“Back so soon?” Sori’s attempt to crack a joke through Ravi a little off balance. He couldn’t think of any time she’d joked around. Was this because of his control over the dream, or was that her?

“I have questions,” Ravi told her, choosing to forget about that who controls what thing for later.

“Then ask,” she shrugged, sitting down in the chair he’d provided.

Unlike their last dreamscaping experience, Ravi had created a cozy little cabin setting complete with snow outside and a fireplace inside. He didn’t even know why his brain had created something like this, but he wasn’t going to stop now. He’d just have to live with the romantic subtext the cabin gave. Clearly, Sori was ignoring it because her face was all business like it normally was.

For some reason, he felt a little sad that she wasn’t as uncomfortable in this setting like he was. Was there nothing that through her off her game for more than a few minutes?

“Who did you meet with from the council?” he asked, deciding to start with something simple.

“Jiwook,” she replied, “Lee Jiwook. He’s one of the oldest council members along with old man Youngjae.”

“Is he a good guy?” she didn’t seem to have much hate in her voice, so Ravi had to wonder if this Jiwook guy was a good guy or what.

“He wants to play things by the old rules,” Sori shrugged, “the rules that those who don’t want to play the game are ignored and cut off completely. But that isn’t what the majority of the council want to do. They would much rather force people to submit to their wishes.”

“They’re forcing you to do what they want?” Ravi asked, looking kind of alarmed. Sori blinked before realizing what she’d let slip.

“That doesn’t concern you,” she growled, standing up, “do not try digging for information like this again.”

Ravi woke up and felt guilty. He’d clearly crossed a line by asking Sori about the shifter council forcing her to do stuff. But at the same time, a part of him wondered what exactly was going on. What exactly was the council forcing her to do?

“What’s keeping you awake?” Daesung asked when Ravi exited his room.

“Could ask you the same thing,” he replied, taking a seat on the couch beside the vampire.

“Vampires don’t sleep much,” Daesung explained, “our bodies don’t need it to function like humans and other supernaturals.”

“Oh.” Ravi hated not knowing some of this stuff. The supernatural community was his world now, he really should do a better job learning about all the different species.

“What about you?”

“I pissed off Sori,” Ravi explained, “I crossed a line I should have when asking questions.”

“Been there with Xiumin hyung,” Daesung patted his shoulder, “I asked about his mom. Word to the wise, that’s not a subject to bring up with him. Ever.”

“It seems like everyone has parent problems,” Ravi sighed.

“So what did you say to Sori?” Daesung asked, “and I’m assuming you said it via dreamscape because I haven’t noticed you say anything to her in a few days.”

“Does everyone know I’m a dreamscaper?”

“Rare power,” the vampire shrugged, “word gets around about that kind of stuff. Now stop stalling and spill.”

“I asked her about her meeting with the council,” the shifter sighed, “and she let it slip that they might be forcing her to do what they want. When I asked her if that’s what they were doing, controlling her by force, she got really upset and ended the dream.”

“I’m not surprised,” Daesung frowned, “If Kris wasn’t already ISBIP, the dragon council would be playing the same kinds of games with him.”

“Because Kris is strong,” Ravi grumbled, “having him on the council would be a sign of their power.”

“More than just that,” Daesung’s frown grew, “getting Sori onto the council is just part of their plan. I’m willing to bet they want to pick a mate for her, too.”

“WHAT?” Ravi yelled, jumping up and turning to face the vampire with a look of horror on his face.

“They want the next generation to be strong,” Daesung shrugged, “so why not mate the strongest male and female shifters around. The likely hood of their kids being powerful is through the roof.”

“That,” Ravi didn’t actually know what to say about that.

“That’s how the shifter council plays things,” Daesung smiled bitterly, “and the werewolf council, the dragon council, and the vampire council. Xiumin hyung has been dodging their attempts to marry him off for the past year or so. Tao and D.O are expecting the same thing to happen to them. Chen, Heesun, and Kai are safe for a few more years. Werewolves don’t start the forced marriage thing until your twenty.”

“God,” Ravi suddenly felt horrible for his friends. Would he and Hyuk end up facing the same thing? Would Hongbin? What about Ken or Leo? And N too?

“It’s just shifters, werewolves, dragons, and vampires,” Daesung pulled Ravi back down onto the couch, “so you just need to worry about yourself and Hyuk. And maybe N depending on what he is.”

“That’s surprisingly comforting,” Ravi sighed.

“Back to Sori,” Daesung pulled the conversation back to the point, “Did she yell at you? Curse you out?”

“No,” Ravi shock his head, “she said that it didn’t concern me and that I shouldn’t try getting information that way again.”

“Well, that isn’t too bad,” Daesung shrugged, “in my experience dealing with Sori, so long as she doesn’t yell and curse at you, you’re fine. She’ll get over what happened in a few days so long as you apologize to her.”

“I hope so,” Ravi sighed.

“Well, aren’t the shifters holding some kind of ceremony tomorrow night?” Daesung smiled slightly, “you can talk to her there and work things out.”

“That’s a good idea,” Ravi smiled slightly himself. Lay had mentioned that the ceremony a few days before, but Ravi wasn’t sure if he wanted to go until then.

“Ravi!” both turned when they heard Jessica calling for the shifter, knocking on the door so hard that both boys thought she might break it.

“What is it?” Ravi asked, opening the door and looking it over for damage. He’d seen the damage she could do in class, busting down a door would be child’s play for the oldest Jung.

“What did you say to Sori?” Jessica growled, “she stormed out of our dorm and now I don’t know where she is.”

“What do you mean ‘you don’t know where she is’?” Ravi asked, slightly alarmed by such news, “why can’t you find her?”

“I don’t know why,” Jessica replied, “now answer my question. What did you say to Sori?”

“I was asking her about her meeting with the council,” he explained, “she accidently let it slip that they might be forcing her to go along with them, so I asked if that’s what they were doing. Forcing her to go along with what they wanted.”

“Get Kris,” Jessica ordered, “I’ll find Yuri and see if she knows where Sori is.”

The older shifter took off running down the hall, heading for the stairs. Ravi took a moment to put on his shoes before running down the hall in the direction of Kris’ dorm room.

“Ravi?” N blinked, opening the door after hearing the younger boy pounding on the door, “what are you doing here? It’s late.”

“Sori’s missing,” Ravi replied, bushing past N and heading to Kris’ room, “I upset her and now she’s gone. Jessica can’t find her, so she asked me to get Kris.”

“What did you say?” N asked, already getting a bad feeling about things. He glanced around for his ghost, not sure if seeing the dead man would be a good thing or a bad thing.

“I asked about her meeting with the council,” Ravi replied, knocking on Kris’ door. The dragon didn’t take long opening the door and it took him even less time to run out to the balcony, ridding himself of his shirt as he went so that he didn’t destroy the article of clothing.

“I’m going to go look, too,” N didn’t wait for Ravi to respond before running out of the room.

“What happened?” Luhan asked, exiting his room just in time to see N run out the door.

“I messed up,” Ravi replied before following after N.

A/N: Yeah, Sori’s really pissed. Can’t blame her.