Winter comes. It is cold, and bitter, and a great many people die. Still, the king of Joseon sits in his palace and eats his lavish meals. The deaths of his people are muffled by the thick snow, and he cares not for the crown prince’s concerns. He cares only that his youngest son has disappeared, so he sends soldiers to their deaths, searching the frigid landscape with only the king’s rage to guide them.

    And they find nothing.

Temples dot the mountains, and every few days a new temple receives two men; the temple will feed them, let them bathe and rest, and after two days of chasing the cold out of their bones, the men set off again. They do not give their names, and the monks and nuns don’t ask. They continue their journey, snaking through the central mountains of Joseon towards the south to escape the worst of the winter’s cold.

When the ground thaws, it thaws with the blood of the king. The people are weak, but the crown prince is strong, and he is charismatic, drawing the people of Joseon to him like moths to a flame, from nervous yangban to starved cheonmin. The eldest princess is exiled, and the mourning period for the king is short. The people do not weep. King Insoo redistributes grain, he seeds the fields alongside his people, and he lets them into his court to hear their concerns.

In a valley in the Taebaeksan, the two men find a spring. It is choked with peach blossom petals, but there is not a si