After a brief search Brendan found the book he needed: `Dream Signs, uncovering connections between dream time imagery and our waking lives'.  Brendan sat down on his bed and began scanning the index, " stars...storm-clouds..." he thought aloud "..strings!" the young man exclaimed and turned to the page indicated.  The entry for "strings" was surprisingly sizable and Brendan had to scan through a good portion of it until he found something relevant; `Strings tied between objects, places, or even people most likely suggests a strong connection between them..."Strong connections...?" Brendan mused aloud as he continued to scan the text, "But if I did the summoning, how could they be connected?"<br/><br/>A thought was nagging at the back of Brendan's mind and he brushed it aside when he found a passage with a startlingly familiar element: `In Japanese folklore, a red string wound around the fingers of and thus connecting people together represents Enishi, the "invisible thread of fate".  "Invisible thread of fate huh?" Brendan made a sour face, "But why them and not me!!" he threw himself back on his bed and stared blankly at his ceiling "I don't get it" he sighed.  As he lay there feeling sorry for himself the nagging at the back of his mind blossomed into a realization that was impossible to ignore, `I wasn't sincere...' Brendan thought, `my desire wasn't pure, so there was no way I could summon the girl for me, that's got to be it!'<br/><br/>It was morning at this point, so Brendan decided a shower and some breakfast before attempting the summoning again was in order.  Brendan stretched and got up, gathered clean clothes, a towel, and went of to the upstairs shower, hoping it wouldn't be occupied when he got there.