"Henry. You're leaving already?" Of course, nothing lasts forever. Aurora looked reluctant to see him leave. Unfortunately, Henry had something else to do, he couldn't stay. Maleficent is waiting for him.
Henry patted her shoulders, "No worries, I'll come back tomorrow. I just have some matters to take care of."
"You promise?" Aurora stared straight into his eyes. For some reason, Henry could feel flashbacks out of it.
Though it's not like he's lying to her, so there's no reason to back out now, "I…promise."
Just as Aurora's face beamed with happiness, Knotgrass stepped forward and cast a suspicious glance towards Henry, she forced a strained smile and spoke, "I thought you were simply lost, my dear? I don't see any reason for you to come back here and maybe…get lost again, right?"
'Why is she so adamant on pulling Aurora away from me? It's not like I'm a bad man. I'm clearly trying to help here!' Henry mentally rolled her eyes.
Still, he responded with a definite amount of respect, he can't be caught lacking now that he got this far, "I think I'm already familiar with the way around here. I'll do my best to visit again tomorrow. Besides, I'll bring a horse this time and perhaps a few gifts."
"Gifts?" Aurora's smile turned even wider at it.
Before Knotgrass could retort or politely refuse his attempt, the other two fairies quickly stepped forward with smiles bigger than even Aurora's.
"Gifts would be very wonderful, Henry dear!" Thistlewit even grabbed Henry's left hand and clasped it with hers.
Regarding Henry's gifts, obviously, he's not planning to get something extravagant, just a few simple books that he could definitely snatch from the Ironmere Kingdom's library are enough.
It's not the gift itself but the thought that counts after all.
"See you tomorrow!"
After bidding their final farewells, Henry finally left, taking the turn that Knotgrass pointed at earlier. Behind him, he could hear the bossy fairy's whisper towards Thistlewit and Flittle, no doubt she's scolding them for accepting Henry's generous offer.
True to what she said, there was indeed a small dirt road after a few minutes of walking. Though Henry didn't take the road as he had another destination in mind.
———
"I already did as you told. I got close to her, befriended her, and even made her expect to see me tomorrow. I didn't expect there would be a day when a Crown Prince like me would serve as someone else's spy." Although he just muttered the last sentence to himself, it was still purposely loud enough for Maleficent to hear.
The Dark Fey snorted at his words, though she didn't touch the subject, "Good. Come with me, this isn't a place to train magic." With a dramatic flair, she turned around and started walking. Quite a bit faster.
As they walked, Maleficent stated a few pointers for him to remember, "I'm only teaching you where you're lacking in terms of Flame Magic, and only the basics of curses and dark Magic. The rest of it, it would be better for you to discover them yourself."
Finally, after what she considered to be a perfect place to train, devoid of trees and any other wildlife, she turned around to face Henry, "Curse Magic is unlike the usual elemental magic you learned from your previous teachers. It's exotic, harder to learn, dangerous, and lastly, delving into Dark Magic might even accidentally taint your spirit."
Henry's ears picked up the lethal turn her tone took in her last few lines, "Taint my spirit? How exactly does that happen, Master?"
Maleficent rolled her eyes, "Don't call me Master. I don't see you as my student and I'll never take anyone, especially a human such as you as a student. As for your question, usual magic draws from two main sources, both from ambient magic around you, invisible to the naked eye serving as the fuel for your spells, and the second one is your mental energy as the trigger. A spell cannot be fully realized if one of the two components is missing."
She then raised her staff and tapped it lightly on the ground. In an instant, Henry felt something touching him. Not physically but spiritually, or at least something close to that.
"Casting Dark Magic on the other hand, shares one similar source but a different another. It uses ambient magic as fuel, but not your mental energy as a trigger; instead, it draws on your negative thoughts, emotions, desires, and the evil side of your heart. The more powerful your negativity is, the more potent your dark magic spell becomes."
She then proceeded to explain what she just did earlier after seeing Henry was about to inquire about it, "I placed a curse upon you. A simple one at that. You barely felt anything didn't you?"
Henry nodded his head. He only felt a short breeze wash over his figure earlier, but it wasn't limited to his physical body—it included his spirit.
"Don't panic. It's not a strong curse spell. What it does is simple. Whatever happens, you will no longer be able to wake it up. No amount of stimulation would get a reaction out of it." There was a smirk that played on her lips as she finished her words. Even Diaval seemed to be mentally cackling on a tree branch not far from them.
At first, Henry was confused. He scanned himself a few times and yet, he didn't get what Maleficent meant. Only when she pointed her staff at his lower part, specifically near his crotch that he register what the curse actually did.
His widened eyes turned bloodshot as he glared at her, "You made me impotent?!"
Maleficent, for the first time since he met her, released a short chuckle, "You men and your glaring weakness…Worry not, a curse would always need a condition to be lifted to cast it. It's an absolute fundamental law regarding curses, something that even the oldest known user of dark magic has never understood."
He calmed down and assessed her words, 'A curse always needs a condition to be lifted huh? No wonder curse magic isn't considered the most powerful magic in the world.'
He then realized something else, 'Wait. Is this why Aurora never had any siblings!? Did she cast a similar impotent curse on King Stefan?' If that were the case, Henry couldn't imagine the man's suffering in terms of his sex life.
Shaking himself from such dirty thoughts, he raised his head to meet her gaze and asked, "Then I assume that the condition must also be something that can be met and not an impossible task?"
The Dark Fey nodded her head in confirmation, "You are correct. As a matter of fact, the stronger a curse spell is, the easier the condition of how to lift it should be. Another absolute fundamental law that cannot be explained, so spare me from the questions."
Henry then noticed another problem regarding it, "So, let's say you place a curse on someone and then state the condition to lift it. What stops you from lying or not revealing it at all? Please don't tell me it's another absolute fundamental law or something like that."
Because if that were the case, then curse magic just became the most nerfed magic in the entire universe!
Fortunately, Maleficent shook her head, "I'm afraid, it's not a fundamental law this time. Instead, it's about the complexity of the curse spell. Remember when I cast a curse on you earlier? I didn't say anything and yet the curse has been successfully planted."
"That's because of the complexity and the potency. Making you impotent is not that complex nor does it put you in a near-death state. Those kinds of curse spells can be cast without chanting. Of course, there is still the matter of mastery over Curses, a beginner in curse magic must always chant their curse for it to take effect. Without it, the spell would amount to nothing."
"And when you're chanting a curse spell, you must always chant the curse itself, and then followed by the condition. Leaving out the condition and just stating the curse would cause it to break down and might even backfire on you hence why curse magic is taboo and very dangerous to learn."
That was all the questions Henry needed to know. Now he understands why Master Elias avoids teaching him dark magic. Though after getting to know his master better, especially his magic that allows him to see the future, Henry had an inkling as to why Master Elias did not teach him dark magic.
'He definitely doesn't know dark magic and probably hasn't even touched the subject in his entire life.' Henry felt like laughing just by thinking what the old man's face would look like once he exposed him. He should take a note and say it as soon as he gets back.
"Any more questions?" Maleficent saw Henry's contemplative expression and asked.
To which he shook his head, "Nothing for now. Let's get started." He cracked his knuckles and grinned. It's been a while since he trained under a capable teacher. The past few weeks, he's only been training by himself. Either back in Arendelle or Lioncrest. Not gonna lie, he kinda missed the times he would make mistakes and get scolded for it.
"Don't get cocky now. It may be my first time teaching someone but that doesn't make me less capable."
Just as Maleficent was about to raise her staff, Henry suddenly remembered something and raised his hands to stop her, "Wait wait! Stop for a second!"
Maleficent slowly brought her staff back down, annoyance clearly plastered on her face. She hates being interrupted, "If this isn't worth why you interrupted me, I'll make sure you regret it."
"The impotent curse. Can you lift it?"
"…I wanted to say I cannot lift it but I have a feeling you're going to die on the spot. Yes, I can lift it. As long as I didn't state anything about the curse being impossible to be lifted, I can remove it anytime." To show it off, she lightly tapped the bottom of the wooden staff on the ground and once again, there was another washing feeling surrounding Henry's body and spirit.
Unlike before, there's a distinct difference between the two. The first one felt like it was being poured on him from head to toe while this time, he felt something being pulled out of it from his toes up to his head.
"Woah. That felt a bit good, not gonna lie." As if on cue, Henry felt his lower buddy tremble, like a bear that was poked and about to awake.
He subconsciously sighed in relief. No man in the world wants to be impotent. It's like the greatest nightmare for anyone especially a young healthy man like him. To the point he might as well say he would rather die than become impotent.
"If I were to get interrupted again, I'll turn you into a rodent and feed you to Diaval. Now, stay still and let me teach you magic."
———
Suffice to say, Henry surprised Maleficent. No. It's more accurate to say that it made her dumbfounded, speechless, flabbergasted, and all the descriptions that are depicted as greater than being surprised.
'Is this normal for humans? No. I've met many human sorcerers in my life, none comes as close to this boy's talent…'
She stared at Henry with a complicated expression. Even though she stayed inside the Moors Forest most of her life, that doesn't stop other sorcerers from hearing about her and visiting either out of curiosity or hired by Stefan to take care of her.
It wouldn't be wrong for her not to say thank you to Stefan for sending in as many assassins and incapable sorcerers in her way. Without them, she wouldn't have gained the experience she needed to fight using her magic.
Enough about her. What's important right now is that the boy in front of her is absorbing everything she taught him like a sponge.
At this point, it wouldn't take more than two days for him to learn everything he could about the basics of dark magic, and by that point, it would appear as if she were the one who backed out on what they talked about.
After all, she just told him that he'll be teaching her the basics in just four days, a feat deemed impossible by her. It was never her intention to actually teach all the basics of dark magic to the brat in front of her. She could just make an excuse once the four-day deadline is up, that his talents are just lacking.
That way, he wouldn't dare to complain that he barely learned anything from her due to the short amount of time. She made it that way in the beginning after all.
And yet, the opposite happened. She's the one being sucked dry of her magical knowledge. Like a stuffed bear having a single of its string pulled until the entire body unravels into a bundle of string.
'Fine. You want to learn dark magic that badly? Then I'll make sure you get as much as you can get until you surrender yourself.' A determined expression appeared to flash within her eyes.
Unbeknownst to her, due to her lack of teaching experience, she would never know that what she's feeling right now, is the same as other teachers when they saw a genius student whose potential is being wasted.
Henry would never know what awaits him. Or even if he knows, he might even welcome it with open arms.