Yoon and her father waited, growing more anxious as each week. Yet one day, her mother failed to return. She also brought Yoon things, like the stuffed bear-owl creature named Gom-Gom, or the crooked stick used to play a strange northern game. Yoon's mother had been a brave warrior and explorer, and had told Yoon many fantastic tales of adventure and faraway places, primarily in the savage lands to the north. And in the end, it refused to give her back. All her life, it had taken her mother away on ships, for weeks or months at a time. Just as fire had always been her friend, water had always been her enemy. Yoon coughed up a seemingly endless stream of water, and her grandmother scolded her, saying it would have been far worse if Yoon had hit the ground.

Once, when she was climbing, Yoon fell, dropping into the river, and her father had to fish her out. Her father only brought her to the city for the big festivals, and she wanted the best view to watch the fireworks celebrating the Lady of the North Star. Not long after Yoon learned to walk, she learned to climb, and immediately took a shining to the rooftops of Oda. Fire was also always hungry-Yoon could empathize with that, too, as her family were immigrants in Minkai, and struggled to support themselves. Fire always changed, and changed everything around it. Yoon always loved fire-the warmth, the color, the brilliant blaze.

Pathfinder kineticist