Thread Skein (Golden Threads Trilogy Book 3)

by Leeland Artra

  It was so beautiful that Illa sucked in her breath, and her hands trembled. She’d seen many wonders in Hisuru Amajoo, and nothing came close to the treasure she held in raw splendor.

  Nigan whistled.

  With a broad smile, Lebuin said, “Ticca has really good taste. Try it on.”

  Illa’s stomach fluttered at the thought of wearing such a thing. “Can I?”

  Nigan reached into the box, pulling the bracelet out. He handed Lebuin the box and flipped her hand over, sliding the ring on her forefinger. He then slipped the manilla over her wrist and fastened the clasp.

  He held her hand, looking into her eyes. “You can, because it’s yours.”

  She held her hand out, showing it to everyone. As she moved it back and forth, it caught the light, reflecting and focusing it, creating sparkling flashes. A few crossed her eyes, blinding her momentarily.

  Lebuin’s brows tightened. “That looks familiar.”

  A soft cool breeze brushed past them, holding the lavender scent of the palace’s gardens in it. She could feel the moisture of the coming light rain in the atmosphere. It would be a lovely, if chilled night. The morning would be bright and fresh. She thought it would be nice to go for a ride along the seashore.

  A laugh came from behind. “Of course it does, my Lord Lebuin.”

  Illa and Lebuin turned as one to see the princess approaching them. Two of her guards held the library doors open, which was the cause of the sudden breeze, the other two took up positions outside the doorway. She was wearing a beautiful blue dress that matched the silk lining of the box exactly; it even had the same silver piping. As she moved, the silver threads in the dress shimmered. Runa-Illa suppressed a giggle at knowing the resemblance to the box and its treasure was not a coincidence.

  Illa curtsied, and Lebuin bowed.

  “Your Highness, this is an extraordinary gift. You’re most generous,” she said to Ticca.

  When she stood straight, she noticed that Lebuin was looking at Ticca with narrowed brows. Following his gaze, she saw what had Lebuin concerned. Ticca’s face was hollow, and the dress she wore hung loosely on her frame. That was surely not her intention. Ticca had lost a lot of weight recently. This usually indicated a health problem.

  Ticca picked up a glass of water and drank it down in quick, successive gulps. She then filled it again, and drank that before she turned to them. “Sorry. It seems unusually hot and dry to me. I find I have an incredible thirst.” Ticca pointed at the manilla on Illa’s wrist. “Lebuin will soon remember why that looks familiar. I want the rest of the surprise to come in its own way. I enjoyed seeing your face upon opening it.”

  Illa blushed. “Your Highness! Have you been using the surveillance system improperly?”

  Ticca had popped a piece of fruit into her mouth and was chewing it with enthusiasm, so she didn’t answer. She made a sweeping gesture, and a short man appeared. He wore a lab coat over a finely tailored blue suit. His black and white hair was cut short, and stood up in tufts at various angles.

  Illa laughed. “Oh, Brandon! Are you in on this?”

  “Of course I am, your Excellency. Nothing happens here that I don’t know about. The princess ruffled a few feathers, taking it away from our research division.”

  Ticca shushed him. “Brandon, you’re horrible at keeping secrets. They still have the Imperial device to study.”

  Brandon blushed, and turned towards her. “My apologies, Your Highness. I don’t think I let too much out.”

  Lebuin stepped over to stand close to Ticca. “Your Highness, are you okay?”

  Brandon’s brows tightened, and he, too, stepped towards Ticca. “Your Highness, you are suffering from severe dehydration and starvation.” Brandon turned, looking each of them over. “You all are dehydrated. What is happening?”

  Amia-Dharo ran into the room. The royal guards snapped to attention, as he slid to a stop and examined each of them. He saw the manilla Illa was wearing, and his eyes nearly jumped out of his head.

  Illa recalled that it was a vision, and she was really in the ruins of Elraci, a desert so dangerous no one had dared traverse it in thousands of years.

  Ticca had continued to eat and drink even more rapidly. When Amia-Dharo came in, her face went completely slack for a second, and then she started madly stuffing fruits and pastries into her dress. Lebuin ran to another decanter tray, picking it up and running back towards Ticca with it. The panic on his face matched the emotional flood she got from him.

  “What is going on?” Brandon asked more urgently.

  Amia-Dharo stepped towards Lebuin and Ticca. “I did see you there. You were at Niuni Lol.”

  Brandon instantly was before Amia-Dharo. “How could they be there?”

  “They’re caught in a transition wave. Ticca is pulling me into it somehow. Maybe due to my binding to her family.”

  Brandon shook his head. “That isn’t possible. We corrected the fluctuations thousands of years ago.”

  “It is.” Amia-Dharo pulled a beacon key out of his shoulder pouch. “Brandon, make this a key to Kiliun Lol.”

  “I can’t do that without the emperor’s consent,” he said with a shake of his head.

  The far wall wavered as if it was made of liquid. Then it shattered into nothing, and a distortion wave rippled towards them. Amia-Dharo dove to get away from the wave. He was fast, but it was faster. Just as his legs vanished, he threw what he was holding at Lebuin. “This or the Yunna Minthra Ticca ga…” He was gone.

  “ACCESS GRANTED!” Brandon yelled as he whirled, pointing at Lebuin and the beacon key as it flew through the air. The wave passed over Brandon, and he was gone.

  Lebuin had already handed Illa two large crystal carafes of scented water. “Hold tight and don’t drop those, no matter what,” he ordered as he took a flying leap to catch the beacon key. He caught it, landing on the floor, his momentum making him slide towards the wave.

  Just before the wave washed over Lebuin, he looked at Ticca as if he was watching a friend die. He shouted, “We’ll find you!” And then he was gone, too.

  The wave touched Ticca, who was desperately hugging three of the large crystal containers full of water. Illa stood in the corner with nowhere to go, so she also gripped the pitchers and closed her eyes, breathing deeply, trying to not sway.

  I’ll return to my world. I’ll be standing. I only need to not fall from the dizziness.

  She concentrated on breathing, holding on to the containers, and standing evenly balanced. She was so focused that she missed the feeling of transition.

  “Where did you get that?” Nigan’s voice came from right next to her.

  She sighed and opened her eyes. Lebuin was lying down on a rock a few feet away.

  “Lebuin, are you okay?” Malla called as she and Carda ran over to him to help him up.

  She looked down, and not only did she still have the bracelet on, but in her hand was a full pitcher of wonderfully fresh fruit-flavored water. She laughed, and she saw Lebuin standing, staring at his empty hand like it was a traitor.

  Lebuin turned to her, and his eyes lit up. “If you have that, she might have hers, too!” He jumped around, shouting, “She’s alive! She’s alive!”

  Nigan took the flask and sniffed it. “Orange vanilla water?”

  Illa couldn’t stop laughing. She grabbed Nigan’s arm. “She’s alive! I have the jug, so she might have hers too! Don’t you see, she’s alive! She could have the food, too! She’s alive!”

  Lebuin heard her and stopped jumping. Then he couldn’t contain his joy, and jumped some more. “You have a jug, and she might too!”

  Ditani asked, “Ticca? You saw Ticca?”

  Illa couldn’t speak, she was grinning so wide, so she nodded and held the pitcher high, like a prized trophy.

&nbs
p; Nigan snapped his fingers. “They had another one of those weird vision things. Ticca was there, and she took food and water with her like Illa brought back this carafe. Next time, do you think you could bring back a steak dinner platter?”

  Illa handed Nigan the pitcher. As soon as he took it, she punched him in the opposite shoulder. It took a while for Lebuin to calm down, but eventually, the whole team was sitting around, sipping the flavored water and listening as Lebuin explained what happened.

  “Why did Illa bring back only one pitcher, and where did this beacon key thing go?” Nigan asked.

  Lebuin thought about it a couple of minutes. “There has to be a reason.”

  “Well, I brought back the box, too. Maybe it’s a priestess power or something.”

  “I gave you two pitchers, but only one stayed.” Lebuin’s eyes lifted to the starry night sky as he scratched his beard and mumbled a lot of stuff, mostly to himself.

  Illa tried to ignore that everyone was staring at her. Ditani moved to sit next to her. He pointed at her hand with the manilla. “Was this the hand that held the water you brought back?”

  Illa tried to remember, but wasn’t sure. She shrugged.

  “Yes, it is,” Nigan said. “I was on her right side, because I had just put that on her. I took the pitcher from her right hand.”

  Lebuin leaned in to look closer at the bracelet and ring. “It has a lot of channels. It looks like....” He held up his hand and then shifted to sit behind her. “Hold still for a moment.” He placed his right hand next to hers and leaned down, moving his head back and forth, his nose almost touching both his hand and hers.

  After the detailed inspection, he grunted and sat back. “That’s amazing.” He sat there, looking up at the stars.

  They all waited, staring at Lebuin. Several minutes passed when, in a single, fluid motion, Ditani leaned over and slugged Lebuin in the shoulder. He jumped and placed his hand over the spot. “Ow! That hurt.”

  “So does ignorance. We’re waiting.” Ditani waved, indicating the whole group.

  “Oh, sorry. That’s an original fae artifact. I mean, elven...well, not exactly. It’s older than this world.” He sighed and shook his head. Pursing his lips, he paused, looking down. “Let me explain something I’ve learned. All our peoples originally came from other worlds. Elves, dwarves, and the Gods came from worlds where mana, or magic, was in abundance. Our bodies depend on mana like humans depend on food. We need some foods, too, but not as much or as often.

  “Humans came from worlds where there was...well, not exactly none, but practically no mana. They dreamed of magical things, and dreaming made them desire those things. They delved into sciences beyond anything my race knew. And they developed machines and technology that gave them the abilities of magic. When our worlds were threatened, all of the great races worked together to come here. Now, we all live here together.”

  Lebuin pulled the silver box he’d been playing with out of his pocket. “This is mundane, or non-magical, human technology. Its purpose is to examine things in many ways far beyond just looking at them. It keeps a record of everything it has seen. Those records can be searched, reviewed, and studied in detail. Here....” He opened the small doors on it and pushed some buttons. The thing lit up with many lights. A semitransparent, but almost solid, image of a beautiful glowing machine formed. Placing the silver case down, Lebuin used both hands to move the image, adjusting the angle and size. The image was almost a full meter wide and tall. The machine had what could have been a sun at its core, and around it floated a golden mesh with bright gems of all colors. The machine moved like flowing water, the golden mesh turning, and the crystals glinted as they rotated past.

  Lebuin pointed at the image. “That’s what was destroyed at the Nhia-Samri base. I’m pretty sure it’s a machine that generates energy that’s an altered form of mana. It’s Elracian technology, a blending of mundane and magical technology. I believe that hundreds of similar machines were here in Elraci.” He bent and pushed some more buttons. The likeness of the machine changed colors, and looked like it was in a bank of multi-colored clouds that churned around it. “That’s the mana, or magic, it’s making.”

  Lebuin picked up the silver recording box, and yet the image of the machine remained steady. Illa had expected it to bounce and move with the box. But whatever it was doing produced a steady picture.

  I suppose that would be a requirement for research. It’d be annoying if it moved when not desired.

  Lebuin lifted her hand with the dazzling bracelet, web, and ring. He waved the box over her hand while manipulating the device with his thumb. He gave her a gentle smile, and then produced a second image of the manilla, ring, and connecting silver netting, floating in the air next to the machine. Amazingly, her hand wasn’t in it. But the netting and ring moved slightly, as if her hand was there, but was not being shown.

  Lebuin manipulated the controls again; the image of the bracelet shifted, and hundreds of glowing yellow to red balls, the size of pebbles, appeared around the manilla. The spheres floated randomly, except those closest to the manilla, which were pulled in, spreading out into a mixed-color layer over the top of the bracelet.

  It looked almost like a thin layer of red and yellow water over the bracelet that pulsed, running through and over the webbing, to the ring. The colored liquid went up through the diamonds, which filtered it into narrow beams of clear liquid shooting up from the top of the diamonds, to the large sapphire. It had a series of clear, shimmering, watery rings around it.

  Lebuin pointed to the image. “You see, this is filtering the mana.” He stuck his finger in the clear rings around the sapphire. “This looks exactly like the kind of mana the Nhia-Samri tried to kill us with when they destroyed that base. Argos said the Nhia-Samri are using a Loehesh Pattern for their mana. This artifact is a Loehesh Pattern filter for mana, and possibly even a storage device. You can use it to collect mana for me faster than you could before. Also, this mana is, well, concentrated and purified. You might even be able to use that mana for yourself if I train you.”

  Lebuin pushed something on the silver recorder, and the images vanished.

  “So it manipulates magic?” Ditani asked.

  “Yes. And I think that’s why it came through. Those are more than just visions. I think this thing, once it was close to Illa, started collecting and filtering magic. A strong magical wave is pushing us in and out of these visions or other world. This artifact probably drained the wave around it.”

  “Why me?”

  “Because you’re a power collector. Even when you were mad at me and blocking me, you were still feeding me some power. This thing was made for you, or at least someone like you.”

  Lebuin turned to the cliff face. “And I think we can break into this place now.”

  Everyone stood and turned towards where Lebuin was looking.

  “Into what place?” Nigan asked.

  Lebuin pointed, and a blast of golden fire flew from his hand. It slammed into something a meter and half in front of the cliff face and spread out, revealing a six-meter-wide bubble, or shield, over a section of the cliff face and into the ground.

  “That place.”

  Everyone gasped. Lebuin stopped his magic, and the bubble faded back into invisibility.

  Nigan jumped up, his face tight. “Wait a minute! You’re proposing she stick her hand into that?”

  “Kind of,” Lebuin said, shrugging. “I’ve been trying to figure out how to get through. It’s a lot stronger than any other shield I know of. Also, I’m worried about attacking it outright. I’m not sure what might happen if I manage to break it with sheer force. The backlash might be more than we expect. This filter is a way to drain it, instead of breaking it. She can try to touch it with that filter. I’m betting it can pull enough power out of the shield to let us pass.”r />
  “How much magic can this hold?” Illa asked.

  “I don’t know. Why don’t you try opening it to me? Let’s see if we can channel the power. I can send it to the Argos collector. That can hold a lot more than anything we have encountered.”

  Ditani grabbed Lebuin’s arm. “Lebuin, these artifacts are extremely powerful. How do you know you can take the energy from that thing?”

  Lebuin pulled out the silver box and wiggled it in front of Ditani. “Because it’s putting out 1,733 rellums of mana. The power I filtered off that base was a thousand times more than that, at least.”

  Illa and Lebuin had to experiment and try many combinations before they figured out how she could channel the power from the bracelet to Lebuin. He’d already figured out how to send the power to the Argos artifact, which was why he’d stopped glowing a few days back. It was almost morning before they were ready to try.

  Her stomach was threatening to jump out of her throat at any moment as she stood, staring in the direction of the shield. She approached it. Lebuin touched her shoulder and stood next to her. He connected and shared his magical vision with her. It was strange, looking over her own shoulder at her hand, but the angle was close enough to normal that she was able to adjust for it.

  In his magical sight, the shield glowed and pulsed. The small nodules of mana that floated everywhere in Elraci either bounced off of it or popped on contact. She was distracted by the sensation of moving her hand through floating bubbles that she couldn’t see or feel normally. As her hand moved closer, the bracelet continued to absorb the magical nodules.

  She opened the channel to Lebuin, and he held his left hand out as a steady stream of clear mana shot, in a solid line, from the sapphire in the ring to his hand. He absorbed the power and channeled it off to the Argos artifact, back in the Argos Guildhouse in Llino.