Tales of the Apprentice 01 Ch. 07

"You're worried," he said.

"Not really," she replied. "Concerned, maybe. Galen, during your moment of orgasm you will release a tremendous amount of Energy. The idea is to release all that into the Earth, into the Universe. But..."

"But I've messed that up before," he said.

Serana smiled wanly.

"I wasn't going to put it that way, but yes. Galen, you must not apply that power inadvertently to any Purpose. The results could be devastating."

"This will help," Irya said, holding up several strips of dark blue cloth. She took one, twisted into a thick, soft rope and began to tie it around one of Galen's ankles.

"You will want to move around quite a bit," she explained. "You'll also want to touch yourself to give yourself Release. We simply have to prevent that."

"By tying me down?" Galen said.

Irya smiled and nodded while she calmly continued to tie his feet to the bedposts.

"We want you to be comfortable, but at the same time we need to keep you in place. Give me your hands."

He held out his hands. She used the cloth to bind his wrists together, gently but firmly. Meanwhile Ayden ran a much longer strip of cloth underneath the bed, from one side to another, and Irya tied the ends around his wrists, holding them in place across his chest while tying his upper body to the bed at the same time.

"You do that disturbingly well," Galen remarked.

"This is all about physical sensation," she explained. "You need to remain completely passive. Leave everything to us. Don't worry about your Energies. Don't even try to observe them, much less control them. Pretend you know nothing about any of this. Just let it happen."

"We have to build up quite a bit of pressure before your Release," Serana added. "Irya and I will stimulate you. While we are doing that, Ayden will anchor you."

"Anchor?"

"He will make sure you won't climax too soon. He will use some of your own Energies to suppress your Release until the pressure within you has risen far enough to purge you, once you reach your Climax. That will take quite a while, and you'll want to have your orgasm long before the time is right. Ayden will help you to hold it together until it is time to let go."

"And if Serana and I do it right, you won't be able to think clearly by the time that happens, so you won't have to worry about inadvertently casting any spells," Irya said. "And finally, this will help, too."

She held up the last strip of dark blue cloth and put it over his eyes.

"As I said, this is all about physical sensation," she explained. "If you can't see, then all you can do is feel. It will intensify everything you experience, and sight and thought won't interfere. Trust me."

"I do," Galen said confidently.

But in truth he felt more than a little apprehensive. Within him there was a tension, and something more, something disturbingly like fear. He suddenly felt a drop of sweat trickle down the side of his neck.

"Relax, lad," Ayden said. "You'll be fine."

Galen smiled and nodded behind his blindfold. Then he felt a pair of hands touch his chest. They were small, soft, feminine hands. Irya's? The hands gently caressed is skin, moving in small circles as they quested, explored, touched. It felt good, and he smiled.

"See?" Ayden chuckled. "I told you."

"Sssshh..." he heard Serana whisper.

Then he felt another pair of hands touch his left arm. They had to be Serana's. The feeling of her fingertips on his skin set off tiny sparks of pleasure.

Galen had never thought of his arms as being particularly sensitive, but the feeling of those soft fingertips delicately caressing him there was something he had never experienced before. Unable to see and with the others in the room being quiet, his sense of touch was all that was left to him, and he was amazed how that simple fact heightened the experience of being touched. Serana had instructed him to shave carefully, all over, and he had not disappointed her. Now he began to understand why she had told him to do so. His smooth, hairless skin was so much more sensitive, and the touch of those hands felt absolutely wonderful.

The hands high on his chest continued to move in small circles, caressing, stroking, exploring. The fingertips on his arm did the same, but in a different way. They moved slowly, unhurriedly, in a way that could only be called sensual. Wherever they touched him his skin responded; it began to glow, to tingle, and suddenly he felt more alive than he ever had before.

Serana smiled. From the way the muscles under his skin responded to her touch she could tell that her caresses had the desired effect on her young apprentice. This was a skill she had learned a long, long time ago. Irya was very good at it, too, she knew. One day perhaps they would both teach Galen the art and skill of touch.

Slowly, taking her time, she continued to caress him, moving down to his lower arm where the cloth held his wrists in place, then back again to his upper arm, his shoulder, the side of his neck. Irya, meanwhile, had crossed the strip of cloth that held his hands in place across his chest and was now tracing delicate patterns across his stomach with her fingertips. Moving down, slowly, ever so slowly, her fingers strayed closer and closer to the young man's groin. But before they could reach it, she moved her hands sideways toward his hip, then his thigh. His weight gently shifted on the bed in response. She caught Serana's eye, saw the faint smile on the other woman's face. Her concerns notwithstanding, Serana was obviously enjoying what she was doing.

And, if truth be told, so was she. Being a white mage, she had never put power and control very high on her list of thrills, but the knowledge of what her gentle touch was doing to Galen definitely made her feel good in a way that was entirely different from how she normally felt about magical or Energetic operations. From the way he moved and the way his breathing gradually changed, she could tell that he was experiencing that first flush of excitement now, that warm rush that was more mental than physical and that spoke of delights to come.

Galen, in the darkness behind his blindfold, was indeed experiencing feelings that he'd never had before. This was unlike anything he had known so far in his young life. Neither Irya nor Serana had touched him yet where he had expected to be touched. All their caresses had been deceptively innocent so far: to his chest, his arms, his neck, his stomach, and now the outside of his right leg. And yet he felt his body fill with a warm, deep pleasure that was completely different from the pleasures of the flesh that he was becoming more and more familiar with. This was something deeper, more subtle, and infinitely more refined.

The hands that had been stroking his upper arm and shoulder (Serana's?) now touched the side of his neck, his jaw, the side of his face. A small shiver of pleasure ran through him. Somehow, between the hands caressing his face and the ones stroking his leg, Energy had begun to flow through him. At first it was subtle, almost hesitant, but gradually a stronger circulation began to occur. Then the hands moved to the other side of his face. How had she done that? Hadn't she been sitting to the left of him? The hands on his leg were still where they had been, although they were moving down slowly, as if they wanted to explore every tiny bit of him.

With a sudden clarity he realized that these caresses, infinitely wonderful as they were in their relaxing rather than arousing ways, went far deeper than just his skin. They were reading, and perhaps manipulating, the Energies that stirred deep within him. But trying to analyze it was probably not what he should be doing right now. He gave himself over to the feeling, and an even deeper relaxation spread through him.

Irya caught Serana's eye. Serana nodded; she, too, had noticed how the last remaining tension had left Galen's muscles. The proper mindset was absolutely vital to a profound Energetic operation such as this, and only when he had reached it would he be ready for the next phase. But that would still take some time.

Irya continued to work on Galen's leg. While her caresses focused mostly on the outside of it, occasionally she ventured to the inside, but only for a brief moment, and never straying too far. Stroking his skin gently while keeping her touch light, she moved her hands in small circles, occasionally alternating with long, slow, stroking movements. Serana had started to move down along his other arm, and her fingers played across his skin like those of a lute player plucking the most delicate notes from her instrument.

Galen's senses reeled. He'd never experienced anything like this: his body filling with an all-pervasive sense of... what? He couldn't quite put a name to it. It was unlike anything he had ever felt; it was a deep glow, a well-being that filled him completely. During their time together Serana had made him experience delights that he hadn't known existed, and she had taken him to heights of pleasure he hadn't even dreamed about, much less sampled, but this was entirely different. It went far, far deeper. And yes, there were promises of more pleasure yet to come, but somehow he was in no hurry to get there. For the moment it was enough to just be here and now, and to simply feel.

The blindfold made complete sense to him now. Deprived of sight and able to hear only some occasional faint rustling sounds, his sense of touch had begun to dominate him completely. The palms and fingertips caressing his skin became his whole world, and their effect on him was greatly increased with his lack of other senses naturally shifting his focus to the feelings. Even his thoughts gave way to the mere awareness of touch, as the women to whom he knew the hands belonged continued their caresses along his arm and leg, from the tops down to the ends and then back up again.

But wait, what was that? Somehow the hands had switched places across his body. But... He had felt no movement! How had they done that? Or was he mistaken? No, certainly not; the hands that had been on the one side of him were now suddenly on the other. There was a subtle but distinct difference in the way they touched him, and the fingertips caressing his skin definitely belonged to a different pair of hands than the one that had been there moments before. Ayden? No. The hands touching him were still soft, light, unmistakably female. But there was no way for him to determine how they had done what they did. The warm, languid pleasure within him continued to rise further, and soon he stopped wondering about it.

The caresses went on for what seemed an eternity. That was fine with Galen; as far as he was concerned an eternity was just the right amount of time for this sort of thing. As time went by he sank deeper and deeper into the immersive pleasure until the relaxation enveloped him entirely and finally permeated him until it came to define his whole being. And all the while the soft, gentle hands coaxed him on, further and further into this deep state of warm, utterly relaxed pleasure.

Then, suddenly, it happened.

One of the fingers casually brushed the side of his balls.

It was only a light touch, brief and fleeting. But the effect it had on him was beyond description. It was as if a lightning bolt of pleasure had struck his groin. Blue-white sparks of sexual energy suddenly danced around within him, pooling in his abdomen, his balls, his cock. A surge of the familiar pressure welled up within him.

Serana smiled as she saw how her deliberate, almost-accidental touch had the exact effect she desired. Long, very long ago, an alchemist had shown her how an over-saturated solution would crystallize into a solid in a single instant as soon as a tiny seed crystal was dropped into it. Her casual touch had the same effect on her young apprentice: a wave of Energy erupted from him as she touched him there; his breathing suddenly deepened and his whole body moved subtly as both the nature and the level of his arousal changed. Now there was a distinct tension in his abdomen and his thighs, where before there had only been relaxation.

And that was not the only effect. His cock, flaccid and dormant until now, suddenly awoke. It began to swell rapidly as she watched, first growing longer, then thicker, and with every beat of his heart it swelled further. As it lengthened, the tip of the head came peeping out from under the foreskin. His shaft began to raise itself up and then, almost suddenly, his foreskin rolled back behind the crown, exposing the head. His shaft continued to harden and rise rapidly, spurred on by the vigor of his youth and the pressures within him, until it stood up proudly, pointing up and back, aimed at his chest, nodding with every beat of his heart.

Serana smiled as she looked at it. He had such a nice cock. She had seen many of them over the long, long centuries, more than she could count, but there was something about this one that she particularly liked. If only she could figure out what it was. Granted: while not especially large it was generously enough proportioned, and it was nice, firm and straight. The head, now fully engorged and looking as if it was about to burst with the pressure of his blood, was bulbous and in all dimensions larger and wider than the shaft, and its surface, taut with tension, gleamed like satin. She knew from experience that it would feel hot to the touch, hard as steel yet soft as velvet, if she were to touch him there.

Yet these were all things she had seen countless times before. This was just a cock, like so many others. There should have nothing special about it, and yet somehow it was. She longed to touch it, stroke it, caress it, hold it in her hand as she took the head into her mouth. But she couldn't do any of that yet. Not yet.

Galen's mind, meanwhile, was spinning. In a single moment the pleasure within him had turned into pure lust. That one, single touch had changed everything. He wished that whoever had touched him there would do it again. He wanted that. No, he needed it, right now, more than anything else. He felt his cock standing up, begging for attention.

Attention it wasn't getting. That one casual touch seemed to have been entirely accidental. But how was that possible? Surely they could not have missed the state of his cock. That could only mean that they were deliberately ignoring it. For how long? Suddenly he had visions of himself being trapped, there in the darkness behind his blindfold, forever desiring to be touched where they were sure never to touch him again! For an instant he was close to panic.

Then the moment passed, and he noticed that the movements of the hands across his skin had now changed somehow. The pair working on his one leg had divided itself, slowly tracing intricate patterns across both his legs at once with lightly touching fingertips. The hands on his arm had moved to his chest and begun to stroke him there with both palms, gently and lovingly.

And if he wasn't imagining it -- and he was pretty sure he wasn't -- the two pairs of hands had begun to approach each other, but slowly, ever so slowly. With every stroke they inched fractionally closer to one another. Ultimately they should meet in the middle. Right at his groin.

It took a very long time. How long he couldn't say, because his sense of time had begun to do strange things. The hands on his chest eventually crossed the barrier formed by his arms, bound as they were in front of him with strips of cloth he could no longer even feel, and it seemed to take forever. Meanwhile, though, the hands working on his shins had moved up past his knees and were doing indescribable things to the insides of his legs there, but while they were keeping pace with the hands that had moved down from his chest to his stomach, they seemed to have taken no time at all to get where they were right now. How was that possible?

His senses became increasingly blurred, not in the last place by the fact that the hands caressing his skin were also having an effect on him at a much deeper level. While they were moving ever so slowly, yet inexorably, in the general direction of his groin, the Energies building within him responded in kind. When that casual brush against the side of his balls had suddenly turned that deep relaxation into an even deeper need, the Energy within him had still been more or less uniformly distributed throughout his body. Now, though, they begun to pool in his abdomen, gathering there and building, like a complex of subterranean forces waiting to erupt in earthquakes and fire and red-hot explosions.

The hands on his abdomen inched down agonizingly slowly. Did they take minutes or hours to move an inch? He couldn't say. The hands on his legs crept teasingly toward the insides of his thighs, and he wished they would just hurry up and get there. The growing arousal within him began to assert itself more forcefully now; it became a demand, then a need, until his groin became a center of burning lust. It seemed to glow, to pulse, as if an aura of pre-orgasmic energy surrounded it.

Serana caught Irya's eye as she looked down at the center of his arousal, a faint smile on her face. His straining cock, the head a delicate shade of purple now and gleaming with the tension caused by the pressure it contained, was standing up hard and rigid, nodding with every beat of his heart. She knew that if she were to touch it now she would find it hot and hard as a bar of freshly forged steel. A small, clear drop slowly ran from the opening at the tip, from where it dropped until it hung down in a glistening thread that clearly spoke of his arousal. She knew that he would want her to touch him there, right now, and she herself also felt the need to do exactly that. And she would. But not yet.

Irya looked at Galen and smiled knowingly. Both women, with the benefit of many centuries of magical experience behind them, knew the value of patience. This young man, on the other hand, would find it much harder to control his desires. And indeed, his body had grown tense and his arms and legs had begun to pull on the restraints that kept them in place. It wouldn't be long now before he would feel their hands reach that place where he wanted to be touched. Little did he know that when that moment finally came it wouldn't end his need, but merely begin another phase of it.

Serana's hands crept lower and lower. She reached for a cloth and gently wiped away the clear, glistening proof of his arousal that had begun to collect on his abdomen, right under the weeping head of his cock. He shivered as he felt what would at other times just have been a mundane clean-up, but what was now part of something much more profound. She didn't want her hands to get all sticky right now, and the increasing flow of his nectar leaking from his straining cock would soon undo her work, but by that time she hoped to be past that particular spot. Meanwhile Irya's caressing fingertips had reached the insides of his spread thighs and were getting close to his balls, which were now tight and drawn up, postponing the contact.

By the time Irya's fingers had gotten even closer to his balls, Serana's hands had inched up to the base of Galen's nodding, straining cock. His body grew more and more tense with need and anticipation, and his arms and legs strained against the strips of cloth that held him in place. The questing fingers slowly crept closer, closer...

Serena lightened her touch, her fingertips merely brushing his skin now.

Even closer...

Irya looked up and caught her eye. Serana nodded slowly. Irya smiled and nodded in agreement. It was time.

Synchronizing their movements, both women crossed the small remaining gap at the same time, and as Serana's fingertips brushed against the base of his cock, Irya lightly touched his tight balls.