Trapped Spirits
also known as the trapped spirits, the distant spirit
A voice Yumi hears in her mind on the night after she summons thirty-seven hijo — soft, exhausted, and seemingly speaking from somewhere as distant as the daystar she has been gazing at. It speaks as a collective — *we are trapped, like you* — and tells her that it and its kind have a more terrible existence than the spirit-lights in her sphere, that they cannot free themselves, and that there is one who can help. It asks her, in turn, for a boon: that she help free them. STD:YNP:Ch 6
Known facts
- are-rogue-spirits-being-recaptured-by-stacking-machineThe scholars confirm what Yumi could not bring herself to imagine: the trapped spirits are *rogue spirits* whose original prison failed, and the machine in Kilahito has been built (and slowly charged) to capture them again. Painter's arrival into the scene as Yumi's anchor delayed the recapture by preventing her memories from being rewritten — *an excellent ploy by the spirits*.STD:YNP:Ch 34
- one-spirit-broke-free-and-connected-yumi-to-painterOn the day the story begins, Yumi's stacking reached the level required to pull a single spirit free of the machine's grip. That spirit, knowing it would soon be recaptured, looked for an exit and found one: it Connected Yumi to Painter, a young man who had just turned back to rescue a small boy from a falling fire escape. The Connection made Yumi briefly spirit-shaped and so untouchable by the machine — the swap and everything that followed are side effects no one quite intended.STD:YNP:Ch 39
- freed-from-the-machine-by-yumi-artDrawn from the machine's precise stacking by Yumi's sublime artistry, the thousands of bound spirits flow out one by one until the machine cannot continue. They turn to her with awe — rejoicing in *organic creativity*, the thing the machine could never match — and thank her as they go free.STD:YNP:Ch 41
Events
- STD:YNP:Ch 6 Reaches Yumi's mind from somewhere as distant as the daystar, asks to be freed, and requests a boon of her in return for the boons it would have given.
- STD:YNP:Ch 40 Thousands of spirits — orbs of liquid light in blue and red, moving in rhythm — encircle the machine like an audience at a concert, transfixed by its stacking.
Backreferences
- factYumi
- factNikaro
- factNikaro
- summarySTD:YNP:Ch 20
- summarySTD:YNP:Ch 27
- summarySTD:YNP:Ch 28
- factYumi
- factTrapped Spirits
- summarySTD:YNP:Ch 36
- factFutinoro
- factYoki-hijo
- factThe Stacking Machine
- summarySTD:YNP:Ch 40
- factThe Stacking Machine
- summarySTD:YNP:Ch 41
- factYumi
- factYumi