"YAH! Myungie! Come help with dinner!"
    Myung-Ok's eyes slowly opened to the sound of her mother's shrill voice, her eyebrows furrowing from the unwelcome noise.  She glanced breifly over to the side noting the time.
    "7:00 p.m. How long was I asleep?"  She didn't remember what time she had come back, though she was pretty sure it had been daylight when she had returned from Walpurgis.  
    It took her a few minutes to stand up, still woozy from the change.  It wasn't until her mother screamed at her again did she hasten her step.  Defender of a world and her mother's temper still put the fear of hellfire into her.
    "YAH!"
    "I'm commminnnggg!" Myung groaned making it down the stairs.
    "You know, you can at least help me when you aren't doing anything with your life right now.  When are you going to get a job? Better yet..." her mother quickly set some banchan onto the table,"When are you going back to school?"
    "I'll go back when I go back." Myung replied starting to scoop some rice into bowls.
    "What kind of answer is that? You know, your brother is so successful, why can't you be more like him?"
    "He works in dad's company."
    "As his law partner... he's an equal to your father, and you know your father is even harder on him than any of his other workers.  You can't keep relying on them forever you know."
    Myung rolled her eyes as her mother continued to barrage her with questions about her future, which included the standard, "When are you going to get married?"  
    She couldn't tell her mother she had no interest in getting married at the moment, or had any interest with school, or anything else really.  At the moment, the most important thing was to find the other princesses, their guardians, and to release the weapons. Her mind was practically consumed with thoughts of Fee, now Walpurgis.
    "You can't live here forever Myungie." her mom finally said realizing her daughter was tuning her out.
    "Do you plan on kicking me out?"
    "Yeah mom... do you?" a voice laughed out from the door.
    "Ah! Jungie! My good boy! Welcome home!" her mother replied happily.  Myung could hardly believe how quick her mother's demeanor changed when it came to her son sometimes. If only she could tell her mother what she's been really doing then maybe she'd change her mind about her. The more likely scenario would be throwing Myung-ok into an insane asylum. 

    Better to keep it to herself.

    "Welcome home Jung-hwa oppa." Myung finally said to her brother.  Her brother smiled at her before turning and opening the door for their father.
    "Mmmm... smells good." Her father replied.  It was all rather typical.  They all sat down eating their dinner, again barraging Myung with questions about her future, her father clearing his throat unnapprovingly, and her brother ribbing her about the whole situation.
    She ate as fast as she could hoping it would be enough to gather back some of her strength.

    Time in Walpurgis was strange.  Ever since the witches took over the world, time became almost stagnant there, barely fluctuating.  Noone really got older, though everyone did what they could to live their lives.  She could be there for two weeks and come back to only see that maybe 30 minutes had gone by.  
    Despite all the time she had been there, it barely felt like she even dented what she needed to do.
    After she had finished her meal, she excused herself before her family could prod anymore information from her.  
    "Quickly now." She grabbed the red cloak stuffing it into a backpack as well as some other pouches of items she had taken from the other world.  These were going to be integral in finding the other princesses.  She was feeling much better now that she had food in her stomach and had some rest.
    She ran down the stair and quickly shouted, "I'm going out!" leaving out the door as quick as she could.  She didn't mean to be rude to her family, but this moment was important for her.  She needed to go somewhere dark and quiet.
    She didn't even go far, pretty much just running into her backyard and going into the family storage area.  Gently she untucked the packages, taking extra special care with one particular bag and tied it to her waist.

    "First, I sprinkle a circle of salt." opening her bag she takes out a basic carton of salt sprinkling it around her.

    "Sprinkle the salt first my dear... it will keep any evil out and lead you away from such things."

    The fortune teller's words echoed in her ears.

    "Second, tie a red string around around your wrist." Myung gently went into her backpacks and took out her cloak. Carefully she goes to a frayed end and unravels a line of string from it tying it around her wrist.

    "The more powerful the item, the stronger this shall be.  You are a prinntcess are you not? Is there not an item you can use?" The fortune teller had said eyeing Myung-Ok's cloak.

    "I'll mend this later... now next draw some blood." she goes into her bag once more and pulls out a small needle and proceeds to the center of the salt circle. She pricked the tips of her fingers wincing each time the needle entered her flesh.

    "Blood is vitally important my dear...remember blood is life.  It is one of the most strongest catalysts."

    "And for the final item..." Myung reached into the pouch tied to her waist.  A glowing dust shimmered beautifully in her hand feeling like soft grains of sand between her fingers.  She quickly lifted her hand with the four pin pricks, and with the other hand she blew the dust onto the other.
    As she does this, the string unravels from her hand and dissapears.  The circle she stands in begins to glow and the droplets of blood on her hands starts to extend one end circling down her fingers and the others extending outwards.

    "This is a world of legends... what I present to you girl is the red strings of fate.  I see a great destiny before you and those your strings are tied with."

    When Myung-Ok first heard this, she had found it strange.  Generally the red string of fate tied you to another person you were fated to meet, usually in marriage or love.

    "You misunderstand... the strings tie you to fate, not to love. It means you are destined to meet.  Those that you seek are tied to you via destiny.  As long as you have the dust and you perform this ritual you will find them.  Do not lose this my dear...it's very rare... I only give this to you because I owe you my life."

    She had done this once in Walpurgis and there was nothing.  Now that she had entered this world, four strings that only she could see now extended from her fingers, all pulling in different directions.