Yoki-hijo
Fourteen women, fiercely Invested by the spirits at birth, who proved too strong-willed for the machine to consume on its first activation; they pulled themselves back out of the shroud and could not be kept in it. Unable to harvest them, the machine built each one a single fake-town prison staffed by harvested souls and gave her one day to live again and again, memory wiped each night. Held for seventeen centuries by sheer mundanity. The cultural role of *yoki-hijo* in Torio is the role her keepers were assigned to play around her. STD:YNP:Ch 39
A sacred calling in Torio: a girl chosen at birth — typically marked by a falling star — and raised from her parents to summon and bind the primal hijo for the towns she visits. Only fourteen yoki-hijo live in Yumi's generation. Their hair is never cut. They dress, eat, bathe, and pray according to prescribed ritual, and they are forbidden the indulgences of an ordinary life. STD:YNP:Ch 2 superseded at STD:YNP:Ch 39
Known facts
- fourteen-livingOnly fourteen yoki-hijo are currently living, of which Yumi is one.STD:YNP:Ch 2
- crying-not-against-rulesCrying is not, formally, against a yoki-hijo's rules; being seen crying is. The strictures were largely set by past yoki-hijo themselves, who understood that breakdowns were inevitable in the life and made the visible part the offence.STD:YNP:Ch 15
- can-be-removed-by-executorsIn an emergency, a yoki-hijo can be relieved of duty entirely — the wardens may call for *executors* who would take her away, presumably to perform her spirit-summoning under lock and key. Yumi reads this fate on Liyun's face as the day of failed teaching wears on, and begs her in a whisper not to send for them.STD:YNP:Ch 19
- only-fourteen-currently-activeThere are only fourteen living yoki-hijo across Torio at present — a smaller institution than Painter would have guessed. Hwanji mentions the number in passing while explaining the schism.STD:YNP:Ch 22
- reform-movement-is-the-majorityOf the fourteen current yoki-hijo, Hwanji knows of only one other still raised in Liyun's orthodox tradition; almost everyone else has belonged to the reform movement for centuries, with yoki-hijo choosing their own meals, taking days off, visiting family, and retiring at seventy.STD:YNP:Ch 22
- fourteen-souls-returned-from-the-shroudThe fourteen yoki-hijo alive at the machine's activation were superficially killed with everyone else, but their wills — and the spirits' Investiture in them — were strong enough that they pulled themselves out of the shroud and re-formed. The machine could neither harvest their energy nor keep them contained; the most it could do was siphon a sliver of memory off each one each night.STD:YNP:Ch 39
Backreferences
- summarySTD:YNP:Ch 2
- factYumi
- factYumi
- factTorio
- factYoki-hijo
- factHijo
- factChaeyung
- factHwanji
- summarySTD:YNP:Ch 4
- factYumi
- factHijo
- factHijo
- factPlace of Ritual
- factRock Stacking
- summarySTD:YNP:Ch 6
- summarySTD:YNP:Ch 8
- summarySTD:YNP:Ch 9
- factYumi
- summarySTD:YNP:Ch 10
- factCool Spring
- factTobok
- summarySTD:YNP:Ch 11
- summarySTD:YNP:Ch 12
- summarySTD:YNP:Ch 13
- factYumi
- factHijo
- factSamjae
- factShrine
- factMeditation
- factYumi
- summarySTD:YNP:Ch 15
- factYoki-hijo
- summarySTD:YNP:Ch 17
- summarySTD:YNP:Ch 18
- summarySTD:YNP:Ch 19
- factYoki-hijo
- summarySTD:YNP:Ch 20
- factInstitute of Mechanical Solutions
- factThe Stacking Machine
- summarySTD:YNP:Ch 21
- summarySTD:YNP:Ch 22
- factYumi
- factYoki-hijo
- factYoki-hijo
- factStable Nightmare
- factThe Yoki-Hijo Reform Movement
- factDwookim
- summarySTD:YNP:Ch 23
- factThe Stacking Machine
- summarySTD:YNP:Ch 24
- factThe Stacking Machine
- summarySTD:YNP:Ch 27
- summarySTD:YNP:Ch 31
- factNikaro
- factHijo
- factThe Stacking Machine
- summarySTD:YNP:Ch 32
- factThe Shroud
- factYumi
- summarySTD:YNP:Ch 34
- factYumi
- factThe Stacking Machine
- summarySTD:YNP:Ch 35
- factNikaro
- factYumi
- summarySTD:YNP:Ch 36
- summarySTD:YNP:Ch 39
- factThe Shroud
- factNightmare
- factYoki-hijo
- summarySTD:YNP:Ch 41
- factYumi