Tales of the Apprentice 01 Ch. 08

"Right," Ayden said. "We have bigger fish to fry. So who's up first?"

Irya looked at him with a twinkle in her eye.

"It's a shame Raven isn't here," she said. "We could have made good use of him now."

Ayden smiled.

"I know that look of yours," he said. "You'd like to give him a try, wouldn't you, my love?"

Irya smiled back at him and nodded.

"He looks like he might be fun."

"Well, I have a feeling you still might get the chance. I'm pretty sure we'll see that man again."

"But not right now," Serana said. "Right now it's just us. I've worked with Galen before, so..."

"So you shouldn't be the one to do it this time," Ayden interrupted her. "The two of you are too much used to one another. I think we need a little variation at this point. So why don't you keep an eye on Galen while I work on Irya?"

Irya chuckled.

"I though you'd never ask. In there?" she said, glancing at the bedroom door.

"We might as well," Ayden said. "Unless you'd prefer to do it right here on the table, of course."

"Don't be silly. The table is far too uncomfortable."

"Oh, I don't know, love. With a little padding I'm sure we could make it work."

Irya poked her elbow into his side and rose.

"Well, I'm going to get started," she said. "Who's coming?"

"You, just now," Ayden replied. "And more than once, if I have anything to say about it."

"I should hope so, my love."

Ayden closed the front door to the house and followed her into the bedroom.

Galen looked at Serana and shrugged.

"I'm still not sure about any of this," he said.

"You trusted me before, Galen. I need you to trust me now. Can you still do that?"

Without hesitation he nodded.

"Good," she said. "Then please trust me when I say that you have a strength in you that I don't completely understand, at least not yet, but I can see it's there even if you can't. You are capable of much more than you know. Or rather, you will be."

"Not if we don't get started," Galen said, squaring his shoulders as he stood up.

He held his hand out to Serana. She took it, rose as well and smiled.

"Thank you," she said. "I have faith in you."

Galen tried to return her smile, but it didn't quite work.

"I'll try not to let you down."

"You won't, Galen. I know you well enough by now to know that."

"Speaking of Raven..." he started. "The way the enchantment worked on him... Does that mean he has the ability to work with the Energies?"

"He certainly does appear to have at least some latent talent for it," Serana said. "I don't think he can control any of it consciously, but with a bit of instruction and training, who knows."

In the bedroom Irya had just finished taking off her dress. As usual, she hadn't been wearing anything underneath. Once again Galen was taken by her beauty: her small yet full and exquisitely shaped breasts, tipped with those lovely pink nipples; her supple body that was lithe without being skinny; the stunning curves of her behind, and her slender thighs with the sweet, soft folds between them... With some effort he brought his thoughts back under control. He saw Ayden look at him, and the man's broad smile told him that Ayden knew exactly what effect she had on him and what he'd been thinking about.

"Alright," Serana said, business-like. "Galen, would you fetch the chair from the corner and put it by the window? I think you should sit there."

Galen did as she asked and sat down on the chair. Serana stood behind him. Somehow her presence there felt comforting and protective. She put her hand on his shoulder and gently squeezed it, obviously understanding how he felt.

Irya lay down on her back on the bed. Ayden sat next to her, putting her between himself and Galen. He smiled as he let his gaze roam across her lovely curves. Then he bent down and gently kissed her. She reached out an put her hand behind his head, holding him against her, pulling him more deeply into their kiss. His hand found one of her breasts and gently caressed it before sliding down across the curves of her body until it reached the valley between her thighs. Irya parted her legs slightly to give him better access to the treasures that lay hidden there.

Galen shifted on his chair, feeling slightly uncomfortable. Granted, Serana had cured him of most of his embarrassment when it came to sex. Her brutally frank manner when it came to all things sexual from the day they'd first met had taught him to treat it as an everyday thing, and he knew that if he was ever going to be any kind of sex mage at all, he should think of it that way. But this was the first time when two other people were about to have sex right in front of him, and it took him a few moments to get used to the idea.

Ayden gently broke the kiss and slowly moved his lips down across Irya's chin, following the delicate line of her jaw until they reached the hollow of her neck, kissing her skin lightly and lovingly as he went. She threw her head back, her eyes closed and an expression of deep sensual enjoyment on her face.

His lips moved further down until they reached the upper curve of her breast. Slowly covering it with gentle kisses, he circled the pink tip several times with his lips, gradually moving inward. His hand, meanwhile, still caressed her between her thighs.

She shivered with pleasure when his lips finally reached her nipple. He ran the tip of his tongue across the tip of it, and Galen saw how it began to swell and grow as Ayden continued to lick it. Gradually Irya's breathing deepened and her back arched as he moved his lips to her other breast. Nibbling gently on the nipple there he coaxed that one into full hardness as well. Irya still had her eyes closed but she was no longer smiling; instead her expression now spoke of a hunger, of a need for more.

And Ayden was not about to disappoint her. He kissed her between her breasts, then his lips began their journey southward, across her chest and the smooth skin of her stomach until, after a long while, they reached her mons.

Irya's body shifted in desire and anticipation. Ayden pushed himself up to change his position, moving to the foot of the bed where he knelt on the floor. He touched one of her legs and she responded by pulling up her knees, moving a little closer to the foot of the bed and spreading her thighs in what was clearly an invitation.

Ayden bent forward and, putting his hands on the insides of her thighs, planted a soft kiss on her mons. Then, caressing the creamy-smooth soft skin with his fingertips, he slowly moved his lips further down. His fingers traced intricate patterns across the insides of her thighs as his hands gradually moved inward, while his lips inched their way toward the same target. Lips and fingers seemed to take forever to reach their destination, and Irya squirmed on the bed with both pleasure and impatience, her body almost him to touch her there, right there, where she wanted to feel it most.

His fingers were the first to reach her nether lips. He gently pulled the delicate pink folds apart to expose her opening. Then, avoiding her pleasure button for the moment, he put the tip of his tongue between them. Irya shuddered with pleasure but she didn't make a sound, and Galen could not help but admire her self-control. Vocalizing, he knew, would allow some of her Energies to leak away as they built within her, but while he fully understood the importance of avoiding it, he had always found it quite challenging. But Irya was a seasoned mage with more centuries of experience behind her than he had weeks, and it showed.

Ayden began to lick her between the lips of her pussy, the movements of his tongue slow and loving, and she moved in response to his caresses; her hips shifted on the bed and her body began to grow tense with her growing arousal and the rising pressures inside her. Galen could sense the Energies within her now, something that he had not been able to do before, or at least not like this. Perhaps she or Ayden, or both of them, did something to make that happen? Asking that question would have to wait, though.

Irya spread her thighs even wider, and Ayden probed her opening with his tongue, entering her there as far as his tongue would reach. The tension in Irya's body continued to grow, and her hands rose to her own breasts until they found her nipples. With her fingers she began to work on those lovely pink buds, rubbing them, squeezing them, pinching them. She had her eyes screwed shut and the expression on her face clearly spoke of the amount of pleasure and arousal she was now holding under control. Galen felt her Energies build more and more, and his cock began to stir within his breechcloth. With some effort he ignored it and continued to focus on what was happening right before him.

Ayden shifted his position again, this time to put one arm around Irya's thigh. With the fingers of one hand he gently caressed the inside of her pussy lips, slick and wet with the juices of her arousal, until his fingertip found her entrance and gently slipped into her. With his other hand he gently pulled up the hood that covered her pleasure button to expose the little pink tip of it. Then he bent forward once again to touch it ever so lightly with his tongue.

Immediately Irya's body grew rigid, and she drew back her lips and clenched her teeth as if in extreme pain. Galen felt her Energies surge, and he would have thought that the moment of her Release was upon her, if not for the fact that she still held her Energies completely in check.

Ayden began to move his finger in and out of her, his strokes slow and careful, touching those spots inside her that he knew would bring her the most pleasure. His tongue continued to caress the exposed tip of her pleasure button, mercilessly driving her further and further up the slope of arousal towards that precipice from which she would surely tumble once she reached it.

And indeed, Galen could feel the level of her Energies continue to rise, more and more quickly now. Serana, standing behind him, put her hands on his shoulders as if to steady him. She gently pulled him back, closer to her, and he sat up straighter against the back of the chair. She put her hands on his upper arms and gently moved them away from his body. Understanding her intention, Galen spread his arms wider, as if he was about to embrace someone standing in front of him.

Something seemed to pass between Serana and Ayden, something subtle, something that Galen felt more than saw. Ayden smiled and continued to stimulate Irya's most sensitive spots with his tongue and fingers, his movements more deliberate and insistent now, and Galen felt the level of her Energies soar higher and higher until they began to peak.

Then, somehow, working together with the skills and familiarity that make experienced couples of sex mages what they are, they both seized control of the Energies within Irya and they held them there, right there at the point before erupting, while Ayden's tongue and fingers continued to drive her mad with pleasure, more and more, until her entire body was as tense as the strings on a lute and she vibrated with the pent-up forces within her... Until, just before the point where the Energies would have defied their efforts and burst out of control of their own volition, both mages released their restrictions at once.

Irya's back arched to the point where she lifted herself off the bed, only her head and heels supporting her, and she screamed, a raw and intense sound. She did so deliberately, Galen realized, because in this case she needed to Release the Energies rather than use them for a magical working.

Her body shuddered and shook as the intense pleasure of her orgasm tore through her, but Galen no longer noticed any of it. As soon as she had cried out in her Release, a blue-white flash of Energy hit him full in the chest with the force of a thunderclap. Serana, standing behind him, managed to steady him, and he leaned back into the chair and against her body as the Energies raged about him, through him, into him, filling him from chest to fingertips and from head to toes. Then the luminous tidal wave reversed and the Energies began to focus on the center of his body: his stomach, his thighs, his groin. His cock was rock-hard within the confines of his breechcloth and for a moment he felt like he was about to ejaculate, but he managed to hold it back by forcing the Energies away from his groin and into the rest of his body. For a moment the intensity of the sensations threatened to overwhelm him and he felt as if he would fly apart. Yet somehow he succeeded in keeping himself under control, even though his hands and feet tingled with the blue-white sparks that seemed to shoot from them. He felt his hair stand on end.

As the force of the initial wave began to ebb, Galen made a conscious effort to distribute the Energy throughout his body and to store it within him, even while he continued to absorb the rest of it. Irya's body was twitching with the aftershocks of her orgasm as she began to relax and the expression on her face slowly changed from a rictus of intense pleasure into a wide, lazy, relaxed smile of utter satisfaction and contentment.

Ayden pushed himself up from between her spread thighs, his lips and chin glistening with her juices. With both hands he gently straightened her legs onto the bed. Leaning sideways, he bent down to kiss her face, and her happy smile grew even wider.

"Even after all this time you still do that so well, my love," she whispered.

Ayden smiled.

"And I enjoy it as much as you do," he replied, his hand gently caressing her face. "I can't help it. I just love you too much."

Irya slowly shook her head.

"No such thing," she whispered. "And I love you just as much."

Even through the haze of Energy that still permeated him as he continued to process it, Galen suddenly understood what Serana had meant earlier, when she said how lovers exchanged their Energies during orgasm. These two sex mages, who had been living and working together for many centuries, somehow had become one, each of them a part of the other, in a way he knew he might never fully comprehend. He also dimly realized that this understanding didn't merely come from what he saw, but rather originated at a deeper level, something that had more to do with his perception of the Energies than anything else. He closed his eyes and inhaled slowly, deeply, before gradually releasing the air from his lungs as the last of the Energies settled within him. The tingling subsided and he forced himself to relax.

"Not bad," Ayden said.

It took Galen a few moments to realize the remark had been addressed to him. He opened his eyes.

"But I didn't really do anything," he said. "You and Irya did all the work."

Serana, who still stood behind him, put her hands on his shoulders.

"Do you really believe that?" she said. "Granted, they did release the Energy for you, but you did the other half of it when you absorbed them. And you did it rather well. You managed to stay in control and you handled all of it. Can you feel the Energy inside you?"

Galen slowly nodded. Yes, he could sense the forces he had stored within him, but the feeling was hard to describe. It was like nothing he'd ever felt before. The closest thing he could compare it to was that pleasant state of digesting a hearty meal after having been hungry all day long. It felt good.

"That was..." he began.

But then he realized that he didn't really have the words to properly describe what he felt.

"Don't try to analyze it," Ayden said as he got up from the bed.

Irya had closed her eyes and her breathing had slowed. Ayden took a blanket and gently spread it over her.

"She'll sleep now," he said. "Why don't we give her some rest?"

Galen nodded and rose from the chair. They all filed out of the bedroom and Ayden softly closed the door behind them.

Outside the day was wearing on, but it was still bright and golden. Galen slowly walked out of the front door and then just stood there, his eyes roving aimlessly along the sun-drenched grasses that covered the fields. He felt strangely abstracted in the wake of what had happened today. Part of him tried to digest it and make sense of it, while another part of him was content to let it lie for the moment.

Despite the warmth of the sun, the air still had the freshness of spring to it, and suddenly he felt some sort of resonance: the Energies within him, the forces of life in all their different forms and shapes surrounding him, permeating him, sustaining him...

"Yes," Serana said simply.

Galen looked up. He hadn't noticed her approach. He gave her a faint smile and shrugged.

"It's not like I didn't know it before. Yet... Something seems to have changed now."

She nodded, not even mentioning his acceptance of the fact that she knew exactly what he was thinking.

"It has," she admitted. "You have set another step on the road to a new level of existence."

"That sounds... dramatic."

This time it was her turn to shrug.

"Not really. Do you remember when we first met? I told you to turn back, to go home. You said you would not go home and you would not stop searching. You also told me that after the plague you were too restless to settle down and that you always ended up in the next place because you felt you were looking for something. This is that something, Galen. You've been pursuing it all this time. Now you've found it, but finding it was only the first step."

He chuckled.

"Well, you said it was a life-long commitment. And there's that century or so of indenture to you that I still have to work off."

"Yes, there is," she said, smiling. "Speaking of which, why don't you go help Ayden in the kitchen? It'll take your mind off things, and it's not good to dwell on this too much right now. Let it settle at its own pace."

He nodded and did as she had suggested.

* * *

"Galen," Ayden said later that evening. "Can you read?"

"A little. Markings on building sketches, notes, that sort of thing..."

"Good. We'll start simple, then. I'll help you if necessary."

Ayden opened a large wooden chest that stood in the corner of the room and retrieved a large, heavy, leather-bound volume.

"Don't let the size of it worry you," he said as he put the book down on the table. "It's old enough to be written by hand, so the letters are fairly large. I find books easier to read than scrolls. When you open a book, it stays where it is. Scrolls have a tendency to roll themselves back up and you have to weigh them down. Books usually last longer, too. Scrolls often get brittle and crumbly over time."

Galen looked at the cover of the book. While it obviously had been cared for as well as possible, the leather and the discolored edges of the pages clearly spoke of its age.

"How old is this?" he asked curiously.

"Oh, I don't know, exactly," Ayden said. "At least half a dozen centuries or so. But it might be far more than that."

Galen carefully opened the book. It smelled of age. The yellowed parchment of the first page looked a little brittle at the edges. The writing in the center of the page was done in a large, elaborate script that, although it had begun to fade over time, was still clearly readable.

"Ars..." he slowly read out loud. "Ars Daemonicae. That means... What? The arse of a demon?"

"Not quite," Ayden replied. "The title of the book is written in an ancient mode. It was an affectation of the time. It means 'The demonic arts', more or less. The art of working with demons."

"Working with demons? Surely we're not..."

"No, we aren't," Ayden agreed. "Not if you want to avoid an eternity of inconceivable suffering, that is."

"I could probably do without that."

"We all could," Serana put in. "Galen, do you remember I told you that necromancy is closely related to demonology?"