A Little Mean

"Take a seat" he said not looking at them, instead his back was facing them as he stood facing the window.

His hair was dark brown and his eyes were sharp cold grey and often sent chills down the one's spine.

On edge the Dark Dwellers observed him as they either sat down or stood by the others.

"I'm sure you're wondering why I called you here" the king said while holding his hands behind his back.

Mordred frowned at the king not saying anything as he suspected they would hear it anyways. "You see the kingdom has been at peace for a while however, I grow tired of the separation" the king said quickly piping their interests.

At the same time they masked their suspicious glances in order to not arouse the King's suspicions.

"Well your family has been the reason why we're in this mess King Uther" Helga said casually causing the King to look at her with sharp eyes, this immediately caused her to tense up to the point words had completely stopped leaving her lips.

"And it's a mistake that I plan to rectify, you see I plan to tip the balance in order for the Dark Dwellers to finally be free of that accursed prison" King Uther explained as he now faced the group.

His red cloak fluttered from his sudden turn, startled the group remained speechless.

"However I cannot do this alone, in order to this I will need you five to find a way to break the barrier or at least bring more of your kin here-"

"Wouldn't that cause another war?" Gawain asked bluntly to his surprise Uther smirked, this immediately sent shivers down Gawain's spine.

"Exactly" the group went cold from his cold casual reply.

"If a war breaks out then the people will be pleading me to have a solution, discord will cause them to believe anything that will bring them ease" Uther looked at the window with disdain.

"For too long Dark Dwellers have lived in the shadows of the Light Dwellers, looked down and mocked for wanting to be acknowledged as the superior race. As a result the non-magic and magic users were made to go to war over who was better, we lost a lot but the cost was too high" Uther explained tersely.

"But some of us like it there, it's safe and we don't suffer from the harsh light as we do here" Merlia explained with a concerned look.

The king frowned at her.

"So you would rather be rats in a cage than live as free people?" Uther asked bluntly causing her resolve to waver, but it was enough to get him to smile coldly.

The others remained on guard due to how they didn't like where this was going, yes they wanted to be free but if the cost was too high then why agree to such a stupid idea?

The ends didn't justify the means and it would just cause a full circle to occur.

Then there was Anberine and Marcus? They would suffer too which was the last thing they wanted.

"We both want freedom and control, so why not work together and achieve what we want? As long as you remain quiet about your plan, I'll turn a blind eye to your rebellious antics and that includes what you did to the students who have destroyed the toilets" King Uther said darkly to the now nervous group.

"Do we have an agreement?" Uther asked as he approached his desk that had a few files on it, glancing at the other the Dark Dwellers eventually nodded.

They didn't like it, but in the end they will get through this.

~

"So what can we do?" Merlia asked as a low whine left their lips as they woke up around nine and met up with their friends.

As it was the weekends it meant no classes to their relief.

"I want so badly to double-cross that king, to think he just wants us to break a barrier. But how? How can we achieve the impossible?" Merlia groaned as she laid on her bed.

She watched Anberine reading a book again causing her to raise a brow at how her friend would study even now but said nothing.

"But what can we do? He'll catch us out" Helga commented feeling still shaken up from their ordeal last night.

"What if we find someone who can help us?" Morgana asked with a curious look.

"Not even the cook's going to help if we ask so nice try" Mordred said bluntly as he sipped his cup containing milk with distain, Morgana hearing this felt her shoulders drop sharply and huffed with a small pout.

"Then what can we do? We're running out of options" Helga asked as she looked at everyone for advice.

Gawain stared at her blankly before going back to eating his bread and milk at the table.

"Let's not think about it for now, the more we push things the more you will end up creating a bad idea" Anberine commented as she looked up at her friends who looked extremely stressed.

Seeing this she wanted to give them a relaxation tea to steady their nerves.

"She's right, let's not push it" Mordred agreed while Gawain nodded in agreement, Merlia sighed before nodding herself.

"Okay, we'll talk about it tomorrow" Helga agreed before sipping her drink.

~

Anberine stared at her pot in shock while her hand, which had been close to the once intact pot.

Her hands remained frozen as the pot itself was now reduced to pieces from a ball that went right into it and completely smashed the pot before she could stop it from happening.

Turning slowly to look at the one responsible Anberine immediately noticed Skye smirking at her.

"Sorry, didn't see you there" Skye called as his friend went to grab the ball, eyeing the friend distastefully as he didn't apologise for the mishap but instead jogged away with the ball under his arm.

Not wasting time she grabbed her bag containing her now packed books and left the mess they made behind.

"That was a little mean, she was just practicing potion-making" a boy with mousy black hair and brown eyes commented, he was two feet shorter than Skye but still had a disapproving look on his face given how deliberate the shot had been.

Not that Skye cared.

"Who cares, she shouldn't even be outside to begin with. She should be in the basement where all the other riff-raff live, who knows maybe she'll find another rat to spend her life with" Skye said with a casual shrug and began to resume playing baseball with his classmates.

Hearing this however Anberine sighed heavily as she hid behind the wall and shook her head slowly felling more and more conflicted by how he was acting.

Not truly understanding why he was behaving this way towards her.

This time her hair had now changed to starlight white, while her eyes changed to willow brown thanks to practicing.

Not that she cared what they thought about her appearance as they only gave her the cold shoulder or found new ways to upset her.

Her hair continued to shimmer from the light as she went to the storeroom and began to slowly close the door, a sad sigh eventually left her lips once more before she resumed her studies after spying her spare pot on a shelf on the wall to her left.

Very soon she began her test of making a potion to remove blemishes according to what she was reading thanks to a book she borrowed from the library, knowing that if this worked it would result in some students pestering her for it.

On the other hand it was good for the small business she was doing so in the end it was a win-win situation for her.

Taking down the notes carefully she was about to slip in a small amount of a blue liquid that was inside a thin vial no bigger than a small tube before the door slammed open revealing a grinning Helga.