Yumi and the Nightmare Painter
Chapters - Brandon Sanderson
Part 1
Chapter 1
Hoid as the narrator introduces the nightmare painter Nikaro , who usually thinks of himself simply as "Painter", as he is beginning his rounds in Kilahito . Painter, standing outside his apartment building, stares briefly at the star before continuing on to his patrol. As he walks, Hoid describes the hion lines overhead. Painter reaches the western edge of the city and stares out at the shroud , then hears laughter coming from two other nightmare painters: Akane and Tojin . Akane asks Nikaro if he is working the same schedule as them, which he affirms. The pair continue on their way, leaving Painter alone.
POV: Nikaro·On page: Akane, Tojin
Source: Coppermind
Chapter 2
Hoid then introduces the yoki-hijo Yumi as she observes the bright daystar , which she considered to be a good omen. Her attendants, Chaeyung and Hwanji enter her wagon and feed her a breakfast of rice and stew. After eating, they step out of the wagon into their getuk and the attendants shield Yumi from the view of villagers with fans as they walk to the local cold spring. They undress Yumi and enter the spring after her. Chaeyung and Hwanji then wash and rinse Yumi's body using a series of soaps and creams, following the pattern of the artist's sequence of progress . When they finish, Yumi submerges herself for 144 seconds to complete her ritual bathing, then emerges and is dressed in her ritual tobok . From here they walk to the village shrine, located in a flower garden. At the shrine, Yumi kneels and begins thirteen ritual prayers before proceeding to her meditations. After an hour, she stops and considers how she hopes to visit Torio City for the Festival of Reveals , dressed as an ordinary person. Yumi's warden, Liyun approaches the shrine and announces they should wait until the next steamwell eruption before proceeding to the place of ritual . Yumi tries to suggest her interest in attending the upcoming festival, which Liyun strongly discourages. Disheartened, Yumi asks to proceed to the place of ritual.
POV: Yumi·On page: Liyun, Chaeyung, Hwanji
Source: Coppermind
Chapter 3
Painter stares into the shroud for a time before turning and walking along the street at the perimeter of the city. He passes Akane's capstone painting , on the outside wall of a windowless building, followed by the blank wall where his own most recent attempt at a capstone painting has been whitewashed. The painting was of "the star," which is actually a planet with living beings on it, inspired by the announcement that a spaceship will voyage to that celestial body. Painter determines he needs to whitewash the wall again before noticing a disturbed area on the surface of the shroud, indicating that a nightmare has passed through. He tracks it into the city, following a few spots of dark, steaming residue, until he finds it down a dark, narrow alley. The nightmare has its head stuck through the wall of the windowless building, apparently investigating, as Nikaro begins a painting of bamboo. The creature turns to Painter and begins approaching, but is soon transformed into black bamboo. The bamboo evaporates, and Painter gathers his things and continues to patrol.
Source: Coppermind
Chapter 4
The local steamwell erupts as Yumi passes by and approaches the "place of ritual". Her attendants follow, with fans withdrawn so that the crowd can see the yoki-hijo. She enters the place of ritual as the crowd watches and three local scribes sing songs, and puts on her knee pads. Yumi begins to stack the rocks which have been collected by villagers as Hoid muses about their strange preferences in art. Over the course of several hours she creates dozens of spiraling stacks, gathering a record number of thirty-seven spirits . The town's supplicants step forward one at a time and Yumi asks the spirits to transform in accordance with their requests for various tools. Liyun approaches after the final request has been granted, only to find that the exhausted yoki-hijo has collapsed unconscious to the ground, but the exhausted yoki-hijo has collapsed unconscious to the ground.
Source: Coppermind
Chapter 5
Hoid explains the mysterious past behind the advent of the nightmares, the shroud, and the hion lines, before getting to Painter as he arrives at foreman Sukishi's office. Nikaro turns in two bamboo paintings, takes his wage, and leaves as Sukishi eyes him skeptically and berrates him about not properly tailoring his drawings to the appearance of nightmares. Painter then walks to the Noodle Pupil , enters, and takes a seat at the bar, asking Design for his usual order. As he eats, Painter questions Design about his self-worth, which she mistakenly interprets as a request for a discount. Design encourages Nikaro to socialize with the other painters meeting at the establishment, but he refuses. After finishing his meal, Painter pays for his highly discounted food and exits the restaurant. As he is on his way home to watch his favorite hion viewer program, Painter spots the signs of a nightmare that has passed by. He ignores it at first, but minutes later doubles back in search of the nightmare.
POV: Nikaro·On page: Design, Hoid, Sukishi·Mentioned: Akane
Source: Coppermind
Chapter 6
Hoid explains to his audience how he froze when he first arrived on Komashi , and subsequently heard voices, and later images, of Painter and Yumi. He then returns his attention to Yumi, who wakes up in her wagon while it is still nighttime. She wrestles with her varied emotions and an inner sense of coldness, until Liyun arrives and chastises her--concerned that she has either been lazy in the past or that she has overworked herself. Yumi promises to work hard the following day and her warden leaves. Yumi goes to her window and looks out, feeling trapped, when she hears the voice of a spirit in her mind. The spirit says that its kind are trapped like she is, and then offers her a gift. Yumi mournfully rejects the offer, feeling unworthy and insisting that she has already been blessed more than enough by the spirits. The spirit accepts her response, but asks for a boon from Yumi: that she would free the spirits. Yumi isn't sure what this could mean or what she should do, but she promises to do what she can before everything suddenly goes black.
POV: Yumi·On page: Liyun·Mentioned: Hoid, Design, Nikaro
Source: Coppermind
Chapter 7
Painter continues to track the nightmare through the rainy streets in the outer rings of Kilahito. He nearly gives up after losing the trail, but looks into a window after he has turned back to his home and there spots the nightmare in the home of two parents and a four year old child. The large nightmare has lupine features and crouches over the boy, and Nikaro realizes that this one is almost fully stable and thus extremely dangerous. He begins to panic, but then hears the child sniffling and realizes the terrified child is awake. Instead of running for help, Painter extracts his supplies. The nightmare notices him and approaches, trying to work through the wall of the building, as he begins to paint. He tries bamboo at first, before realizing it will not work on such a stable nightmare and switching to something resembling the child's mother. This causes the monster to flee, and Painter steps up to the window--which prompts the child to cry and wakens the parents. Painter tries to reassure the father, and encourages them to visit family in another town in case the nightmare attempts to return. Nikaro then departs toward foreman Sukishi's office, but feeling unnaturally tired he returns home instead. He enters his apartment and then opens the windows for fresh air to clear his clouding mind. Painter hears a strange sound, sees something come from the sky and strike him in the chest, and then loses consciousness. Painter blinks awake, finding himself in an unfamiliar setting with an unfamiliar girl: Yumi.
POV: Nikaro·On page: Liyun, Yumi
Source: Coppermind
Part 2
Chapter 8
Disoriented by the strange setting, particularly the bright sunlight filling the wagon, Painter assumes he must be dreaming and begins testing this theory as Yumi yells for her attendants. He soon decides that the experience is not a dream, and Yumi calms as she comes to the conclusion that the boy must be the spirit she spoke to. Nikaro then looks out through the window at her alien world, spots the daystar, and concludes he must have traveled to "the star" in his own world's sky. Chaeyung and Hwanji enter the wagon carrying breakfast, walking directly through the incorporeal Yumi. She quickly realizes he must have taken her body, and is horrified as Nikaro begins to break the rituals. The attendants think something must be wrong and flee.
Source: Coppermind
Chapter 9
Yumi has an outburst of frustration directed toward Painter for humiliating her and expects to be punished further for it, but Nikaro quickly convinces her that he is not a spirit as she has assumed. She then recalls the spirit told her there is someone who could help her free them, and she assumes Painter must be this help. She asks Painter to tell the attendants what has happened. As she does this, she tries to take his hand and they discover that direct contact between the two of them causes them both to feel a sharp, electric sensation. Yumi tries to leave the wagon to recover and also discovers that she is limited in how far apart they can be before something jerks her back toward Painter. Liyun then enters, and when Nikaro tries to explain what has happened she thinks he is lying. Yumi realizes she should have expected this, and asks Painter to play along. She gives Nikaro the right lines to say and he repeats them and follows all of her orders on the rituals of eating breakfast.
POV: Yumi·On page: Nikaro, Liyun
Source: Coppermind
Chapter 10
Painter considers how he wants to help Yumi but worries he will not be up to the real task. This fear is eased when Yumi explains they will use "art" to draw the spirits. They then leave the wagon, and walk past villagers to the cold spring for the ritual bath. Here Painter realizes he will have to undress. Yumi insists she must bathe as well, before disrobing and entering the water. She asks Nikaro not to look, and he closes his eyes as Chaeyung and Hwanji approach, also naked, and lead him into the water. They wash him, not seeming to notice any anatomical anomalies. At one point Painter slips, causing him to open his eyes, and he catches Yumi staring at him. She apologizes and they return to bathing. They touch again, by accident, and this time notice an exchange of emotions that comes with it. They finish bathing and the attendants leave. Painter reflects on his situation, recalling he needs to report the stable nightmare still, but decides for now all he can do is help Yumi. They realize she has been able to interact with the water without realizing it, but aren't sure of the implications. One at a time they leave the spring to get dressed, and as Painter is being dressed, he faints. Painter wakes in his own apartment to the sound of someone at the door. He thinks he must have been dreaming, but Yumi sits up next to him. Painter reaches for her, and realizes that he has become as ghostly as Yumi had been before.
POV: Nikaro·On page: Yumi, Liyun·Mentioned: Akane
Source: Coppermind
Chapter 11
Yumi awakens to a cold dark, world which she imagines to be the "place of dead spirits". She processes her surroundings and shock as the foreman is left knocking on the door and Nikaro urges her to answer it, showing that in his incorporeal form he is unable to. When she answers, Sukishi is shocked to see a girl answer the door, proving that Yumi has not taken on the appearance of Nikaro. The foreman inquires about Painter, who tells Yumi to explain that he is sick, but has been hunting a stable nightmare. He leaves, asking Yumi to pass on the message that Nikaro must report in. The door across the hallway then opens and Akane steps out, whom Yumi believes to be a goddess at first. Painter is concerned what Akane will think about a woman being in his apartment and has Yumi claim to be his sister. Yumi then figures Akane must be one of Painter's supposed concubines. She voices this belief, and Akane leaves, disgusted. As the evidence stacks up, Yumi realizes that Painter is not the hero she assumed he was, which he admits when pressed. In her frustration and anger, Yumi begins to stack miscellaneous items, which impresses Painter. She prays to the spirits for help, and eventually asks for food. Trying to understand their situation better, she asks Painter if anything strange happened before he first came to her world, and he explains about the stable nightmare. Before they get much further, Yumi is overcome with exhaustion and falls asleep. She awakens in her wagon with Painter, incorporeal once again.
POV: Yumi·On page: Nikaro, Akane·Mentioned: Liyun
Source: Coppermind
Chapter 12
Hoid thinks on the "purpose" of nightmares before getting back to the story. After Painter is fed, Liyun enters and begins to criticize him for collapsing the day before. He begins to push back when Yumi sternly takes control and insists that he do everything she says. Yumi directs Nikaro to apologize to Liyun, and they leave for the cold spring. She continues to berate Painter, who slowly becomes more bitter about the way he is being treated. At the spring he allows himself to be bathed, and afterwards peeks his eyes open to find Yumi directly before him with a stern glare. They have a staring match until Nikaro earns a measure of respect from Yumi, and she explains her plans to Nikaro--they must draw a spirit to make contact. Their staring contest continues until they touch noses and feel the same wave of intense sensations and emotions. Painter leaves the cold spring as they are still yelling insults at one another.
POV: Nikaro·On page: Yumi, Liyun
Source: Coppermind
Chapter 13
They arrive at the shrine in the village orchard--a strange location, Yumi notes, with shrines usually being found in flower gardens. She bullies Painter into repeating the six essential ritual prayers after her, insisting that he must fulfill the duties of the yoki-hijo if they are ever to be free of one another. After the prayers Painter wants to take a nap, so Yumi pokes him to keep him awake. She explains they must spend some time in meditation, though her method of meditation is foreign to Nikaro. As Yumi meditates, his presence distracts her however. Eventually Liyun returns and they proceed to the place of ritual. While bathing earlier, Yumi had come to the conclusion that the spirits must have sent Painter because he has a natural talent for stone stacking. Her hopes are immediately shattered the moment Painter begins attempting to stack stones.
POV: Yumi·On page: Nikaro, Liyun, Chaeyung, Hwanji, Sukishi
Source: Coppermind
Chapter 14
Returned to his apartment, Nikaro considers his failure to stack the rocks properly as Yumi tries to explain what he did wrong. She decides that their only course of action now is for her to teach him. Painter thinks about the family he saved from the stable nightmare, realizes he didn't have Yumi report them previously, and wishes to find out what happened. Yumi insists they must stay and train, but Painter argues that perhaps the spirits sent her to help him instead. She showers and puts together a strange outfit from Nikaro's clothing, then they head to the foreman's office. Foreman Sukishi deflects Yumi's concerns and Nikaro realizes that the man does not believe the report and has no intention of investigating it. The pair encounter Akane as they arrive back at the apartment. Painter wants to continue to the apartment quickly so they can discuss what to do about the nightmare, but as they enter the building Akane doubles back and asks if she can help Yumi in some way. She offers to take Yumi shopping, which Yumi accepts with grateful tears.
POV: Nikaro·On page: Yumi, Akane·Mentioned: Liyun
Source: Coppermind
Chapter 15
When they arrive at the shopping center, Yumi is concerned when she realizes she needs money to pay for clothing, but Akane offers to pay and make Nikaro reimburse her. Yumi soon spots a blue dress that catches her eye. Akane learns that Yumi has never been shopping--having been led to believe that she has only worn hand-me-downs--and offers to give Yumi a smaller selection of things to try on. The store employees take Yumi's measurements because she doesn't know her size. As they wait in the changing rooms, Yumi and Nikaro discuss Akane and what they like about her. Yumi tries on a bra for the first time, followed by the blue dress. She is concerned that her shoulders are bare, but Akane included an additional cardigan-like top that she can wear. Yumi is enamored with the dress, and decides that she is comfortable having possessions that she likes. They eventually leave the store with several new outfits for Yumi. Akane invites Yumi to join her and her friends for lunch after she has had a chance to drop off her new clothes in Nikaro's apartment.
POV: Yumi·On page: Nikaro, Akane, Tojin, Masaka, Izzy·Mentioned: Liyun
Source: Coppermind
Chapter 16
Painter tries to discourage Yumi from going with Akane, arguing that there will be trouble when people see through their lies about Yumi's identity, but Yumi insists.They walk around the corner to the Noodle Pupil and Akane introduces Yumi as Nikaro's sister to Tojin, Masaka , and Izzy . Izzy asks Yumi some questions in order to determine her dramascope . Painter decides he doesn't want to be around his old friends so he moves to the bar. Yumi approaches moments later, unsure what to order and beginning to rethink her decision to come. Nikaro tries to encourage her. Design emerges from the kitchen and drops a bowl of soup when she sees Nikaro, thinking he has died.
POV: Nikaro·On page: Yumi, Akane, Hoid, Design·Mentioned: Liyun
Source: Coppermind
Chapter 17
Nikaro and Yumi join Design in cleaning up the spilled soup so that they can talk briefly in private. They explain to Design how they have been switching places, with Nikaro suspecting Yumi is from the star. Design tells them that Yumi is actually in Nikaro's body, and that her highly Invested nature is causing the body to change physically--which is part of the reason Yumi is so hungry and tired. Yumi asks Design if she is a spirit, and explains how the spirits on her world behave. Design confirms that she is similar, but rejects Yumi's reverence as misplaced. The Cryptic promises she will try to help them, but admits that they really need Hoid's expertise because she is not particularly knowledgeable in Realmatic Theory . Yumi is getting sleepy so they return to Nikaro's apartment. Painter tries to delay their return to her world and keep her awake with a hion viewer program, but Yumi is determined to reject all frivolities and get back to work.
POV: Yumi·On page: Nikaro, Design, Akane, Hoid·Mentioned: Liyun
Source: Coppermind