Yoon’s target lay broken in the soot in front of her. She felt the air enter her lungs, but she didn’t pay it any heed, only the energy it held. The breath circulated through the young kineticist’s veins, coursing through her organs and flickering with the faintest traces of elemental power as it passed through each—at least, until it reached her heart and the gate within it. The energy ignited within Yoon, blazing as her body briefly became one with the Plane of Fire itself. Yoon’s eyes danced with embers as she set them on her target, thrusting her fist forward in a practiced stance and letting her breath out with a shout.
The log was no match, and it burst into flames.
“Do it again! Do it again!” Behind Yoon, the twins jumped up and down. Yoon smiled. The girls were growing up, and though they weren't quite as big as those two oni that Yoon had fought on the outskirts of Tsukiwa, they were about as relentless.
“OK, just one more,” Yoon drew her arms back, sweeping one leg in an exaggerated spiral she’d learned from a dancer at a roadside tavern (though she edited this part out for the twins’ young ears). “What should your eonni call this one?” Flames began to gather at her fingertips. Kyung-ja and Kyung-ok opened their mouths excitedly, but—
“Yoon! Ease up on the stove!” Yoon’s aunt turned around from where she was chopping vegetables. “Any more and we’ll burn our bottoms when we sit down to eat!”
Groans of disappointment came from the twins, deprived of their chance to see another of their cousin’s moves in action. “But dinner’s almost ready. Why don’t you three set the table?” The groans turned to cheers as food made its way out of the oven and delicious smells spilled forth.
“So there I was, the Gunpowder Gang all around me! They'd been skulking around the outskirts of Okim for weeks, and they had made off with the latest shipment of firearms. We tracked them to the edge of the forest, but they were holed up in a fort that was covered in giant spiked walls and surrounded by explosive mines. The rest of my team was stuck picking their way through the traps, but they couldn't keep out Yoon! I gathered my flames below me and blasted into the air—you know, your eonni can fly, sometimes.” She winked at the twins, whose mouths were hanging open so wide that a bean sprout fell out onto Kyung-ja’s plate.
Yoon defeats the Gunpowder Gang (Yoon’s version of events). Illustration by Yanis Cardin.
Yoon took a spoonful of piping hot stew from the table, putting it over her rice, before shifting a bit to pull her leg off the floor and onto a cushion. She hated to admit it, but her aunt had been right, she really had gone a little overboard with the stove that was now merrily warming the floors. “I landed in the middle of more hobgoblins than you’ve ever seen! They were all around me, so Gom-Gom came out to help.”
“Gom-Gom... came out?” Kyung-ok looked at the ragged stuffed animal attached to the side Yoon’s bag.
“Yeah, like this! I needed the backup,” Yoon waved her hand, conjuring flames in the shape of her beloved stuffed toy. The flame jumped from her hand to land on the table, where he struck a fighting pose.
Yoon’s uncle coughed once as he poured Yoon a glass of clear spirits. “Yoon, Gom-Gom’s melting the ice, and I’d hate to drink this expensive liquor at room temperature after you brought it all the way here.”
“Ah, sorry, Imobu.” Yoon nodded as she took the glass, turned away from the table, and drank it down. She turned back to the twins. “Anyway, there we were, just me and Gom-Gom. He watched my back, breathing out fire like PWOOSH, PWOOSH!” Yoon blew air in her little cousins’ faces. “I faced forward and saw the Gunpowder Gang’s leader, a hobgoblin who was six—no, seven—feet tall, holding a bomb in either hand. Do you know what I did?”
Yoon’s aunt wiped at Kyung-ja’s mouth, “Did you shoot the bombs in his—”
“I shot the bombs in his hands! They blew him backwards into the wall, putting him down for the count! But his lackeys were spilling out, running around and trying to arm their cannons. Gom-Gom and I leapt into the air as they fired and the cannonballs exploded around the fort, and then I reached into the Plane of Fire, pulling out as much flame as I could. Then—what should I call this one?”
“Super-duper Phoenix Detonation!”
“Million Billion Shooting Stars!”
“Gom-Gom Blaze Crusher!”“Solar Flames in a Swirling Sphere!”
“Eonni Blows Up the World!”
Yoon chuckled. “Let’s go with Solar Detonation.” She continued the story of her overwhelming victory, while her aunt rolled her eyes, her uncle laughed, and warmth filled the house.
The twins yawned as Yoon drew the covers up. “Do you really have to go in the morning?” Kyung-ja asked.
Yoon ruffled her cousin’s hair. “I promised old man Lim that I’d help guard his caravan on the way to Haseong. Not everyone’s as invincible as me, you know, so I gotta help look out. But I'll be back before the seasons change.” Kyung-ok opened her mouth to protest. “Before I go, what colors do you two want?”
The protest turned to excitement. “Blue!”
“Purple!”
“Blue and purple, coming right up.” Yoon reached inwards, and with the slightest of breaths pulled two sparks forth, one in either hand. With the gentlest of motions, she spun them, one into a soft blue flicker and the other into a warm purple glow, and she set the two spheres above each mattress, dimming them as she did so. It took a little bit of her power, but Yoon had more than enough to spare on two nightlights for the important task of watching over her cousins while she was away.
“Be good now, the lights will know if you're naughty, and then I won't bring you a present back from the city.” The nightlights had no such power, but the girls didn't know that. The twins nodded vigorously, and soon were off to sleep.
Yoon shut the door and went back to the dining table. The morning would bring more journeys and battles, but for tonight, she could go for another drink with her uncle and another bite of her aunt's stew.
James Case (he / him)
Senior Designer
Iconic Encounter: Warmth from the Heart
Wednesday, October 11, 2023
