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.
