Tales of the Apprentice 01 Ch. 01

Wordlessly, he nodded.

"That is because your climax releases more than just your seed, Galen. It also releases some of your life force. Not too much, of course, and your body can usually restore what little you have lost in a fairly short time, especially at your age, but still you notice it. The more intense your orgasm, the more tired you feel. Tired in a good way, but still tired. Right?"

He nodded again.

"Sex is the only way to create new life, Galen. For the creation of life you need life force, and therefore you need sex, or rather you need orgasms, to provide that life force. It's not the amount of seed you spill, or the force with which it spurts out. It's the orgasm itself. A man and a woman have the best chance of conceiving if they both climax when they make love, but even if only the father has an orgasm it is usually enough, because the mother contributes most of the life force in a different form: her body nourishes the child while she carries it to term. In fact, her contribution is far, far greater than the father's, but both are needed. Am I making sense so far?"

Galen nodded.

"A sex mage has the skill to capture the life force released during orgasm. Then she uses it as a way to power her magic, just like a death mage does with the life force released through a killing. But while death magic uses death as an easy, once-off way of taking what you want, sex magic is exactly the opposite. Sex magic is all about life and about giving, and it is infinitely sustainable."

She smiled.

"As you will have gathered by now, I am a sex mage. That's all I am, it's all I have, and it's all I can teach you. But before we can talk about that, I need to know from you, right now, if you are comfortable with that."

Galen took a deep breath.

"I... I suppose so. I mean..."

"You mean what?"

"Well... It's just a means to an end, right?"

"Wrong! It's infinitely more than that, boy! It is not just the physical act that drives sex magic. It is the emotional accompaniment that makes the difference. Orgasm releases the life force that drives the magic, but it is the feelings behind the orgasm that provide the drive for that life force in the first place. Lust, excitement, anticipation, those are all very important factors, yes. Even love, although love is tricky."

"Tricky? Why?"

"Love can increase the amount of life force," she explained. "In fact, it does that more often than not. But it can also cause that life force to be directed solely at the person you love, and that gets in the way of magic. Stay away from love, Galen. Life is complicated enough without it."

For the briefest of moments there was a sad, even bitter undertone in her voice that spoke of a deep, age-old pain. Galen decided it was best not to ask.

"So," she said after a few long moments. "Do you still want to learn?"

Galen thought for a moment, then he nodded.

"Yes," he said, his voice soft but firm.

Serana sighed.

"I was afraid you'd feel that way," she said softly. "Very well, then. How did you plan to pay me for this tutelage?"

"Well... I was hoping we could work something out..."

"Because you don't have any money, right? Right. Why am I not surprised?" She shrugged. "Fine. You'll have to work it off, then. How does a hundred years of indenture sound?"

That made him look up, his earlier embarrassment forgotten.

"A hundred years?"

"That's only to begin with, of course. Do you want this or not, boy? Because if you do, you'd better be prepared to spend at least a century or two just learning the basics, while you pay your way by tending the fields and keeping house for me. And trust me, the years do get long. Very long. So if you're not completely, entirely and totally serious about this, now would be the time to say so. Which brings up something else. While you're my apprentice, if that's what you are to become, you're going to have to sustain me as well."

"Sustain you? How?"

"With some of your life force, that's how. I'm older than I look, Galen. I can't seduce many young men right now, and I've had to make do with masturbation in order to keep myself from falling apart. But I can't keep that up much longer, because there's a principle of diminishing returns involved that you will soon learn about, if you decide to go ahead with this. So if you want me to teach you, you will have to give me some of your life force. Not more than you can easily spare, I assure you, and if I'm any judge at all you have more than enough for both of us. At any rate, you don't have much of a choice, really. If you want this, then that's just the way it's going to have to be, or I simply won't last long enough."

"And how... How would I do that?" Galen asked.

"I'll worry about the details at first. You'll learn soon enough. I give you my word of honor as a mage that it won't harm you in any way, or even make you uncomfortable. But you will also learn that there are times when this will be neither simple nor easy."

The intensely serious look on her face suddenly looked out of place against the lush greens surrounding the cottage and the blue sky of the sunny morning.

"Know this, boy: you're about to take on a lifelong commitment here. And I don't just mean the sort of lifespan you were expecting to have until now. So you'd better be serious about this."

Slowly he nodded.

"I think I am," he said.

She looked at him, the expression on her face indecipherable.

"Are you? I'm not so sure. So here's what you do. Go down to the village. Stay there for a few days. Get drunk. Get laid. Sleep on it. Think about it. Anything. If you still feel this way by the end of the week, you can come back. If not, I will understand. In fact, I will be greatly relieved, and I will use my next orgasm to try and make sure you have a good life. Do you understand me?"

"I... I think so, yes."

"Good. Then go. Go now, Galen. I hope I won't see you again."

* * *

As Serana watched the young man walking back along the road, she sighed and slowly shook her head. An apprentice? At her age? Surely that would be a mistake. Or would it? Had the Great Mother really spoken to her? Or had that bird simply been just a bird? No matter. She knew better than to simply make assumptions. No, she had to be sure. Which meant that her day in the vegetable patch was over.

She took a deep breath, rose, took her gardening tools from where she had left them and put them away. The carrots would have to wait until tomorrow. She went inside, closing and barring the kitchen door behind her, then she took off her apron and hung it on a peg.

She continued to her bedroom, which was small but neat. There she lit a single candle before closing the shutters. The bright sunny morning crept through a crack in one of the shutters, but other than that the room was dark, save for the light of the candle. She began to unfasten her dress. The cloth that bound her breasts was next.

While she always had taken good care of herself, under the present circumstances her age inevitably showed. Her breasts had long since lost their battle with gravity, and in many places her skin was loose and wrinkled. Yet she smiled. A sex mage is, by her very nature, familiar and comfortable with her body, regardless of age and looks. But young men are different. With any luck at all, Galen would have grave misgivings about the idea of having sex with such an old woman. She could hope he would be turned off by the idea and would not return. But she couldn't rely on mere hope or assumption here. She needed answers.

Naked, she knelt beside the bed and retrieved a small, wooden box from under it. Sitting on the edge of the bed, she opened the box. It was lined with velvet and it held some very special items. One of them was the tail feather of a very rare bird: flat, wide, beautifully patterned and with a long quill. Another was a small sable brush with a short handle and a thick bundle of soft hairs. The third item she took out of the box was wrapped in its own piece of velvet.

"Hello again, old friend," she said softly as he unfolded the velvet to reveal its contents.

It was a thing of beauty: delicately shaped, lovingly crafted and, as she knew from experience, very effective. Over the centuries she had possessed, and used, more dildos than she could remember, but this one was special. Made from the clearest crystal, with colored swirls embedded within, its shape and size were just perfect for her. The thick knob was smooth and just wide enough to part her insides in exactly the right way, while the spiral ridge wound around its shaft felt amazing and stimulated her with every stroke when she moved it in and out of her. It had been made for her long ago by a gifted artisan who had also had an unusual but very interesting frame of mind. She took a minute to warm the glass with her hands, gently stroking it like the old and much cherished lover it was.

She put the dildo next to her on the bed, lay back, closed her eyes and sighed. Caressing her skin gently with her fingertips, she traced all the familiar spots until she felt herself relax. Then, without opening her eyes, she reached for the sable brush. Its hairs were as soft as the wingtips of a butterfly, and when it touched her nipples she could barely feel it. Yet its effect on those sensitive buds was dramatic. A warm wave of pleasure spread through her breasts, and she felt her nipples begin to swell and harden almost immediately.

She continued her ministrations with the brush, running its soft, soft hairs across the sensitive skin, starting at the tops of her breasts and slowly working her way downward in a complex pattern that touched on her now very hard nipples irregularly but frequently. She continued this for quite a while, moving unhurriedly, taking her time. Gradually her breath deepened and her breasts swelled slightly as they seemed to glow with pleasure. A faint blush had appeared on her face and slowly crept down her neck, across a part of her shoulders until finally reaching her chest. The pleasure continued to grow, spreading through her slowly, until it began to flow down from her breasts, across her stomach and into the valley between her legs. She felt the heat building there, and she knew that if she would touch herself there now, her fingertips would find the warm, slick wetness that had begun to pool there.

The candle had burnt down more than an inch before she sighed contentedly and put down the brush beside her on the bed. Without opening her eyes she felt her way across the sheet until her questing fingers found the feather. She took its long, slender quill between thumb and forefinger and ran the soft plume across her face, feeling the tingle it always gave her. The tip of the feather was still soft, but less so than the hairs of the sable brush had been, so its touch was a little firmer, a little more insistent, than the sable's caress.

She took a deep breath, let it out in a sigh. She slowly parted her legs and traced the inside of her left thigh with her fingers, starting as low as she could reach and sliding up, tracing intricate patterns across her skin until she could feel the heat radiating from her center. Then the tip of the feather that she held in her other hand brushed across her hot, wet opening, sending small jolts of pleasure through her lower body. She traced her nether lips with the feather, its soft tip playing around the outline of her opening, occasionally brushing across it. A warm tension began to radiate outward from her most intimate spot, and her caresses with the feather became more refined, more subtle, yet more insistent at the same time, and the familiar pressure began to build within her.

That pressure was what she was after, and it would have to build a lot more before she was able to release it in the way she intended. Her breathing had grown even heavier, almost labored, and when the feather touched the small, hard nub at the apex of her nether lips she almost moaned, but with a practiced effort she suppressed it. More tiny jolts of pleasure ran through her, and her hard nipples tingled as she felt the first drop of her moisture slowly run out of her and finding its way into the cleft between her buttocks. She continued her ministrations, and the feather flicked across the tip of her hard little pleasure button again and again.

She felt slightly dizzy now. Her breathing grew ragged and she made a conscious effort to keep herself from panting or moaning. As she continued to stimulate her button with the feather, her other hand found the brush again. When he reapplied it to her breast and nipples she could barely stifle a moan this time, but she managed and carried on, feeling the wonderful pressure inside her build and build as her arousal soared. Mercilessly she drove herself further up that precipitous slope, squirming involuntarily on the bed, expertly gauging the intensity of her ministrations to ensure that she maintained control, all the while resisting the urge to drop brush and feather, dip the fingers of both hands into that hot wetness between her thighs and rub herself until she would explode with pleasure. She had to resist that urge, or all her efforts so far would have been for nothing.

Her thoughts began to drift. Galen. Such a strapping young lad. He might make for an interesting apprentice after all. He might be hiding a finely chiseled musculature under that tunic, and who knew what he might have in his breechcloth?

No. Letting herself become distracted was bad enough already. Letting herself be distracted by such thoughts about a would-be apprentice was even worse, since it was almost guaranteed to cloud the answers she sought. With considerable effort she wrestled her thoughts back under control.

She was ready. She put down both brush and feather, her hand shaking slightly with the intensity of her arousal and with the force of the pressure she had gathered within her. Opening her eyes, she took the crystal dildo from its resting place on the bed beside her, lifted it and kissed its bulbous tip. Opening her mouth, she let the smooth glass slip between her lips, wetting it with her tongue. That wasn't strictly necessary, of course, because she could clearly feel how her arousal had wet the bedding on which she sat, but she simply liked doing it that way.

Moving slowly, she put the thick glass knob against the entrance of her pussy. She carefully slid it up and down a few times, noticing how slick and slippery her nether lips had become. Then she gently pushed, pressing the bulbous tip against her entrance. It pushed her pussy lips apart, slowly, slowly, further and further... And suddenly it slipped between them.

She couldn't help it: a soft "Ooohhh..." escaped her as she felt the thick glass shaft begin its invasion. She held it still for a few long moments, relishing the feeling of the smooth glass against the slick wetness of her most intimate flesh. Then, carefully, she pushed it further into her. Slowly, ever so slowly, it entered her, the thick knob parting her inner folds as it went. Deeper and deeper the shaft invaded her hot, wet core, until the glass spiral around it kissed the lips of her pussy.

She suppressed another moan, careful not to let it discharge any of the pent-up pressure inside her, as the first of the glass spiral's smooth ribs slid past the lips of her pussy. It was this rhythmic stretching and releasing, stretching and releasing, that made the spiral drive her crazy. She continued to push, gently but relentlessly, and as the thick knob on the end of the glass shaft slid deeper inside her, another rib of the spiral widened the entrance of her pussy before slipping past it on its way in.

This was one of the things she loved most. Taking her time, savoring the feeling of the smooth, slick, thick shaft invading her insides ever so slowly, she continued until she had the dildo all the way inside her hot, wet core. Taking a deep breath, the carefully twisted it, feeling the spiral ribs slide across her inner flesh. Then she pulled, slowly but relentlessly, withdrawing it, and every spiral rib pulled her pussy lips apart, then let go. Pulled, let go, pulled, let go... Finally her folds caught the knob at the end of it and she reversed, pushing it back in.

She started slowly, ever so slowly, pumping the glass dildo in and out of her in slow motion, but the sliding action and the effect that the spiral ribs had on the entrance of her pussy drove her almost insane with pleasure at every stroke, and it became increasingly difficult to contain the pressure as it continued to build within her, rising to almost uncontrollable height. Almost, but not quite, although it took all her skill to keep it in check and maintain its steady rise. Her inner thighs were coated in her juices by now, and the dildo made wet sounds as she moved it in and out of her, slowly but steadily.

It took more and more effort to regulate her breathing and stifle her moans as the glass dildo continued to push her further and further along, but she applied all her skill and managed to control herself. Not yet, not yet... Until, after what seemed an eternity, she knew that the moment had come. The pressure inside her would not be contained for much longer, nor was she able to increase it any further without flying apart. It was time.

With the expert mental skills that make a sex mage what she is, she cleared her mind, then sank her awareness deep into her body, into her very core. As always, the Energy presented itself to her as a intense, blue-white light, burning bright within her. She expanded her awareness outward, further and further, past her skin and onward, onward, until it encompassed the entire room. With her inner Sight she could now see the bubble of Energy that both filled and surrounded her: bright, blue, transparent, tinged with sparking highlights of white. When she had it clearly visualized, she formulated her Intent, appealing to the Great Mother to grant her the answers she sought.

Taking a deep breath and holding it, Serana focused on the wonderful feelings within her, in her breasts, her nipples, her stomach, her thighs, her pussy, her abdomen and, finally, her hard, tingling, throbbing pleasure button. The movements of the thick glass dildo in and out of her hot, slick and sopping wet love tunnel became more forceful, more powerful and more frantic, as did the wet, sloppy sounds as it mercilessly ravaged the depths of her most intimate spot. Then she moved one of the fingers with which she held it, so that she touched her little button on each stroke, again and again, the wonderful pressure inside her building and building, then peaking rapidly...

For an infinitely long, timeless moment she managed to hold herself right there, teetering on the edge, until the pressure and the soaring pleasure almost became unbearable.

Then her finger found the rock-hard, searing hot tip of her pleasure button, touching it in just the right way, right there, just so...

And the pleasure exploded within her.

She dimly heard her own voice as she cried out in her release, but her attention was focused elsewhere. Containing the blue-white explosion of sexual energy that burst out from her pleasure button, her pussy, her abdomen, her nipples and finally her entire body as she convulsed with the intensity of her climax, she seized the power with her mind, wrestled it under control, restrained it, harnessed it.

Then she bent the tidal wave of Energy back upon itself and forced it back into her body.

Suddenly the intensity of her orgasm increased more than tenfold. The flood of sexual energy raged through her, circulating and recirculating, threatening to rip her apart, but she held herself together with sheer force of will and bent the Power to her Intent.