As it turned out, I was the better part of a week recovering. The extent of my injuries was such that it took me that long before I could start to get up and around beyond walking to the bathroom and back without getting tired. Daily I would walk around more to build up my stamina. Soon I was able to make my way down to the library to read and study in my spare time.
That week was also filled with more dreams of the goddess. Each of the dreams left me with more knowledge of magic as she taught me things long forgotten to mortal mages. My trips to the goddess's cave happened nightly. Each morning I woke with my head feeling fit to burst with the things I learned from my visits to the moonlit grove of trees. I was tempted to talk to Arianna about my dreams, to share with her what I was learning. Each time I stopped short as I heard the voice in my head warning me to keep my silence.
The first day I tried to draw on the mana but as soon as I focused to pull the mana through me blinding pain shot through me. I staggered back to the bed and collapsed, letting the mana go. After a few minutes the pain subsided enough for me to see again. I shifted to lay down in the bed again and closed my eyes out of breath. Thinking it might be a fluke I cautiously tried once again to draw on the mana, taking it slowly this time. At the first stab of pain I let go of it. I reached up to rub my head as I sat back up in the bed. I swung my feet over the edge of the bed and rested my face in my hands, elbows on my knees. I was beginning to wonder if I had burned myself out when I heard the door open.
"Tre, are you okay?", Arianna asked, suddenly materializing beside me from the door. She knelt down beside me looking up at me.
I nodded at her, smiling as reassuringly as I could manage. "Yeah, I'm okay. I tried to draw on some mana a few minutes ago and was nearly dropped to my knees with pain that shot through me." I shrugged my shoulders and looked at her again. "I am worried that I might have burned the ability to use the Power right out of myself."
Arianna reached up and took my hands, smiling. "If you had burned yourself out you wouldn't even be able to draw on the mana. You're just worried because of how bad your injuries were. I was worried too, but now that I see you back up and around I see that there is nothing to worry about. Your body is still recovering from the mana burn. Once you're fully healed you will see that you are at least as strong as you were, if not stronger."
I nodded, taking a deep breath. I was about to reply when the door opened and Telemon walked in smiling. "Ah, Tre, you are up. That is good. I was just coming to see if you would like to go and get some real food." He noticed Arianna kneeling beside me and looked back and forth between us. "Am I interrupting something?"
Arianna stood up and backed away. "Of course not, Telemon."
I stood up and took a deep breath. "I was just recovering from trying to draw on the mana too soon."
Telemon frowned as he walked across the room. "You are very lucky to be able to draw on it at all. I have not seen a case of mana burn that extensive in a long time. A very long time. And you say you feel as if you are stronger after it?" When I nodded he continued. "The last time I saw a case of mana burn anywhere close to that bad was Wilhelm of the Black Forest. He tried to draw on more mana than he could safely handle and he ended up weaker than he was before. And his burn was not as bad as yours was because he was not as strong as you are." He smiled. "You are indeed lucky Tre."
Clapping his hands together he looked at Arianna and back to me. "Shall we eat? There's a great restaurant nearby." Arianna and I both seemed relieved at his sudden change of topic and we both nodded. He turned back to the door and opened it, smiling. "Alan will be waiting out front with the car."
Telemon was as good as his word and Alan was waiting for us when we stepped out of the building. I stopped, glad of the fresh air after more than a week stuck indoors and took a deep breath. Arianna and Telemon waited on me to start walking again before moving and we got in the car. Alan got us to the restaurant with little delay and we went inside.
The Consul had reservations so we were shown right to our table in a small private room. We ordered and made small talk until our food arrived. I was tearing into a steak and loaded baked potato with gusto when Telemon set his fork down and dropped the bomb on me. "Tre, the Inner Circle has decided that it is time you took on an apprentice." I almost choked on the bite of potato I had just put in my mouth and looked over at Telemon as he continued. "The Inner Circle voted unanimously while you were recovering to assign you an apprentice."
I swallowed the bite of potato and dropped my fork onto the plate. "They voted to assign me an apprentice? And you let them? What was your vote on it?"
Telemon wiped his mouth and set his napkin down. "I was not aware of the vote until after it was taken. The Elders of the Inner Circle must have figured out that I was working to protect you. They came up with a way to get around my vote. I had informed the Inner Circle that I would not be present because I was staying here to observe your recovery. I heard about the vote just afterwards and immediately returned to the Motherhouse to see what I could do. As the vote had already been entered into the record I was unable to do much."
"And so I get stuck with some spy for the Inner Circle as my apprentice? I get to waste my time teaching whoever it is how to use magic and not get killed by it instead of doing more important things?" I ignored Arianna's hand on my arm squeezing. To say I was mad would be a gross understatement of the anger I was feeling.
Telemon sipped from his glass of tea and shook his head. "No, Tre, you do not get 'stuck' with a spy for the Inner Circle as an apprentice. I was not able to block the apprenticeship idea, but I was able to modify it so that you could choose your apprentice. The Elders were not happy about it, but I used the precedent of the ancient ways of apprenticeship to get you the choice. They tried to limit your options to a picked few. A hand picked few chosen personally by the Elders. I had help blocking that motion. Once I was there the usual resistance to the Elders reappeared and so it was voted to put it to a general call to the membership for volunteers."
"A general call for volunteers for apprenticeship?" I shook my head and pushed my food away, suddenly not hungry anymore. "That is a variation of precedent in itself isn't it? Isn't apprenticeship normally a person wanting to be trained being taken under the wing of one who is already trained in order to learn? That is how it was when I was apprenticed to Alfons and then to Julius. They chose me as their apprentice. They weren't forced to take me."
Telemon nodded. "A list of apprentices is kept and constantly updated. Given your... unique situation in Memphis, it was decided that the majority of the apprentices on the list were too young and inexperienced to be safely put with you. It was then that we, or maybe I should say I, decided to put out a call for volunteers from the older, more experienced people. The numbers of volunteers surprised everyone." He pulled a PDA from his pocket and slid it over to me after a few taps of the stylus.
I took the PDA and looked at it. Telemon had opened a list of names. I scrolled down the list and looked over at Telemon. "There are more than a hundred names here."
Telemon chuckled. "Yes, there are. On that list are the names of one hundred and sixty-eight people who have volunteered to become your apprentice." He smiled at the look of surprise on my face and gestured to the PDA. "Most of them are full mages who are willing to become your apprentice. Although they are fully tested members of the Order, they are all still young. Only ten are actual novices who have not yet undertaken the Trials."
I took a drink from my Mountain Dew and shook my head in disbelief. "Only ten are novices out of one hundred and sixty-eight? The rest are mages wanting to learn from me?" Telemon nodded, smiling. "Why me?"
Telemon smiled and leaned back in his chair. "As I said, Tre, the majority of the volunteers are young mages. They sympathize with you and no small number of them would love to join in your struggle against the Vampire Dominion in Memphis. They do not realize that your fight is not against the entire Kingdom." Telemon took another bite of his dinner and looked back at me. "So far we have been able to keep the younger mages from attacking vampires and starting a general war that we do not have the manpower to win. Despite that widespread restriction, you are still a popular figure to the younger mages."
I looked at Telemon then at Arianna and back to Telemon, confusion apparent on my face. "A popular figure? Then how are the vampires able to have me brought before tribunals so often?"
"Because the younger members are not part of the Inner Circle. But once the call was put out for volunteers to become your apprentice, the names just came rolling in. After only three days I stopped the open call because of the volume of volunteers. Then I culled the list down to what you see there. Each and every name on that list has been thoroughly checked and cross checked for any ties to anyone on the Inner Circle. It was done in secret by me personally." Telemon shrugged and took another bite of his dinner. "The Inner Circle has not even seen the modified list. I am sure that they will not approve of it, but that is for me to handle."
I scrolled through the list of names seeing the ten novices at the top of the list. I started to remove their names from the list but stopped. "None of these novices are true novices. All of them have at least four years training with other mentors." I spotted a name I recognized and chuckled. "This one is being trained by Julius. Why would she want to leave his teaching to come study with me?"
Telemon smiled and drank from his tea again. "I asked him the same question." Seeing my impatient look he continued with a chuckle. "It was Julius's idea for her to apprentice with you."
"It was his idea?" I looked from Telemon to Arianna and back. "Why would he practically send her to me? I don't understand."
