Tales of the Apprentice - Book 1
Chapter 9
Serana sighed. It was one of those sighs that just happened. There didn't seem to be much reason for it; it was just one of those moments that seemed to call for one.
For the past two weeks she had been trying to continue the task that the Great Mother had charged her with: to educate her young apprentice to the point where he'd be able to face the Purpose that he appeared to be headed for. She dreaded that Purpose. It wasn't one that she herself, with more centuries of experience behind her than she cared to count, would want to face. Yet this young man would have to do just that.
Young? Well, maybe not quite. In years, perhaps, but in other ways he wasn't. Not anymore. Galen had matured considerably, and more than time alone accounted for. Maybe that was what the sigh was trying to tell her.
They'd hit a point where they struggled to move forward together. It was not his fault, nor was it hers. He was simply developing as intended, but as he did so, she found it more and more difficult to connect with him.
Ayden hadn't been too worried when she spoke with him about it. "Such things are not unusual," he'd told her. "Some people develop in straight lines, others go back and forth as they move along, or even sideways. Galen appears to be one of those, and I'll grant you that he's been a challenging apprentice. But then, that's why you came to us, isn't it? So let us help you."
Serana had nodded; he had been entirely correct, of course. Ayden had made Galen read every night for the past two weeks, and the lad was learning all kinds of things that she would have struggled to explain to him. Ayden's help with the teaching of magical matters had also been invaluable. He could explain certain concepts to Galen in just a few words, while Serana struggled to put things in a way that made sense to him. That was good, of course, but somehow it felt like a loss to her, maybe even a defeat. And worst of it was that she had no idea why she felt that way. She knew she shouldn't, and yet she did.
Great Mother, she really was getting too old for all this.
"Part of it you know already," Ayden was saying to Galen. "It's quite simple. You visualize in your mind what you want to accomplish, and when you liberate your Energies at the moment of Release, you channel them into your Intent. Once your intent is sufficiently energized, you simply
will
it to happen."
Galen raised his eyebrows.
"Perhaps we have different ideas about the meaning of simple," he suggested blandly.
Ayden smiled.
"Well, it
is
simple, really. It's just the details that are a little difficult to put into words sometimes."
"Serana tried to show me. I don't think I quite got it, though."
Ayden nodded.
"That's understandable. Serana is a very good teacher of sex magic, much better than I am, but she picked it all up on her own, a very long time ago. She didn't have any formal training or teaching until she was already quite skilled, so the way she does it is... I suppose her style is more intuitive than anything else. And that sort of thing is hard to follow sometimes. But then, Irya does the same, every now and then..."
His voice trailed off as he gazed into the distance. They were sitting outside, in front of the house. The day was blue and green and golden, but no longer as hot as it had been a few hours earlier when Galen had been busy cultivating a patch of soil by the side of the house.
"Irya said the same thing about you," Galen said. "She told me that you learned most of it on your own, too."
Ayden thought about it for a few moments.
"Well, yes, I suppose I did, at least for the most part," he said slowly. "But the difference is that I'd had a bit of formal education on mundane matters beforehand. My parents were fairly well off, and I learned to read and write as a boy. I hated them at the time for making me take lessons every day, but they really did me a huge favor. Books have taught me a lot. I've also had the privilege of learning more from a number of very good mages after I'd picked up the basics myself."
"And Irya?"
"Her training as a mage was more formal than mine. It's often that way: it starts with a certain amount of interest, sometimes a little talent, but the rest comes from having the right teachers at the right time. Much like you, really. But that's not the point. Irya and I have been together for a long time. We know each other intimately. And yet I still struggle to follow her, now and then. So why is that, do you think?"
He stopped there and looked at Galen expectantly.
"Maybe..." Galen ventured. "Maybe it's not how you learned it. Maybe it's just how your mind works. Yours and hers."
Ayden nodded approvingly.
"That's right," he said. "Men and women tend to think in different ways. Men prefer to follow straight lines. Straightforward, if you will. Sometimes even too straight, to the point where we get stuck on a single idea and we can't see any alternatives anymore. Women are different. Women tend to think more in circles. Or back and forth. Or sideways. Women don't think things through all the way sometimes, and men often find that exasperating. Yet female thinking
does
tend to be far more creative and it often produces results that men alone could never come up with. On the other hand, female reasoning often makes sense only to women."
He chuckled.
"Don't tell them I said that."
"Too late," Serana said from the doorway where she was standing. "I heard you."
"Oh."
"You're not wrong, though," she told him. "Male minds are indeed quite simple, when you get right down to it. Straightforward is the only way they know. Understanding the more subtle intricacies that require a female mind is really quite beyond them."
Ayden winced. Serana managed not to smile.
"Gently, sister," Irya's voice came from within the house. "Have mercy on the poor creature. It's not his fault that he's only a man, after all."
"No, I suppose it isn't," Serana said with a hint of barb in her voice.
