"Huh... Yang Ho-gun."
The younger cousin he had always been close to — they bore different surnames, but their minds had always run in step — stood before him still sharp, still ingenious, his face harder than it had been in the old days.
Yang Ho-gun looked at him for a moment with something like pity, then raised the Mapae high. Constables who had been lying in wait surged forward and bound the remaining soldiers and the leadership, General Hong among them.
As the oil ran out, the fire slowly died. Yang Ho-gun doused the remaining embers with a fire-quenching water of his own invention. The village, lit bright as midday only moments before, plunged into darkness, and what remained of the Dangsan Tree was a pitiful, blackened husk.
Yang Ho-gun gazed upon the scene with a touch of melancholy — then suddenly realized the surroundings were still bright.
That was when Kang Geon-bok shouted.
"Over there! Look over there!"
He was pointing at Cheon-young's shrine house. Flames were roaring into the sky.
"Mom!"
The filming of the massive fire sequence — the highlight of the entire film — was over. Lee Su-a ran to Lee Ga-hee and threw herself into her arms, her face flushed red from the heat of the flames.
Had it frightened her after all? The staff, who had been watching with concern, relaxed at the bright, lively laugh that burst out a moment later.
"That was so fun!"
The child's nerves were something else. Special effects or not, a person had been on fire right in front of her, and she hadn't so much as blinked. Flames had erupted at her back, and she hadn't moved a muscle.
The making-of PD, who had been watching for a cue from the manager and the guardian, sidled over and raised his camera. Careful, as he'd been instructed, not to catch the guardian's face.
"Su-a, was it really that fun? Not scary at all?"
Lee Su-a leaned into her mother's arms, smiling brightly. Of all the expressions she had shown so far, this was the happiest.
"Yes. It wasn't scary at all. It was fun."
"That's amazing. What was the most fun part?"
Had the heat tickled? Or had the heat haze made everything look funny? The PD was still guessing when he got an answer he hadn't expected.
"It made me feel like I was alive..."
"Huh?"
"The way the flames moved like they were alive was so much fun! I thought that kind of thing was only possible with CG."
"Ah, right~ I hear the special effects team worked really hard on that."
"That makes sense. It was really amazing. I loved it."
Lee Su-a giggled. The making-of PD decided the first answer would have to be cut.
He knew, though, that he would never forget the look on the child's face when she said it.
As planned, Cheon-young and Ji-suk returned to the shrine house and went to Hui-yeong's room in search of the key. Hui-yeong had hidden it with painstaking care, but Cheon-young, who had been watching her closely all this time, found the hiding place at once.
"Pull that drawer out completely and search the back."
The key was in a hidden compartment of the shabbiest dresser in the room. Ji-suk immediately unlocked Cheon-young's shackles.
With a sharp metallic click, the shackles that had bound Cheon-young for so long fell open.
"That's it! They're off!"
"Ah..."
"Cheon-young, try walking!"
Cheon-young staggered to her feet and took a step. The instant the suffocating weight came off, she felt, paradoxically, a hollow ache. The air against her faintly discolored skin was so vivid it stung.
Her legs trembled — the muscles of her ankles had wasted — but every step was lighter than before. With the fetters that had measured out her stride gone, her gait opened up.
She walked a full circle of the room and looked at Ji-suk. Ji-suk was beaming, tears bright in her eyes, looking even happier than Cheon-young herself.
Only then did Cheon-young feel as though she were truly free. She was about to smile in return when—
"I knew you'd come here."
Hui-yeong stepped out from behind the door and seized Cheon-young.