Tales of the Apprentice 01 Ch. 04

She forced herself to wait until she heard the door of his room close before leaving the kitchen herself. She made her way through the bitter cold of the unheated house until she reached her bedroom. Inside, she closed and barred the door before sitting down on the edge of her bed.

Great Mother, what was happening to her? Was it merely the fact that her Energy was at higher levels now than it had been for centuries? But why would that cause this silly infatuation with this boy? No, not a boy, she corrected herself; he was a proper young man, all grown up and of marriageable age...

What? That last thought was the most ridiculous of all! She would have to do something about this, something to get her out of this strange mood.

She reached under the bed for the small wooden box. She opened it and carefully took out the glass dildo. It was quite cold. That simply wouldn't do. She put the box down on the floor next the bed and crawled under the heavy covers. She held held the thick, smooth rod in her hands, feeling its familiar smoothness, its ridges and curves, the thick nob at the end and the rim that marked its base. She held it against her until the glass had warmed a little. Then she put it between her breasts, gasping slightly at feeling of the still chilly glass against the skin that covered those smooth, firm yet soft globes. When her hands brushed her nipples she felt little jolts of pleasure shoot through them. Great Mother, how hard and sensitive they were! Lying on her back, the glass dildo nestled in the cleft between her breasts, she gently pinched those pebbled nubs, and little jolts of pleasure shot through her, running from those engorged little buds straight down to the apex of her thighs.

She took the now sufficiently warmed glass shaft from its snug resting place, moved it down and parted her legs. Her fingertips probed between them. They came away wet. How had that happened? The hot wetness leaked out from her as if she'd been pleasuring herself for hours, stimulating herself in ways and with a perseverance that few lovers had ever managed. Until now, perhaps...

Suddenly her desire asserted itself again, and visions passed before her mind's eye: Galen kneeling between her legs, his mouth between her spread thighs; Galen ravishing her, his big, hard cock thrusting into her with deep, irresistible strokes; Galen pinning her face-down onto the bed as he took her from behind... She put the dildo against the entrance of her pussy and felt how the smooth, thick glass knob at its tip spread her nether lips. Great Mother, if only it were his cock... With one smooth thrust she pushed the dildo into her hot, sopping wet opening.

She could not hold in a soft moan as she felt the bulbous knob part her inner flesh and the ridged shaft invaded the depths of her most intimate place. For a moment she savored the feelings that her favorite toy induced within her, trying not to think of Galen and how much she wanted him in there, and suddenly she realized that she was on the verge of orgasm already. How was that possible? Such lack of control was completely unusual for her.

Losing no time, she turned her Vision inward and focused on her inner Energy. The blue-white light, shot through with bright sparks, filled her entire body, right to the end of each and every one of her extremities. With a shock of surprise she realized that Galen had given her much more than she had been aware of. In fact, he should have been completely depleted to the point where he could barely have walked after tonight's exercise. Yet he had seemed only a little unsteady but otherwise none the worse for wear. How was that possible?

To add further to the mystery already before her, she saw something else when she turned her Vision inward: a strange, pink glow that overlaid the normal blue-white colors of her inner Energies. What in the name of the Great Mother was that?

But the moment of her Release was at hand, and the rapidly building pressure of the Energies within her would not be denied any longer. She focused her Intent, such as it was, until she felt the had achieved a sufficient amount of control.

It was time. Her fingertips found her little pleasure button and stroked it one, twice, while the thick, ridged shaft with its thick glass knob worked its magic deeper inside her, and the pleasure sparked through her as the Energies within her swelled, swelled...

And her Release hit her like a charging bull. With a blue-white flash and a silent explosion the Energies erupted within her as pleasure burst out from her pussy, her pleasure button sparking with little, crackling jolts of intense orgasmic delight. She felt her body grow rigid and her back arched as the full force of her orgasm swept through her. Great Mother, it was so gloriously intense!

With considerable effort she managed to retain her focus and her inner Vision while the pleasure sought to dissolve her concentration. Further inward her mind sank until the world around her all but disappeared, and with the clarity that could only be brought on by her Vision she saw what was going on within her.

The realization was a considerable shock.

She was under a spell! And not just any spell. It was a love spell.

The pink glow she had seen within her should have told her what was going on, she berated herself. How could she have missed this? The way she had been feeling for the past half hour or so, the pink light within her, the brief time it had taken before she could not hold off her Release one moment longer...

But then, how could she have known? Suddenly the ramifications of what had happened became clear to her. Galen didn't know how to cast a spell; much less did he have the skill to channel his Energies into it and power it in a lasting manner. Which meant he must have done it entirely subconsciously.

Was such a thing even possible? With the results clear before her inner Vision the answer to that question was obvious. But how? She had never heard of such a thing. Yet it was clear that it had happened. Which meant that the course of action she had to follow was also clear.

She brought her Intent to bear and let a small amount of the Energy within her dissipate. The pressure inside her diminished somewhat, and she felt herself relax. Her reflections had taken her only a moment, and she used the remainder of the Energy that her climax had released within her to dissipate the love spell that had dominated her thinking so badly. Then she let her orgasm run its course, reveling in the wonderful feelings that radiated outward from the region just behind her pussy, from the little button at its top and from her nipples.

When the pleasure finally subsided and she felt her body relax, she withdrew the dildo from her sopping depths and put it on the bed beside her. She sighed. She did not want to do what she was going to have to do, but there was no help for it. She asked the Great Mother to give her strength as she closed her eyes and let herself sink into the soft darkness of sleep.

* * *

When Galen stepped into the kitchen the next morning, still looking a little groggy, Serana was sitting at the table, waiting for him. The look on her face was stern.

"Good morning, Galen," she said. "Sit down."

He raised his eyebrows, but he did as she had told him without asking questions.

"We need to talk about last night," she said flatly.

"Ehm... Alright."

"What did I tell you about the dangers of love? I told you love is tricky. I told you not to fall in love with me. But you let that happen anyway. Don't think I don't know it."

"But... No, Serana, I..."

"Stop fooling yourself, Galen. Do you realize what you did last night?"

Mutely he shook his head.

"You put a love spell on me."

"I... What? How?"

"You did it subconsciously. That's what I meant when I said that love can be tricky; it can be dangerous to a sex mage. You are in love with me. You want me to love you back. So last night when you released your inner Energies your subconscious made sure that that would happen. You should not have been able to do anything like that, but you did."

He looked at her, a perplexed expression on his face. Suddenly she felt sorry for him, and sorry for what she was about to do to him. But she had no choice.

"So I am going to have to show you something, Galen," she continued. "You are not going to enjoy seeing it any more than I will enjoy showing it to you, but it is something you must see. So be quiet and watch."

She stood, took off her dress and the cloth that bound her breasts, and put the garments on the kitchen table. Standing naked before him, she closed her eyes and turned her Vision inward. Using the Energy still stored within her, she focused on the spell that maintained her youthful appearance, and began to reduce its effects.

Immediately she felt herself weaken as, before Galen's horrified gaze, she started to age. Her skin grew wrinkled and loose. Her glorious breasts lost their full, shapely firmness and began to sag until they were little more than empty bags of wrinkled skin. Her thick, glossy hair grew gray, wispy and thin. Her eyes filmed over, and her body seemed to shrivel as she stooped, unable to stand upright any longer. Her skin, now showing brown spots here and there, hung wrinkled and loose on her gaunt arms and legs, and her body grew thin, frail and brittle, save for a small pot belly that slowly swelled, then collapsed until it hung like a limp sack before her.

She stood there before him as long as she could. Rheumatism and gout burned like fire in all her joints, and her back ached terribly. Finally she had to sit down. She groped weakly for the kitchen chair; her eyesight was too blurred to locate it otherwise. Gingerly she sat. The wooden seat hurt her bones.

"You already knew that my youthful appearance is the result of magic," she said, speaking slowly in a thin and wavering voice out of a toothless mouth. "Now you see what it means. This is what I really am, underneath. This is the real me."

She gave him a few more moments to contemplate her appearance.

"Leave me now, Galen," she muttered. "It will take me some time to make myself presentable again, and I don't want you to see it."

She waited until she heard the kitchen door close behind him before she set about reactivating her youth spell. She had shut it down as far as she had dared, taking herself as close to the edge of aging as it was safe to do, which meant that she now had to start working on it in a weakened condition. Restoring her youthful appearance and strength was a slow and difficult process. When at long last she was done, she sighed. If only there had been any other way. No matter how necessary it might have been, it is always a terrible thing to have to destroy someone's love. Yet she'd simply had to break his infatuation with her. She could only hope that she had not broken his heart as well.

* * *

It was much later when she knocked on the door of his room. There was no answer. She knocked again before she slowly opened the door. Galen was sitting on the edge of the bed, his eyes staring at nothing.

"Galen?"

Slowly he turned his face to the door.

"Come, Galen. Breakfast is ready. And we need to talk."

Silently he got up and followed her to the kitchen, walking like an automaton. A cup of herbal tea stood on the table.

"Drink," she instructed him. "It will help."

She dished up bowls of steaming porridge sweetened with honey for both of them. Slowly he began to eat, and gradually the look in his eyes became a little less haunted. Yet t there was no doubt that he was still badly shaken.

"I am more sorry than I can say, Galen," she began. "But you simply had to be reminded of what I really am. What you saw this morning is not even the real me. It is closer to the real me, but if I were to become the real me, all the way, my bones would turn to dust before your eyes."

She sighed as she sat down across from him.

"I'm old, Galen. I was born long before the Fall of the Sorcerers. The Fall happened about sixty centuries ago. I am older than that, but I don't even exactly know how much older. I may be close to seven thousand years old. Who knows? We didn't keep track of time much, in those days. But no matter what, the body you see before you right now is only an illusion."

He nodded slowly.

"I knew that," he said, his voice barely more than a whisper.

She reached out, took his hand in hers. She felt him suddenly grow tense, and for a moment she thought he was about to bolt from the kitchen. But the tension gradually subsided, although many terrible things were happening behind those haunted eyes.

"Are you afraid of me, Galen?"

"No. I...."

He seemed unsure what to say.

"I haven't changed, Galen," she said calmly. "I am exactly the same person I was yesterday. I look the same as I did yesterday. And I am just as old as I was yesterday. You know that. I told you about it, the very first day we met. When you first saw me, I looked much older then than I do now. You knew all along that the youthful body you see before you is an illusion. You have known that for a long time. But you let the illusion seduce you, until you chose to forget."

He gave her a long, silent look, then slowly nodded.

"Yes. I suppose I did," he said softly.

"It may have been at least partly my fault," she admitted. "I should have seen it much sooner and I should have nipped it in the bud. I didn't. And for that I am sorry."

That got a sad smile out of him.

"You have done nothing to be sorry for," he said, his voice a little more steady now. "I'm the one who should apologize. You did tell me. You did warn me. I should have known better. I should have done better."

She smiled and shook her head.

"My dear, dear Galen. You're young. You are still new to all this. You are bound to make mistakes every now and then. It's unavoidable. That's how we learn. Trial and error are part of it. We learn from both, especially from our errors."

He smiled ruefully.

"I will be a very learned man one day, then," he said, a note of wry self-mocking in his voice.

"Perhaps. We could all do worse than to learn from our mistakes. So learn from this one. I will try to do the same. And whatever you do, don't beat yourself up over it. This is hard enough for both of us as it is."

He looked at her, hesitated.

"What is it, Galen?"

"Serana, you mentioned a... A spell? I don't understand."

She nodded.

"First you accidentally applied your Intent to dispel the cold in your bedroom, and last night you unknowingly channeled your Energy into something even more powerful. I know that none of that was your fault. You didn't do it deliberately. But you do seem to have capabilities that you are not aware of; things that I don't understand yet. When last night happened, you probably didn't even notice it. I sure didn't. You're young and inexperienced. I don't have that excuse."

He squeezed her hand.

"And you told me not to be too hard on myself?" he asked.

She smiled ruefully.

"Yes, something like that. Anyway, last night you accidentally put a love spell on me, because you were in love with me. Which meant that you wanted me to love you, too. Your subconscious took it from there."

"I'm... I'm so sorry, Serana... I never... I didn't..."

"I know. And as soon as I realized that the spell was there, it lost its power. Then was easy for me to remove it. That's how love spells work: one has to be unaware of their presence for the love to seem real. So there was no harm done. But we really need to get behind what's happening here and make sure you no longer do such things involuntarily, or even without realizing it. And I'm not yet sure how to do that."

Galen sighed.

"I'm sorry, Serana. I never wanted to be a problem."

"I know. You keep telling me." She smiled and squeezed his hand. "You're not a problem, Galen. Trust me, you aren't. Teaching you is more of a challenge than I had any reason to expect, I'll admit. But the Great Mother sent you to me, and She would never have done that if I weren't up to the task. The fact that I'm not sure yet how to pull it off means little compared to that."

"I hope you're right," he said glumly.

After breakfast Galen spent most of the morning outside, cutting firewood. Serana privately suspected that it was more out of a desire for solitude and to keep his mind busy with a simple task than out of a genuine need to restock the wood pile. She stood at the window, and watched him swing the ax while the snow fell about him. And she worried about him.

What she had done this morning had to be done, but it might cause some unwanted side effects. For one thing, it had used up almost all of the Energy she had stored within her. He had sustained her; he had enabled her to revive her youth spell and to energize it once more to its full extent, and it had been easy for him. But would that still be the case? Having seen her true self this morning could be a massive turn-off for him. Yet she still needed his Energies to sustain the youth and strength that the job of training him would require of her, especially after the way this morning's workings had depleted her. But how? Even as young and virile as he was, would she still be able to rise to the occasion with the image of that ancient crone fresh in his mind? While his orgasm and his ejaculation served as the trigger for the necessary transfer of Energy, in the end it was his state of mind that drove that transfer, more than anything else.

Somehow she would have to get his head back into the right place. Fortunately she knew a way to do just that.

* * *

"How do you feel?" she asked him that evening after supper.

The look he gave her was almost apprehensive. It was obvious that he knew exactly what she meant.

"After this morning, you mean? A little weird, I suppose," he admitted.

She nodded.

"That was to be expected. But, as I said, I am still the same person I was yesterday. You trusted me yesterday. Can you still trust me now?"

"Yes," he said without hesitation. "Absolutely. It's just that..."

"I know. It's different. But it doesn't need to be, Galen. Yes, I do like looking this way. I like feeling this way: young, healthy..."

"And beautiful," he finished her sentence.

She smiled.

"Thank you. But the point I'm trying to make, Galen, is that the people we see before us are rarely what they seem. Granted, in my case the difference is a little bit more dramatic. But most people will surprise you when you get to know them better and they turn out not to be as they appear on the outside."

He nodded glumly.

"But that's life," Serana continued. "And when it happens, the best we can do is to learn from it and move on. Speaking of learning: if there's anything to be learned from all this, it is that your training is far from complete. We have work to do."

The look she gave him was very direct.

"Are you up to that?" she asked.

He took a deep breath, squared his shoulders and nodded.

"It's either that or give up, isn't it?"

"No, Galen, as a matter of fact it isn't. Giving up is no longer really an option for you. An ability has emerged within you that you must learn to control. If you don't, terrible things might happen now that it has been unleashed. Or have you forgotten the past few days?"

"Not exactly, no."

"Good. Tonight we're going to do something different. I need to show you more of how to manipulate your inner Energies, but this time I'm going to make sure nothing gets out of control. So I'm not going to work on you tonight. Instead you're going to work on me. It's safer that way."

"Work on you? How?"