Tales of the Apprentice 01 Ch. 08

Tales of the Apprentice - Book 1

Chapter 8

"I think it's time we all had a little talk," Ayden said.

It had been several days since Galen's ordeal. The following morning he had still felt quite weak, but a day and a night of sleep, along with Serana's herbal concoctions and Ayden's cooking, had put him back on his feet in fairly short order. He still tired more quickly than was normal for him, but he was young, strong and healthy, and it wouldn't be long before he'd be his old self again.

Serana looked critically at her young apprentice, who was sitting across the table from her, flanked by Ayden and Irya.

"Yes," she said. "At the very least we should have the conversation that we were going to have a few days ago. Galen, I seem to remember you saying that you'd seen some things that we need to talk about."

Galen nodded.

"I think so. I'd have mentioned it sooner, but..."

"But you were recovering from the biggest orgasm of your life," Ayden said dryly.

Galen grinned ruefully.

"Something like that," he replied. "Thanks, by the way, all of you. I appreciate what you've all been doing."

"Some of it might not have been necessary if we could have had this discussion sooner," Ayden said pointedly. "But I suppose it was inevitable."

"Inevitable?" Galen asked. "Why? What's going on?"

"All in good time," Serana said. "First continue with what you were going to tell us a few days back."

Galen nodded slowly, gathering his thoughts.

"Alright. I suppose I should start with a confession, then. Serana, I did something you told me not to. I left my body. Yes, I know; you warned me that it can be dangerous. But it just sort of happened. I didn't mean for it to happen, but I just... Well, suddenly it had. And... I suppose I wasn't in a very good mood at the time. I mean, after what had happened... I never wanted to hurt you, Serana. So I, ehm... Let's just say I wasn't thinking very clearly."

Serana reached out across the table and took his hand.

"I understand, Galen," she said. While I don't approve of your taking unnecessary risks, I do understand how you felt. But what happened to me was not your fault."

Galen looked down at the table and sighed.

"That wasn't it," he said softly. "I had become a danger to you. To all of you. It just hit you first, Serana, that's all. It would have affected all of you sooner or later, wouldn't it?"

Irya nodded.

"Yes. Over time the enchantment you were under would have had its effect on everyone around you. In fact it did, to a certain extent. But it was nothing serious. Not yet, anyway."

Galen nodded.

"That's what I thought," he continued. "So... I seriously considered not coming back. That way I couldn't hurt you any more."

"That would have been a very bad mistake, Galen," Ayden said. "First of all, you would have remained a danger to anyone close to you. Second, you're here for a reason."

Galen paused for a moment while Ayden's words sank in.

"At any rate," he continued then, "I know I should have gone back into my body the moment I noticed I'd left it. But... I suppose I wasn't really in a mood to be careful right then. So I decided to experiment a little."

"That could have gotten you killed, you know," Ayden said sharply. "Did you ever stop to think about what you were doing? You were under an enchantment that wasn't yours. It could have affected you in any number of ways, and you would never have known it until it was too late! Get this through your head, boy: these forces are not for playing with. So until you know exactly what you're doing, leave them alone unless one of us is there to watch your back for you and bail you out when you muck it up. Because sooner or later you will. We've all done that at some time or another, and you're not going to be any different."

"Gentle, my love," Irya said, putting her hand on Ayden's. "This is hard enough for him as it is."

Ayden sighed, then smiled ruefully.

"I know. I'm sorry, Galen," he said. "I'm just concerned."

"We all are," Irya said. "And remember that we're all in this together, Galen. We'll make sure everything will be alright."

"That might prove to be challenging," Serana said dryly. "Galen seems to have a particular talent for getting himself into trouble. That's a dangerous trait for a mage."

Ayden nodded glumly, and something briefly flashed behind his eyes, something that was more than just concern. Suddenly, with that familiar certainty that he could never explain, Galen realized that Ayden had lost someone that way. Another apprentice, maybe?

"I'm sorry," he said. "I don't want to be a problem."

"You're not," Ayden said softly. "Please, continue."

"Alright. As I said, I wasn't feeling very careful at the time. I tried to... move around a little. My mind, I mean. Right up to then it had just been happening all by itself, you know? So I tried to control it. And it worked. I could... move, kind of, although I wasn't actually moving. It was more like I could simply go from one place to another without crossing the space in between. That's not quite it, though... I'm not sure how to describe it, exactly."

"It's called translation," Serana said. "It's a very efficient way of moving your awareness around. It's also extremely dangerous."

"Dangerous? How?"

"It's dangerous because the mind knows no bounds, Galen. So it can move around on an impulse, whether the path to its destination is clear or not. That's a lot like trying to jump across a ravine without first looking how wide it is or what's on the other side. Sometimes you're lucky and it works out alright. The rest of the time you're not, and then it doesn't."

"I see... I think," Galen said slowly. "Then I'm glad I didn't move very far. Once I'd gotten the hang of it a little, I... expanded, I suppose the word is. I spread myself over a wider area..."

"How wide?" Serana interrupted.

"I'm not sure," Galen said.

"Not too far, obviously," Ayden remarked. "Or you wouldn't be sitting here right now."

"Oh?"

"If you spread yourself too thin, there's not enough left of you to keep your consciousness in one place."

"What happens then?"

"It dissipates," Serana said bluntly. "Your body is left behind, empty. Still breathing, heart still beating, but empty. With the mind gone, the body dies a few days later. And that's it."

"It... disappears? Oh. I guess I didn't know that," Galen said.

Serana sighed.

"Obviously. But at least it's good to know that the Great Mother still looks after her fools."

"I suppose so," Galen muttered.

"What on Earth were you thinking, Galen?"

"Well, I, ehm...."

"Never mind," Serana said with a look of resignation on her face. "Carry on."

"Suddenly I felt an awareness," Galen continued. "It felt familiar. When I moved closer I saw it was Raven. He was all alone. Completely alone. He looked terribly unhappy. But I didn't try to talk with him or anything. I didn't think I was ready to try that. He was just sitting there, staring. He didn't seem to be looking at anything in particular. But when I... looked, I suppose the word is, in the direction that he was staring in, I saw something really strange."

He hesitated for a moment, trying to find the right words to describe what he had seen and felt.

"I think it was coming out of the north. There was a kind of pull, some sort of attraction. Something wanted to drag me into that direction. I resisted it, but it was almost as if it was calling to me. I tried to see what it was, and then I saw it. There were black... strands, almost like gossamer, but they looked a little thicker, and wavy, and they were black. They were drifting in the air. Coming to think of it, you know what it looks like when you drop some ink into a cup of water? That's what it looked like."

Ayden's face had gone deadly pale.

"Are you sure of this?" he demanded.

Galen nodded.

"That's what I saw," he said. "It felt strange, too. Cold. Evil..."

"Oh, no..." Irya muttered.

Serana nodded slowly.

"So that's it," she whispered. "Great Mother..."

Galen looked at the expressions of horror on the faces before him.

"What is it?" he asked.

"Something very bad," Ayden replied, his voice grim. "We've known for a while that something serious has been going on somewhere in the north, and that whatever it is has to do with death magic. But these black strands can mean only one thing: someone there is trying to open a Portal to another realm."

"Another realm? What realm?"

Ayden sighed.

"The demon realm, Galen."

Serana looked thoughtfully at her young apprentice. Then she slowly nodded. There was something of resignation in that nod, as well as acceptance and a sudden understanding.

Suddenly Galen had had enough.

"Maybe it's time you told me what this is all about," he said firmly. "You obviously know far more about what's going on than I do, and I think you've kept me in the dark long enough. This looks like something I really should know about."

Irya nodded.

"Yes," she said simply. "If you're able to ask the questions, you should able to handle the answers."

Serana stood and turned to the fireplace.

"I'll make more tea," was all she said.

But Galen could see the effort it took her to hold herself together.

"I'm not going to like this very much, am I?" he asked calmly.

"None of us has ever liked any of it, Galen," Ayden said. "Yet here it is. Alright then, let's start with death magic. I believe that Serana has told you something about it already, and I think we all agree that it's not really a very good thing."

"That's the understatement of the century," Serana muttered as she busied herself by the fireplace.

"Yes," Ayden agreed. "Especially when there are demons involved. The problem with death magic and demons is that it's a match made in hell, and I mean that very literally. Demons thrive on death. They're attracted to it like flies to rotting meat. So for a death mage, having a demon or two around is much like what swimming in a barrel of wine is for a drunk."

"Those demons..." Galen said thoughtfully. "What are they like?"

"You don't really want to know."

"Probably not. But I think I need to."

Ayden sighed.

"I suppose that's true. Very well then. Your average demon is about as big as a house. I'm not exaggerating. Its skin can be anything from bright red to deep black. It has small, beady eyes that are blood-red with black pupils, and a face ugly enough to curdle milk. Rows of fangs, long claws as sharp as a cat's, and a very bad disposition. But that's nothing compared to what it's like inside. It loves killing. It's obsessed with killing. It thrives on pain and death. It projects an aura of cold evil. Oh, and it stinks. You can smell a demon from miles away. Not that that helps a lot, because demons can smell us, too. Hiding from a demon is just about impossible. Not only can they smell us, but they can sense our presence in other ways as well. Their favorite way to kill a man is to slowly tear him in half."

"You were right," Galen said with a shiver. "I'd rather not have known."

"Demon hordes have not been allowed to walk the face of the earth freely since the old days, before the Fall," Ayden said bleakly. "The old sorcerers believed that they had the power to control them. Some did. Most didn't. I still don't understand how anyone could be foolish enough, or evil enough, to consider summoning even a single demon, let alone more than one and unleashing them, even in the old days."

"Neither do I," Serana said as she returned from the fireplace with a steaming kettle. "But it has been done, and the results were usually terrible. Remember Gar the Desecrator?"

"Gar the Desecrator? I thought that was just a rumor. Or maybe I just hoped it was."

"No, Ayden. Gar is quite real."

"Gar the Desecrator?" Galen asked.

"He was troublesome," Serana said dryly. "Gar was not like other demons. Somehow he was capable of absorbing the Energies. It was a form of death magic, I suppose. He drew life from his victims until they died, and he became stronger when they did. That's how he survived the fall and managed to remain here. It took a Convocation of just about every mage in the world to deal with him, and the Banishing was only partially successful at that. They managed to bind him in the form of a stone statue in his own image, and then they submerged his temple and his unholy priestesses under what is now one of deepest parts of the oceans. But that's as far as it went. He's not dead, and he's not been returned to the demon realm. One day his temple may rise again. When that happens, Gar the Desecrator can return."

"And he is only one demon," Ayden said glumly. "One of the more powerful ones, I'll grant you, but still. There are countless hordes of them waiting for a chance to come and say hello. And two demons are three times as bad as one."

"Eh? How's that?"

"Simple," Serana said. "The problem with demons is that they enhance each other's powers. The last great sorcerer who tried to summon a demon army had just enough power to do so, but he wasn't strong enough to control them. So they turned on him and killed him, and then it took the combined remaining powers of more than a dozen other major sorcerers to banish them. Most of those sorcerers didn't survive that Banishing. I still think those demons ultimately contributed to the Fall somehow. It would have happened anyway, of course, sooner or later. But maybe not quite so quickly."

She stared at the wall for a few long moments, and Galen knew that the things she saw there were forever hidden from him by gulfs of space and time so vast that they were simply beyond his comprehension.

"How many demons were there?" Galen asked. "In that demon army before the Fall, I mean."

"No more than a hundred or so," she said, her voice grim. "But if a Portal is opened, it will release demons without number. Countless hordes of them, roaming the Earth at will, without any restrictions at all."

Galen looked at her in horror as the magnitude of what she was describing began to sink in.

"The demon realm is separated from our world by a near-impenetrable barrier," Ayden said. "And for good reason. Crossing that barrier disrupts the natural order of things. But it can be pierced. When that happens the results are always bad."

"And those black cobwebs that I saw?" Galen said. "What were those?"

"Those were the result of someone trying to pierce the barrier and opening a Portal through it. Streamers like that manifest fairly early in the associated magical workings. That's the only bit of good news here, I suppose. It will take a lot more before the Portal is stable enough to pass. But it's only a matter of time."

"So... What do we do?" Galen asked.

Ayden glanced at Serana, who nodded.

"He needs to know," she said.

"Know what?"

"What it will take. Banishing even a single demon, or preventing the Portal from being opened in the first place, will require the combined power of every sex mage in existence. Harnessing that combined power and applying it to one single Purpose requires a Channeler."

"A Channeler?"

"Yes. Channelers are rare. There hasn't been one for many, many centuries. But Channelers tend to appear when they're needed most."

"And what does that have to do with me?" Galen asked.

Ayden's smile was sad.

"Maybe nothing," he replied reluctantly. "But there are quite a few indications that you might have the potential to become a Channeler."

Galen looked at him with a stunned look on his face.

"You're not serious."

"Oh yes, he is," Serana said. "Don't take this the wrong way, Galen, but the reason why you have been such a challenging student is that you seem to have powers that are beyond even my comprehension, let alone your own. Right from the start you've been incredibly sensitive to the Energies. You've applied your Intent without meaning to, long before you should have been able to do that. You've been casting spells without even realizing it. And... Remember when I tried to melt the snow around the house and it got completely out of hand? That was you, Galen. You amplified it. Yes, I know, you didn't mean to. And it wasn't your fault. You didn't even realize you were doing it. You shouldn't have been able to. But you were."

She signed.

"But more than all that," she continued, "I've seen it. The Visions the Great Mother sent me were quite clear. And I know for a fact that She sent you to me for that very reason. That's the only reason why I agreed to teach you. You know I didn't want to, not at first. But She gave me this task, and she wouldn't do that if it weren't for a very good reason."

"And you think this is it?" Galen asked.

Irya smiled.

"Can you think of a better one?" she said.

Galen looked at her in disbelief, his head spinning.

"You want me to stop a horde of demons? Are you completely mad?"

"Perhaps I am," she said calmly. "But I don't think so. And neither do you."

Her eyes held his, and he knew she was right. Somehow, deep inside, he knew. But it was impossible. In fact it was ludicrous.

"But what if I can't?" he asked in a choked voice. "I know nothing of these things. I'm not ready for anything like that. What if I fail?"

"Then every man, woman and child in this world will become a plaything for demons to torture and kill," Ayden said calmly.

Galen began to shake.

"This is... impossible. I'm... I'm not a Channeler," he stammered. "I know nothing of any of this. I've just started to learn about magic."

"True enough," Ayden admitted. "But that just means we've got work to do. A lot of work. So we'd better get on with it, don't you think? Because I don't believe we have all that much time."

* * *

"By now you've got enough of your strength back for something simple," Serana said that afternoon. "So this is what we're going to do: one of us is going to have an orgasm, and at the point of Release you will capture the Energy and absorb it. That way we kill two birds with one stone. It will give you a chance to practice with the Energies, but it will also get you back to your old self that much faster."

"What if I can't?" Galen said softly.

"Of course you can," Ayden told him. "You've done it before, remember? You can do it again."

"But that was the enchantment."

"Only in part, Galen," Irya said gently. "The enchantment made you do it subconsciously. But the ability to do it is still there, inside you."

"These Energies are the forces of life, Galen," Serana explained. "Everyone depends on them, and everyone will release and absorb them. With training you can learn to control and harness them, as you have been doing, but everyone has that ability to a certain degree, whether they realize it or not. When a man and a woman are in love and they have sex, their orgasms will strengthen the bond between them like nothing else, because they literally exchange their Energies at that moment. They absorb each other's Release. It's a very powerful thing. Often it binds them to one another for the rest of their lives. That's the main difference between making love and casual sex. It's called making love for a reason."

"So why are so many people against sex before marriage?" Galen asked. "It sounds like a good thing to me."

"Because most people are both ignorant and stupid," Ayden said with some heat.

Galen smiled.

"Both?"

"Yes, absolutely. Ignorance and stupidity are entirely different things, Galen. Ignorance is a curable condition; stupidity is a permanent one and often fatal. In fact, it's the leading cause of death in the world, when you get right down to it."

"We can discuss all that later, my love," Irya said with an indulgent smile as she put her hand on Ayden's.