The Poppy War

The chapter begins with an excerpt about Chuluu Korikh from The Seejin Classification of Deities. The Grand Marshal of the Heavenly Forces, Erlang Shen, dislikes humans. His twin sister, Sanshengmu, believes that humans need the gods’ help. She lives her life as a mortal, falling in love and having a son. Her brother, enraged, imprisons her in a stone mountain that disables magical powers. This is Chuluu Korikh, the only place powerful enough to contain a god.

As they ride to the mountain, Altan tells Rin that Chaghan thinks the Gatekeeper is in Chuluu Korikh, and that he might know where the Warrior is. Altan also tells Rin about the last Cike who was immured, Feylen. Altan believes that it’s possible to bring shamans back to sanity.

After two days, they reach Chuluu Korikh. Upon entering, Rin feels her magic being suppressed. They find a register of immured shamans and at the top is Jiang’s name. While Rin suspected he was the Gatekeeper, this is her first confirmation. They break Jiang free from his plinth, and Rin begs him for help. Jiang says that if he were to leave the mountain, he’d bring terrible forces into the world. He warns them of the devastation that would come from Altan’s plan. He apologizes to Altan for not saving him when he saw Daji turning him into a weapon, but he insists that Rin can still be saved. Rin says she will follow Altan’s orders. Disappointed, Jiang seals himself back into his plinth.

Altan breaks open Feylen’s plinth. He is lost to his god and escapes. At the cave’s exit, Rin and Altan encounter Federation soldiers. Without their powers, they fall easily.

Rin wakes in a wagon with Altan beside her. Altan tries to use his fire to escape, but they are knocked out again with gas. When Rin wakes again, she’s in a laboratory surrounded by jarred and labeled Nikara body parts. She and Altan are in the human laboratory near Speer.

Dr. Eyimchi Shiro enters and recognizes Altan. He injects Altan with heroin, which he says is Altan’s favorite drug. He tells Rin that if she refuses to answer his questions about shamanism, he will inject Altan again. Rin doesn’t break and Shiro leaves for the day.

Through the night, Altan goes through withdrawals and begs for death. When Shiro returns, Rin says she won’t sell out Nikan and Daji. Shiro says Daji is the one who told the Federation where Rin and Altan were. Altan grows irate and the guards inject both him and Rin. With the heroin in her blood, Rin finds Altan in the spirit realm. She asks him to give her the key to his power. He takes her back through centuries of Speerly history. The restless and unavenged ghosts of Rin’s ancestors fill her with knowledge of their culture. An old man tells her to go to Speer and call the Phoenix at its temple.

When she and Altan wake, they summon flames that incinerate their bindings and Shiro. They make it to the pier but are surrounded by the Federation. Altan tells Rin that he must remain behind to destroy the research facility. His self-immolation destroys the facility and the surrounding army.

Rin swims to Speer, haunted by the image of Altan’s final moments. She hears the Woman’s voice in her head, telling her to stay away. She sees visions of the havoc Feylen is wreaking and of Chaghan and Qara breaking a dam to flood the countryside. She also sees a vision of the moment Mai’rinnen Tearza refused to sacrifice the world to the Phoenix for the sake of Speer. She sees Jiang immured in the stone mountain.

The beach at Speer is covered in bones. A voice guides her to the temple of the Phoenix. She enters the spirit world and is confronted by Tearza, who warns her fruitlessly a final time. Rin finally meets the Phoenix. She tells it that she wants to end the Federation. It warns her that her choice will result in the death of many. Rin asks it to burn them all, promising an unending river of blood in return.

Rin becomes a conduit for the Phoenix; through her, millions of Mugenese people are immediately killed. Rin understands the atrocity she’s committed and forces herself to think of her victims as faceless numbers, not humans. Rin drags herself from the temple and collapses on the beach.

Rin wakes three days later aboard a ship. Ramsa greets her outside her room and says that the mainland is chaos. The Cike are all aboard except for Chaghan and Qara, who will join soon. They and Kitay tracked the Federation to Shiro’s lab, where Kitay had the idea to go to Speer.

Rin seeks out Kitay and asks what she did while on Speer. He brings her to the ship deck and points in the direction of the island of Mugen, where a pulsating mushroom cloud lingers: Rin triggered a dormant volcano. The eruption instantly killed many, suffocated more, and will slowly starve even more. Kitay asks if the Phoenix forced her to do it, but Rin asserts that she chose to destroy the Federation. Horrified by her remorselessness, Kitay says what she did is no different than what Mugen did to Speer.

Rin cannot banish the Phoenix from her mind. She begs Enki for opium nuggets to drown out his voice. Days later, Chaghan and Qara return. Rin tells Chaghan that Altan is dead. Qara reveals that Altan had her and Chaghan break a central levy to destroy the Federation’s supply routes, subsequently killing all the local civilians. Rin remembers proposing a similar strategy at the Academy (in Chapter 5), which both her classmates and Irjah found horrifyingly brutal.

At dawn the next day, the Cike hold a Speerly ceremony to commemorate Altan’s death. Rin tells Chaghan about Daji’s betrayal and asks if he will lead the Cike against her and Feylen. Chaghan says that Altan named Rin his successor. She and Chaghan shake hands, united in the atrocities they’ve committed and their desire for revenge. Rin is secure in her decision and vows to call the gods to do terrible things.