The Third Apprentice

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She is 26 and insatiable.
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The Third Apprentice

This is a Halloween story set in medieval times. It is heterosexual erotic horror, and it is illustrated.

Here are the disclaimers: No one under the age of 18 is depicted. Themes include strong non-consent, age differences, big breasts, lactation, and mind control. It is historically inaccurate and un-researched.

As a final warning, some characters die. Some deserve it though, and I hope you enjoy.

Chapter 1

One foggy morn in the small village of Calico, a large house abruptly appeared without a sound.

The curious villagers soon gathered around the house, a two story manor. Standing outside with a proud smile to greet the stunned townspeople was a middle-aged mustachioed man wearing the heavily embroidered robes of a Grand Magus.

His name was Tubin, and he was looking forward to the quiet life after many harrowing adventures. Although he had faced many foes in combat and bested others in intrigue, his exploits were rather unknown to the people of Calico. This suited Tubin well, as he had no need for fame in his daily life. He expected a little commotion when he magically moved his house, but he trusted that the two-days notice he gave the mayor would smooth things over.

However, he was wrong. Mayor Stephen had announced nothing, and the people were shocked to find the large but cozy-looking mansion simply appear where there had been an impassable thicket for as long as anybody could remember.

Looking at the crowd gather in apprehension, he smiled reassuringly. He quickly noted that this seemed to have no effect.

Tubin disappeared in a flash, appearing at the Mayor's door. He gave it a knock and was soon given an audience.

"Good sir, it appears that the townspeople are quite surprised at my arrival. Did you not tell them I would be bringing my house here?"

Mayor Stephen was older, gaunt and balding, but he had a keen sense of assertiveness.

"Tell them? No. What would you have me do, go around telling people that a house would appear on Tuesday? I'd be laughed at."

"They wouldn't be laughing now."

"Fair enough. Look, most people from Calico go generations back. We're a close knit bunch. What you need is more than a wave of the wand can bring."

Tubin raised an eyebrow. "Try me."

"Seriously. The townspeople aren't dumb, they work hard their whole lives and know the difference between trifles and tribulations. I suggest you find a way to invest some time in the townspeople here, then they'll grow more accepting. I have just the thing, too."

Soon after, Mayor Stephen announced that Tubin would train a new apprentice in magic every four years. This news, while received with misgivings by some, was still exciting. The prospect of having one of their own youths helping around town or on the farm using magic seemed too good to pass up. They were somewhat less enthusiastic to learn that a baron's heir from another town far away was selected to be the first apprentice.

Many of the villagers viewed magic with suspicion even before Tubin moved to Calico. They had heard many tales in which magic was the catalytic ingredient to strange follies, especially where novice wizards were involved. It seemed likely that Calico would suffer at least a few trivial mishaps, or worse, thanks to magic. Little did they know that they would come to wish they had chased Tubin and his house from their midst.

It all began while the first apprentice was in Calico to study under the magus. The infamous Finneus of Worm was how he came to be known. He had blue eyes and almost elvish facial features, and was a bit on the skinny side. His family held a barony in Worm. They paid Tubin handsomely to have their son trained as a Magus, and the young man was an excellent student.

However, during his studies Finneus took a fancy to several of the girls in Calico village. He impressed them with magic, then wooed them with promises of true love. Each of the maidens, being a little too trusting and far too confident in their own charms, believed they were special to him. One by one, Finneus' conquests became pregnant.

As soon as he found out, he spurned them. The young maidens bore their illegitimate children in quiet shame, five babies in all.

The girls' families helped with the burden of raising the children. Mayor Stephen and Father Angelo also asked for donations on their behalf. The town debated the matter, but sympathy for the mothers won out by a wide margin, especially since the few wealthiest farmers who would provide most of the goods were vastly outnumbered.

Then tragedy struck. On the way to pick up a bottle of Farmer Bixby's fresh milk during a storm, one of the mothers was swept away in a mudslide. The villagers once more asked Finneus to care for his son, his own flesh and blood, but he said he had nothing to do with the child.

A few months later, another unwed mother disappeared, leaving a total of two of the children motherless. Both infants were boys. Finneus refused to even acknowledge these half brothers as his sons, and they remained in the care of their mourning aunts and uncles.

The bitter tidings spread as people talked about it at Calico's church. Father Angelo strove to supplant the many rumors, without leveling judgment on the girls. As Mayor Stephen, a widower, was known to be personally involved with assisting these mothers from time to time, disparaging rumors sometimes sprouted. The townsfolk also complained of the unwelcome Magus.

Father Angelo addressed these matters in church. With high dudgeon, his sermons assailed the scoundrel of a man, as he called him, the culprit of it all, Finneus, while sidestepping the issue of Tubin altogether. At the end of each sermon, the aging and balding pastor would appeal to the congregation's sense of charity and justice. Only their Maker could judge matters of sins and fornication, he would say. Father Angelo exhorted them to find it in their hearts to love and care for those poor unwed mothers, even if no outward gifts were given to the girls. The people filled the collection bowls with generosity, and Father Angelo saw to it that the assistance was distributed as needed. Naturally, some funds went to a few necessary repairs to the chapel.

Father Angelo spoke of the matter on several occasions. He eventually came to tell the people that if blame was to be laid, then it belonged at the feet of Finneus, whose wretchedness knew no limits. Finneus of Worm had taken advantage of each girl, and absolved himself of all responsibility. The townspeople found it unforgivable.

Magus Tubin warned his pupil time and again that he was not to engage in any type of immoral behavior, but before the truth about Finneus's filandering ways got out, nothing could keep the charming prestidigitator from oozing his way to girl's hearts.

When a torch-bearing mob appeared in front of Tubin's manor, he swore with fury. It violated the Oath of the Order for a master to cast spells on an apprentice. Tubin was at wits end, however. He cast spells on the entire town to ensure that Finneus would never have another illicit tryst in Calico. Thereafter, whenever Finneus left the house, the winds followed him. They spread a chill in the air, and they moaned and wailed in a warning that he had come. Ghastly voices croaked that death was nigh. No blankets could shield his body unless it was in his bedroom. It was enough to spoil the mood, certainly for Finneus, and so he remained in Tubin's estate.

Furthermore, to ward away the townsfolk, Tubin wove abjurations through the grounds of his estate that warned trespassers not to enter. The steps wobbled and wailed. The porch screamed murder when tread upon. It was harmless, but quite unnerving. Ultimately, none of the righteously indignant townsfolk of Calico summoned up the nerve to invade the home of the Magus. Nevertheless, they wished that among them was someone who had the power to deliver some vigilante justice to the sequestered apprentice. No such person appeared.

After three years of training, Finneus the Apprentice was ready for the trials. He left in the twilight of early dawn, whipped by cold, moaning winds all the way to the last farm before the edge of the wood.

Tubin had exerted tremendous magical energy to make the magic permanent, and there seemed no reason to undo the magic once Finneus was gone. He doubted, however, that Finneus would ever show his face in Calico again.

Tubin later hired the town crier to announce that Finneus had gone, and a new apprentice would be chosen in a year's time. The villagers hoped that the next apprentice would keep to himself. Indeed, they talked about it openly. As the day approached when Tubin would select the second apprentice, the leading farmers banded together, and hired the crier to announce that the popular demand of the village was for the Magus to select a very moral young man.

In response, Magus Tubin declared in no uncertain terms that his choice was nobody's business but his own. He added that if anyone wanted to know why, it was because that's just the way it was.

The people of Calico were indignant. That Sunday, nearly all of them came to congregate at the church. As it turned out, there was not quite enough room in the church for them to convene. They moved their meeting to the hillside meadow next to the graveyard. There, Father Angelo and several others gave fiery speeches about propriety and magic, and the future of Calico.

After the meeting, many voiced the opinion that it was the women of Calico who needed to think twice, especially about apprentices. However, a vocal group insisted that Tubin should pick a female apprentice, that she could not impregnate anyone but herself. Still others said that if he was to pick a young man, their favorite was a fellow named Edward, lauded for his unwavering adherence to moral principles.

Mayor Stephen related all these tidings to the magus.

"I'm not sure if apprenticeship was the best idea, after all," Stephen conceded.

"No, I think it was a grand idea. Finneus was the problem. I must tell you now though, that I am not taking a girl as an apprentice. No way. There's not room under my roof for one, and --"

"And what?"

"You know. Women, I mean, they're not the same as men but, they can't be trusted."

"I see, I think."

"What about this Edward. Good chap?"

"An excellent choice for an apprentice. The town loves him."

Tubin sighed. "We need a good apprentice. A moral man. Can you vouch for his character?"

"Absolutely," Stephen said. "Shall I announce it?"

"I'll go too. Look, I am not going to apologize, understand? I might throw up a barrier in case someone throws an egg though."

Edward came to stay at the wizard's manor. He was bright and quickly learned his first cantrip. Three days later, the second apprentice was found in bed with Aster, one of Farmer Holland's lovely daughters. Up until that night, Holland had no idea that his daughter had made acquaintance with the somewhat older boy. Holland, one of the vocal supporters of Edward, did not hesitate. He put a sickle in the boy's neck.

Aster's virginity had been saved at the last moment, but for the rest of her life she would see the slaying of her would be first lover each time she closed her eyes to sleep.

When Holland spoke about the incident at church the next morning, Edward's parents were stricken with grief. Yet not a soul expressed sympathy for the slain young man. Certainly no one would have described Edward's death as a murder. It would be years before Edward's family had outlived the scorn their favored son ultimately earned them.

The people clamored for another apprentice, and again they suggested he find a female. Tubin had never been to a town where women had such loose morals, but the people of Calico only saw a pattern as far as apprentices were concerned. Tubin strongly felt that women were prone to their own sort of deviousness. He just wasn't sure what that was; that unpredictability vexed him deeply.

He should have followed his instincts.

Failed relationships in the past had taught him that women were ruled by a different sort of logic than his own. Ultimately, he came to believe that they were indeed the lesser sex. While he was concerned about placing magical powers in the hands of such a disqualified individual, he worried that another fiasco with a male apprentice would ruin his reputation forever and cause him to wear out his welcome in Calico. Thus, roughly one year after the affair with Edward and Farmer Holland's daughter, Master Tubin announced he would take a female apprentice.

Male applicants still showed up from far and wide. Tubin hoped he would find one girl from Calico who had some magical aptitude. He found a whimsical loner named Gwen Grainger.

Although Gwen was perhaps the only girl in town with the requisite intelligence for magic, Tubin quickly came to realize that he had overestimated her real aptitude. Within weeks of starting, she lost interest in the memorization of incantations. She didn't expend the effort necessary for the proper enunciation of accents.

Deep inside, Gwen believed there was a way to bypass all the arcana while still tapping into the powers of wizardry. She was partially right. Warlocks and witches practiced another form of magic based on charms and material components, which involved much less memorization. Sorcerers possessed a rare talent that required no learning or memorization whatsoever. However, Tubin taught wizardry, a form of magic that relied heavily on tomes, quills, and expensive inks. The reality of the challenges involved frustrated Gwen.

Gwen had no way of comparing her progress to others, and she would have been dismayed to hear that she was a poor student. Tubin wanted her to remain confident. Confidence was vital to the study of all magic. Thus Tubin remained protective of her feelings, and never told her that her struggle to learn was out of the ordinary.

The Magus was only human, and he had to admire how beautiful she was. He came to look forward to the times he spent in her presence. He sometimes worried that she might think that he chose her for her looks. Tubin did his best to establish a rapport with her that worked with Finneus. Gwen was an entirely different person, though, and her slow progress meant that he had to adjust his approach. He tried to get to know her better, but she seemed reluctant to talk about the things she liked to do in her past. He wanted to know her as a whole person, yet more and more in his eyes she seemed a vulnerable young woman of surpassing beauty.

Her looks had certainly made the decision easier. Still, she was thin as a rail at the time, with jet black curly hair she let down to her shoulder blades. Tubin felt she was pleasant enough to be around and look upon. However, after feasting nightly on his magically created dinners, the waif had developed a rather appealing curvature to her backside and thighs. Her figure became impossible to ignore, whenever she walked away his eyes followed as if tethered. When she faced him, he was spellbound by her green eyes, hers were so especially big and bright. Her lashes were long and heavy, her perfect cheeks full and smooth. Tubin couldn't help but sneak admiring glances at her sultry expression as she sat beside him, reading magic.

He told himself from the outset that he would not involve himself romantically with Gwen for any reason. The Order was strict on these matters. But, Tubin also had experience as a guide. He had his trysts with exotic feminine creatures from both the faerie and demon worlds, and failed dealings with human women in his past. He had no desire to go through it all again.

When he felt temptation grow too strong, he quietly left the manor to spend the night with his nymph companions. They frolicked through the night, and Tubin would be lucky to return by noon with any clothes at all still on his body.

Even with this occasional diversion, Tubin could not stop admiring Gwen. She seemed to be getting more beautiful with each hour that passed, and even the nymphs seemed a poor substitute for a human girl. Tubin was soon at his wits end, fantasizing about her at night, dreaming of her, waking up wanting her so badly it hurt.

Gwen soon noticed the way he was looking at her. She felt attracted to him as well, although for different reasons. He was 42, she was just 24, but he was still in many ways youthful. He was trim in his gut and had a handsome cut to his jaw. She rather liked that he had foregone the bearded wizard look for a simple mustache, which was a dark red despite his mousy brown hair. More importantly to a young peasant girl with good looks, Tubin was wealthy and wielded powerful magics. With him, she knew she would be well cared for, always, even if she never learned magic well enough herself. Thus, she set her sights on seducing the master, and patiently sought ways to ingratiate herself with him.

After Finneus, Tubin had decided that his apprentice needed to perform chores. These she dutifully performed, and the work seemed to lift her spirits at times. Other chores were handled by means of Tubin's housekeeping magic. When Gwen asked why some chores were hers to do by hand, Tubin would reply that it would motivate her to master the proper magic spells. Still, it was difficult for her to imagine how she could ever cast a spell to command the dishes to wash themselves. Yet that was what Tubin assured her she would soon be able to do.

One day, he walked past her in the stairwell. She was on her hands and knees, polishing the richly stained wooden banisters. Her wild black hair was tied back to keep it out of the way.

"Gwen, I don't recall asking you to polish the banisters."

Gwen sat up on her haunches and looked up at Tubin. Slowly, she stood, rather close to him, but she did not step back.

"I know you didn't, but I did it anyway."

"Gwen, you don't have to slave away. I can polish the banisters with magic."

"Well, they needed polishing. It makes me happy to keep our home as beautiful as possible."

"Is that so?" Tubin asked, the words "our home" warming his blood a few degrees.

"If there is anything I can do for you, Master, just tell me and I will," she replied, her eyelashes aflutter as they gazed into his eyes. His eyes were drawn down, however, to her blouse, which was really only a lacy white halter top with a dipping neckline. She leaned so close it seemed her chest might touch his.

"Well, you are my apprentice, and there's lot's of work to be done here before your studies."

"Master Tubin?" she said, interrupting what he was about to say. "Anything you desire." She brushed a few errant bangs from her lovely face. Her jaw was delicate, her lips could have been sculpted from rose petals. Her halter top pushed her petite breasts up and together, enough to give a hint of cleavage.

Tubin looked at her and then cast his gaze to the banister, unsure of what to say.

She had been living with the man but that was all. Sometimes, it was not enough. She was convinced that it was time for them to move beyond the platonic lie. She was ready for him to take her, to enjoy and consume her. His pleasure would be her pleasure. She sometimes got wet just thinking about it.

"Tonight, when I come to your study for my next lesson, think about what I said."

If the proposition was not clearly stated, her tone of voice left no question in Tubin's mind. With that, Gwen performed her customary curtsy to the master.

Tubin moved on, saying nothing. His blood was on fire with desire he dare not confess to. Although it was wrong for him to allow his student to seduce him, he wanted it, badly. What was worse, her skill in magic was not improving and she was far behind schedule. He began to believe he would rue the day he let Calico bully him into taking a female apprentice.

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