The Threadbinders - Ch. 8 (Patreon)

Chapter Eight

Gom Weydan hung on the horizon like a solitary jewel against the bronze of the morning.

The Shimmering City.

The Drifting Domain.

If there was any place in the seven worlds that Arkady had always wanted to visit but had never had the opportunity to, it was Gom Weydan. The last time it had been around, they’d been on their way to see it, and the city’s gates had closed earlier than expected and by the time they had arrived, it had moved on to another location, somewhere outside of the seven worlds.

He’d lived on hearing such fabulous and miraculous stories about the Shimmering City that he’d doubted most of them could be true, and that many had to have been exaggerated over repeated tellings, a small thing becoming a larger thing before it became the sort of unbelievable detail that could only be said about Gom Weydan, because the city itself wasn’t around to be verified.

The rules of Gom Weydan’s comings and goings were well-known, but still somewhat unreliable. The city would arrive sometime within a thirty-year cycle, but never in the place it had last been in. One day, the area where it would appear would begin to shimmer and the next day, Gom Weydan would be there.

The city would remain where it appeared for somewhere between three and eight months, and then one day, at around sunrise, it would begin shimmering again. That was what was known as Last Call Day within the city limits, which meant if you weren’t out of the city by sundown, you would be transported with the rest of the city to its next location, somewhere outside of the seven worlds. And you wouldn’t be back this way again for another thirty years.

Sometimes Gom Weydan would be floating in the sky. Other times it would appear against the side of a mountain. Last time, it had appeared as an island inside of Peart Bay, a particularly challenging area where the constant storms made coming and going far more difficult than it had been the time before. Reportedly the residents of Gom Weydan had harnessed the heavy lightning strikes generated by the storms into some sort of power source while they were there.

That was the thing about Gom Weydan that fascinated Arkady the most – each description of the city sounded more fantastical than the one before, and yet, they also sounded so impossible that he was certain no real place could live up to them.

And he was mere hours away from finding out.

“You’re nervous, husband,” Yasha said to him, her voice dripping with amusement. “I do not recall the last time I saw you nervous.”

“It’s The Shimmering City, my love,” the dwarven mage replied. “I know you’ve been before, but I have not, and I am eager to see with my own eyes what sort of mythical delights it has on offer for us when we arrive.”

“It was centuries ago that I saw Gom Weydan, husband, and I was but a young girl, not even a woman, so those memories are certainly tainted with the folly of youth, and very unreliable.”

“We shall soon see for ourselves.”

This time, it seemed that Gom Weydan had appeared high in the skies, floating above a rather barren and desolate patch of desert, with a hastily constructed drawbridge extending to the nearest cliffside, where merchant carts were lined up, both coming and going, everyone eager to do what they could to profit off the unusual delights of the Shimmering City.

As they approached by air, on the back of Quiesh, Arkady was surprised at how large Gom Weydan truly was. Despite the stories, he’d expected it to be a handful of blocks, little more, and yet instead those city walls encircled an area made up of districts, not mere structures. In this at the very least, the Shimmering City lived up to its reputation.

The walls that wrapped around the border of Gom Weydan were also exactly as described, mostly a deep blue crystal with veins of gold running through them that glowed with whatever magical energy fueled the city’s existence. There were no shortage of mages, he expected, who had booked stay in many of Gom Weydan’s hotels, in an effort to glean what they could about what powered the city, but Arkady suspected they would be no closer when the city moved on than they had been when it had arrived to discerning knowledge.

Gom Weydan was also known as the City of Secrets.

From above, they could also see the sky gondolas that traversed above the city’s streets, strung up on faintly glowing golden cords, trollies zipping along paths of light, ferrying people and business from one building to another. Arkady was astonished to see it, having convinced himself that those stories must’ve been the imagination or exaggeration of some drunken fool several cups into his idyllic dreams and memories. The carriages were wood and steel, with loops of copper that wrapped around the path cords, with small propellers at the back that spun to push the vehicles along the lines when they needed to move. A logo was emblazoned on each of the long sides of the carriages, four letters, GWPT, each done in a neat and smart font.

The lightning pillars were also still affixed around the edges of the city, giant steel rods that jutted like spikes up into the air, even though it seemed unlikely that the desert air would provide them much in the way of energy. They looked well maintained, even if they were not currently serving their designed purpose.

Arkady noticed the skies above Gom Weydan were teeming with life, and there were even areas around the tallest spires of Gom Weydan that were marked as ‘docking berths,’ places where those who travelled by means such as Quiesh could let their steeds rest and relax while they did their business within the city walls. Griffons, phoenixes, dragons and drakes aplenty, flying creatures of every stripe and delight landing and resting. There were also a small number of airships drifting across the skies, a few of them moored against towers so their crews could go about their business.

The architecture of the buildings within the walls of Gom Weydan reflected dozens of various construction styles and just as many different types of building materials. Stone, crystal, wood, brick, even cloth and what looked like spiderwebs. Some of the buildings were all curves and soft edges, others still were nothing but sharp lines and harsh corners.

They could’ve spent hours looking at the city from the skies, but Arkady was too keen to get on the ground and walk the city streets himself, so he steered Quiesh over towards one of the skyscrapers with a berth atop it, bringing the griffon in to land before hopping out of her carriage atop her back to greet the tall avian humanoid walking towards them. “Hail and well met, friends of the skies,” the figure said to them. “I’m Skymaster Hagolik, of Hagolik’s Aviary Resting Place. Are you anticipating staying hours, days, weeks or longer?”

“Certainly longer than hours,” Arkady said as Yasha, Sophia and Moonweave disembarked from Quiesh’s dwelling, his wife gesturing for the handlers to move and secure the carriage, allowing a small cadre of dockworkers to begin movement immediately. They hooked into the secure corners and then moved to remove the straps which secured the carriage into place. Once it was lifted off of Quiesh’s back, the griffon moved out from underneath it and stretched her majestic form, preening as she shifted, pausing to scratch against one of the wooden beams before one of the handlers took the hint and began to scratch the griffon’s shoulder. “Let’s call it a week, and if we use less, then you can keep the difference and if we use more, we’ll pay the balance before our departure. Book us under the names Arkady and Yasha, with our griffon friend there’s name being Quiesh. Keep her awash in fresh meat and she’ll be content enough.” The mage glanced at the rates on the wall, pleased to see they were still on the Interdimensional Multidenominational Platinum Standard (or IMPS), which meant rates were easy enough to calculate in his head. He reached into his satchel and pulled out a pouch of platinum coins, taking a few out before tossing the pouch to the Skymaster. “We good?”

“More than, Master Threadbinder,” Hagolik said to him. “I must ask, are you here on preexisting business, seeking new business or just choosing to take in the sights that Gom Weydan has to offer?”

“Existing business, but also just getting my first taste of this marvelous city of yours,” the dwarf said, trying to hide the genuine sense of wonder from his voice. “I’ve spent several lifetimes dreaming about what sort of delights and wonders could be contained here.”

“Well then, let me be the first to welcome you to the Shimmering City, Master Threadbinder, and also let you know that should you be willing to take on new contracts while you’re here, the Mayor of Gom Weydan has an open contract for any Threadbinder who passes through our gates. I’ll receive a reward just for sending you her way, and even more should you complete the contract, so I’ll hold onto this payment of yours, and should you take her contract and complete it successfully, I will give you back your money, pay your housing fee, and it will be on the house.”

“Sounds like an opportunity I should avail myself of,” Arkady said with a chuckle. “Any idea what kind of need the Mayor has?”

“The Mayor’s niece attempted to retain the services of a less-than skilled Threadbinder several years ago, and whatever that mage attempted, it went horribly wrong, and the Mayor’s niece has been kept in stasis in gernosh crystal since then,” the Skymaster told him.

“Then after we’ve seen to our business, we’ll stop and see to the Mayor,” the dwarf said. “I would not want to be an unaccommodating guest to a host in need.”

“Thank you kindly, good mage.”

Sophia skipped up alongside him as they made their way to the stairwell leading down the inside of the tower. “We’re here looking for one of my threads?” she asked him.

“We are.” Arkady glanced over and focused at Sophia’s chest for a moment, long enough to pick the threads from one another and find the one he was looking for. “The thick and wide thread leads to somewhere within Gom Weydan, so we’re going to get to street level and then follow it along the streets until we know where your soulmate here is.”

“I’m so excited I can barely stand still,” Sophia said with a giggle, pushing her hair from her face to tuck it behind her ear. “Where can we find him?”

“We need to wander through the city, and it shouldn’t be too hard to track them down once we’ve gotten the lay of the land.”

As soon as they hit street level, it was easy enough to pick up the trail, simply walking towards the way the cord led them down bricked streets, far better maintained than almost any Arkady had seen anywhere across the worlds. There was something wonderous and miraculous about traveling along the streets of Gom Weydan, filled with residents of species he’d never seen in his life.

Each of the buildings had signs offering all sorts of services – apothecaries, quartermasters, mercenaries, spellcrafters, creature trainers, inscriptors, trappers, skinners, jewelers and craftsmen of every stripe, shape and color.

The path wasn’t so difficult that they took a long time to find where they were looking for, but it led them to a place they completely hadn’t expected – a jail.

The group walked around the building, but sure enough, the cord pointed inside of the building, something which made them puzzled.

“Do we give up?” Sophia asked them, looking down at Arkady, who only bristled in amusement.

“We need more information before we do that, my dear,” Yasha told her, placing her hand on Sophia’s human shoulder. “And my dear husband knows exactly where we need to go for such details, doesn’t he?”

“Of course he does,” Arkady sighed, rolling his eyes a little. “You know if the universe truly wanted me to go see the Mayor before we did anything else, it could’ve simply sent the sign to us at the Skyport and saved us walking the length of the city.”

“You enjoyed seeing the city, dear husband.”

“I did, but I’d rather have the time to stop in and investigate many of these store fronts, which we have not been doing because we were on mission.” The dwarf sighed, shaking his head a little. “I should have known better. Let’s go see the Mayor. I have a feeling that isn’t going to go all that great either, but at least I’ll be able to put some practical work in there.”

The trip to the Mayor’s mansion wasn’t all that long, simply because it was only three blocks away from the jail. The entire city ran eighteen blocks by sixteen blocks, so the trip could’ve been far, far worse, and as they approached the manor, a number of guards moved to encircle their small party of four, looking on at them with intense curiosity.

“Lotta balls, their kind showin’ up here,” one of the guards muttered to another, something that Arkady and Yasha could both hear, and both took note of.

“I’m meant to understand your Mayor is seeking the services of a Threadbinder,” Arkady said, as he stepped up towards the guard who stood before the main entrance. “Arkady Gormansson, eighth rank Threadbinder, at her service. May we be announced?”

The head guard looked at Arkady and sighed a little. He was an elven male just approaching his twilight years, his hair deeply silver, the big and bushy beard on his face much more dwarven than elvish, but there was no mistaking his build, or the point of his ears, or his height, as he loomed several hands taller than Arkady. “Look, I don’t know your kind from any other, so let me offer you a piece of friendly advice before we move any further. If you’re a con man, charlatan or in any way a mage who is not skilled in emotions, love and lust in particular, you should turn away now and save your own hide, because the ramparts are often lined with the heads of those who have claimed they could ‘fix’ the Mayor’s niece, and yet, all of them when put to the task failed and failed most spectacularly. If you are anything less than assured in your craft, friend, I would recommend turning around and leaving Gom Weydan as quickly as possible, before word of a Threadbinder’s appearance spreads to our Mayor’s ears, and I’m forced to drag you here, where you’ll inevitably fail and join the heads on spikes collection. It’s not something I’m ever keen to do, friend, so let me ask you again, what’s your business here with Mayor Gilcrest?”

“I’m a Threadbinder of the eight rank, Captain, so I assure you, I am quite capable of my craft. Skymaster Hagolik told us when we docked that your Mayor was in need of a Threadbinder’s services, and as it turns out, I have need of the Mayor’s in kind, so perhaps I can solve this problem of hers, and she can allow me to obtain what I need in kind.”

The Captain of the Guard shrugged a little. “Alright, you cannot say you weren’t warned. Come on, let’s go get this over with.”

They entered through the main entrance and made their way down towards the great hall, the main front room of the Mayor’s manor where she took meetings and met with visiting dignitaries, much the way a king or queen would, except that the Mayor’s position was voted on every twenty years by the population of Gom Weydan, meaning the resident of the house shifted semi-regularly, although Mayor Gilcrest had won the last four elections and shown no sign of losing steam. She was an elf, although of a much different heritage than Yasha and her people. Gilcrest came from a stripe of elves known as the Starlight elves, who were no taller than humans, but always had the palest of skins, with ashen grey highlights for lips and nipples. They were as long lived as Yasha’s people, but weren’t all that common on the seven worlds, although Arkady had heard tell they were much more plentiful in one of the other systems that Gom Weydan had connected to during its travels.

Mayor Gilcrest was sat behind a desk on an elevated dais, looking down at the Captain of the Guard, her attire understated and reserved, her silver hair having been dyed with stripes of gold and copper, trying to make her look younger than she was, although the stress and exhaustion of her demeanor couldn’t help but come through. “Captain Blanco, who’s come to see me?”

“Your honor, this is Threadbinder Arkady Gormannson, Eighth Rank, who has come here at the behest of Skymaster Hagolik, in order to offer his services.”

The Mayor stood up from her desk before walking down the stairs from the dais to come and get down to their level. “Are you now.” She moved to look at Arkady, ignoring the rest of the members of the party, looking him down to up. “Your attire is at least correct, unlike the last couple of charlatans,” she told him. “How many years’ experience do you have in your trade, Arkady?”

“A few hundred or so, your honor,” Arkady said to her. “What seems to be the trouble?”

“The trouble is that about forty years ago, my niece paid for the services of a so-called Threadbinder, who instead cast a spell on my niece to make her fall in love with the first man she set eyes upon, except that the enchantment is faulty, and instead she finds herself insanely lusty for every man she sets her eyes upon, and it’s uncontrollable.” The Mayor scowled a little. “We had the con woman put to death, and we haven’t been to get the spell removed from her yet, so we have had to keep her in gernosh crystal ever since.”

“I’ve got a handful of ideas on what it could be, but before we move on to that, I have to discuss the part of my fee. I am willing to offer an alternative form of payment in exchange for me solving the matter.”

“What’s that?”

“The release of someone in the jail a few blocks away.”

“What, Regstial Prison?” She smirked a little bit, shaking her head slightly. “That’s only for short-termers, nobody’s in there for anything longer than two years. I can make that deal. Who are you looking to release?”

Arkady chuckled slightly. “We won’t know for certain until we walk inside. Hell, it’s possible it could be one of the guards.”

“But you don’t think that’s likely.”

The dwarf shrugged a little bit. “Our luck prohibits it, I’m certain, your honor.” That made the mayor smile a little bit, cracking through her harsh exterior. “Shall we go and see to your niece?”

The Mayor nodded. “If you hold up your end of the deal, I shall as well.” The group of them walked over towards a side door, as the Mayor fished a large ring of keys from the folds of her mayoral robe, unlocked the door and led them into the room.

In the center of the room was a large blue crystal with a single figure in the center of it. Gernosh crystal was usually only for keeping biological things within, so the woman was naked save for a silk bindings at her wrists and ankles. She was quite shapely for an elf, with overly large breasts despite her narrow waist and wide hips, her hair a different shade – golden blonde perhaps – than the silver locks he’d expected to see, full curls in the heavy waves of it. She was also remarkably beautiful, although Arkady knew she wasn’t threadbound to him, because he could still see the minor flaws about her body objectively, the occasional scar or blemish, recognizing them for what they were instead of internally idealizing them like he would if they were threadbound. He hadn’t expected they would be, but with the rules having been suspended, everything was anyone’s game. There was also something unusual about her positioning inside the crystal, as if she’d been struggling right up until the last moment the crystal set around her.

“Are you able to discern what went wrong with her still in the crystal, Master Threadbinder?”

Arkady pipped a little, considering. “Probably? Let me do a bit of examination first before I give you a definitive yes or no.” The mage walked over to the crystal before letting his hand drifting across the top of it, trying to discern what kinds of magics had been done to the young woman. And when his hands passed over the woman’s abdomen, he felt a sharp spike of pain jolt through his hand before he yanked back his fingertips.

“That doesn’t look good.”

“It’s fine it’s fine,” Arkady assured the Mayor. “Just… a little surprising. There’s good news and there’s bad news about your niece. Would you prefer them in some order?”

“The bad news first.”

He nodded. “The bad news is that the cure will take us somewhere between a week and several months, as I’ll need to kill all the parasites within your niece one at a time after I break the hive down first, and I’m not sure how many there are.”

“Parasites?”

Arkady stroked his beard as he nodded. “Shesterlillies. Nasty varmints. And the good news is that you got me here in time. She’s got a nearly full hive inside of her, and two or three more days unfrozen, it would’ve been too late. But I’m here, and I’ve had practice dealing with Shesterlily hives before. We encountered an infestation of them about fifty years ago, and it took us nearly six months to cleanse the entire village, between my wife and myself, but we got it done.”

“And you think you can take care of my niece?”

“I can, but there’s a chance I may need to take her with me when I leave Gom Weydan, which means she would be gone for thirty years,” Arkady said. “That’s the problem when it comes to dealing with Shesterlillies. You can never predict how many Shesterlillies are loose and ready to jump to new hosts. Thankfully, you’ve been killing everyone who she’s been trying to mate with, otherwise this whole city would be plagued with them by now.”

“Then let’s get her dethawed and you can deal with the Shesterlillies,” the Mayor said, “and we can get you on to your person inside of Regstial.”

“I can understand your paranoia, Mayor Gilcrest, but I would ask that you keep as few people as possible in the chamber with me as possible while I’m destroying the hive,” Arkady said, reaching into his satchel, pulling out a small vial of green salve. “I don’t even want my own companions nor my wife here while I’m dealing with the hive. The… well, let’s just say it’s not a particularly pleasant encounter at first, and the risk of infestation runs high.”

The Mayor frowned a little. “I don’t know how comfortable I am leaving you here alone with my niece, Threadbinder.”

Arkady nodded, shaking the vial between his thumb and forefinger. “Quite understandable, which is why I’m willing to leave my wife and my two consorts with you until we’re done, as collateral, so you will feel more comfortable letting me work without prying eyes.”

“You don’t even want your wife in here to assist you?”

The dwarf offered a very tight-lipped tiny smile as he shook his head. “The hive is in a very mature state, and while my wife is trained on how to deal with Shesterlily drones, dealing with the hive is a much more complex matter altogether. And the Queen could bolt from the hive and attempt to make a run at my wife, so I would rather not put her at risk from that.”

“You bear no such risk?”

Arkady chuckled. “My body is proofed against all forms of infestation, Shesterlillies included. I’m not afraid, your grace.”

The Mayor took a moment and considered her options, then, after weighing them all for what Arkady felt like was much longer than necessary, nodded in agreement. “You know how to dissolve gernosh crystal?”

“I do, your honor.”

“Then we will leave you to it.”

“You’re sure, dear husband?” Yasha said, placing her hand on his cheek.

He smiled up at her and nodded. “I’ll be fine, beloved. It will simply be a grisly encounter.” He glanced over and whistled to get the Mayor’s attention as she reached the door. “Your niece’s name? What is it?”

“Velshia. Why, is that important?”

He nodded. “While the hive has her mind, she won’t know that. It will be a question she cannot answer. But once the hive is destroyed, she will know her own name, and will be able to tell me. But I need to know the truth to run it against.”

The Mayor nodded, waiting at the doorway for the Captain, Yasha, Sophia and Moonweave to join her, and after they had all filed out, she looked back to Arkady with another nod. “Get it done, Threadbinder. As beastly as it may be, simply… get it done. Knock four times in quick succession to let us know that you have succeeded, otherwise we shall assume you have failed.”

“I will not, your honor. I assure you.”

The Mayor stepped out and the door closed, the sound of the door being relocked settled into place, the bolts and bars keeping the door in place far heavier than they truly needed to be. Shesterlillies were rarely violent, and even when they were so, they were never stronger than the hosts whose bodies they occupied. No, the Shesterlillies preferred to use lust and sex to spread, and with this host, they would’ve gotten far if the hive hadn’t gotten overly aggressive too early.

Arkady moved over to the crystal, smoothing his hand along the side of it until he came across the indented groove that marked the glyph needed to cause the crystal to dissolve. He traced the tip of his thick dwarven finger along the path, and the crystal started to hum slightly, the blue substance beginning to glow as it started to slowly melt away. Within a couple of minutes, the woman, Velshia, would be awake and the struggle would be on.

With the dehibernation process begun, Arkady moved over to a corner of the room, grabbing a second vial from the satchel, a sort of amber-gold tree sap. He opened the top of the vial and quaffed the contents immediately, feeling the potion start to flit through his veins quickly, his limbs a little lighter, more nimble, hastier. Then, after tucking the empty vial back into his satchel, he placed the bag upon the ground, and stripped himself bare naked.

The dwarf laid his clothes atop of the satchel, then grabbed the green vial he’d pulled out earlier before finding a second one like it in his satchel, setting one atop of his clothes, taking the other with him as he reapproached the slowly dissolving crystal coffin.

He gave the green salve another quick shake, unstoppering the top of it before slathering the thick gooey substance along his cock, taking each of his hands to give it a slight stroke, mostly to ensure that his shaft was covered completely in the substance.

While he didn’t feel his confidence in dealing with the matter was unwarranted, he was certain it would be something of a workout, and one the likes of which it had been some time since he’d had. This was the sort of event that truly straddled the gap between Threadbinder and Threatbinder, and was one of the riskier things the Threadbinders typically got involved with.

He tossed the empty vial aside and moved closer enough to see the elven woman’s form start to rise up from the coffin of crystal, coughing up lungfuls of the dissolved and liquified crystal, spitting it from her mouth after she sat up, turning to quickly and almost ferally gaze around the room, trying to find an exit, seeing none, before seeing Arkady. A predator’s smile bloomed on her lips, as her eyes, a deep and vicious shade of blood red, focused on him.

“Mmmm….” she sneered in his direction. “Someone to fuck.”

‘Alright,’ Arkady thought to himself. ‘May my pick only strike true.’

Their duel to the death – his or the hive’s – had begun.

(Author's Note: Threadbinder fans, I've got bad, good and great news for you. The bad news is that I ended this one on a cliffhanger. The good news is that you won't have to wait long, because the next post I'm going to do (Tuesday or Wednesday) will also be a new Threadbinders chapter. The great news is that it's wonderfully spicy/sexy, and for those of you who have voting level status, there will even be an additional poll where you can help decide the path of the plot moving forward after the next two chapters! (That'll make more sense when that poll goes up after the second part.) So yeah, two installments back to back, because I'm basically at 5k right now, and only half way through the chapter I wanted to tell. Back here soon!)