Sooyoung fought like a shark in a net, though her screams died off when Taekwoon moved out of sight. Obviously he wasn't going to stop, and her fear had long since given way to pure anger. Now she was just determined to free herself. 

The knots were tight, but she doubted the magician had ever been faced with a goat: Sooyoung had far more experience with knots due to wrangling the wily creatures for most of her life. It still took her nearly ten minutes to get free, ten minutes in which no one stopped to help at all. The other market-goers simply made a wide berth around her, wary of the magical rope that she lay caught in. Their indifference and lack of compassion struck a nerve in her and only served to remind Sooyoung just how very far from home she truly was.

Finally free, she clambered to her feet, threw the rope to the side in disgust and moved to set off after them. A strong grip caught her left upper-arm, and, sick of being held back, Sooyoung reacted immediately. Her right hand formed into a fist and she turned to swing with all her might, striking her target hard across the cheek. She almost felt bad when she realized that it was a strikingly beautiful woman that she had punched, but her anger didn't allow that emotion to linger. "Unhand me!" she demanded, trying to yank her arm away.

The woman's grip was like a vice, though, and she only squeezed tighter when Sooyoung struggled. "Hit me again and I'll turn your blood into jelly," she growled when Sooyoung raised her fist. It was only then that she realized the woman's pale skin and dark features marked her as a Norian. Another damned magician!

"Why are you doing this?" she cried, trying to wrench her arm free from the woman. For such a delicate looking thing, she was awfully strong! The sudden suspicion that she must be using magic to keep her grip bloomed in Sooyoung's mind, and just like that, she stopped fighting. It wouldn't do her any good to wear herself out when fighting against an inexhaustable source like magic.

The woman nodded at her when she finally stopped, and reached one hand up to gently probe the area Sooyung had struck. "You hit hard," she admitted grudgingly, giving the young woman a baleful look.. "I'm just trying to help you. You can't go charging after someone as powerful as Junho without magic. He'll tie you tighter next time, and toss you into a pit of snakes for good measure!"

"Junho, huh? Thank you for the advice but really, I don't need it. I need to go-"

"Find your friend?" the woman interrupted, shaking her head as she said it. "It's of no use, dear. Your friend has magic in his veins, the blood of Noria giving him power. That kind of talent can't go about unchecked, he has to go to a Tower to train and Junho is not going to take no as an answer."

Sooyoung's face darkened with every word, and by reflex she yanked against the woman's grip again. To her surprise she was released easily, and from the force she had thrown into it, she was knocked over backward to land on her rump. She didn't stay there, though, scrambling to her feet and taking two prudent steps away from the other woman. "I am not just going to let my husband be taken from me!" she said, her words coming to a head in a growl. Her hands were clenched into fists at her sides, though she knew better than to strike a magician, and she turned to go after Taekwoon once again.

"Oh," was all the woman said, and she simply stood there as Sooyoung hurried away. The younger woman didn't question her luck, only pushed all thoughts of the female magician from her mind as she frantically searched the market for any sight of the handsome man and her husband.

Darkness came to the market before Sooyoung finally quit. She wouldn't have done so, except that the market officials chased everyone except vendors out of the grounds and closed the fair gates. Sooyoung didn't know what to do, paced back and forth in front of the tall wooden portals, wondering if she had missed something. She had searched for hours and without a single sighting! It was as if they had disappeared into thin air: and given what she knew of magic, it might be possible.

They had been married for several months and she had lived with him for almost two years at this point, and she knew that Taekwoon didn't know as much about magic as people assumed he would. Yes, he could do things that didn't seem possible, could call on elementals themselves to ask for their help (though often at great danger to himself), and yet he couldn't explain how he did those things. What little he knew was from books that his mother Hani had collected, and those, Sooyoung had read as well. It had been an effort to unders