Notes.

This chapter in a nutshell :

Woon : From now on, you will call me master.

Mago : Oh yeah ?

Woon : Master Troll (runs away laughing like a maniac, with the Ba Dum Tss sound

following him)

Mago : ...Bitch.

Oh, and if you are interested in reading something else, I've ripped two new one-shot out of my brain and posted them, this time not on FF, but on AO3 :

- You were a wild thing pretending to be tame (I was your and you were mine) = can be read as linked to the Gwishins or as a stand-alone. It takes place during episode 12 of the original drama, and examine how Woon could have reacted (on another level) to Dong Soo being willing to sacrifice himself in order to protect Crown Prince Sado. There's a kiss. And Cho-Rip as a guest star.

- You bury a friend and you try to wake up = is a stand-alone, not linked to The Gwishin. This is dark, and unhappy, and there's necrophilia in it. Basically, Dong Soo dies instead of Yeo Woon in episode 29. Things go wild from here.

PS : the price of the sword in this was based on episode 4, where Woon buys a sword made out of his father's spear.


CHAPTER XXXVIII


"Some carry beautifully crafted swords all their lives, and never realise, until they are daubed in blood, that the pleasure comes not from owning a sword, no matter how perfect, but from letting it cut."

(John French, british writer, "Ahriman : The Omnibus")


a. Logos

The next day, which was the fourth day of June 1777, Woon and Mago emerged from their respective trance of consciousness to have breakfast with their hosts, who had invited them in a friendly way. It was still early, and the sun was already high in the sky, promising a hot and probably stifling day for the living. Goh Dae-Seong was expected at the barracks for an early morning patrol in the surrounding woods.

They were discussing it with his wife over a table of grilled meat, fresh vegetables and rice, accompanied by ginseng root tea, and appeared sincerely delighted to enjoy the company of two new gwishins, whom they served plenty of food without worrying about whether they had any left over afterwards. Gyeong-Ja had loosened her hair, which elegantly framed her face and made her look like an inky panther, and Mago gestured to Woon when she spotted the usual white locks in the woman's silky black mane.

- Everyone has them now, she confirmed to them as she finished her sautéed beef, which Mago gobbled up in too little time to call it a meal. There is information circulating in the consciousness, you've probably heard it.

Their immersion of the previous day, one of the first truly successful and prolonged since they had been disturbed in their progress towards Sochko by Captain Seol, had indeed revealed after a few minutes of concentration fruitful and abundant exchanges on the physical changes brought by the Dead Winter, and more specifically on the fears felt by many Gwishins at the idea that such a characteristic represented a new danger for their survival. The phenomenon hadn't yet been repeated, but there were echoes of concern about the possibility of a reoccurrence.

Resurrections are regular, so why not Dead Winter ? An old Gwishin had suggested, and he had been approved in his proposition by a majority of their congeners. Woon had tried to emit answers and project them through the intangible plane of the common mind of the dead, but his efforts were quickly unsuccessful, although Mago seemed to receive some signals from him (are you trying to send a message ? she had asked him with curiosity as he was about to throw in the towel, tired of the exercise and of his defeat). When he mentioned it to their hosts, they suggested that he should then associate his consciousness with Mago's, in order to have more weight and power on the abstract plane and thus increase their chances of being able to send an echo.

Woon had vaguely heard of the possibility of sharing consciousness through old Jae-Ji, when she had come to see him before his departure from the Spring House, but he had never had the opportunity to deploy such a process, especially because of his still too underdeveloped mastery of the collective consciousness in general. Mago, for her part, was more familiar with the mechanism, and had already managed to group her consciousness with those of other Gwishins, in what she called a " shared trance " with a strangely blissful smile, but she declared that she was hesitant about linking her mind with the one of her dead companion on the assumption that the latter was not yet sufficiently at ease with the consciousness and its different levels.

- It's a really strange experience, she explained to him over breakfast, under the malicious eye of Gyeong-Ja and her husband. It's not at all unpleasant, but it's just...it's weird, she finally concluded with a shrug and a gulp of beef that was lying there, which had the misfortune of appearing before her black eyes.

- Like everything else about Gwishins, Dae-Seong said. It won't hurt you to try. If the process works, you can continue like this for the rest of your journey, until you've achieved a high enough level of consciousness to be able to manage on your own.

- I'll never achieve it, Mago grumbled. It's because I'm stuck in a child's body.

Dae-Seong, overcome with pity and visibly not knowing what else to do or say, handed the girl the whole bowl of fried beef that had been placed next to him. His wife was more magnanimous, pointing out, according to Mago's words, that the girl already possessed a remarkable control of the immersion and that the youthfulness of her body was perhaps only an obstacle limited in time, which would eventually lead to the transmission of echoes one day or another.

Mago replied that several Gwishins had already presented her with similar arguments, but that four years of struggling with the projection of intelligible messages into the consciousness had finally dampened her optimism. Furthermore, she explained that the Eye had shown some reservations when questioned on the matter, and the mention of the shaman seemed to put an end to the debate, because everything the Eye said was considered absolute by the gwishins, and Woon remembered Hui-Seon and her willingness to dominate, and how obedient she could be to the old Jae-Ji. He asked if the couple had ever met her.

- Of course, Gyeong-Ja answered. We came back during the second wave of resurrection, and met the Eye shortly before the third.

- Did she told you anything in particular ? Mago inquired with interest.

- She always says particular things, Dae-Seong gently joked. We didn't understand everything, to be completely honest, but she talked about the fact that we had to go east, and about roles.

Woon reacted quickly.

- What roles ?

- Oh, something to do with our nicknames in the consciousness, Gyeong-Ja replied. We are known as the Shield and the Sword, like other Gwishin who use surnames.

- The Historian ? Mago suggested, mouth full of beef. The Herbalist ?

Gyeong-Ja nodded firmly.

- The first time the Eye spoke to us, I thought it was just a joke or a basic code name with no real meaning, but since my husband and I moved to Sochko, everything suggests that our titles are not just a coincidence. I'm beginning to believe that they are linked to something else, something bigger than us, a kind of very complex pattern that we can't understand, but that the Eye can decipher.

Mago expressed her agreement with the theory by nodding energetically, imitated by Gyeong-Ja's husband, who took the opportunity to stand up and begin preparing to go to the barracks. His wife was expected a little later to begin a training session for a small group of very young recruits, most of whom were under twenty years old and whom had been found by visiting the adjacent villages. Woon didn't answer, keeping the old woman's confidences to himself.

- By the way, Gyeong-Ja continued, addressing Woon this time, Yeong-Ja told me you are from Hanyang. I was hoping you could give us some news about the situation in the capital.

Woon put his chopsticks down, pushing away his portion of beef at the same time. The mention of Hanyang had ruined his appetite, but he didn't really know the reason for it. On the pretty table with its dark, shiny wood, the plate of vegetables had been left untouched. We buy them to look alive, but we don't eat them, Dae-Seong had told them. Most of the time we give them to the horses, or redistribute them to the beggars in the city. According to him, there were fewer and fewer Gwishins still eating foods other than meat, confirming the carnivorous tendency among the dead and a growing inclination toward the final acceptance of the latter.

- I don't know much, he admitted, guessing that Mago, in spite of her nose buried in her bowl, was listening to them attentively. When I left, there were rumors that the government had discovered the second volume of the Encyclopedia of the Dead and that police militias and the army were carrying out more detailed examinations.

Gyeong-Ja's expression darkened abruptly.

- So it's true ? They found the book ? There have been echoes in the consciousness lately. People have been saying disturbing things. I know some Gwishins who live in the capital, and they have been very nervous for the last few weeks.

- No one is absolutely sure, Woon said. But I've heard of interrogations among the living, and tests of pain. I wanted to contact a friend to learn more, but my consciousness control is still too unstable.

The woman then inquired about the identity of his contact, and when Woon answered "Gyô Hui Seon", her eyes lit up with delight.

- You know the Voice, she said as an affirmation, her features showing how pleased she was. She's a great figure amongst our people, and our movement.

- What movement ?

- Oh, always the same, Gyeong-Ja said, but her voice had taken on an inflection too high, too light to be totally honest, and Woon became suspicious. The one that must enable the Gwishin to survive. Surely you know the Yeogogoedam ?

- Only by name.

- They were very active in the past, during the first resurrections. Since then, their power and influence has diminished, but only for those who don't know where to look. We have several of them here in Sochko. If you want to cross the sea, for example, we can give you some names. We are part of it ourselves. Almost every major city now has members, since almost every major city has Gwishins as well.

Mago intervened by replying that she had mixed feelings towards the Yeogogoedam, who seemed to her more like a group of politicians and intellectuals who, not finding satisfaction in the government system as it was conceived, had rushed onto the Gwishin question and made themselves their main defenders simply out of opportunism, in order to give themselves the good role and foster sympathy for their movement and ideas.

You're thinking like the Voice, Gyeong-Ja sighed in a somewhat sad and disappointed tone. She sought Woon's opinion on the issue, but he quickly cut the conversation short, declaring that he had limited knowledge, and that it wasn't enough for him to be able to express a sufficiently relevant and constructed judgment.

They finished breakfast, and Gyeong-Ja urged them not to do the dishes, assuring them that she and her husband would take care of it when they would return from the barracks. Despite their obvious wealth, they were the only ones in the neighborhood who hadn't hired a maid, choosing instead to maintain their privacy and seeing it as a way to keep their status more easily unknown to the living.

Mago's response was that they could have hired Gwishin staff, as it was sometimes the case when other well-established dead ran establishments or owned spacious and luxurious homes, but the couple said that they hadn't yet met any Gwishin who was willing to stay in Sochko and hold a subordinate position. Together, however, they managed to keep the house clean and tidy, and therefore felt no particular need for assistance from outsiders. After greeting Gyeong-Ja as she left for the barracks, dressed in a visibly tailored uniform and a feathered hat with a high bun underneath and a sword at her side, Mago turned to Woon and said mockingly :

- So, "master" ? Have you had time to think about my proposal ?

Woon looked at her without understanding, tearing out from her a sigh of exaggerated exasperation.

- My training ?

- Oh, that.

- Yes, that, Mago repeated. Things had started well, in the forest. Have you thought about the possibility that it might be interesting to continue this way and train me completely ? I'm listening, you know. I can learn very quickly.

As they were heading towards their room, Woon crossed his arms on his chest and admitted in a falsely pensive tone.

- Now that you mention it, it's true I've thought a lot about it.

- Have you ? Mago exclaimed enthusiastically.

- Of course, Woon continued, holding back a smirk that would have immediately betrayed his intentions. In fact, I even think we should start right away by going to buy you some appropriate equipment.

Mago jumped around him, like a mad horse.

- A sword ? she asked, obviously enchanted at the prospect. Would you agree to ask one for me ? I've tried several times, you know, but the blacksmiths always look at me as if I'm stupid and they kick me out.

- Yes, Woon said complacently. In fact, I'm going to ask one just for you, with specific attributes.

Unsurprisingly, Mago fell headfirst into the trap.

- What attributes ?

- That you can lie on it to rest, and that it's well padded, like any other good transport yo, Woon answered. You go first.

Mago sulked all the way to the city's first commercial street. Woon was too busy trying not to smile to care about it.


b. Pallas Athena

Less crowded than the mercantile avenues of Hanyang, Sochko's main streets could have offered the advantage of proper ventilation by giving its visitors the opportunity to circulate without necessarily bumping into their counterparts, but the city plan had been drawn in such a way however that they were considerably narrower than in the capital, and Mago and her dead companion were thus forced to elbow their way through and sneak like fish swimming against the current to reach the desired stalls and items. Mago decided to put aside Yeo Woon's mockery as soon as she laid her eyes on the flood of living who were crossing the alley they had passed the day before, in search of the lake's entertainment house.

The street had the widest variety of items on all three commercial avenues. People moved almost entirely in single file, joining the movement of the crowd more by compulsion than by choice. Stops seemed to have to be calculated, thought out far enough in advance, and made smoothly enough so as not to disrupt the surrounding traffic. Mago, who had been in the forest for several weeks and forced to isolate herself because of her status, was suddenly overcome with anguish when she realized that she was unable to follow a living head with her eyes without losing it after a few seconds.

Yeo Woon, on the other hand, seemed hardly disoriented, but she determined that his indifference was essentially explained by the shorter duration of his trip, which had barely lasted a week, and by the fact that he was accustomed to densely populated cities. Mago had not returned to Hanyang since nearly two years. She didn't miss the capital, but she regretted having disregarded the hustle and bustle of the cities she had passed by on her way, guessing that she could have avoided the increase of her anxiety as the faces succeeded each other and mixed with each other to form a distorted and indistinct mass.

Her fear overcame her bad mood and she agreed to speak again to Yeo Woon, who had walked all the way to the city behind her, without saying anything, and looking imperceptibly very proud of his deplorable joke. She followed him with a certain docility as they mingled with the locals, who seemed to have absolutely nothing else to do but to stroll around the stores for the simple pleasure of occupying their legs, and let him purchase a new pair of flasks, steel lighters, and other travel tools that usually deteriorated quickly and required a quick replacement, as soon there was a first visit to a city well enough stocked with stores to make it possible.

Mago thought back to his refusal to help her get a sword, and to the mocking joy he had visibly drawn from it, not caring that she had already heard the same thing several times since her resurrection, that she was beginning to reach a relatively high level of frustration, and that there was always a moment when, if repeated too many times, the taunts would turn into insults, regardless of the will of their authors. I'm a girl, but I could take him down if I wanted to, I could win if I wanted to, I could be stronger, she thought with a bitter anger, a cold and slow rage, which had been building up since the first remark that had been made to her, and which now seemed like a volcano close to erupting.

She remembered, one night she was dripping with anger and frustration, having projected her emotions into the whole consciousness, and she had heard an echo responding to her, distant, but measured and sharp, almost incisive, an echo that had told her "men will always be afraid of armed women". With the exception of Goh Dae-Seong, whom Mago suspected of being so permissive and admiring only out of love for his wife, and not out of any real recognition of the fighting talents of the fairer sex, she lamented not having found someone to prove her wrong, especially since she had believed that Yeo Woon could possibly be different.

He offered her, always in the same vaguely ironic tone, to look at the jewels, and she quietly refused, lacking even the desire to admire the sun's reflections in the gems. Only then, seeing her becoming sullen and taciturn, her companion seemed to understand his mistake and changed his strategy. He remained silent as he completed the purchase of two new transport yo, which he asked to be put in storage until they finished their shopping, and then took her to a store which, in addition to displaying its merchandise on its stall, also had a covered interior, between the walls of which less than a dozen customers had gathered, only men, glancing left and right and judging the articles with a look far too professional to be really serious.

Mago raised her head, and discovered swords of all sizes, of all kinds, some with a superb sheath, and others with a more modest leather protection. The owner and main seller was a man in his early forties, with a sun-tanned face and dressed in a simple grey and white cotton hanbok. Woon walked directly to him.

- I'd like a sword, he said as an introduction.

If I had said that, I would have been kicked out, Mago thought pungently, looking away, towards a short, shiny blade, which she would have liked to steal, if she hadn't been afraid to alert the whole crowd and make the worst mistake of her life, alive and dead.

The man nodded quietly, and asked Yeo Woon if he had thought of a particular model, and what his budget was. He then turned to her, looking down on her, avoiding her eyes, and asked her :

- Which one do you want ?

She didn't understood, and made him repeat himself, which seemed to put him to agony when he complied. She thought he was joking, and was quick to tell him, and added that she found him even worse than when they had left the house of the Gwishin couple on their way to town.

- I'm not joking, he told her firmly, but insisting on not wanting to look her in the eye (that's what I call running away). You can choose any one of them. Take it as a gift, for finding us a place to stay for this night and the next. Or as an excuse. Take it any way you want.

She suddenly felt like throwing herself around his neck, kissing him, telling him how great he was, that she would repay him, that she regretted being stubborn and short-tempered at times, but she remained silent, realizing that she would only embarrass him, and smiled at him as hard and as sincerely as she could, hoping that he would understand.

She chose a sword that looked very much like Yeo Woon's, seeing it as a form of homage and a sign of respect, with a very simple black leather sheath that was not likely to be easily damaged, and a blade slightly more curved. The old seller and the customers glanced at her a lot, surprised and muffled, but she was all to her selection, Yeo Woon having stayed at the counter, and therefore didn't care.

The sword cost five yang, which Yeo Woon paid almost without uttering a word. Mago thought that hugging him with fondness and affection to show her gratitude would probably have mortified him, but she stood very close to him, and started talking again as soon as they left the store to make their last purchases, first to the pharmacy to buy medicinal herbs and care materials, then to a calligrapher to get writing paper, a brush and an ink pot, which they would most likely leave to their hosts, for lack of future use.

- Are you going to write to your friend ? she asked, recalling their conversation with Yeong-Ja the day before.

- Yes.

- Do you want to tell me who it is ?

But he said it didn't matter, that they would talk about it later, and Mago felt she had set foot on a very unstable ground, where she would have to be careful about in the future.

They returned back to Goh Dae-Seong and Ran Gyeong-Ja's house for lunch, and ate there together, using the supplies that the woman had indicated to them before leaving (help yourselves, she had told them, and Mago did her best to remain well behaved and not to empty the meat safe, which was full to the brim, and with some nice pieces of meat). Yeo Woon cooked. Mago was too busy trying out her new sword, and she did everything she could to reproduce the movements he had shown her before, in front of Captain Seol's eyes. When he pointed out to her that she lacked precision, she didn't get annoyed, and joined him at the table with a playful look on her face.

- If you teach me, I'll be more precise, she remarked, taking too much beef and then, realizing her mistake, replacing enough pieces so that Yeo Woon would have a proper portion as well.

- Don't push your luck, he replied. I bought you a sword because I hurt you and I was sorry. That doesn't mean I'm going to train you.

- If you say so.

She shrugged, still smiling. She had thought she had made a mistake, but what had happened with the sword had made her realize that she had indeed hooked the fish. Now she just had to be patient enough : he would end up hauling his line up by himself, and then she could catch him in her nets once and for all.

The couple having warned them that they would surely come back late in the evening because of their activities at the barracks, they each immersed themselves in their occupations, Yeo Woon starting to write his letter on the table in the central room and immersing himself in the task with such a concentration that Mago thought for a moment he was embarking on an excessively complex operation, and Mago alternating between a sword training session which was generally very approximate, and then, tired of her lack of progress, with an immersion in the collective consciousness, where she was somewhat disconcerted to discover a certain quietness.

Yeong-Ja wasn't expected to take them to the hot springs until after dinner. Mago, listening distractedly to the scratching of the hairs of her dead companion's brush on the paper, plunged herself back into the consciousness, into the minds of thousands of other gwishins, and let herself float on their thoughts and feelings as if she had been a cloud.