Tales of the Apprentice 01

Tales of the Apprentice - Book 1

Chapter 2

Serana was sitting at the kitchen table, sipping her tea, when Galen finally made his appearance fairly late the next morning. He slowly stepped into the kitchen, looked at her, and halted in the doorway.

"So it wasn't a dream..." he said softly.

She gave him a gentle smile.

"No, it wasn't."

"Ehm... This morning I didn't..."

"Masturbate? No, I didn't expect you would, after last night. That's alright. Come, sit. Have some tea. I'm sure you have a million questions, and you've held on to them for long enough now."

He sat, poured, sipped. The tea tasted a little different this morning, he noticed, and he felt better almost immediately. He took a deep breath as he sat up straighter, and she smiled.

"Yes, I've put some extra herbs in," she said. "I think we can both use it this morning."

He nodded, still staring at her.

"You..." he began.

"Yes, I look different today, Galen. Younger. And better, I hope. But you shouldn't be all that surprised. I have already told you I am much older than I looked, so in terms of years this change is not a great step. But in terms of appearance it's a marked improvement, don't you think?"

"You're beautiful," he said softly.

"Thank you. I like looking this way. There's a more practical consideration too, of course. If I'm to train you as a sex mage, I will have to teach you more about sex. A lot more. And that won't be easy as long as I look like someone's grandmother, because the only way to learn it is by doing it."

He looked up from his tea cup and gave her a long look.

"Will we be... practicing this together?" he asked.

"Of course we will. Who else is there? And don't tell me you haven't thought about it, young man. I know you have. A lot. And I know you have wondered how that was ever going to work for you, what with me looking like a crone and all. But that's no longer a problem, wouldn't you say?"

"I would say," he agreed. "So..."

"So what are we waiting for?" she chuckled. "Slow down, hero. All in good time. We'll get there, you and I, but not right now. Let's start with the questions. And I'll save you the trouble of asking the firsts one, because I already know what it is: what in the name of the Great Mother happened last night?"

He nodded.

"In a word, yes. It was..."

"I was unlike everything you have ever experienced. It was the first time you became even remotely aware of the energies that sexual arousal can rally within you. It was the first time you came in a woman's mouth, and because of the way I manipulated your energies it was the most intense orgasm you ever had, by far and then some. Then I captured your energies as your body finally released them and used them to power the spell that you now see the results of."

He slowly nodded.

"There was something else, too," he said slowly. "After you left. It took me a while to go to sleep. And just before I fell asleep I... I felt something. It was like a... a wave, except it wasn't, not really. It was more like... thunder, almost, but without sound, it was just the feeling. A pressure that came and went. It's difficult to describe."

She looked at him sharply. So soon? If he was that sensitive to the Energies already, he must be truly gifted.

"Alright," she said calmly. "I can tell you what that was. After I left you and I went into my bedroom, I masturbated. Not as part of a magical working of any kind, but just for pleasure. Women do that too, you know. Unfortunately not many women are very much in touch with their sexual selves, mainly because not many men know how to properly make love to a women and give her the pleasure she needs. But women who do know enough about sex and are comfortable with it do it fairly regularly, just like you have been doing since you were old enough to discover how it worked. Last night I just wanted to pleasure myself and have a few good, happy, healthy orgasms, so I didn't bother to contain my sexual energies in any way. What you felt was the energy discharge of one of my orgasms. Probably the first one. Unless you felt it more than once?"

He shook his head.

"No, only once. But I've never felt anything like that before," he said.

"You have never been sensitive to such things before," she pointed out. "Now that you have begun to feel your own energies, you can't help noticing them all around you. Tell me, how do you feel this morning?"

"I feel... great," he said. "More alive, somehow."

She nodded.

"Yes. More alive is a good way to put it. One of the reasons why you feel this way is because today you are more in tune with the life energies that surround and permeate us than you have been so far. Most people live out their lives being completely oblivious to it, but now that you have learned to be aware of it, it will be with you every single day. Speaking of energy, you expended quite a bit last night. So I imagine you're hungry right now."

He smiled.

"Starving."

"I expected as much. Breakfast is ready. After that, we'll take it easy today."

Not much later they sat together on the bench in front of the cottage where they had first met all those weeks before. She looked at hims and smiled.

"Have you figured out yet where to begin?" she asked.

"I'm not sure. There's so much..."

"So let's begin with the Energies. You saw them, did you?"

He nodded.

"There was... light inside me. First sparks, then a cloud..."

"Yes. That is what the Energy looks like in its unharnessed form. Your task for the next several years will be to learn and control it. Sparks and clouds are all very pretty, but not very useful as a power source for magic. For that, it must be tightly compressed, into a ball or a bubble, so that you can release it in a controlled manner and channel it. That's what I did last night. When you got close to orgasm you stopped paying attention, which is something we'll have to work on, so you probably didn't see what I did. Did you?"

He shook his head.

"No matter. You'll get there. If you had paid attention at the crucial moment, you'd have seen how I captured the Energy within you when your body released it. Then I fed it back into you so that the released Energy added itself to what you were still releasing. Recirculating it like that adds more and more Energy every time it goes round and round, and that multiplies its strength by many times. It also increases the intensity of your orgasm by the same factor. I'm fairly sure you

did

notice that."

"Yes. It was kind of hard to miss," he said. "I've never felt anything like it."

"And that's nothing compared to what you will eventually experience. But this is a two-edged sword. A stronger orgasm may be rewarding, but it also makes it that more difficult to act purposefully and deliberately. When you're that deep in orgasm and it's that intense, it takes a lot of mental focus and willpower not to let it overwhelm you and give in to it. You have to be immersed in your orgasm in order for the Energy to be released fully, yet you need to be sufficiently detached and focused on the tasks at hand to apply them to your Purpose."

"I see where how can become difficult. How long did it take you to learn that?"

"Years and years. I told you this would not be a quick or easy thing."

"I know. I was just curious."

"Impatience is the curse of youth, my young apprentice. In other ways as well. Patience is the key to good sex, and we will have to cultivate a lot of patience in you."

He smiled.

"Probably. Because I can't wait to hear how you managed to... change yourself like this."

She nodded slowly.

"Well, the details are complex and they won't make much sense to you yet. Suffice it to say for now that after I fed the Energy that you released back into you until it had reached its proper strength, I channeled it into my own body and used it to power this change. The details are more complicated than that, of course. Whatever the case, you do know I'm much, much older than a normal human lifespan would allow for. And that is a price you will have to pay as well, Galen."

"Price?"

The look she gave him was stern, but somewhere in her eyes he saw something more there than just seriousness or a warning, and for the briefest of moments he caught a glimpse of what she really meant. For an instant he felt the burden of her years, those incredibly long years, and what it had meant to her; what it had done to her; what it had cost her, and inwardly he shuddered. Then the moment was past and she spoke again.

"Make no mistake, Galen," she said. "A very long life is as much a curse as it is a blessing. While a mage has the advantage of being able to stave off the ravages of time upon the body, the years still weigh heavily upon the spirit. Around you everyone grows old and dies, and the world changes, but you don't."

"So..." he said slowly. "Is it worth it?"

"On balance, yes, I believe that it is, or at least so far it has been, for me. But I haven't always felt that way. There have been quite a few times when I seriously contemplated passing on into the All as I eventually musts do anyway. But it appears my work here is not yet over."

Then she smiled.

"Fortunately there are rewards, too. And now that I'm looking and feeling better again, I might enjoy a few of those before all is said and done."

"Won't anyone notice?" he asked. "That you're young again, I mean."

"No. That's part of the spell. Other than you, nobody will notice, or if they do, they won't wonder about it and believe I've always been this way."

"So there is such a thing as a spell?"

She nodded.

"It is an inaccurate term, I admit. Most people think of spells as ritualistic incantations and exotic magical implements. Which is absolute nonsense, of course, but lack of knowledge usually gives rise to superstition. So when I say 'spell' I don't mean any of that. There's no formula or magical words or anything like that involved. Instead, think of a spell as a state that is achieved by magic, but that is capable of going dormant, either in part or entirely, when the Power behind that magic diminishes. I used my magic to prevent my body from aging, but lately I haven't had enough Power available to me to maintain the full result of that magical working. So I began to age, both visually and physically. Wrinkles, gray hair, sore joints, bad eyesight, that sort of thing. But when you supplied some of your Power, the magic was still in place, and all I had to do was to feed the Power back into it. I didn't need to start all over again. It's that permanence, or at least semi-permanence, that makes it a spell rather than an ephemeral magical working. Does that make sense?"

"I think so, yes. Are there any other dormant spells around waiting to be... reactivated, I suppose the word is?"

"Not around here, as far as I can tell, and certainly none of mine. One also needs to be familiar with a spell in order to feel renewed Power into it. So it's highly unlikely to come across an old spell left behind by another mage and accidentally reactivate it. I suppose there are circumstances under which that could happen, at least in theory, but what they are and how they would work, exactly, I'm not sure I could explain to you right now."

Galen looked at her, not sure what to say, and Serana could could clearly see how it suddenly hit him. When they had first met, she had already mentioned that the path he had just set his first step upon would take him many years, even centuries, to travel. While he had not disbelieved her, it had not really hit home how right she had been, and what that meant. But now he had at least a notion of how far he still had to go, and how long that would take him, and what it would cost him. Suddenly he looked frightened of what lay ahead of him. But they both knew that there was no turning back. Now that his eyes had been opened to an entirely new reality, he would never be happy to live out his life as a mundane, knowing what was out there but not having had the courage to reach for it.

"Yes," she said calmly, knowing exactly what had been passing through his mind. "And you're right to be scared. But you're also right in your decision to continue in spite of it. Last night you took the first step. You now have taken the second one. Of the two, this is the bigger one, and the more important one."

He took a deep breath, let it out slowly.

"So where do we go from here? What's next?" he asked.

"Today you take it easy. You're tired. You expended more Energy last night than is usual for a young man like you, and you need a little time to recover. So no work today, and no masturbation tonight, either. From tomorrow on you resume your normal routine, but with the addition of the Awareness that I have shown you last night. At first it might be difficult, but I expect you will be able to properly visualize your inner Energies before too long. As soon as that happens, we'll start working on the basics of controlling it."

"I feel fine, Serana," he protested. "I can work."

"Yes, I'm sure you can. You're young and healthy and strong. But this is a long process, and patience is a virtue to a mage. So today you rest."

He nodded in resignation. When she returned from the kitchen not five minutes later, she looked at him and smiled. Galen was sitting on the bench, his back leaning against the wall of the cottage, and he was fast asleep.

* * *

Over the weeks that followed, Galen spent about every other evening on the training bench. Under Serana's skilled tutelage he learned much about his own body and how it could give him pleasure. His control over it increased slowly but steadily, as did his awareness of the Energies that could be liberated within him.

The season marched on, as seasons do, and when late spring merged into early summer they had planted the freshly cultivated extension to the kitchen garden with carrots and beans, cabbages and turnips. The early summer rains promised a harvest that would see them well through the winter.

It was on a beautiful summer mid-morning when Galen paused from his job of weeding the cabbage patch to wipe the sweat off his forehead. While he did so, he gazed out across the lush, green valley that the cottage was located in. A small river meandered through the long grasses and reeds. Birds flew into and out of the trees that dotted the landscape, and squirrels ran up and down their branches. The golden sun poured its warmth and light over it all, and suddenly he was taken by how utterly beautiful it all was. He stared at it for a long time.

The wind whispered through the tall reeds, waving their tops and rustling their stalks, and the air was heady with the scent of flowers. It was good to lose himself in the beauty of it all as he drifted, slowly, above the gurgling waters and the waving grasses, bathing in the golden warmth of the sunlight.

A squirrel chittered as it burrowed between the roots of one of the trees, looking for seeds, and insects hummed and buzzed all around him. He drifted higher until he entered the canopy of one of the tree, where birds sat on small, ivory-speckled eggs hidden in intricately woven little nests.

Returning to the valley through which the river wound and gurgled its way, he floated over the surface of the water. He felt light, so light. Below the glistening surface he could see fish darting back and forth, and frogs hid in the shadows below the water lilies.

Galen

Then he felt... something. Suddenly it was all around him. It was warm and light and golden and good, and it was a balm for the weary soul, except that his soul was not weary at all; it was buoyed by this golden power that sustained it. Higher and higher he drifted, until it engulfed him, nourished him, absorbed him...

Galen

He drifted, drifted, and the golden light was all around him, though him, inside him. It was everywhere, and he dimly realized that he would never be the same, not quite, now that he knew what it was like to be part of this... awareness, for lack of a better word.

Galen

Come back

Then, somehow, his attention was drawn into a certain direction. Was it north? Yes, north... From this high vantage point he could see quite far, and in the distance he saw... darkness. It was unlike any darkness he had ever seen before. It was like a dark glow, almost, as it hung there like a cloud, except that it didn't look like a cloud.

He felt himself drawn to that blackness, and somehow he traveled a vast distance in no time at all, yet there was no sensation of movement. He continued to approach it, and a feeling of dread began to fill him. A clammy cold seemed to emanate from the dark glow.

Galen

Galen come back to me

As he got nearer, he saw a dark, tall structure looming in the darkness. No, that wasn't it, exactly; in reality the darkness emanated from it, like an unwholesome stench. He recoiled from it, but somehow he was driven forward, closer and closer. It was some kind of fortress, he now saw, and it was entirely dark, save for one small window right at the top, from which came a sullen, reddish glow. He felt himself being drawn to it.

Behind the window was a cavernous, dark room. Its walls were of a black, roughly hewn stone. Its vaulted ceiling was supported by high, black, arched beams, and its floor appeared to be covered with some sort of black obsidian, glassy and gleaming. The red glow came from somewhere just below the ceiling, but there didn't seem to be a lantern or other regular source of light.

The altar in the center of the room was gray, large and rectangular, and it looked as if it had been cut from one single block of stone. Ugly dark stains covered the top of it and ran down its sides. Around the alter nine men stood chanting, their hands held up high. They were dressed in long, dark robes, and a dark evil shone on their faces. They stood slightly bent over the altar, hiding from view whatever was on its surface.

The tenth man stood in front of the altar, his raised hands holding up a large knife, its sharp tip pointing upward. Its hilt was encrusted with rubies and the red glow reflected off it like blood. Then he reversed the knife until the cruelly sharp point faced downward, and Galen watched with horror as the knife plunged...

GALEN! COME BACK!

Suddenly he was falling, falling, and with a shock he dropped back onto the ground, back into himself, back into his own flesh. He staggered, and he would have fallen if Serana hadn't caught him.

What? Serana? Where had she suddenly come from? And why was she looking so angry?

"You idiot," she said heatedly. "What in the name of the Great Mother are you doing? You're not ready for this!"

"What..." he began, looking around him in bewilderment.

With obvious effort she managed to get hold of herself.

"Come. Sit," she said.

She took his arm and led him back to the cottage. He put his hoe against the wall and sat down beside her on the bench beside the kitchen door. He felt dazed and confused.

"What happened?" he asked. "I was... I don't..."

"You left your body," she said. "Whatever it was that you did, don't do it again. The next time you may not find your way back. That's why I tried to call you back here. I'm not even sure you heard me."

"I did. I think. But... It just didn't make sense. I don't understand. I was just... Looking."

"Describe it," she said, sounding calmer now. "The whole experience. Start at the beginning."

"I was weeding the garden. I was feeling hot, so I took a break, and while I rested I looked out over the valley. And then... I was there, somehow, but I didn't realize it at first. It was almost like a dream, but more... vivid."