The Threadbinders Ch. 02

"Arkady," Weesha said, horror on her face. "I did not know."

"Both Rakon and I were at the Battle of the Celestial Dawn, the final battle of the Abari Wars, and while the dwarves were victorious over the trolls that day, the cost of life was insanely high, and both myself and Rakon were killed," he sighed, trying not to replay those memories in his head, but finding himself unable to escape the memory of tasting copper in his mouth when he awoke. "What I hadn't known is that my brother had taken out an insurance policy on us, using the great battle axes and fine breastplates our father had made for us when we came of age as collateral, the only mementos we had left of our family. Velktara had taken some convincing, but as I said, when my brother had the spotlight on him, he could convince anyone of anything."

"How long had you been fighting?"

"Oh, I imagine it was close to fifty years between the fall of Lingham and the Battle of the Celestial Dawn, but I lost count somewhere in the middle of it. Rakon had been a passable soldier, but I had taken quite well to it. The insurance was that if both of us were killed, Velktara would resurrect the one of us whose wounds were the most easily mitigated." His fingers squeezed tight on his wife's hand, and she placed her other hand against the back of his neck. "I had been stabbed in the side by a troll spear that had dug in beneath the breastplate. Poor Rakon, his body had been crushed far beyond repair. So, two days after the battle, I awoke on the field, blood still in my mouth, the stench of death and rotting flesh all around me, and the soft eyes of Velktara looking down at me. She had taken my brother's breastplate and battle axe as payment, but told me that I should keep my own, as a reminder of the family, and the price my brother had willingly given to keep one of us alive."

"Ye gods. And how did you go from that to threadbinding?"

He smiled wearily, his hand relaxing a little on his wife's as the images and sense memories of the battlefield receded back into the shadows of his memories. "After my time in war, I wanted to get as far away from that as possible. I traveled back to Lingham, determined to see if anything we'd left behind could be salvaged, but the trolls had gutted our former home of everything they could carry as part of their war efforts. The theater, the building anyway, was still there, but the amount of work it would take to repair and restore it, well, I didn't have the heart, what with Rakon gone. So I sold it to a couple of reclaimists and decided I needed a new path to follow. I traveled the lands for a while, offering my skills as a mercenary and warrior, until I met Emisin on one of his pilgrimages, and he invited me to come and be a student at the school. He said that only a man who had truly seen his cup overflow with hate could live a life so full of love. I didn't have a knack for it, not at first anyway. Hells, I think I had to work three times as hard to learn three quarters as much as any other student there, but eventually, I started to show great promise, and Emisin seemed quite proud in his ability to spot raw talent. Of course, there was the distraction when Yasha arrived."

The gnome grinned a little. "Aye, now that story I have heard a little of, but the chance to hear it straight from the source? Would you do me the honor, m'lady?"

Yasha tittered a little with amusement. "It truly is not the remarkable story everyone seems to expect that it will be. I was King Karaja Summervale's third of six children, and second daughter, so it was clear to me that my eldest brother would eventually be king, and that my older sister and I were likely to be bartered away in arranged marriages to help bolster the alliances my father had spent lifetimes building and reinforcing. But as I came of age, I began to become increasingly paranoid of the life that would have given me. It seemed most likely my father was going to try and pawn me off to the eldest son of King Waterford, and while the king was a nice man, his son was a prat and toxic in more ways than I wanted to count. But I had grown up hearing tales of the Threadbinders, of how they would connect one soul to another and that the love of two bound threads was greater than any other could ever know."

"That is what we promise and try to deliver, my lady," Weesha said.

"My father did not like to admit it, but when he had been a prince, he had also enlisted the aide of a threadbinder to find the perfect mate for him. That had brought him to my mother. He only told me the tale once, but my mother had told it to me many a time before her passing. So when I was of age, I dispatched my handmaid to see if the threadbinder who connected my mother and father still lived, and I was pleased to find that Valyria had, in fact, survived and thrived in the intervening years, and so she was brought to meet with me. I had never been with another woman before, but I assumed that since I knew what sort of things brought me pleasure, using them to bring another woman to pleasure would not be such a stretch, and I found that generally to be true. The price was paid and she brought me to Byanmaz, where Arkady was in his third year of six studying to be a threadbinder."

"They still talk of the day the Royal Guard of Summervale swarmed upon the school, thinking you had been kidnapped for ransom," Weesha giggled. "As powerful as your family is, m'lady, I do not think they could've taken on the entire enclave of threatbinders."

"Mmm," Yasha said with a smirk. "And my father was inclined to agree with you. Mayhap I should have told my father of my decision, but I suspected that if I had, he might have tried to dissuade me from my course of action, and I found that rather hypocritical of him."

"Was her family finally accepting of you, Master Arkady?"

The dwarf shook his head. "Nay, I'm afraid they did everything shy of disown my beloved when it found she was threadbound to a dwarven war veteran. Her eldest brother now sits on the throne of Summervale."

"More like is dying on it," Yasha sniffed. "Being that both Arkady and I are binders, we have far outlived both my father and will easily outlive my brother also. I know that my nephew, Prince Brastelon, will likely welcome us with open arms once my brother has passed, a time I suspect is coming shortly."

"I've often thought your brother simply despised the fact that he could not pursue his true love as you had," Arkady said. "But you told me the alliance between the houses of Summervale and Midnighthollow was desperately needed, which was why your brother married Elania."

"They were not a good match but they survived each other as best they could," Yasha said. "But my nephew is waiting for his father to die before he enlists a threadbinder's services."

"Certainly not mine," the dwarf said in amusement.

"Obviously not," Yasha agreed. "But he will find a good threadbinder when his time has come."

"So tell me more of the girl, what you know of her that might have lead her into bearing such a condition as to sport four cords of true love."

The gnome shifted in her seat a little. "Her name is Sophia Burngrave. Her parents passed some six years ago, and she has been traveling with the troupe since she was born, so she knows no other life, truly. But she said when her parents passed, so did her love of the circus, and so she began trying to plan her exit from their employ. She told me she began trying to acquire the currency needed to employ a threadbinder, taking on extra work in order to gather the funds she would need. I was not the first threadbinder she encountered, but the first one she encountered struck her as... too unfocused for her to trust."

Yasha shook her head, her golden hair falling before her eyes for a moment. "Let me guess. Almas."

"Almas indeed," Weesha sighed. "She's still as much a drunkard as ever, and because of that, Sophia waited. When she was passing by our enclave, she came to interview me, inquire about my rates, and when we agreed upon something that was accessible, she returned to the caravan, gathered up what few belongings she wanted to bring with her, made her her goodbyes and came back to the enclave as the caravan continued on by. Since the ritual provided such... unusual results, I wasn't sure what to do with her, so we have been letting her stay here, since what she paid for hasn't been delivered yet."

"How much vitae did you ask from her, considering how short the human life span is?" the dwarf asked the gnome.

"Only a month's worth, and even that I feel was too much, as I have been unable to deliver upon what I promised." Weesha let out another deep breath. "I'm at wit's end, Arkady. I haven't the foggiest what to do with her. I'd feel better if you checked my results."

He shrugged a little, tucking his pipe away. "I mean, I could do such a thing, and simply set the vitae asked at the absolute minimum."

"What is the minimum amount of time a threadbinder can accept, my love?" Yasha asked him.

"A solitary day's worth. As I'm sure you recall, I've only ever asked the humans for months, never years. They do not have as much time to spare as our races do." The dwarf stroked his beard a moment. "Aye, I suppose I could do you this favor, Weesha, and have you in my ledger as owing me something in kind somewhere down the line. Typically I prefer to wait a few weeks between rituals, but the details of this particular person have intrigued me, and so I will accept."

"Let's go introduce her to you and we can see what comes of it."

The gnome hopped down from her chair and started heading towards the door of her office. Arkady and Yasha moved from their chairs and headed to follow. The apprentice threadbinders had gathered around and scurried away as Weesha opened the door again, all trying their best to look innocent, although it was clear they had all been listening in.

Weesha paid them no mind as they headed out of the main building and over towards one of the side structures. "In addition to entertaining the students, Sophia's also been doing chores around enclave. Cleaning, cooking, whatever she can to offset her cost in food and lodging."

They headed into a smaller building, one where it seemed the space was mostly open. Yasha recognized it as a combat training space. Both thread and threatbinders were trained in basic combat, and they used open areas such as these for training.

In the center of the area, Sophia was practicing some knife juggling. She was, as described, a human woman in her early twenties, dressed in burgundy slacks with a crimson band of cloth around her mid section, covering what seemed like a generous, if proportionate, bosom. Her skin was tan, like a sun baked tree bark. Her eyes, although distant, were clearly a brilliant shade of blue, like cold winter sapphires. Her hair, which hung just past her chin, was mostly jet black like carved obsidian, but had stripes of shimmering red like ribbons of ruby. She was taller than Arkady and shorter than Yasha, with a nimbleness and an agility that Yasha found herself somewhat envious of.

She was also heartbreakingly beautiful.

Yasha turned to look at her husband, as if to try and explain her feelings to him, only to see the look on the gnome's face just beyond his. "Gods. Arkady, Yasha... the entwined cord... it leads to the two of you..."