Tales of the Apprentice 01 Ch. 08

Galen nodded.

"Yes. You also said that necromancy is a form of witchcraft."

"It is," Ayden said. "Necromancy is the art of speaking with the dead and possibly raising them from death. It comes with its own rather unique dangers, so I strongly suggest you don't experiment with it. The reason why we're studying it is that you need to learn how these things work. The best way to learn that is of course to do it, but unfortunately that's also the best way for things to go horribly wrong. So we'll do the next best thing, which is to read about what others have done already."

"Where does this book come from?" Galen asked.

Ayden's smile was bleak.

"Let's just say that the man who wrote it eventually expanded his knowledge to a point where the book didn't have an owner anymore."

Galen looked at the page again. Suddenly the book had taken on a whole new meaning.

"Is the entire book written like the title?"

"It's quite readable," Ayden assured him. "Other than putting the title in the odd sort of language that has fallen into disuse over the centuries, it uses normal words."

Galen carefully turned the page. The next one was covered in a less elaborate, simpler script. The first line at the top of the page was written slightly larger than the rest of it.

"Of... Necro... Necro..."

"Necromancy," Ayden supplied.

"Of... Necromancy... And... Demons," he read out loud, slowly and haltingly. "As all necroman... necromancers know... the realm of the dead sepa... separates our world of the living from the realm of demons."

He looked up. This was much harder than he had thought.

"Go on," Ayden encouraged him.

"Ehm... Are demons alive?" he asked.

"Well now," Ayden said. "That's an interesting question that has been the subject of much long and esoteric debate. Technically they aren't, because they're not dependent on the presence of earthly life force, but they behave as if they are alive. Why don't you check back with me in a couple of centuries, and we'll discuss it."

Galen smiled ruefully and continued reading. At first it was quite difficult, but after a while and with Ayden's help it gradually became easier. It had been well over two hours when he sat up. His eyes felt gritty and his head hurt. The candle that Ayden had lit when the light had begun to fade had burned down by over an inch.

"That's probably enough for one evening," Serana said from the corner of the room where she had sat talking quietly with Irya.

Ayden nodded.

"No sense in overdoing it," he agreed.

Galen took a deep breath. He felt like he'd been beaten up. His back and his shoulders hurt, one of his legs had gone to sleep and his throat was raw. Reading was much harder than he would have thought.

"You're not doing badly at all," Ayden said. "It will go much faster once you stop reading out loud, but that will come in time. You just need a little more practice, that's all."

"Yes," Serana said as she rose and poured Galen a cup of tea. "More to the point, though, do you understand what you've been reading?"

"I think so," Galen said as he sipped his tea. "Raising the dead is difficult, since they exist in a realm different from ours, and breaking through the barrier between realms takes an awful lot of Energy. But the realm of demons is beyond that, so getting there is about ten times as hard."

"I'm not sure that ten is close to the right number, but other than that, that's the gist of it," Ayden said. "That's why simple necromancy won't cut it and you'll need something on the order of death magic."

"Or the sorcery of old?" Galen asked.

"Well, yes," Ayden admitted. "But that applies to most things. The ancient sorcerers could simply wave their hands and make anything happen, no matter how badly it violated the natural order of things and no matter how much damage it did as a result. But that's gone forever, so let's not waste any time on it. The point is that there is an enormous difference between speaking with the dead through simple necromancy on the one hand, and opening a gateway to the realm of the demons on the other."

Galen thought for a moment.

"I'm also not quite sure about what it says about controlling demons," he said then. "I mean, from what I've seen there's much more about binding demons than about releasing them from their own realm."

"That's because conjuring up a demon is the easy part," Ayden explained. "Demons are not the most tractable of creatures. You raise one, and the first thing it'll want to do is to rip you to shreds. So before anything else you must put a number of restraints in place to keep the demon under control until you can banish it again. Banishing it is harder than raising it, because the demon will resist being sent back to its own realm. It will try to break free all the time, so that's where things tend to get tricky."

"And if it breaks free?"

"Then that's the end of you."

Galen slowly nodded.

"And the demon?"

"The demon is then free to do whatever evil it wants, until someone manages to bring it back under control. Since keeping a demon restrained is much easier than bringing a free demon back under control, it usually takes a number of mages to do that. And even then it's still extremely hazardous."

"So..." Galen said slowly. "If it's so difficult and dangerous, why would anyone bother to raise demons at all?"

"Power," Serana said grimly. "Remember what I told you about death magic? Every time you draw power from a killing, it destroys a little more of your soul. Eventually all that is left is the power itself. That power is addictive. When a simple killing is no longer enough, and the power it yields is no longer enough, a death mage goes searching for more. The living are no longer enough. The dead have no power of their own. So what's left?"

Galen shuddered. The air in the room suddenly seemed to have gotten chilly in spite of the cheery fire that burned on the hearth, and the light of the candle no longer seemed enough to dispel the shadows lurking in the corners.

"What about this portal that you mentioned?" he asked. "Wouldn't that just..."

"Unleash any number of demons upon the world without any restraint whatsoever?" Ayden finished his sentence for him. "Yes. It would. So you see the problem we're facing."

Galen slowly shook his head.

"And you want me to do something about that?"

"Not just you, Galen," Serana said. "All you will have to do, assuming things even get that far, is to concentrate the Energies of many other mages and channel it into a common Intent. No man can face a horde of demons, and nobody is expecting you to."

"There's one thing you should remember, Galen," Irya said. "Demons have been what they are since the beginning of time. Sorcerers and death mages have raised them any number of times. But the demons have never won in the end."

"That might soon change," Galen said glumly.

"There's always that possibility," she admitted calmly. "But that could have happened at any time since the first sorcerer broke through the barrier between our world and the demon realm. Yet it never has. So don't worry too much."

"Enough discussion for tonight," Serana said firmly. "We'll talk more about it in the morning. Galen, I think you should have your tonic, take a bath, do your exercises and get some sleep. Tomorrow's another day."

Galen nodded, finished his tea and slowly rose.

"Close the book before you go," Ayden said. "It's not good for books to leave them open, especially when they're old."

Galen carefully closed the heavy volume and handed it to Ayden, who returned it to the chest it had come from. Somewhat later in the bathhouse, by the dim light of a single candle, having carefully shaved his face and his groin, he let himself sink into the hot water. Slowly his headache subsided and his sore muscles began to relax. Then the door opened and Irya stepped in, a smile on her face.

"I thought I'd come and help you with your exercises," she said.

"I wasn't going to do it here," Galen replied. "Serana told me she'd have my guts for garters if I ever did it in the bath. But I wouldn't in any case."

"I know," she said. "That would be inconsiderate, and you're not that sort of man. But that's not what I had in mind."

"You want some of your Energy back?" he joked.

She chuckled.

"I'm not thinking of it that way. There's enough to go around and we can pass it back and forth between us as necessary. You'll have to learn about it a whole lot more, after all. But you won't make all that much progress if you just masturbate, so I thought we'd make this a little more... advanced, shall we say. Let's see if you're really as good as you think you already are."

She calmly began to unfasten her dress. She removed it, and in spite of himself Galen could not help but stare. Her body, gorgeous enough by day, took on a whole new dimension of beauty in the dim illumination of the candle. Light and shadow played across the shapes and curves of her as she moved, and somehow the parts of her that remained hidden in shadow were the most beautiful of all. She entered the water without even the slightest splash.

"Turn around," she said softly. "I'll wash your back for you."

He did as she said, and when she was done her hands slowly moved around to his front, across his shoulders, then his chest, down past his stomach until they found his cock. She gently stroked it, and she made a small noise of satisfaction as she felt it swell and harden in her hands. When he was fully hard she continued to caress him for a few moments longer, apparently savoring the feeling of his hot, hard flesh in her hands as she gently pumped up and down his shaft.

"Here's what we're going to do," she said. "You're going to sit on the edge, and I'm going to stimulate you with my mouth. Let the forces build, but hold it in as long as you can. I don't have to tell you not to vocalize. When you feel yourself getting close, concentrate your Energies in the region of your groin, and Release them there when the moment comes. I'll absorb what you release. But don't exhaust yourself. Don't let go of more than you want to."

"Alright," he said. "But how do I know how much is enough and what is too much?"

"Go with your feelings."

She gently turned him around and eased him backward until his shoulders touched the rim of the tub. Taking her hint, he pushed himself up until his hips cleared the rim and he sat down on the edge, his legs spread and his cock right at her eye level. It stood up hard and proud, gently nodding at her with every beat of his heart. She looked at it and smiled fondly, apparently happy with what she saw. She slowly bent forward and gently kissed the tip of it, and when it twitched at the touch of her lips, her smile became a happy grin.

She licked her lips, then slowly inched her head forward while she parted her lips slightly, and the tip of him slid into her mouth. He managed to hold back a soft moan as he felt the tip of her tongue touch the opening at the tip. Suddenly a wave of lust ran through him. The dim light of the candle played across her hair, the back of her head, the side of her face. She was such a lovely vision.

She continued to caress the tip of his cock with her lips and tongue for a few moments, then slowly pushed onward until her lips slid further down around him. He had to fight to hold in a gasp when her lips slipped around the head, catching him behind the crown. Great Mother, it felt good!

But Irya was taking no prisoners tonight. She lifted both her hands and, holding his hot, rock-hard shaft with one hand, she explored the taut skin of it, touching him first here, then there, and every time it was as if small shocks of pure pleasure shot through his most sensitive areas. Her fingers danced across the skin of his shaft as if it was a flute and she was playing it, and in a way she was, and she made wonderful music indeed. Then one of her fingers touched his balls, and suddenly he was on the very edge or orgasm.

He closed his eyes and fought for control as she mercilessly continued her onslaught. Somehow she knew exactly where to touch him, to drive him completely wild with pleasure. It was not the way she touched him but rather where and when, and wave after wave of pure delight ran through his cock, his balls, his groin. Nothing that Serana had ever done came close to what he felt right now. While Serana could read his body like an open book, Irya somehow connected with him on a much deeper level. While neither woman was more skilled than the other, their methods were entirely different, and somehow he knew that this difference was a very fundamental one, a reflection of personality rather than of personal preference or talent.

Wrenching his attention away from the amazing feelings she induced in him and instead focus on his inner Energies might have been one of the most difficult thing he'd ever done. But somehow he succeeded, and with an almost super-human effort he began to dampen the the flood of Energy that threatened to erupt from him. Slowly he brought the roiling clouds, bursts and flashes of blue-white brightness back under control, moving them away from his groin and into his chest, his arms, his legs, until he tingled all over and he felt as if his hair were standing on end. But at least it looked like he might be able to last a little longer.

Not that Irya was helping him much. Holding his shaft in one hand and gently pulling the skin down towards his groin to maintain just the right amount of tautness, she began to bob her head back and forth, slowly and lovingly, in a steady rhythm that was obviously intended to push him over the edge. Her soft, wet lips slid across the head of his cock, past the crown and onto that sensitive area of skin right behind it, again and again, while the tip of her tongue touched the sensitive underside of it with every stroke. Meanwhile her fingers continued to find all those magic spots: his groin, the insides of his thighs, his balls... And with every touch of her fingers and with every stroke of her slick, wet lips and tongue she brought him closer and closer to that point of no return that he was so manfully striving to stay away from.

The pressure inside him rose and rose, and he knew he would not be able to contain it for much longer. The amazing feeling of her mouth sliding back and forth across the head of his cock along with her fingertips working on his balls, touching him here, and there, and especially there, was simply too much. All he could do was to prepare for his Release as best he could while the pleasure continued to build. He began to marshal the forces within him, concentrating the Energies in the center of his body as he had been taught, then confining them and compressing them in a ball that he held in place in the region of his stomach.

Perhaps she felt him swell up in her mouth and hands, or maybe she felt the growing tension in his muscles, or possibly she sensed in some other, more elementary way that his Release was only moments away. She gripped his hot steely shaft more firmly, cupping his tight balls with her other hand, and the delicious, slick and wet friction of her lips around the crown of his cock-head and the sensitive band of skin right behind it increased, became firmer, more insistent, while the tip of her tongue drew tiny circles across the underside of the head. She began to suck, gently at first but then harder, harder... The pleasure within him rose more and more quickly, and he held it back as well as he could, but Great Mother, it felt so good, so good, oh sogood ohsogood ohsogoodsogoodsogood...

The pleasure within him began to peak faster and faster, and he teetered on the edge of orgasm for what seemed an infinitely long yet far too brief moment...

And with a desperate mental shove he pushed the roiling ball of concentrated, pent-up blue-white light down from his stomach into his groin, his balls, his cock... And his orgasm erupted within him.

Great Mother! A lightning bolt of the most intense orgasmic pleasure struck the head of his cock, ran through the shaft into his groin and from there rushed through the rest of his body as he exploded in her mouth. Dimly he knew that it was different this time, that he had never cum quite like this, not even when had been purged of the enchantment. The head of his cock seemed to have turned into pure sexual Energy, and it filled her mouth with blue-white light as he pushed the concentrated forces out of him by way of his groin. His body vibrated with the force of it, and then seemed to disappear entirely until all that was left of him was a being of pure Energy, a cloud of light, searingly bright in its blue-white intensity. Time slowed down, then halted its stately pace altogether.

He didn't notice how the head of his cock had swelled up almost to bursting within the warm, wet and slick confines of Irya's mouth, or how his shaft began to pulse as the flood of his cum boiled up from his loins to jet into her waiting mouth, filling it to overflowing, spurt after thick, powerful spurt while her hands worked in concert to increase his pleasure even further and prolong his Release as much as she could. All he knew was that the pleasure he felt was beyond imagining, that it had become his whole world and that nothing else existed for him. He was only dimly aware that this Release took place not just in a physical and Energetic form, but also on a much deeper level.

It seemed like a brief eternity before he returned to the flesh of his body, shaking slightly with the aftershocks of his Release. Irya still had his cock in her mouth. She had obviously been unable to deal with the entire flood of his release; some of it was running out of her mouth and down her chin. She looked into is eyes and his softening cock twitched as she let it slip out of her mouth. She smiled, swallowed, and licked her lips before dipping one hand into the warm water to clean the final rivulets off her chin. She gave his cock a light, quick kiss as if saying goodbye to it, although he had a feeling that it was really more of an until-we-meet-again kind of thing.

Galen felt as if he'd run several miles at top speed. He sat there for a few long moments, panting, while sweat ran down his body. Irya held out her hands and he took them, letting her help him down from the edge of the tub into the warm water. It felt good to just float, without thinking, without moving, without speaking... Just being.

"That was quite well done," Irya said softly. "You'll still need to learn to hold out a lot longer than this, and your control over the Energies is still limited, but the way you handled your Release was good."

He smiled weakly.

"So that's what you meant when you said you wanted to make this a little more advanced."

She chuckled.

"Serana is a very good teacher, and she has given you a good understanding of the fundamental principles," she said. "But as a Channeler you must learn to handle the Energies in entirely different ways."

"This felt... quite different," Galen admitted. "How did you do that? Did you use magic somehow?"

Irya smiled.

"The only magic came from you, Galen. Knowing how to touch a man's body to give him pleasure is skill, not magic. It can be a powerful tool in sex magic, of course, but reading the body's responses in order to know where and when and how to touch someone is entirely a mundane technique."

"I wouldn't call it mundane. Not at all."

"I meant mundane in the non-magical sense. But thank you. I'm taking that as a compliment. It's good to know I haven't quite lost my skills yet."

"Not at all, Irya. You are... well, amazing is the best word I have for it."

She gave him a happy smile.

"We're using sex as a tool, Galen. But while it's a means to an end, there's no reason why we shouldn't also enjoy it. I know I did."