Tales of the Apprentice 01

Tales of the Apprentice - Book 1

Chapter 10

"What happened?" Galen asked.

Serana gave him a rather pointed look.

"You mean you didn't notice?" she asked. "Lightning, thunder, a small earthquake, and somehow you managed to miss all that?"

"Earthquake?"

She nodded.

"I did hear some thunder," he said. "I thought it was just a storm."

"It was," Ayden said. "But not a natural one. Come outside. Have a look."

Irya held out her hand. Ayden took it and helped her up. She looked a little shaky but otherwise alright. Galen stood as well. He felt dizzy for a few moments, but Serana grabbed his shoulders to steady him.

"Careful," she said. "Easy does it."

He slowly shook his head, both to clear the dizziness and in disbelief. What in the world was going on?

Outside the house things had changed. A tree a few dozen yards away had been reduced to scorched splinters. Galen knew the effects of a lightning strike when he saw them. Also, the fields were subtly different somehow. It took him a few moments to work out what it was, but then he saw a few ridges and wrinkles in the landscape that hadn't been there before.

When he looked at Irya, the expression of utter astonishment on her face matched what he felt. He swayed, and if Serana hadn't steadied him he might have collapsed. Irya was leaning heavily on Ayden's shoulder.

"Let's sit down," Serana said. "We've clearly got a problem here, and standing around staring at the scenery won't help much."

Inside the house the effects of whatever it was that had happened were clearly visible, too. Fortunately the cracks in the bedroom walls seemed to be the only ones, although a lot of things had fallen over. But apart from a cup and a plate or two nothing seemed to have been broken. Serana, practical as always, hung a kettle on the fire and began to mix up one of her herbal teas.

"I think a little picker-upper won't hurt at this point," she said. "Ayden, for you I'd suggest something stronger than tea. You look a little wild around the eyes. Why don't you go and see if that jug you keep at the back of the lower kitchen cupboard has survived?"

Ayden nodded. A few minutes later he returned, looking a little better.

"Nothing wrong there," he said.

"Good," Serana replied as she poured the tea. "Galen and Irya are a little worse for wear right now, but this should help. So let's have some before we discuss it."

The tea tasted strange but not unpleasant, and it wasn't long before Galen began to feel its effects. His head cleared and he felt less shaky. He looked at Irya, who also sat up straighter and looked more alert than she had before.

"Are you alright, Irya?" he asked.

She nodded.

"Yes. You?"

"I'd feel better if I knew what happened," he admitted.

"Me too," she said.

"For starters, it's obvious that Galen's Release was much more powerful than it should have been," Ayden mused. "His Energies should have been relatively low after last night. Clearly they weren't. And you're awfully quiet, my love. Are you sure you're alright?"

She gave him a wan smile.

"I'm fine. Just... a little shaken, I suppose."

"What happened?"

"Well..." she said slowly. "As you know, the idea was to give Galen his Release in such a way that it would draw as much Energy out of him as possible, to see what effect that would have. My intention was to absorb it and then gradually return it to him."

"I take it that didn't go as planned?" Galen asked.

"The first time it did, when I had you in my mouth. Your Release was stronger than I had anticipated, but apart from the intensity everything was fine. Except that the discharge didn't seem to deplete you at all. But then it started to get a little strange. When you scratched my breasts... How did you know about that? Did Ayden tell you to do that?"

Galen shook his head.

"No... What do you mean?"

"That is the one thing that can drive me absolutely wild. But only if you do it just right. And you did. You just did. Exactly in the right places, at exactly the right moment... I almost lost control. I came very close to orgasm right then and there. How did you know what to do and how to do it?"

"I... I didn't. It just seemed a good idea at the time. I guess it just felt right, kind of... I can't really explain why or how."

Ayden looked at him sharply, then turned to Irya.

"You know, Irya..." he said slowly. "That sounds an awful lot like what you said when you tried to explain to me how you..."

His voice trailed off as he gazed into a distance far beyond the walls of the room. Then his eyes focused on Galen.

"I never told you that Irya's an empath, did I?" he said slowly.

Galen shook his head.

"Well, she is," Ayden continued. "Not that it should surprise you. You must have felt it. She has a way of..."

"...Connecting," Galen completed the other man's thought. "And she knows exactly..."

"...Where to touch you, and how, and when," Ayden finished the sentence.

"Alright, the two of you are beginning to scare me now," Serana said dryly.

Irya smiled faintly and nodded.

"Me too," she said. "But they're not wrong. I do have some ability to instinctively know someone's needs and feelings. I know Ayden has also learned some of that, but he and I have been together for quite a while. Galen seems to have picked it up very quickly, though, if this is anything to go by."

"I believe it is," Ayden said firmly. "There's no way we can write this off to coincidence, given what followed."

"But how could that be related?" Galen asked.

"I'm not sure," Ayden said. "So let's leave it for the moment. Irya, you said that things started to get strange. What did you mean by that?"

"It felt like... " she said slowly. "I'm not really sure how to describe it. The Energies were all around us, permeating us, circulating between us. It was much stronger then I've ever felt before. Almost like..."

"A storm," Galen said.

Irya nodded.

"Yes. Exactly. Then Galen had his second Release and I simply couldn't control it. It was as if the storm became a hurricane. It completely overwhelmed me. I couldn't hold even a fraction of it. It was a hundred times more than it should have been. No man can generate that much sexual Energy. And that... That can only mean one thing that I can think of."

"He drew it from the Earth," Serana muttered.

Ayden slowly nodded.

"Yes. He shouldn't have been able to, of course. But it definitely looks that way."

"But that's bad, isn't it?" Galen said with alarm. "That would deplete the Earth. The old sorcerers..."

"Yes," Serana agreed. "But that's not the case here."

"Why not?"

"Irya released it," Ayden said. "And in doing so, she returned the Energy to the Earth. The main problem was the sheer magnitude of the transfer."

"How do you mean?" Galen asked.

Ayden looked pointedly at the crack in the bedroom wall and at the sagging door-frame.

"You can't dislodge such titanic Energies and not expect a certain amount of upheaval," he explained. "Even when you return them to the Earth immediately, as Irya did, their displacement alone will cause certain side effects. Thunder, earthquakes, that sort of thing. We're lucky it wasn't worse. If the Earth's crust had ruptured, there could have been a volcano where we are sitting right now."

"But I didn't..." Galen began. "I didn't do..."

"I'd say it's fairly obvious that you did," Ayden said dryly. "I'm sure you didn't mean to, but that didn't really make much of a difference. The question is not if it happened, but how. And, even more importantly, why."

"We know you didn't do anything wrong, Galen," Serana said. "But there's no denying that you were a focal point in whatever it is that happened here. So we need to get to the bottom of it, and fairly quickly, too, before it can happen again. Irya told us how she experienced it. Now it's your turn. What was it like, for you?"

"All right," Galen said. "I'll do my best, but I'm not sure I know much. Irya pretty much took the initiative. It felt... different, this time, but I'm not sure I can explain how."

"Let's start there, then," Ayden said. "Try to describe it as best you can. What did it feel like?"

"Ehm..."

Irya smiled, and much to Galen's relief it was a proper smile this time, accompanied by a slightly amused twinkle in her eyes.

"Alright," she said. "Let's start at the point where I had you in my mouth and you were on the verge of orgasm."

Ayden nodded.

"Yes," he said. "That moment where you know that you're about to climax but you could still stop it if you really wanted to, except you don't want to, because that would ruin everything and in a moment it will be too late because by then it will be happening anyway. You know what I mean."

Galen nodded.

"So what did it feel like, right then?" Ayden continued. "Did it feel any different from other times?"

Galen thought for a moment.

"It was... It sort of welled up inside me. It was like a... a rush, almost, or a wave."

Ayden's eyes narrowed.

"Did it feel as if it were running through you, or out of you?"

"Ehm... Both, I think."

"Alright. Now, usually, when you have your orgasm, does the feeling start in the head of your cock or at the base of it? When it hits you, I mean."

"Ehm... I'm not sure..."

"Oh, come on," Ayden said impatiently. "Of course you're sure. We're both men. We both know what it feels like. With me it depends on how I reach orgasm. When I masturbate, the pleasure starts in the head of my cock, it builds to full strength in a second or two and it simply stays there until I've finished ejaculating. But when I'm thrusting into someone it first begins to build at about one third of the way up my shaft and usually there's this tingling in my balls, and when Irya keeps me at the verge of orgasm for an hour or more with her mouth, there's this pressure everywhere inside me that starts in my chest and eventually fills my entire body until she finally lets me reach climax and it all just rushes down to my groin, then into my cock and out from there. It may very well be different for you. In fact, it very probably is. But don't tell me you don't know, because we both know you do. This is important, Galen."

"Calmly, my love," Irya said with a smile, putting her hand on Ayden's. "Galen, he's right. It is important. I know it's not all that easy to put into words, but please try."

"Alright," Galen said. "Let me see. It usually starts like a sort of pressure in my groin. When I get closer to orgasm that pressure rises through my shaft until it reaches the head. There it builds for a few seconds more until it bursts out of there, sort of. That's the best I can describe it."

"Does it feel that way every time?" Ayden asked. "Regardless of you you reach your orgasm, I mean."

Galen thought for a moment.

"Pretty much, yes," he said. "Sometimes I'm more aware of it than other times, though."

"Good. Now think back to how it felt today. Was it like that?"

"Alright, I see what you mean," Galen mused. "No. It was... different. It involved most of my body. I felt it tingle in my arms and my legs and my chest, and then it all seemed to flow out of me and into Irya."

Irya nodded.

"That's how it felt for me, too," she agreed. "And the way you poured it all out should have left you completely exhausted and depleted. But it didn't. Not even after I released your Energy. It was my intention to feed it back into you if you lost too much, but I never even got that far. You didn't need it."

"Is that what you meant when you said it was interesting?" Galen asked.

She sighed.

"Yes. And I should have known right then what was happening. Or at least I should have realized that it was something quite extraordinary, something that I should have left alone until I understood it better."

"There was something else..." Galen said. "When I got close to orgasm, it almost seemed to... vibrate, inside me. Like a plucked lute string, except it was more of a... a trembling feeling."

"Where in your body?" Serana asked sharply.

"Everywhere. At least, it started everywhere. But it concentrated in my groin."

Ayden gave him a penetrating look.

"Did it move to your groin, or did it simply extend to there?" he asked.

"I would say that it extended," Galen said thoughtfully. "Once it reached my groin it was still everywhere inside me."

"When did you first notice that?"

Galen thought for a moment.

"It was the second time," he said then. "I was on my back, and Irya was sitting on top of me. I had just gone inside her. That's when I first heard the thunder outside. I thought it was just a storm."

Ayden nodded curtly, as if something he was already certain of had just been reconfirmed.

"What else?" he demanded.

"Nothing," Galen replied. "That's it."

"No way that's it, lad," Ayden said with some heat. "It can't be. Think, Galen! This is important. There's got to be more!"

"Maybe we should give this some rest," Serana said calmly.

Ayden took a breath as if he was about to speak, but she took his hand and caught his eye.

"Whatever it is, it will still be there later," she told him. "We can discuss it further after we've all had a while to let this sink in."

Ayden nodded slowly.

"Alright," he said. "If nothing else, it will at least give us a chance to tidy up."

"Right," Serana said, rising from her chair. "Let's get started with that."

* * *

"It won't be the same color as the rest of the wall," Galen said. "But at least it will fill the cracks."

"That's good enough for now," Ayden replied. "We'll worry about looks later. Can I give you a hand with anything?"

Galen smiled as he continue to stir the mixture of water, clay and straw in a large wooden tub.

"Thanks, but there's no need. I used to do this for a living," he said. "Until I met Serana, that is."

He glanced over his shoulder to where Serana was sitting in deep discussion with Irya.

"On second thought, you can help me carry this inside," he said. "It's quite heavy, and two are better than one."

Once inside he began to stuff the mixture into the cracks. When they were all properly packed, he smoothed the surface with a flat piece of wood.

"Once this begins to dry, I'll finish it with a wet rag or something like that," he explained. "We can whitewash it later."

Ayden watched as Galen expertly repaired the masonry with practiced, sure strokes of his tools. It wasn't long before the wall began to regain its former appearance, save for the difference in color between the old surface and the freshly applied sections.

"Fortunately the foundation still appears to be sound," Galen continued. "There are no cracks in the floor anywhere, and nothing seems to be sagging. We'll have to replace the doorframe, of course. That will involve constructing some new woodwork, but nothing too complicated. I just wish I had all my tools here. But we'll have to make do with what we have, I suppose."

Ayden slowly nodded, an absent-minded look on his face.

"So," Galen said conversationally. "Are you going to tell me what's on your mind?"

Ayden looked up, and a faint smile slowly crept across his face. He took a deep breath, let it out slowly.

"Well..." he mused. "It occurs to me that what we have here might be a potent weapon."

Galen stopped working on the wall and stared at him.

"You're not serious," he said.

Ayden nodded.

"I am," he said calmly.

"What happened here is a bad thing, Ayden," Galen pointed out. "Even I understand that. We should avoid it at all cost, not consider using it."

"Under normal circumstances I couldn't agree with you more," he said. "But given what we're up against, it might turn out to be the lesser evil. And yes, a lesser evil is still an evil, I'll grant you, but we should not be too quick to dismiss it. We may end up having no choice."

"I'm not sure I like the sound of that," Galen said slowly.

Ayden nodded.

"I don't like it either, and I

am

quite sure of that," he said. "But hordes of demons unleashed upon the world is something I like even less."

Galen sighed.

"You've got a point there," he admitted. "Still..."

He resumed his work on the wall for a few moments, then sighed, lowered his improvised wooden tools and looked up.

"I'm afraid of it, Ayden," he said. "This... power. It's just too much. I have no idea how to keep it under control, if it even can be controlled at all, and now you talk about using it."

He sighed.

"I can't do this, Ayden. I'm sorry. I just can't.'

Ayden smiled faintly and reached out to put his hand on the younger man's shoulder.

"When necessity forces your hand, you'll be amazed at what you can do, Galen," he said. "You may not like what you have to do, but you'll find that you can."

"He's right," Serana said.

Galen turned. He hadn't heard her come in.

"In fact, doing what you have to do is generally the easy part," she said.

"So what's the hard part?"

For the briefest of moments something flashed across her face. Then it was gone.

"Living with it afterward," she said softly.

Her comment did little to ease Galen's concerns. She clearly had her share of regrets, but he knew that asking her about it would be useless. Instead he took a piece of knotted rope and began to measure the doorframe. Making repairs was at least something he knew how to do. The demons would just have to wait.

* * *

That evening, as they sat around the table with the door and shutters closed and the soft golden glow of candles and lamps filling the room, Galen looked at the others and sighed.

"No man should have this much power," he said softly. "Even if I could control it, what would I do with it? Nothing good, I'm sure."

"The fact that you feel that way about it is the best protection against its misuse," Irya pointed out. "Believing that the end justifies the means is what leads a man down the path into darkness. But you feel otherwise. That's a good place to start."

"But where will it end?" Galen muttered. "I wish I had your trust."

"Let's not get ahead of ourselves," Ayden said calmly. "We may not have to use it at all. I'm just saying that we should explore the possibility, in case we get to a point where we have no other option left. It's a last-resort kind of thing."

Serana slowly nodded.

"Much as I share your reluctance, Galen, I must admit Ayden is right," she said. "If it ever comes down to seeing the entire world fall prey to the demon realm, then using the earth's life force becomes the lesser evil. And keep in mind that we're mages, not sorcerers. That does put a few restraints on it."

Galen looked up.

"Restraints? I'm not sure I follow you. What happened today seemed fairly unrestrained to me."

"It was and it wasn't," Ayden said. "As I'm sure Serana has explained to you, sorcery circumvents the natural order of things, while magic uses the forces of life. Sorcerers could do things that didn't rely on nature, We can't."

Galen thought about that for a moment.

"I don't understand," he admitted.

"Think of it this way," Serana said. "A sorcerer could summon a lightning bolt out of the blue to kill an enemy. All a mage can do is to set up the right conditions that will lead to a thunderstorm, and only once that storm is there the proper magic can cause lightning to be released from it. But that's it. The lightning will strike where it will. Nature is a complex thing in which everything relies on everything else, and as mages we cannot circumvent that, like the sorcerers did. So instead we use it, but there's only so much we can do. We can move a pebble in the hills and thereby cause a landslide, but only if the conditions are exactly right. That's the limitation I meant. We can't set off the landslide directly. We need the pebble to start it. Even moving the pebble directly is extremely difficult. Typically we use natural forces like wind and water to do that."