Suffice to say, Henry could proudly say that he never regretted coming to this place. The teachings he just absorbed from Maleficent are more than he expected.
Although they hadn't touched the subject of flame magic since Henry was already versed in it and he just wanted to learn Maleficent's insights about it, they focused more on Curse Magic.
He was finally a beginner Curse Magic user!
Of course, just like what Maleficent told him earlier, there are dangers in using dark magic as for every spell he casts, his spirit gets tainted. And by getting tainted, Maleficent was quite a bit vague about it
Something that goes along the lines of soul deformations, spirit damage, random mutations, and making him more vulnerable to any magic spells that work against his soul. Basically, it's like Maleficent just summed all the malicious and spine-chilling words that are stored in her dictionary and glued them together to scare him off.
Well even if she didn't, he still understood the dangers of using too much dark magic. As long as he refrains from using too many dark magic spells consecutively, Henry would be just fine. At least that's what he thinks.
'Maybe I should work on making a counter spell for this. Cleansing the spirit and soul from any remnants of dark magic.' Of course, before coming up with this, he had already asked Maleficent this question.
Her answer was direct. There is no current solution to it, mostly because since Dark Magic is banned, most sorcerers simply decided to avoid it altogether rather than developing a way to cure the spirit-tainting side effects.
Basically, if Henry were to delve into this path, he might become the first to develop a way for dark magic to be used even by normal sorcerers without fearing the side effects.
Obviously, Maleficent noticed his intentions at first glance. She warned him that he's not the first to try to develop a cure, many dark-sided sorcerers had long tried to do the same back then but failed, some even dying in the process, their souls crushed and ripped into pieces as if a soul-eating beast mauled them.
"Though do what you need to do, I don't give a care about what happens to you. If you die pursuing this so-called cure, I'd just need to find another spy for Aurora." Maleficent feigned nonchalance, acting as if Henry's death wouldn't affect her that much. Though she failed to notice the weird tone in her voice, a hidden worry that even she didn't know.
Henry's sharp senses picked it up however, since not a single ounce of suspicion that Maleficent cares for him lingers in his mind, he didn't dwell too much on it. As a matter of fact, her reaction was within his expectations.
"It's nighttime now. I won't let you sleep anywhere around me, so you can go ahead and find someplace else to sleep. If I were you, I'd go back to Ironmere Kingdom, their King seems to be fond of you."
He tilted his head in confusion, "How fond exactly?" The way she just said it made it seem a little bit gay.
Maleficent snorted, making Henry confused if she's amused by his sense of humor or not, "Just leave…"
He raised his hands in a surrendering manner, "Alright alright. See you tomorrow, same time?"
Maleficent didn't answer and just walked away. Though the answer was clear enough, Henry was just asking a rhetorical question.
———
"What do you have? Make it quick…" King Stefan looked down on the kneeling spy in front of him. It's been a whole day since Henry disappeared into the Moors forest and only now has the scout he sent managed to come back.
Just by how long it took for him to get back and his ripped shirt along with a few scratches on his body tells King Stefan that the soldier must've gone through a lot to finish the job.
However, the scout was shivering weirdly, a hesitant look on his sweaty face. The delay made King Stefan lose an ounce of his temper.
"I haven't got all day, boy. Spill what you got or I'll make you."
Finally, the scout spoke, stammering initially, "I-I haven't got anything, your highness. I hadn't even stepped foot inside the forest and all of a sudden, these…roots and vines came alive and dragged me across the ground…before trapping me underneath a large tree cavity."
King Stefan had a bad feeling about this as he continued to listen, this time the story took a disappointing turn.
"I-I've been trapped for the rest of the day until I managed to finally leave when the tree roots around me loosened. When I climbed back up, it was already nighttime and I had to walk all the way back here…"
Right as he was finished, everyone not just the King, was speechless. Out of all the tasks the scout was tasked with, something of this great importance was the one he failed.
"…And the fastest horse the stablemaster lent to you? If you walked all the way back here. Where is the horse?"
The scout took another gulp and a nervous twitch, instantly, everyone knows the answer.
"M-My apologies, your highness…When I was trudging back here, I came across its carcass…"
King Stefan rubbed the bridge of his nose, "Let me make things clear. Not only did you not get anything out of the prince, but you also lost our Kingdom's prized horse, did I miss anything or do you want to add another thing?"
The scout knew he was done for. With the King's degrading temper during the past few years, everyone in the Kingdom knows that their beloved King has turned from ambitious yet kind to just pure ambitious with a tinge of cruelty to his subjects, especially to his advisors who were ruthlessly killed just for advising him how to do his job as a King.
Ever since Maleficent cast the curse that day, the Kingdom has entered a state of decline, with each year hastening the process. Every Ironmere citizen could feel it.
"Y-Your Highness…Please, it wasn't my fault…everything just happened so suddenly and I—" The scout stammered, hoping there was a way out of this.
King Stefan growled, his hands tightening their grip on the throne chair's armrests, "Enough…"
He turned his attention to the knight beside him, "Take him out of my sight." The said knight was quick to move and only after casting a look of pity towards the scout, did he drag him out of the throne hall.
"…What should we do now, my lord?" An old advisor, a new one that recently replaced the last one a few weeks ago, approached him from behind and asked gently and carefully.
King Stefan went silent for a brief moment, no doubt contemplating and weighing several decisions. It took a few more seconds before answering with a cold glint flashing in his eyes.
"Call the three fairies and bring my daughter back right now. I no longer trust that incompetent bunch!" Albeit shocked, the advisor simply bowed his head and left to do as told. The last time an advisor talked back to the King, he was relieved of his duty and got into an accident the next day.
With a rub of his head, King Stefan yelled at the nearby servants, "And somebody get me some fucking drink here!" They immediately scurried off in fear, to do their task lest the King enact his full anger upon them.
———
Oblivious to what was happening, Henry didn't take long to find Boy soon after leaving the Moors Forest.
"Boss! You're finally back! I thought they ate you alive, I almost went back myself to chase some mares—I mean, to alert your family…"
Seeing Boy running towards him from a distance, shedding crocodile tears and almost slipping up, Henry rolled his eyes.
"Alright alright, calm down. I didn't go anywhere. Let's head back to Ironmere, I need to get some sleep. Although I no longer need one but still…"
Swiftly climbing atop Boy's saddle, Henry snapped the reins and he bolted off with a neigh.
"So, what happened while I wasn't with you boss? You know, I've been extremely bored waiting for you earlier, thankfully some weird stallions played with me, they're all white and they all share these weird pointy things attached to their heads. I didn't bother to ask about it, I have a feeling it's a sensitive topic…"
Henry blinked several times in surprise, judging by how Boy described them, he had an inkling he was referring to Unicorns.
'Didn't expect unicorns to exist in this forest. Truly a treasure trove of magic creatures and such…' No wonder Ironmere wasn't the only nearby Kingdom that wanted to conquer the forest.
It's filled with resources and probably magic ingredients that sorcerers would give their entire treasures just to get their hands on.
It was Henry's turn to describe his earlier experience, "It's a bit of a long story…"
"No worries boss, I believe we've got around an hour before we get to Ironmere Kingdom."
And so, Henry started narrating, oblivious to the fact that his actions had caused a great butterfly effect to the story which would definitely not bode well for Maleficent.
———
In the middle of the night, Henry was sound asleep in the guest room that King Stefan graciously lent to him when all of a sudden, a blaring and protruding pain assaulted his mind.
"Wake up!"
His eyes quickly snapped open, still bloodshot as he jumped out of his bed, his sword, Sunshine instantly pulled out under his pillows, and he cautiously scanned his surroundings for any threat.
"Who goes there?" Henry squinted his eyes at the shadows. If there's a sorcerer who wants his head, now would be a good place and time to strike him.
Unfortunately, his cautiousness was unnecessary as a familiar voice once again rang in his head.
"Wake up, you brat!
It was Maleficent's voice and she was inside his head!
A quick realization dawned upon him, turning his expression grim, "Maleficent? Is that you? What are you...doing inside my head? You can read my thoughts and memories all thi—" Before he could throw a bunch of questions and suspicions, the other party interrupted him.
"If only that were possible. No, this is just a mind message spell. You'll only hear what I want you to hear and I can only hear the things you say out loud."
He frowned at her words, "So does that mean you can easily spy in a meeting room and such?"
"…That would've been possible if only there weren't a side effect of blaring and pain on your head. No, we're getting sidetracked. You need to wake up now and get over here quick! And leave as quietly as possible!"
Not knowing what upset Maleficent and made her like this, Henry could only groan, grab his outer garments, and leave the room. He still had many questions to ask about the Mind Message spell, such a useful spell should be included in his repertoire of magic spells.
Though considering that Master Elias hadn't taught him the spell nor used it on him, Henry guessed that the spell itself had limits. Distance limits perhaps. Well, all spells have limits, but it's just a matter of time for them to be improved once he learns them.
———
Henry snuck around the hallways, avoiding knight patrols and servants. He noticed it was still nighttime when he glanced out of the window.
While he was leaving, he was already coming up with a few guesses and assumptions in his mind as to why Maleficent sounded like she was a panicking mother who just lost her daughter in public.
The foremost conclusion he came to, was that his actions had caused some inexplicable consequences. A butterfly effect to be exact. It's just that, he's curious what sort of effect he caused this time.
'It hasn't even been two days since I got here and look at me, already causing problems. Great work, Henry.' He snorted.