"Okay, so why are we even here?" Mai cut straight to the chase after everyone essentially scolded Yoongi for being a jerk (he was sulking right now, but Mai was filled with too much petty satisfaction to care). Everyone had been talking about a 'meeting', but why the meeting was taking place, Mai had no clue. So, like a sane person, she asked. 

Everyone shared uneasy glances. No one made a sound for a minute as Namjoon tried to formulate words to describe the situation, but someone else spoke first. 

"Well," Jungkook shot Mai an easy smile as he walked over to her, resting a single, corded arm on her shoulder, "we're here to talk about you, Miss Popular." Mai rolled her eyes and pushed his arm off, snorting. "No, I'm serious!" he protested with dramatically wide eyes, making everyone laugh. 

He was invading her personal space- he was close enough that their fingers were brushing, and that if they both turned, they'd be nose-to-nose. But oddly, Mai didn't really care. She wondered if that had to do with his magic... whatever magic he had. 

"I knew THAT," Mai finally huffed, feigning irritation though she was smiling, "but what about me, huh? And why... you?"

This seemed like a reasonable question to Mai. They had all identified themselves as princes (well, besides Yoongi and Namjoon, but she could assume), which meant that they were important. Obviously. But they all seemed fairly young, at about her age. If people were going to decide her fate, or whatever, then she would think that a bunch of old people with wise words and gentle dispositions would be doing it. 

Not... whatever she would call this band of ridiculously handsome, flirty, and occasionally hostile princes. 

But her question seemed to have offended them- no, wait. Not quite offended. But looking at their faces, they at least looked slightly confused. 

"Ummmm," Yoongi snickered, acting as if her question was preposterous, "because we're the most powerful people in the land and could crush anyone who came in our way?" 

"What,"

"Hyung, don't scare her!" Namjoon burst out, hurriedly taking in the alarmed look on Mai's face as she watched the seven men around her with a new sort of regard. They didn't... SEEM like the most powerful people in the land, with their childish dispositions and playful attitudes. 

But judging a book by its cover never ended well. 

"We... okay, Yoongi is RIGHT, but we won't crush everyone who comes in our way," Jimin shot Mai a sweet, assuring smile even as Yoongi scoffed. 

"Speak for yourself,"

"SHUT UP, HYUNG,"

Mai raised an eyebrow at the bickering men in front of her. Most powerful people, my ass, she thought, snickering on the inside as she fought to keep a stoic expression.

"You don't believe us," Hoseok broke in, looking at her curiously, lips quirked into an amused smile. 

"Wow, really? Are we THAT nonthreatening?" 

"Ouch, darling, that hurts,"

"Well, I guess I was right and she really is a stupid-"

"YOONGI,"

Mai fought down a snappish retort as she contemplated Hoseok's statement. He seemed very sure of himself, and, more suspiciously, no one even seemed to doubt him. They just accepted it as if Mai had said it herself. 

OKAY MAI, GET YOUR HEAD OUT OF THE FRICKETY FRACKING GUTTER AND THINK. These people are princes. They've dragged your sorry ass out here so they can talk about.. you, but what about, no clue. Apparently they're real powerful, but they don't seem to be talking about their status. So either you don't know enough about magic or you don't know enough about magic. 

YEAH, REAL LOGICAL.

"Actually," Hoseok piped up cheerfully, "you were basically dead-on!"

The motherf*cking hell. 

The golden-eyed man winced. "You cuss as bad as Yoongi hyung."

Mai gaped at the Leoris in shock, eyes bugging out of her sockets as she stared. Taehyung stepped a little closer to her, worry on his features, but Mai didn't notice. It only took a moment for the implication of what Hoseok had just said to get in.

"WHA- WHY ARE YOU- GET OUT OF MY MIND!"

OKAY LISTEN YOU LITTLE BASTARD WHO THE HELL GAVE YOU THE F*CKING RIGHT TO DO THIS-

STARS ALMIGHTY, I'M SORRY! DON'T HURT ME!

Oh dear. Now she could hear him in her mind. 

Mai thought that she was over the 'what is this weird place I'm having an existential crisis' phase, but after basically encountering a man who could READ MINDS, RIGHT IN FRONT OF HER, she could feel the panic beginning to set in again. 

"This is freaky," now she was speaking out loud, staring at Hoseok with wide eyes, feeling them flashing again and again in different colors. 

"That's not even the most of it," Taehyung grinned proudly, winking at her, "I thought Jiminie hyung told you about magic?"

"Well, yes, I did," Jimin huffed crossly, "but I didn't think you all would drop this on her right now."

"OKAY LISTEN HERE," Mai growled, her fear sharply and suddenly replaced by anger, "I really don't care if you think it will scare me, but I want to know what the hell goes on in this place, because this is getting ridiculous. I don't want to be a liability that knows ABSOLUTELY NOTHING. I've been here for two days- I think I should at least know SOMETHING by now! I genuinely hope you don't plan to keep me in the dark about this."

Yes, she was slightly pissed, but for good reason. Mai hated the feeling of not knowing anything- she hated the feeling of being dependent on other people because she didn't know enough to hold her own. She was used to being the one people came to for help- and now here she was, absolutely and utterly clueless. 

Everyone looked fairly shocked at her outburst, although Jimin and Taehyung looked slightly guilty. So they HAD been trying to withhold information from her. They must have debated this elsewhere, because they were having a silent conversation with their eyes right now. 

No one spoke for a good, long while until someone did. 

"She's right," Yoongi looked up, right at Mai with a surprising intensity in his orange eyes, "if she really IS the Warrior, she's going to have to be able to NOT make a fool of herself by knowing nothing. She can't be a drag either, or else she'll end up dead and we're all going to be doomed. If telling her stuff will make her less sloppy, then I'm all for it. Let her be scared- she needs a wake-up call anyway."

Mai felt her scowl deepen at Yoongi's harsh words, but technically, he WAS helping her case. In the rudest way possible, but helping nonetheless. 

Seokjin rolled his eyes at Yoongi's choice of words, but nodded with him. "He's right, although I would have put it differently."

"WELL," Namjoon looked slightly disgruntled as he finally made his way into the conversation, "I'm not sure why we would be holding information from you, because that would just hinder the cause altogether," he shot a sharp look at the Eserties, who sheepishly looked down, "and yes, I agree with you, you should have been told about many other things before right now."

"We just thought-" Jimin started, but a glare from Namjoon cut him off. He shot an apologetic glance at Mai. 

"Alright, pretty, now that THAT'S cleared out, what do you want to know?" Jungkook's green-blue eyes twinkled mischievously as Mai glared at him, too irritated to let the pet name slide. 

"Kook, stop flirting with her,"

"OKAY TAEHYUNG DON'T BE A HYPOCRITE,"

"JIMIN SHUT UP,"

"Great Star Queen," Hoseok huffed, rolling his eyes before letting the golden irises land on Mai. They softened. "Mai, I'm real sorry about the mindreading thing. And the Mindweaving thing. And basically- just, GAH. I don't know, my magic's really hard to control. I'm sorry if it made you uncomfortable."

Mai melted at Hoseok's adorable awkwardness. How was she supposed to stay mad at him? 

"It's okay, but please stay out of my brain," Hoseok nodded hesitantly, seeming to fight with himself as his fingers nimbly plucked at the thin air (well, presumably a thread) and yanked sharply. Mai tore her attention from him. "But okay, first question: can all of you do that?"

Silence, and then a collective: "NO!"

"Wow, no way,"

"How could you even think that?"

"I honestly wish,"

"OKAY," Namjoon interrupted the babble, taking control of the conversation easily, "as you probably have gleaned, the answer is no. The types of threads people are able to control vary from person to person. Hobi hyung is a Mind Witch, meaning he can manipulate mindthreads. I should think the name is self-explanatory- he can transfer information and read thoughts, yes, but he can also twist a person's will, change their thoughts. As a matter of fact, Hoseok's power is probably one of the most rare and powerful out there."

Holy mothercustard. 

Mai looked at the golden-eyed Leoris with a new sense of respect. He could basically control a person- he could read their thoughts, know their darkest secrets, or tell them to do anything, and they would then do it. 

She couldn't help but be a little bit afraid.

But looking at Hoseok again, she could feel the fear begin to ebb. Had it been anyone else, she would instantly have been incredibly suspicious and wary. But it was so easy to tell what Hoseok himself was thinking, it was almost as if the mindreading went both ways. He was just so open and cheerful and sweet that Mai couldn't NOT trust him. 

"Is there a drawback?" Mai felt herself asking, and this time, Hoseok replied. He was observing her carefully- perhaps he was reading her mind, perhaps he was only reading her face. But either or, he looked slightly sad. 

"Yes. It takes a lot of energy to twist someone's will or thoughts, so much so that if I do it for longer than ten minutes, I'll be dead asleep for two days, maybe. Too much exertion, and I might go into a coma. Or be dead. Also, when I'm reading someone's thoughts, if they can tell that I'm doing it, they can cut off their thread and trap me in it- after that, it's only a matter of time before they track me down and finish the job. It's dangerous work, being what I am."

Wow. Mai wasn't expecting that. So apparently there were rules to the magic people could use. The higher the power, the more the risk. 

"Yeah," he responded, reading her thoughts (or maybe he wasn't- he did say it drained him), "there has to be a balance."

"Woah," Mai could almost feel the information seeping into her brain, hot and thick, like lifeblood. It was a lot to take in, but it was actually interesting. She felt like she were taking a really cool class, and that she was a student again. "Okay, so, what about the rest of you?"

They looked at each other in question before Jungkook from beside her shrugged and stepped back, jokingly raising his hands above his head. "Well, Miss Popular, I am a Shift Witch. Meaning, if I've seen someone or something before, I can change my own threads and look like something entirely different." 

He let his hands drop to his sides, and suddenly, in two flickering flashes, in his place was Jimin, pink hair, gray eyes and all. 

"OH MY GOSH BRAT STOP COPYING ME!" Jimin yelped, narrowing his eyes as he lunged at Jungkook's form. It looked rather odd, seeing Jimin try and beat up himself. 

"Yeesh, hyung, chill. You're too short for me anyway,"

Jimin let out another cry of rage (okay, he clearly wasn't REALLY angry, but it was kind of funny). "Please choke, Jungkook."

Said Mistev quickly blinked back to himself, grinning as the gray color leeched from his eyes and they turned back to that scarily beautiful tortoise blue. "See, though, if I actually stay in a shift form for too long, my threads will start to wither and I actually will choke. Also, it has to be an actual person that I've seen."

"That's still pretty damn cool," Mai turned admiring eyes to Jungkook, who preened in the attention. 

"Yeah, I know," he nodded, satisfied with her reaction. 

"Okay, Kook, stop flexing on all of us, we know you have the flashiest power here," Seokjin huffed grumpily, whacking his brother playfully across the head. "Oh, no, wait. That's actually..."

"Don't you DARE say it," Yoongi snarled, but Seokjin just smirked and continued.

"It's actually YOONGI'S!" 

Seokjin laughed his odd, squeaking laugh as though this was the funniest joke in the world. Mai didn't get it, but the rest of the boys chuckled, at least a little bit. There was Jimin, who was basically bent over in bouts of snickers, and then there was Yoongi, who just looked very disgruntled. He noticed Mai looking at him curiously, and threw his hands up in exasperation. 

"Yeah, laugh all you want. Listen, Miss 'Warrior'," he said this like an insult, but Mai just pursed her lips and tried to ignore it, "I'm a Light Witch. I can manipulate threads of light, meaning I can enhance it, or make it go away. I can also manipulate eye threads, so I can create illusions of things, but it takes a lot of work. The drawback is simple- I lose energy if I do it. Can't exert myself too much. But this isn't that special of a power, so I can go for a good while with it."

Well, at least this cleared one thing up. 

"So THAT'S why I couldn't see you! I had to trace your threads!"

Yoongi looked slightly taken aback by this, but he slowly nodded, giving Mai a funny look. "Yeah. I enhanced the shadows and made myself essentially invisible," he looked at her in an appraising way. "Huh. Traced the threads."

He didn't say anything more than that, but Mai was just grateful he didn't try to pick another fight. 

Namjoon, on the other hand, looked slightly affronted. "Not special?! Yoongi, come on. You're part of the Arcanum, and if you weren't powerful, you certainly wouldn't be there. Not every Light Witch can create illusions as powerful as yours."

Yoongi just shrugged, glancing down at the markings that littered his arms. 

"HaNG on, what in hell's the Arcanum?" 

Well, if Mai was going to get answers, she may as well ask all she wanted right now. But catching the uneasy glances between the two Oceiers, she wondered if this was a sensitive topic.

Hey, come on, figure it out. You're smart. So the way they're talking about this, is it like... a secret society of- well, they call themselves Witches, so, it's a society of powerful witches? Just for Oceiers? Hell, I don't know-

You're actually pretty spot on.

WHAT THE F- DID I NOT TELL YOU TO GET OUT?

Hoseok's odd, disembodied voice was back, resounding firmly in her head. It was strange, hearing him clearly although, as she looked at him, his lips weren't moving (well, except for that cheeky little grin on his face as he glanced teasingly at her). 

"HOSEOK," Mai growled in warning, making all eyes turn to the both of them, but he just chuckled under the scrutinizing gazes and raised both his arms loosely in surrender. 

"Hey, you were right! What was I supposed to do? You're a very intriguing person!"

"How do I become less intriguing, then?"

Namjoon heaved a sigh at Mai's snappish retort, seeing her withdraw in suspicion. Mai got the implication that being friends with a Mind Witch tended to come with this sort of issue- either the fear of your own mind being breached or the inability of other people to trust you because of their power. 

"Right again!" Hoseok chirped, although this time, his eyes were tinged with a sort of sadness, of regret, "dang, you're clever."

Mai shot him a glare.

"What's she right about, Hobi?" Jungkook asked lightly, although he was watching Mai with sharply curious eyes. Mai raised an eyebrow at him, but he met her gaze evenly, cocking his head in return. Mai had honestly lost count how many times she wanted to smack this idiot upside the head, but this had certainly added one to that list.

"Don't tell us, Hobi, that's invading her privacy!" Seokjin protested, glaring hard at his brother. Namjoon nodded firmly, and Jimin quickly joined in. Mai felt a surge of gratitude to each of them- her mind should be her own. 

Yeah, Hoseok, MY OWN.

But they all looked curious, even though they wanted to respect her privacy (well, some of them did). "I just apparently guessed what this 'Arcanum' thing was correctly. And then- eh, nevermind. It was just an observation."

Yoongi was staring at her with a hard look in his bright amber eyes. "A correct observation, by what Hoseok said." 

"Okay so I can't have a correct observation now?" Mai snapped. Maybe she shouldn't have reacted so irritably, but she was already on edge. Surprisingly, though, Yoongi just looked at her for a long second before scoffing and looking away, silent.

Mai blinked in surprise, but quickly turned away, not wanting to push it.

"IN ANY CASE," Namjoon raised his voice so the clearing went silent, "Hoseok, show some courtesy. What is up with you?" to this, the gold-eyed man just shrugged, gazing at Mai with an odd look in his transfixing golden eyes.

"She's different. Interesting. Her mind is so bright, I can't help it," he shot her a sweet smile, which almost made Mai forgive him then and there. Almost.

"Yeah, well," Mai coughed, looking down as heat flared in her cheeks, "please don't do that again. Seriously, it's violating and I really don't enjoy it."

Hoseok looked at her for a moment, an unreadable emotion in his eyes before grinned playfully, his sparkle back, and mimed crossing his heart and then pointing at the sky, which Mai took as his version of a swear. 

"So, the Arcanum, huh?" Jungkook was leaning into her again, steering the conversation away from Hoseok and his Mind Witch powers, "What did your pretty little head manage to figure out?"

"First of all, STOB IT MAN," Mai pushed him away, glaring, but all he did was chuckle playfully, which made her roll her eyes before she continued, "and second, with the way y'all were talking about it, I think it's some sort of group? Magical cult?"

"Well, you're not wrong," Namjoon assured, his fingers brushing the glowing orange markings on his white robe, "the Arcanum is something our Oceier ancestors came up with to preserve the magic of our kingdom. Everyone in it is either bred into it or is extraordinarily powerful and accepted into it because of that. Witch class is actually hereditary, so if you have two Light Witch parents, for example, 90% of the time, you'll be a Light Witch. So the Arcanum was created so we could breed the most powerful witches together to create even stronger children."

Mai was speechless for a moment. That was really cool, but also kind of weird. So what magic you had depended on your parents? Well, most of the time, it seemed. But only Oceiers had this obsessive breeding program, it seemed. The five other princes in the clearing looked slightly ill as Namjoon talked about it. 

"So you're both in the Arcanum, huh?" Mai asked, looking at both Yoongi and Namjoon. The former responded with a quick, irritated jerk of his head, while the white-haired man nodded warmly. Damn, they were both so different, it was almost ridiculous. "Well, okay," Mai affirmed, "but if Yoongi's a Light Witch, what about you?"

Everyone seemed to respect Namjoon in this regard. He held this aura of power and authority, and everyone in the clearing, even though they were all princes, were careful around him. He was warm, knowledgeable, and gentle, so it must have been his power. 

Namjoon must have understood her train of thought, because he sighed. 

"I'm an Elemental Witch, a Witch that can control almost anything inanimate. Fire, water, and air, yes, but also other things, like trees and stones and even that necklace around your neck," as if to prove his point, the blue jewel hanging from the black leather cord that Emi had given her flew up in front of her face, smooth as Namjoon reeled its thread in. She gaped, openmouthed at it.

From what she had learned, it seemed clear that which strings you could alter depended on who you were, what your genetics were, and maybe a little skill involved as well. There were certain strings you could touch and there were certain strings you could not. Simple. But Namjoon... well, even if it was only inanimate objects... holy crap, he could do anything.

Mai's fingers closed around her pendant protectively, and she felt it go limp in her hands. He had done it as easily as breathing.

"And that's another thing," Namjoon said smoothly, "most of the time, when we manipulate the strings, we have to condense the magic into a liquid or a solid we can consume for it to work. It requires a lot of energy and skill for a witch to cast a spell through thin air. Also, spells in liquid form can be used by any witch, so they're useful in that way."

Hm. This was getting complex. So magic had to be condensed for it to be used easily, but everyone here had been able to pull off their spells with ease- for Namjoon, it literally looked as easily as breathing. So maybe they truly WERE as powerful as they had claimed.

There was silence for a moment as everyone left Mai to process this information. She was happy that they were being kind about this- especially Yoongi, although he was less 'kind' and more 'tolerating'- because it was a lot to take in.

"So," Mai finally let her voice bleed out into the quiet, "what about the rest of you?"

A silent debate flickered between the three remaining princes before Jimin spoke, pushing his pink hair back. "Well, Jin and I are both Charm Witches, and honestly, we're pretty rare. We can use persuasion on people, make them do what we want, but only if we have enough energy to hold them under our spell for that long."

Mai raised her eyebrows as Seokjin broke in to continue.

"Yeah. That's our main ability, but we can also essentially seduce anyone we want, although if they checked our threads, they'd be able to tell, and we can basically make anyone like us."

"Well THAT sounds pretty damn dangerous," Mai deadpanned, causing a few chuckles to ring out from around the moonlit clearing. 

"Damn straight," Yoongi grumbled, shooting a glare at Jimin, who just smiled sweetly at him. The former shivered as if remembering something awful, then stiffened as he realized he'd indirectly agreed with Mai with his statement. She shot her a glare as if to say: 'Don't get any ideas'. Which was ridiculous, because he was a crusty asshat.

"ANYWAY," Mai loudly declared, disengaging from her staring contest with Yoongi, "what about you, Taehyung?" he was the only one who hadn't spoken so far, but at the question, he shifted back on his heels, an insecure look flitting over his face for a moment. "Tae?"

It was odd- Taehyung hadn't contributed much to this conversation, and Mai hadn't really been paying attention. But now that she was looking at him... well, he looked sad. Angry. Disappointed. A plethora of emotions were flickering across his face even as he tried to hide it, but he was in a place with people he trusted. That alone probably made it hard.

"Thead Witch," Taehyung's usually silky voice was blunt, harsh, as if all he wanted to do was throw the words out of his mouth and forget about them, "I can see the threads, all of them. I can feel them, I know which are tainted, I know which threads each person can control."

There was an unspoken 'but' hanging in the air, Mai knew it. The tension in the clearing was high, with all the uneasy shifting and nervous glances. She opened her mouth to speak, but Yoongi's harsh voice was ringing around her before she could.

"Woman, just drop it," the orange-eyed man snarled, but Taehyung raised a hand to cut him off.

"She should know," he sighed defeatedly, gray eyes downturned as everyone gazed at him, "she should know that I'm utterly, absolutely useless."

A/N:

OOH POOR BBY TAE GUYS IM SORRY

But still I love him

WHO DOESNT LOVE HIM I SWEAR EITHER YOURE WHIPPED OR YOUR LYIN THERE'S NO INBETWEEN

Guys stream MOTS:7 and D:2 for clear skin and a bright fututre I caNNOT STRESS THIS ENOUGH

Okay anyways

This chap was loooong and probably confusing so im sorry

But still I hope you got what im tryin to convey here it's an odd concept I know but go with it pleaseeeeeeeeeeeee

Vote and comment and add this book to your reading list before I come for your ass

HEHE KIDDING OR MAYBE NOT I DUNNO

In any case, bye Lovelies! See ya soon!

Your friendly neighborhood desi author,

-MyOwnARMY