The Father and Son’s Two Registrations, Two Storms
Two registrations, and two storms.
That was the reality he had been handed.
The first registration was his mother’s death. Because she had served as the proxy of the god she worshipped, she had entered the divine household in death. The other registration was the real-world Kang-to.
[ILLEGITIMATE CHILD]
[BIOLOGICAL FATHER]
He had become the sort of person people only ever encountered in gossip and headlines, and in the end, his family registry was amended to list him as Chairman Lee’s son.
[NO PUBLIC ANNOUNCEMENT]
It was a conditional promise of registry entry.
In the midst of a global recession, Chairman Lee had swallowed his pride and accepted it, worried about a backlash from public opinion.
The market was a frightening thing.
By then, image had become just as important as technology and distribution, and the moral standing of the owner’s family was part of that image. Chairman Lee had weathered storms and risen to the top ranks of the business world; he knew all too well how quickly other companies could rise and fall.
That had been the chairman’s storm. But it had been a storm confined to the house, leaving discord within the family yet preserving secrecy. Even the family, though each had their own calculations, had no choice but to accept the chairman’s persuasion.
The remaining storm had come to Kang-to’s life.
It began with a fever.
When it refused to stop, he took the notarized oath of registry and returned to the island. He protected Chiluijae, just as his mother had wished, but the fever only worsened day by day until he could no longer swallow even a sip of water. At times, he slipped into a half-comatose state. When he closed his eyes, he saw immortal beings in translucent white robes; when he opened them, formless divine guests surrounded him.
One day, when the sunset had deepened redder than blood, Sangju-daek came in. With his mother’s help, he had broken free of his previous-life burden and returned to ordinary life. Since then, he had been serving as the shamanic assistant who helped with his mother’s divinations and the aftermath of her rites.
“I’m sorry. I know I’m making things hard for you.”
Hearing footsteps, Kang-to looked up. His gaze was turned toward the shoreline, where beach roses clustered in thick bunches.
“If it’s for the sake of the shaman lady, then it’s my job.”
“Thank you.”
“You’ll be getting a visitor.”
“A visitor?”
“You know Madam Gyeongsin, right?”
“My aunt... my mother’s spiritual sister?”
“The shaman lady left a dying wish.”
“What?”
“She said that on the forty-ninth day after her death, Madam Gyeongsin was to perform the initiation for Kang-to.”
“What?”
“She sent the same wish to Madam Gyeongsin too. But she said the decision about whether you’d accept gangsinmu should be left to you. If you refuse, then don’t do it.”
“......”
“What do you want to do?”
“Did Madam Gyeongsin come by boat?”
“She’s coming in on this ship. She couldn’t make it when the shaman lady passed because she was training in the mountains along the East Sea, so if Kang-to refuses, she’ll be taking the trip as a memorial visit anyway...”
“My mother’s dying wish?”
“That’s right.”
Kang-to’s gaze drifted out to sea. Far on the horizon, a passenger ship had begun to appear.
“Please welcome her. If I go out there, the waves by the dock will turn rough... I’ll go inside and prepare myself to receive the initiation.”
“You’re accepting it?”
A faint smile crept up Sangju-daek’s lips.
“Are you pleased?”
“Of course I am. The shaman lady said... that Kang-to had the makings of a gukseon or something even greater. She said that once he accepted the god, even the shaman lady’s own powers wouldn’t amount to much beside him.”
Sangju-daek was already moved to tears. Her eyes had even begun to glisten.
“Did she leave any other words?”
“......”
“She did, didn’t she?”
“Those were left for Madam Gyeongsin. Ask her when she comes.”
“Understood. Please go and return safely.”
Kang-to turned away. His steps were headed toward Chiluijae, where his mother’s remains had been scattered.
Mother...
When he called that beloved name, his mother—dressed in a crimson cheolik and red gat—seemed to wave at him.
A shaman.
Perhaps it was a profession that ran against the current of time. That was why it demanded a sense of calling. And beyond that, one had to be chosen by the gods. The hardship and training involved were beyond comparison. The path to becoming a true shamanic disciple was harder than drawing truth up from the deepest ocean floor.
That was why his grandmother had opposed his mother becoming a shamanic disciple. His mother had done the same. To keep Kang-to from becoming one, she had sent him to the mainland. It had been an act of care, meant to keep him from all contact with shamanism.
Maybe...
Had his grandmother seen his mother’s future? Had his mother, in the same way, seen Kang-to’s future? Sangju-daek’s words seemed to prove it. A gukseon mudang that appeared only once in several hundred years. The fact that a careful woman like his mother had even spoken of it was telling enough.
Kang-to had protected his mother’s Chiluijae.
It felt as though it had all been in preparation for the day he would become a shamanic disciple. If that wasn’t the case, then his mother would never have broken open the seal she had kept hidden from the world for more than thirty years, not now of all times.
Mother.
I was never once ashamed that my mother was a shaman.
Kang-to said it.
And he meant every word.
So please...
Watch over the path I’m taking.
Leaving that vow behind, he turned. The passenger ship was already pulling into the dock.
“Hello, Aunt.”
He greeted Madam Gyeongsin in front of his mother’s shrine. She was nearing seventy, and her presence alone carried authority. She was one of Korea’s top ten shamans, renowned for her spiritual power. While other shamans were often skilled at divining the past, Madam Gyeongsin was fully versed in readings of the future as well.
At the same time, she was strict about forbidding television appearances and reckless prophecies. Her conviction was simple: a true shaman delivers the gods’ words only to those who need them.
“......”
When Madam Gyeongsin faced him, her eyes rippled and trembled. Kang-to pretended not to notice and let it pass.
“Where did you scatter the remains of Cheonhae Shinnyeo?”
“This way, please.”
When she asked, Kang-to led the way. Cheonhae Shinnyeo had been his mother’s shamanic legal name.
Chiluijae was not far ahead.
“The remains...”
“You needn’t say another word.”
Madam Gyeongsin moved forward. It was uncanny. The place where she stopped and joined her hands in prayer was the second hill where his mother’s ashes had been scattered. His mother, who had become a gangsinmu from his grandmother; Madam Gyeongsin; and, in shamanic terms, a divine daughter, which made them sisters. That was how she had become an aunt to Kang-to. Was that why the two of them seemed to understand each other on a level deeper than the soul?
“Ah. So after death, you’ve become an even greater shaman.”
With those words, Madam Gyeongsin finished her prayer and moved on. She drew in a deep breath of Chiluijae, the sea, and the air between heaven and earth, then turned her steps toward the lighthouse.
“Did you protect Chiluijae?”
Madam Gyeongsin asked in front of his mother’s shrine.
“Pardon?”
“Your mother called me before she died.”
“Yes.”
“Then that is enough. That was your mother’s worldly karma, so I won’t ask further.”
“......”
“Let’s speak of something else. Your mother asked me to risk my life and help if you wanted to become a gangsinmu. Will you receive the divine initiation?”
“I will.”
Kang-to answered without hesitation. He had already made up his mind, so there wasn’t the slightest room for doubt.
“Well now, so I really am going to have to leave here in a coffin, then?”
“Pardon?”
“I mean your spiritual energy. When your mother spoke of you, I wondered whether you might have the makings of a disciple with a god like Sanwang Daesin or something similar, but now it seems like something greater than Sanhwang Daesin and Yonghwang Daesin is looming over you, doesn’t it? Which means this initiation is a match where both your life and mine will be on the line. And still, you want the god?”
“I do.”
That was Kang-to’s answer. Sanwang Daesin and Yongwang Daesin were both classed as level 6 deities. Even that was astonishing. Many shamans served only low-ranking ancestral gods at levels three or four.
God levels begin at five, where earthly gods and heavenly gods are distinguished. From level five onward, they were true god-rank beings, which included deities like Sanjin Guksa and the Five Direction Shinjang.
Sanwang Daesin and Yongwang Daesin were level 6 gods, and their abilities were beyond easy reckoning. Above them stood Sanhwang Daesin and Yonghwang Daesin, level 7 celestial gods. They were on equal footing with Taeil Shinjang, one of the highest-ranked among the Shinjang, and therefore not something an ordinary shaman could even dream of reaching for. In truth, Kang-to had not yet fully grasped the difference between those levels.
“Do you know what a gyeongsin-il is?”
“I’ve heard of it.”
“That’s the day your mother chose. Put simply, it comes once every sixty days, and those who complete the training are said to gain yuksin powers, so many shamanic disciples never neglect their gyeongsin practice. Though of course, success is difficult.”
“Yes.”
“Tomorrow happens to be this year’s fourth gyeongsin-il, and your mother said that if you wished to become a shamanic disciple, I was to perform the initiation then.”
“That works for me.”
“Then tonight at midnight, place these into the hill of Chiluijae where your mother’s remains were scattered. I’m tired from rushing here right after finishing my hundred-day prayer, so I’ll rest a little before we begin.”
Madam Gyeongsin laid out the paper flowers. Their snow-white petals looked even more vivid than real blooms.
“These are paper flowers cut with great devotion by an expert who had ties to your mother. They’ll help the god descend, so give it your all.”
“Yes.”
“When that’s done, get some proper rest. Gyeongsin training is also a battle against the sleep demon, twenty-four hours a day.”
Having said that, Madam Gyeongsin laid her bundle down on the floor of the shrine as a pillow and lay back.
“Aunt... you should sleep in the inner room...”
Kang-to never finished the sentence. By then, Madam Gyeongsin was already snoring, sunk into a deep sleep.
Paper flowers...
When he touched them, they rustled softly and opened their petals. They were born only after tens of thousands of cuts with scissors, so it was hard to imagine that even real flowers could hold this much devotion.
At midnight that night, when the hour finally turned to eleven, he planted the bamboo stalks bearing the paper flowers. Chiluijae was shaped like the Big Dipper itself. On the way back down after setting them in place, the seven stars of the Dipper seemed to glitter and light Kang-to’s path through the dark.
Clang.
Madam Gyeongsin shook her manshin bell. The bronze bell bloomed like a chrysanthemum on a long handle, and the hanji cords hanging from its ring had been polished smooth by years of touch, shining with the dignity of a true master shaman.
“Kang-to.”
Madam Gyeongsin, dressed in a splendid cheolik in blue, red, yellow, and white, called to him. Its feel was different from his mother’s cheolik. That was because the body deity being served had a different preference.
“Yes.”
“Let me see your lower belly.”
“My lower belly?”
“Lower your trousers a little.”
When Madam Gyeongsin spoke, Kang-to obeyed. On his lower abdomen, there was a faint pattern that looked like a tattoo, alongside his abs. It had been there since birth. After confirming it, Madam Gyeongsin pressed one point on his forehead and one at the back of his skull. They were the inding point and the okchim point.
“Now bring me the stone bell your mother kept.”
“You mean the Chilseokgu?”
“Yes.”
At her instruction, Kang-to did as he was told.
His mother’s Chilseokgu.
From the outset, it was nothing like Madam Gyeongsin’s manshin bell. The manshin bell gleamed with a polished shine, but the Chilseokgu gave off no light at all.
“......”
Madam Gyeongsin shook it once, but no sound came out.
“Your mother said you would make it ring.”
Clink.
Kang-to understood what she meant. The moment he shook the bell, a faint sound came from it.
“Try shaking it too, Sangju-daek.”
“......”
Sangju-daek was the same as Madam Gyeongsin. She shook it left and right, but no sound came. It was only natural. A manshin bell contained beads, but the Chilseokgu had none. So the strange one here was Kang-to, who made it sound at all.
“The offerings for the altar are ready, yes?”
“Just as you said: seawater taken at midnight, earth gathered in seven handfuls from Chiluijae, and wind sealed away in a container.”
“That will do. When midnight comes again, change them once more.”
After giving her instructions, Madam Gyeongsin scattered a handful of rice over a small table.
“Ah.”
At the sight of the divination result, her face froze white.
“Is it an inauspicious reading?”
“I knew what I was getting into when I came, but... go and bring me some blank paper, an envelope, and a pen.”
Madam Gyeongsin tightened the strings of her tricolored gat. Then she quietly filled the page with her words.
“If anything happens to me, deliver this to my shamanic disciples and my daughter.”
“Madam?”
Sangju-daek let out a cry and snatched up the envelope.
“Aunt?”
Kang-to, who had changed into the ritual garments for the initiation ceremony, reacted the same way. Even without any special powers, he could tell it was a will.
“There’s no need to worry. This is a difficult contest even for my body deity. Still, with my younger brother’s protection, I may at least get a glimpse of the gods of the celestial realm, so for a shamanic disciple like me, it would be an honor.”
“But...”
“Hush. You may indeed have been born with spiritual power, and you may be able to weave together gangsinmu and the yukgyeong spiritual methods used by shamanic disciples in one stroke, but this is still a matter that may require you to risk your life. So I told you not to look to the left or right, but to steel yourself.”
“......”
“And besides, the wish of one who has become a shamanic disciple is to see a deity of higher rank. Even if it isn’t my body deity, that alone is still worth the honor.”
“......”
“It is our shared fate and karma. Let us accept it gladly.”
With that, Madam Gyeongsin stood and brushed herself off.
Clink.
The sound of the bell announced the opening of the ceremony.
“Ah, you great Nine Heavens Maiden of nine thousand, Jade Palace Primordial Saint, Supreme Lord of Heaven.”
As gyeongsin-il began, Madam Gyeongsin’s prayer of divine invitation began as well. Six times a year, or in rare years seven, gyeongsin-il came around. On those days, everyone felt sleepy. It was the duty of the Shinjang to preach desperate sleep, and a human body could not escape it.
Clink, clink.
Along with the manshin bell, a fan dance unfolded. In response, the paper flowers tied to the bamboo stalks began to answer. They bloomed and withered in rhythm with the fan’s beat.
The desperate invitation of the gods did not last long.
“Guhhk.”
After only two turns of those white socks, Madam Gyeongsin retched blood and collapsed.
“Ghhhk.”
The convulsions as her eyes rolled back grew even more violent. The signs of divine descent were clear. But this was an initiation too difficult for her to bear with her power alone. Even the white paper flowers she had placed there seemed to flutter wildly as if they would burst apart.
Clink-clink.
Madam Gyeongsin fought with everything she had. As the invocation of the gods went on, one by one, the manshin bells began to fall away. It was proof of a god of overwhelming power descending, and blue veins bulged across her whole body as if they were about to split open.
“Ohoooo...”
Her vibrations grew stronger.
Her desperate effort had already gone beyond human limits. Madam Gyeongsin had been right. This was the descent of a god beyond the reach of her spiritual force and divine power. And yet she did not retreat, gathering even her last breath to continue the initiation.
Gulp.
Each time, blood surged up her throat. At last, blood ran from every opening in her face—her eyes, nose, mouth, and ears. Even so, no one could step forward. Kang-to kept his eyes shut and waited for the descent, while Sangju-daek, assisting beside him, knew this was a battle no one could dare approach. If impurity were to slip in now, it wouldn’t just be Sangju-daek who died, but Madam Gyeongsin and Kang-to as well, all of them in a row.
“Eub.”
When only one bell remained, a fist-sized gush of blood surged up Madam Gyeongsin’s throat. In that instant, she clutched the manshin bell in both hands and shouted one line in a voice like a malicious echo:
“The divine bell of Cheonhae Shinnyeo.”
The moment she said it, Kang-to seized the Chilseokgu.
Clang-rararang.
Then a clear sound rang out from within the bronze, as if glass beads were rolling around inside. It was not the small, delicate sound it had made before. This sound had risen above human joy and sorrow, above even the one hundred and eight earthly afflictions. In an instant, the landscape of Chiluijae changed at once.
“Oh my goodness.”
Sangju-daek hurriedly covered her eyes. They were stray spirits. Around Kang-to, there were remote relatives’ ghosts, direct descendants’ ghosts, the island’s guardian ghost, sea ghosts, and even the spirits of unborn children and girls... countless wandering dead had gathered into a vast ocean.
Clang-clang-clang.
When he shook it again, the restless spirits shuddered. And then... into that multitude of ghosts, one brilliant shaft of light came pouring down.
“Ooooh...”
Madam Gyeongsin bowed her head at once.
It had been more than thirty years since she herself had become a shaman by divine descent. The sovereign one she had heard of only in legends—the supreme heavenly deity of the highest rank—was descending before her now.