"Become a what?" Henry cleaned his ears with his pinky, prompting Master Elias to repeat what he was just told.
"I said, to master the fire magic, you must become the sun herself. The epitome of nature's heat and wrath." Master Elias repeated while scratching his long white beard.
After transferring from the mouth of the volcano back to the study, Master Elias was quick to relay the next and final stage of mastering Fire Magic.
"You've already learned how to shape and manipulate your flames perfectly. Now all that's left is to achieve the highest form of heat, the Sun herself."
"Wait, what do you mean by herself, are you saying that the sun is a woman?"
In an answer to this, Master Elias simply shrugged his shoulders without uttering a single word.
"So where do you plan for this Sun thing to take place? Don't tell me we're literally going to the sun?" Henry squinted his eyes, ready to muster the strength to refuse in the hardest way possible.
Only for the master to scoff, "Are you an idiot? There's no way we'll survive that. Though I know someone who can but that doesn't matter. We're going to a place where the sun's light can concentrate on you alone."
"And that place is?" Henry pressed.
"The tallest mountain in the world, the only place where you're closest to the sun."
———
While Henry was focused on developing and improving his magical skills, King Maximus didn't stay idle. With everything that Henry recently dropped on him, he knew he had to work his arse off for several days.
For instance, the possible outcomes and backlash once the Federation between Lioncrest and the Arendelle Kingdom is revealed. There have been many eyes on Lioncrest recently especially after the rumors of Henry's shipwreck.
Right now, Maximus is assessing what sort of reactions the world will have after the Federation announcement.
"But Henry said we should announce it during Princess Elsa's coronation. I'm not sure why but I'll trust him for this." The king murmured to himself, grabbing yet another one of Henry's inventions—A Ballpoint Pen, or what he likes to call simply a pen.
Honestly, out of everything that his son has created, this one takes the entire cake. So much hassle and time was saved all thanks to the Pen.
No more plucking of feathers, buying expensive jars of ink, and not to mention, the Pen is more efficient when it comes to using ink.
With another hand grabbing a parchment, Maximus started to write. First, he addressed himself as Lioncrest's King and the one and only father of Prince Henry Charming.
The second part was about Henry of course, how he's doing well, and all those things. Maximus avoided mentioning Ariel—he has a feeling that Elsa probably had no idea that Ariel had just declared herself as Henry's concubine, paving the way for Elsa to take the place as his wife.
Maximus trusts his own son to handle that kind of matter. He just hopes that his son's heavenly talent also extends to his love life.
Finally, the last discussion written was about the alliance federation initiated by the Crowned Prince of Lioncrest and future Queen of Arendelle.
The latter might not have the same status and strength as Lioncrest but Maximus doesn't care about that. He takes things like this very seriously.
Finally, after writing more details and inquiring about her stance for the upcoming Summit Meeting of all the Kingdoms on the continent.
The Summit Meeting is something that only occurs once in decade, mainly to discuss possible trades alliances, solve problems between Kingdoms, and last but not the least, it's a meeting where the Five Great Kingdoms scrutinize one another—something childish and yet, has been going on for the past few Summit Meetings, even ranging back to during his grandfather's reign.
And every Summit Meeting takes place on each of the Five Great Kingdoms, the last Summit Meeting that was held in Lioncrest Kingdom was 4 decades ago, more specifically 40 years.
Now it's their turn to host the Summit Meeting again and thankfully, they still have a few months to prepare, ample time to decorate the ballroom, refurbish the grand meeting room, and establish their dominance over the other Great Kingdoms.
"This time, Henry will join the meeting. The last meeting was 10 years ago, he was only 8 years old." Maximus murmured to himself, folding the parchment properly before marking it with his personal seal.
He grabbed another parchment and he's now onto the next person's letter—an old friend.
———
"Let's see here. This should be Princess Samantha's room. No guards, just patrols once every two minutes. The lock itself seems to be tight, quite hard to picklock given I only have two minutes…" Flynn leaned back near a tall window, letting the drapes cover him slightly, not to fully hide his figure but enough to hide his face whenever he stares at the princess's door.
With only squinty eyes and pride in his skills, Flynn is currently in preparation mode, assessing his surroundings, counting the patrol time, and making plans on how he will initiate his first and hopefully last heist.
"The door won't do. I heard earlier that the night patrols are more frequent compared to daylight. I need to find a different way inside." With that being said, Flynn turned to leave the hallway, grabbing an apple from a nearby fruit basket that some servant probably left and taking a bite, nodding his head in greeting as he passed by two knight patrols, who in return, reciprocated the gesture.
Everyone in the castle already knows that he's their Crown Prince's extinguished guest, which honestly makes him feel addicted to the feeling of polite glances and nods from the knights—a huge contrast to what he used to deal with in the past that is filled with chases and flying arrows.
'If Prince Henry lives up to his reputation and promise, it might not be that bad working for him.' He murmured inside his mind in a passing.
———
"So how are we doing this becoming the sun exactly?" After arriving at the aforementioned mountain—the tallest and biggest mountain that Henry has ever laid his eyes upon.
Henry is a hundred percent sure that this mountain is a few times bigger than the Mount Everest back in his old world.
Mind you, he once visited Mount Everest by paying a huge amount of money for a guided expedition. As for how he came to this conclusion?
Well, they reached this mountain by climbing it. Literally. No flying or any magic involved, the old master insisted that they climb the peak of the mountain with their very own hands and feet.
Though Henry can't say for sure that he despised it, as a matter of fact, he enjoyed the hiking trip.
"It's simple. You will stay here until she deems you worthy enough to talk to you." After saying that, Master Elias turned to leave.
Henry glanced around, there are many places to sit, what if he sat somewhere where the sun didn't want him to sit?
"Just sit anywhere?"
There was a loud slapping from a distance, even with his back turned, Henry could tell that Master Elias slapped his forehead "…Anywhere, you dumb donkey." Before resuming his descent to leave.
"Jeez, I was just asking a question," Henry murmured to himself, searching around before finally finding a good place to sit on.
"This shouldn't take more than a day. Master just told me earlier that I have to leave early tomorrow."
———
Countless birds flew past him, while the wind started to pick up and Henry was still in the same sitting position as before.
Except this time, he bore an expression of a twitching smile.
"I can't tell if that old man is just tripping me over or what…" As he muttered under his breath, he raised his head and stared at the setting sun.
How the hell will the sun talk to him now that the moon has replaced her in the sky?
"This is useless…" Just as Henry was about to stand up and leave, he recalled his master's words and sat back down.
"Patience…Ain't my first rodeo."
———
In a far distance from Henry, at least a hundred miles away, Master Elias stood with his staff supporting his body.
His eyes were closed and cheek brushing against the shaft of his staff, all while mumbling to himself, "Baa Baa, Black Sheep~ Have you any wool?"
"Yes, ser. Yes, ser~ Three bags fu—" All of a sudden, his silent nursery rhyming was burst like a bubble when his eyes snapped open.
"Took you long enough…" A small smile crept up to his face.
———
Back to Henry, something was happening to him.
"This is!?" His eyes widened in surprise, his head bowing and looking down on his body.
Gurgle!
"Dammit. Should've brought some food with me. I'm hungry." Just as he was about to look around, perhaps go roam and find something to eat, the night sky suddenly lit up.
The moon casting its moonlight suddenly intensified more than usual. The entire surroundings slowly turned bright, as if the sun herself returned in mere moments.
But Henry knew that isn't possible, or at least that's what he thought at first until he realized that he was no longer exactly living in a regular world governed by science and physics.
This is a universe revolving around swords and magic, everything unexplainable that happens here can only be attributed to magic and the supernatural.
Such as what is happening right now.
The entire mountain is basked under a bright light, focused only on the tallest mountain itself, "Like I'm under a spotlight." Henry muttered to himself.
If he didn't know it was nighttime a few seconds earlier, he might've thought it was still daytime. But when he stared at a distance far down below away from the mountain, he could see that the darkness still blankets the place.
"Greetings, child." The sound of an old voice snapped his head back to the skies, or at this point it looks less like one and more like the heaven.
Henry stared wide-eyed at the floating figure in front of him. It was a being for sure but someone whose features he cannot see. The main reason, from what he can conclude is due to the extremely bright light behind it—casting an intense shadow that only an outline can be seen while the rest was covered in darkness.
"Who…are you?" The Crowned Prince asked.
"I'm known by many names and titles throughout the years I've been living. For each descent, I earn more than one name. But among them, my personal favourite is the name Ra."
Realization dawned upon Henry's features, a testament to his slacked jaw, "Ra? The God of the Sun?"
"Indeed. But not exactly the God of the Sun, I am the Sun itself."
"Wait a second. You sound like an old man, but my master told me that you're a she."
From the outlines of the figure, Henry can at least deduce that Ra nodded his head, "Just as I come with many names so are my forms. My appearance depends on what people imagine what the Sun looks like. To the person you're referring to, he saw me in the form of a woman, because that's what he thinks a Sun should look like in a human-like form."
Henry nodded his head in understanding, "I see." Then his lips curved into a smirk, 'Now I know which one of us is the real pervert.'
"So, I'm not sure if you know why I'm here but I'll still say it to you." With a deep breath, Henry closed and reopened his eyes, replaced by sheer determination as he bowed his head forward, showing the uttermost respect he could muster, "I'm here to master the art of the flame. The magical wonders of the fire. I hope you, the fiery Sun himself would be able to guide me and nourish my experience on the path of the eternal wrath of flames!"
This has been the script he came up with and rehearsed several times a few hours ago after Master Elias left. Henry had no idea how to talk to a godly being such as the Sun, so he tried his best to come up as someone determined to ascend but still respectful and a humble down-to-earth kind of person.
This should've been such a good combo if it weren't for what Ra said next.
"You must have gotten things confused, child. You have already mastered the art of the flames and it seems very recent. You only lack the experience in using it but I assume that's something that you can achieve alone as you live on…"
Hearing this revelation, Henry froze on the spot. His mind turned stationary to only one thought.
'Master, you lied to me again!'
Just as Henry was about to burst out in embarrassment for falling into yet another scheme of his master, the Sun, Ra's next words struck him like a lightning bolt.
"Although now that I'm here and from what I've seen so far, you're a very worthy person. It would make me feel bad to let you leave here empty-handed especially after waiting for hours."
Ra suddenly raised his hand, his palm facing down on Henry while the sunlight behind him intensified almost to the point of blinding Henry completely.
"I suppose giving you my blessing wouldn't be too bad."