“You seem to like coffee,” Kisa points out, sitting down before the fire and rummaging around in her tote bag. “Those will taste like your Americano.”

Seokga sighs but unwraps the hard candy anyway. He gives it a tentative sniff while Kisa watches in amusement. Reluctantly, he places it in his mouth.

“See?” she asks with a satisfied expression as Seokga experiences a moment of complete and total euphoria when the taste of coffee explodes on his taste buds. “I told you…”

Seokga decides he needs to find the SRC Flatliner’s candy store immediately and raid it for more of this magical concoction. He finds himself calming down from his earlier exhaustion and rage as he plays with the wrapper. In its hearth, the fire pops and crackles, illuminating the stray strands of curly hair framing Kisa’s face as she takes the jars out of her bag, glancing up at him across the length of the thread.

His tired puzzlement must show on his face. “He needs to eat soon,” she explains and Seokga curses himself. Shit. Yes. He’d forgotten that babies have appetites and that, since Hwanin is now a baby, he needs to eat far more often than he did as a god. Kisa pulls out a mortar and pestle, adds the dried flower petals to the earthen bowl.

“Salsarikkot,” Seokga says, recognizing the pale golden hue of the flowers. It’s one of many flowers from Hallakkungi’s flower garden. Its properties are nothing short of impressive: With salsarikkot, flesh can be regrown. It’s the flower that reincarnated gods live off, one that aids their growth. Combined with bbyeosarikkot, a flower that brings bones back to life, infant gods will grow strong and healthy once more. The reincarnation flowers are precious, and he watches with interest as Kisa grinds them into a fine paste. “How do you know all of this?” Never has he met a mortal that knows so intimately the secrets of the gods.

Kisa gives him a slightly amused glance as she pours a vial of water into the bowl, thinning the paste to a shimmering liquid and placing the mortar on the edge of the fire where it heats while she stirs it counterclockwise. “Samsin Halmoni,” she says, and he grinds his teeth together. “I don’t suppose you’ll tell me why you seem to hate her so much?”

“No,” he says sulkily, not wanting to dwell on it. He finishes the first candy and starts on the next. “I’m sure you’ll figure it out.”

Hwanin gurgles and he turns his attention to his brother, who has captured one of his own feet in a tiny hand and is staring at it in shock.

Kisa pours the liquid into a small bottle from her bag. “I didn’t know if we’d have the flowers,” she murmurs, almost to herself. “But the sick bay is so stocked…”