Tales of the Apprentice 01 Ch. 07

His eyes found a speck high in the sky and followed its slow, gliding path above the green fields. It circled as it followed the trail of some small rodent. With a single flick of its wings it soared higher, and he felt the fierce sense of freedom with which it moved through the air. His mind followed his gaze, drawn along with the bird as it flew, and gradually he realized that he had left his body behind, leaving his awareness free to roam wherever it wanted, far beyond the limits of his physical senses.

That had happened before. The first time had been last summer, while he was working in the cabbage patch behind Serana's cottage. She had warned him then, about the dangers of his mind not finding its way back into his body. And later at the abandoned village she had taken him along, both their minds leaving their bodies behind as they traveled beyond the limits of their physical senses, and they had seen the strange, dead-but-still-walking creatures surrounding the village. She had cautioned him then, too, that he would be safe only as long as he didn't interfere with her control of the whole thing. So if he had any sense at all, he would abandon this roaming awareness right now, return his mind to his body where it belonged, and keep it safely in there from now on.

But Galen was not in a cautious mood right now.

The discovery that he had been robbing Serana, and almost certainly Ayden and Irya as well, of their vital Energies, leaching their very life force out of them, had shaken him badly. He knew that he was not to blame for it. He hadn't even been aware of it, much less responsible for it. Yet he still felt terrible about what had happened. Willingly or not, he had hurt the people closest to him, and the guilt burned hotly within him. If it hadn't been for the fact that he had left his pack behind, he'd have given some very serious thought to the idea of not returning at all. Better to be alone than to hurt the people around him.

Not that Galen was much given to self-pity or to self-destructive tendencies. Life had not treated him very gently as a boy, and that had left little room for such self-indulgence. Perhaps Serana was right and it was a dark enchantment that made him feel this way. But then again, perhaps not. He had no way or knowing. All he knew was that he didn't care much right now. His dilemma was far more fundamental: while Raven had opted for a solitary life of danger and hardship, Galen knew he lacked the skills and strength to endure such an existence, and yet he was facing the very real possibility that a life like that would turn out to be the lesser evil.

He let his awareness roam, drifting this way and that across the fields before him. Whenever something drew his attention he moved closer to it, in a burst of what was almost, but not quite, speed. It was as if his mind somehow moved from one place to another without traveling the distance in between. One part of his mind was fascinated by that and wanted to know more about it. Another part of him was strangely bemused and merely content just to let it happen.

Then, gradually, a thought began to surface. Slowly his awareness focused on it, and his abstracted mood evaporated as he did so. It was all good and well to let his consciousness drift around like this, moving randomly here and there to whatever drew his attention, but there had to be more to it. In the abandoned village Serana had deliberately taken him out of his body and led him on a purposeful investigation. While the only instruction she had given him then had been to remain passive, he had seen enough to have a general idea of the principles behind it. Perhaps a little experimentation of his own might not be such a bad idea at this point. Serana had warned him not to do that, and if he had been in a better mood he would have heeded that warning. Now, though, he felt that learning more would be well worth the risk. Or maybe he just cared less right now about the dangers involved.

Experimentally he willed his awareness to drift higher. Slowly at first, but gradually more quickly, he... gained altitude, although that wasn't quite the right word for it. Now that he paid proper attention to what was happening, he noticed something strange: while it felt like he was moving around, it wasn't really movement. It was more like his awareness expanded in one direction and contracted in another, or maybe it grew in one direction and evaporated in another. It was difficult to put a name to it.

The higher he drifted, the more aware of his surroundings he became. At first that seemed logical to him: the higher he was, the further he should be able to see. But then, somehow, with an instinctive understanding deep within him that he was unable to explain, he realized that that wasn't really what was going on. He wasn't actually seeing; instead he was perceiving things at a much deeper level than that. Experimentally he returned his wandering senses to ground level while trying to hold on to his expanded field of awareness.

Somewhat to his amazement it worked.

Suddenly he sensed all sorts of things: a myriad of small creatures scurrying and burrowing in the undergrowth, the roots of which sank into the earth, searching for water and nourishment in their infinite slowness. The warmth of the sun, the coolness of the water, the lightness of the air... Insects, birds and worms were everywhere, and a pervasive feeling of life permeated it all.

All? Yes, all: the same feeling of life existed within himself, and with that strange but undeniable sudden clarity he saw himself not as a separate entity anymore but as a part of something much, much larger: something without which he could not have existed but, at the same time, something that would not quite have been the same if he hadn't been part of it. He had his place in the middle of all this life. He had a role to play, a task to perform. Suddenly he understood a lot more of what Serana had said about the Great Mother. It made him feel better.

Then a strange thing happened. He slowly became aware of a familiar presence, several leagues away. First it was a only a feeling, but gradually the feeling turned into a certainty. He followed its lead carefully until the presence gradually became stronger. It took some time and a lot of concentration, but finally he found its source.

Raven was sitting on a rock with his back leaning against a tree, much like Galen's own body had been when he'd left it behind. The mercenary stared into the distance, as if his gaze had spotted something absolutely fascinating a million leagues away. But the sadness on his face was heart-wrenching, and Galen suddenly realized with that unexplained clarity that while Raven had the strength that enabled him to be alone and live off the edge of his sword, that strength was borne from inner suffering and despair.

Suddenly Raven looked up, his eyes alert. He glanced around several times as if something had drawn his attention. Then he shrugged and sank back into his gloom. Slowly and carefully Galen let his awareness draw back a little. Had Raven sensed his presence? Possibly. Best to be careful, he decided.

Then he followed the mercenary's gaze into the far distance. Raven was looking north, and while Galen was fully aware that his stare was aimed at something well beyond the reach of sight, his awareness was drawn into that direction. And not just that. Suddenly he felt a pull that he could barely resist. There was something strange to that pull: it felt seductive and menacing at the same time. Something within him wanted to give into that pull and let himself be drawn by it. Another part of him was screaming in horror at the very thought of what would await him if he did.

He willed himself to see more, or rather, to see deeper. Gradually he became aware of something he had never sensed before: dark strands, almost like tendrils, or perhaps more like infinitely thin tentacles, were drifting in the middle distance: searching, sensing, questing. Behind those tendrils, coming from the far north, there was a sense of an icy cold, an ink-black darkness, and a terrible evil.

He recoiled from it in horror, and suddenly he was back in his body, shivering. Sweat ran down his face, even though he felt a chill in his bones. What in the name of the Great Mother had he seen? Whatever it was, he wanted to stay away from it as far as possible.

He rose, feeling the aches and pains from having been in the same position for too long. He welcomed it; at least these aches were only physical, and they were all his own. The pain in his back and shoulders was almost comforting after the feeling of horror that the sight of those dark strands had instilled in him.

He stretched a few times, then looked around for his horse. It was time to go back to the house.

* * *

"I don't see any other option," Ayden said slowly. "I don't like it either, but I don't think we have much of a choice.

Irya slowly nodded. The tree of them were sitting in the tub, leaning against the smooth stone walls. The bathhouse was filled with steam.

"It's too risky," Serana said. "We don't know how deep the enchantment goes. And we can't find out without triggering its defensive aspects."

"He's young and strong," Irya replied. "With the three of us acting together we can make it work. Besides, Ayden is right: we don't have much of a choice. We simply have to do an Extraction. The nature of the enchantment doesn't leave us anything else to work with. Also, none of us is in a shape for more heroic measures right now. And that's not going to change anytime soon, given how the enchantment draws on our Energies."

Serana sighed. She stared at the wall for a few long moments before she reluctantly nodded.

"I hate Extraction," she said. "It's far too dangerous."

Ayden gave her a sharp look.

"You've tried it before?" he asked.

"Yes," Serana said softly. "Long ago."

"Anyone we know?"

Serana sighed again.

"Torashin," she finally said.

"I... see," Irya whispered. "I'm sorry. We didn't know."

Ayden nodded.

"I understand your reluctance," he said. "But you have to keep in mind that by the time he returned to you, Torashin was no longer the same mage that you'd worked with for so long."

"How do you know?" Serana said with uncharacteristic heat. "You never knew him the way I did."

"True," Ayden said. "But I did meet him, shortly before the end. He..."

"He needed my help!" Serana interrupted him. "He came to me! He..."

"He was tired," Ayden said bluntly. "The years weighed too heavily on him. I'm not trying to be unfeeling when I say this, Serana, but he was done with everything. And you know it as well as I do."

Irya reached out and took Serana's hand.

"He's right," she said softly. "Torashin was tired. He was ready to go. And for someone who feels like that, Extraction is too much of a temptation to simply give in and not come back. Galen is nothing like that."

Serana sighed.

"I still failed him," she whispered.

"I don't think so," Irya said. "And neither does Ayden. But it doesn't matter. We won't fail Galen. We won't let him slip away like that."

Suddenly the sound of a throat being cleared made them all look up. Galen was standing in the doorway to the bathhouse, his body outlined against the gathering dusk of early evening.

"This sounds like an interesting conversation," he said calmly. "I think I should know more about it."

"Close the damn door first, will you?" Ayden said good-naturedly. "You're letting the cold in."

Galen stepped through the doorway and shut the door behind him. Then, staying close to the wall, he sidled into the far corner of the bathhouse.

"I don't want to come too near any of you," he explained matter-of-factly. "I don't want to harm anyone."

Serana gave him a sharp look. Something had changed in her young apprentice. There seemed to be a new strength in him, a measure of maturity that hadn't been there before.

"What happened while you were out?" she asked him rather pointedly.

Galen calmly returned her look.

"I've seen a few things that we need to talk about," he said. "But before we do that, I'd like to know more about what you were discussing when I got here. I believe it concerns me."

Ayden nodded.

"Yes. We were talking about Extraction," he said. "You are under a dark enchantment, and it simply has to be removed, the sooner the better. Extraction is the best way to do that."

"Extraction?"

"Yes," Irya said. "The idea is to create a substantial discharge of your Energies. If the discharge is intense enough, it will purge you of the enchantment as well."

"Think of it as a sexual laxative," Ayden said.

"That's not quite how I'd have put it," Irya replied. "But I suppose it's not a bad analogy."

"There are certain risks involved," Serana said quietly.

Galen nodded.

"I'd gathered as much," he said calmly. "I think I should know a little more about it."

"Yes, I suppose you should," Ayden agreed. "You're asking the right questions, so at the very least you're entitled to the proper answers. Alright then. The idea is to create a massive discharge of your Energies. You know how that discharge is triggered: through arousal and orgasm. The more arousal, the bigger the orgasm, and the bigger the Energy discharge. So we'll need to give you a really intense orgasm."

"Sound good so far," Galen said dryly. "So what's the risk?"

"Let me put it this way," Ayden replied. "You know how good it feels when you're inside a woman, right?"

Galen nodded.

"It's so good that you want it to last forever, except that the only thing that's even better is the orgasm it leads up to. Now, as orgasms go, they're always over too soon. Women can have a whole string of them, one after the other, if you do it right..."

"That's a big if," Irya interjected. "I'm lucky: sex mages are good lovers. They have to be. But most women never get there at all."

Galen nodded.

"Yes, Serana might have mentioned that, once or twice."

"It's true," Irya said. "Most men have absolutely no idea how to pleasure a woman."

"It goes both ways," Ayden replied. "Male sex mages also tend to have far better sex than mundanes. But that's not the point. Better than others or not, you and I are men, Galen, which means that we can only have one really good orgasm but even the best ones last only a few moments. Then it's all over and we need to rest."

"Yes, I know. Why is that, by the way?" Galen asked. "It seems terribly unfair."

"Not entirely," Serana said. "Men have orgasms quite easily. Most women don't. When a man and a woman have sex, the man is almost certain to have an orgasm, but the woman is usually not so lucky. Only a good lover can give her one, and even then it takes time and dedication on his part and the proper mood and mindset on hers. So it evens out, I suppose."

"Women carry more life force then men do, Galen," Irya explained. "The Great Mother's ultimate purpose of sex between a man and a woman is to create life. While the man's contribution of life force is absolutely vital, the woman has to carry the child to term while it grows inside her for nine months. She has to supply an enormous amount of life force to do that. So a woman must have more Energy, which means she can sustain a dozen orgasms or more in a row. A man, on the other hand, only needs to have enough for one."

"True," Ayden agreed. "But we digress. Let's get back to Extraction. Galen, imagine that your orgasm could be ten, may a hundred times more intense, and that it could last for, oh, I don't know, an hour, maybe more. Sounds great, right?"

Galen nodded.

"Wrong. It would kill you," Ayden said flatly. "When you release that much Energy there's not enough left for you to stay alive. A woman might survive it, maybe. A man wouldn't."

"I... see," Galen said slowly.

"I'm glad you do," Ayden continued. "So here's the catch: we need to discharge enough of your Energy in one big and intense burst, but not too much. The discharge needs to drain you almost entirely, but not quite. There's not a lot of wiggle room between not enough and too much. But that's only half of it. An even bigger problem is that such an intense orgasm and the corresponding Energy discharge will lift you to a different level of awareness, where you can actually take control of the process. Once you're there, you may not want it to end."

Galen slowly nodded.

"I'm beginning to understand..." he mused. "You're worried that I..."

"You may not want to come back," Serana said bluntly. "It will be the most intense pleasure you have ever experienced. It will be strong enough to overwhelm you. You may stop caring about living or dying and simply get lost in it. And if that happens, then there's nothing that any of us can do about it. You'd stay in orgasm until you died from it."

"Well," Galen replied calmly. "That would all depend on me, right? All I have to do is to choose to live, and everything will be fine."

"In a word, yes," Ayden said.

Galen nodded.

"Alright. Then let's do this," he said. "Because I'm not about to give up on life just yet."

Ayden gave him a sharp look.

"What happened to you out there, Galen?" he asked.

"I saw a few things," Galen replied. "Some good, some bad. But since none of it looks to be extremely urgent, maybe we should discuss all that later. I'd sort of like to stop being a danger to everyone as soon as possible."

Irya smiled and stood, the water running in small, tinkling rivulets from the lovely curves of her body.

"Ayden is getting waterlogged anyway," she said. "Let's have something to eat and get this done."

Serana sighed and looked grim. Galen turned to face her.

"It will be fine, Serana," he said.

She game him a wan smile and nodded.

"I know," was all she said.

A little later the four of them were gathered in the bedroom. A candle burned in each corner of the room. Galen was on his back on the bed.

"Why am I the only one naked here?" he asked.

"Because you're the only one who needs to be," Serana replied curtly.

"Speaking of which," Ayden said. "Drink this, lad. Trust me, you'll need it."

"What is it?"

Ayden smiled as Galen sat up to accept the steaming cup from him.

"Serana is not the only one well versed in herb lore, you know."

"So what will this do?"

Ayden glanced down at Galen's groin.

"Other than the usual effect of Serana's potions that you've been taking already, this will help to keep up your strength, both physically and mentally. It will also help to prevent dehydration. You may perspire a lot in the next few hours and we don't want your body to lose too much moisture."

Galen shrugged and drank. Whatever was in the brew tasted strange, but not as bad as some of Serana's concoctions. While he drank, he realized that this was the first time he was completely naked in front of another man. Ayden didn't seem to be bothered by it, though. But then, Ayden was an experienced sex mage and undoubtedly used to these things. Perhaps he should get used to it, too.

"Are you going to be here?" he asked.

Ayden nodded.

"Of course.. Don't worry. You'll be fine."

"But will you? I'm going to be leeching out all your life force now. We're all in the same room, I mean. I don't want to harm any of you."

Ayden smiled reassuringly.

"Don't worry about that, Galen. The effect will be diminished somewhat now that we're aware of it. Subconsciously we'll hold on to our Energies as much as possible. And as soon as you get aroused, that will mostly stop the absorbing effect of the enchantment."

"Mostly?"

"There will still be some residual effect, of course," Ayden admitted. "Nothing we can't handle, though."

Galen glanced at Serana, who sat beside the bed. She looked back at him.