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“He’s a dragon-on-wheels. We Miru use them before our gifts kick in—when our parents want us to practice moving at super speed, but within safe parameters.
“One day, upon considering the luminous sky, the six goddesses asked the mother a question. ‘Mago Halmi, why are there two suns and two moons?’ “The mother of all creation responded, ‘They are each a pair—a dark sun for a light sun, a dark moon for a light moon. They represent a balanced set of scales, like the eum and yang, built in perfect equilibrium, as you are.’”
“But the goddesses did not understand, and so Mago Halmi thus explained, ‘There is light within us all, as there is darkness within us all. These two absolutes make us whole. This is the way of the universe.’”
“This revelation, however, distressed the six goddesses. They could not accept that divine beings such as themselves could be flawed. They deemed the dark sun and dark moon—symbols of their inner darkness—an unsightly reminder of their weakness. So they hatched a plan. They commanded Mago Halmi’s guardian pet, the Haetae, to leap into the sky and devour the dark sun and dark moon.”
“When the uni-horned lion beast bit into the dark sun and dark moon, shards ricocheted to all corners of the sky, peppering the wide expanse with twinkling pockets of light. Some smaller fragments fell to the Mortalrealm—our Earth—to be lost to the Godrealm forever.”
“Mago Halmi was saddened by the goddesses’ actions, because their selfish vanity led them to destroy her precious creations. So the Mother punished them by closing the doors between the realms, thereby preventing the goddesses from entering the Mortalrealm at their will. This is why the gifted clans came to be, to do the will of the goddesses on Earth.”
“And so Mago Halmi left the twinkling shards of the dark sun and dark moon in the sky—what we now call the stars—to serve as a reminder of what the world had lost.”
“What’s a cheollima?” “They’re winged horses known for being too big, too swift, and too majestic to be mounted by any mortal being. They’re supposed to be the goddesses’ preferred mode of transport in the Godrealm. I even heard all horses on Earth are descendants of a cheollima that lost his wings and fell to Earth.”
And remember, two minds are better than one.
“Essentially, the north wind wanted to prove he was mightier than anyone else in the universe. So one day, he challenged the sleepy sun to a duel. If he could remove the jacket from a human faster than the sun could, there would be no doubt that he was the mightiest of all.”
Knowledge and Truth is the Horangi clan motto
“The Haetae once helped the six goddesses commit a crime. He then became so guilt-ridden that he condemned himself to relive his mistake over and over again, because he believed that was the punishment he deserved. Although he was never able to rewrite history, his return to the past granted him the ability to manipulate time. And with his new power, he was able to help many people in need.” He strokes his beard and looks me right in the eye. “To find that which you seek, you must also turn back your clock. You must return to the very beginning—to where you first started. Because, like a coin,
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The Horangi’s clan color is red, and their motto is Knowledge and Truth.
“You know my name is Sora. I’m the clan leader of the LA Horangi.”
The campus is what we call our entire network of tree houses. The water-training room is merely one of the buildings. We have offices, dorms, cafés, restaurants—everything you need to live, study, and work here.”
“The goddesses require us to have a perfect balance of all five elements in order to channel their powers.
But we found that tapping into our dominant element—the thing we already have in abundance—is enough. It not only works like a Gi, it also allows us to wield that element. Like you saw when Austin controlled metal, or when Taeyo manipulated water.”
“The five sacred elements are all around us. The Earth was made by Mago Halmi herself, and we were all created in her image, which means we and the elements are all divine in our own right. We don’t need the Godrealm to access our gifts. Magic is inside each of us.”
“People know the Horangi as keepers of the sacred texts because we looked after the gifted library. But that was only one of our duties.
For generations upon generations, we have also been the keepers of the sacred artifacts—divine but dark objects that represent the goddesses’ original sin.”
“We had a duty to protect the artifacts, even from people in our own community. If they fell into the wrong hands, these powerful dark relics could break the equilibrium between the three realms.”
When the blood moon and black sun appear to the gaze To mark the start of the end of all days, In the one last divine, a weapon shall rise; Unless the gold-destroyer ends the soul who lies.
mean, beggars can’t be choosers, and we’re not exactly flush with leads.”
You can’t just choose a new family like choosing a new outfit. I’m a Gom. My entire family are healers. I can’t just betray them and join another clan. You can’t be both!
Gwisin are hungry ghosts that haven’t been able to pass through to the Spiritrealm because of unfinished business on Earth. Sometimes, when they had a particularly gruesome end to their life, you get hungry and angry ones (aka hangry ghosts), and you really don’t want to be haunted by those.
“They’re called hungry ghosts for a reason. When you die and get stuck on Earth, you get confused. Your physical self is gone, but you stay hungry, as if you were still alive. That’s why they hang out at the best restaurants.
Which must suck, to be honest, since they can’t actually eat anything. Anyhoo, that’s how you know where the food is the best. It’s way more accurate than Yelp or Foursquare.”
Taeyo takes the phone from him and saves the details. “Great. Your profile should now be out in the ether for all gwisin to see. You always get a bunch of random ghosts hoping for a match. But if we start swiping, hopefully we’ll get a match with your mom. If she’s nearby, she’ll respond.”
Like tinder for human and ghost
“This might seem like a silly question,” I say, “but where do the gwisin get their photos taken? And how do they load them into the app?”
Silly but also smart question :)
“Oh, those are great questions,” Taeyo responds. “You know how there’s always a photo on the funeral altar?” I nod. At gifted funerals, a large photo of the deceased is placed on an altar and surrounded by flowers, lit candles, and their favorite foods. That way loved ones can gaze at the person’s face and taste food on their behalf. Mourners can even write a letter and then burn it in the candle flames, which delivers the message to the other side.
“Well, I programmed the app to upload the funeral picture into the app’s back end,” says Taeyo. “When a gwisin decides to create a profile, it automatically syncs with that photo.”
Smart enough
“‘My husband cheated on me, and when I tried to confront him, he killed me,’” Emmett reads out loud. “‘I don’t really want to pass on to the Spiritrealm—I’m enjoying haunting him too much. I’m just here to see what else is out there, and keep my options open. In my spare time, I enjoy crawling out of TV screens and taking long walks on the beach. Message me.’” Then Emmett adds with a shudder, “And there’s a kiss emoji.”
The three of us cringe in unison. “Swipe left, swipe left!”
OMG! This is so LOL
There are always two sides to every story.
Anger will only make it hurt more. Know that you are loved, more than anything in the entire three realms, and I will be watching over you from the Spiritrealm and beyond. True love knows no boundaries.’”
“When we pass into the Spiritrealm, we can choose to shed our human bodies and take on our soul-animal forms. Our bodies will change with each new life, but our soul animals will always remain the same. This is your halmeoni’s true soul form.”
There is light within us all, as there is darkness within us all. These two absolutes make us whole. Jennie may have some dark bits, but there’s light inside her, too. Just as there is in the Horangi.
“What’s an inmyeonjo?” “They’re part bird, part woman,” I explain, remembering Professor Ryu mentioning them once in class. “They’re one of the only creatures that can fly between the Godrealm and the Mortalrealm. They’re wild but not dangerous, unless they’ve got their eyes set on a mirror and you get in the way. Then you’re in trouble.”
“They say the first-ever inmyeonjo was a beautiful woman. She was so breathtaking that bachelors would line up at her door each day for a chance to win her hand. But she was young and vain, and careless with her affections. So one day, a scorned lover—who happened to be a Gumiho illusionist—cursed her to become an ugly, human-headed bird. Now, every time an inmyeonjo sees herself in a mirror, she’s reminded of the beast she’s become.”
It’s a sacrifice. Just like our clan motto. By sacrificing my Gom identity, I can save Hattie.”
“Anger will only make it hurt more. And I know you don’t like mirrors, but these are people’s homes that you’re destroying.”
She whines and lets out a sad caw-caw. “But it is part of who I am. The curse of my ancestor makes me this way.” I stroke her wing feathers, now tucked snugly into her body. “Don’t let a curse define who you can and can’t be. Only you have the power to decide that.”
We’re both trapped in a story someone else wrote about us. But we have the power to take the reins. If we want to.
“It’s a Korean name that means beautiful—like you.”
the soul who lies has to be the Cave Bear Goddess.
“With its bangmangi, a dokkaebi has the ability to summon any item in the Mortalrealm. All you need to do is make a deal with the creature, and it will retrieve for you what you desire.”
We all stare at the inmyeonjo in disbelief. Sure, we’ve all heard the stories about the magical club a dokkaebi carries, and its incredible powers. But striking a deal with a dokkaebi would be like striking a deal with the devil. Except worse.
The dokkaebi are goblins that live in our nightmares. Literally. They feed off human despair (also literally), becoming more powerful each time they consume our deepest fears. Basically, if you fall asleep in the presence of one, it will step into your d...
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They are so frightening that when children misbehave, parents sing them this song to remind them what lurks in the shadows: With bloody skin so red, so bright, And hair as black as darkest night; Be good, you hear, unless you dare; Don...
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Everyone knows you don’t go looking for a dokkaebi. They come looking for you.
