Long Story #3: The Demon of the Threads (P1)

Long Story #3: The Demon of the Threads (Content Tags: Fantasy worldbuilding, heroic quest, age regression, transformation, diapers, messing, humiliation, domination, forced diaper-smelling, possibility for continuation) Dark clouds hung in the crimson sky, and reaching out to grasp the glowing moon above, was none other than a pale white spire. It was in that ivory tower that the demon of the threads could be found, and it was by that demon's hand that the treasure he sought could he found. The Pale Tower. Only murmured myths had prevailed in the face of the beast's wrath; secondhand legends of dubious repute, because none were known to escape his clawed clutches. No knight, no sorcerer, no barbarian, no grizzled hero could survive once they ascended those steps into the heavens above. This is what Radish had long heard, in advance of his quest to prove the old tales wrong, but these were not warnings he took to heart. Why hang his hat on the stories of drunkards and children? Why fear the unknown, when it was within that unknown where a known treasure lied in wait? At the top of that spiraling spire, guarded by the demon of the threads, was the next piece of the puzzle he needed to vanquish the evil that threatened to consume his kingdom. Radish had already ventured far and wide to collect the other necessary relics, and in his journey he had overcome all manner of challenges. He'd fought iron champions and abyssal abominations, he'd outwitted mind-flayers and beholders, and he'd outrun minotaurs in malevolent mazes. Every trial had failed to stop him, every contest of life and death had hailed him the victor, and every puzzle had been solved. So what could one measly demon do? The ruined kingdom for which the tower oversaw was a sprawling waste that the whirling sands threatened to drown; the once proud architecture of a lost people, that had once stood at the top of the world, now withered under the eroding winds of time. It was a land so completely lost, that even its name had become buried. All that remained now was the legend of the tower, and the nightmare that had descended from it to engulf the kingdom in eternal darkness. Traveling to the edge of the remnant grave was no easy feat in itself; Radish had already been made to traverse the thorn-clad thicket of Rose's Razor, to fend off the haunting ghasts and crooktooths of Bellow's Bog, and to survive the labyrinthine caverns of Feaster's Maw. Only on the other side of those caves, was he finally greeted by the oppressive gales of the Ashen Dunes; in those cursed sands, where echoes of the past and whispers of the future sang in unison, he would find the fallen kingdom at its center. By strength of will alone, his steely resolve, he was made able to dampen the doom of the dunes, where weaker men would have succumbed to the grimacing ghosts of days past and days yet to come. These harrowing steps through hell were difficult enough for a seasoned hero who had already gone through so much, but they were made all the more dire by the curse he'd carried since locating the third treasure in his lengthy voyage; an affliction from a wound that could only be dealt within the confines of the Clockwork Cradle. Radish had begun his journey as a young man in the prime of his abilities, in the apex of his physical form, but within the enigmatic heart of the cradle, he'd found himself reduced by the cold hands of the Clockwork Caretaker. It was by this curse, that he was allowed to keep the blessing of the relic within, as it could only be with the sigil of the hourglass, that his own hands could wield it. It was the nature of all the nine relics he was tasked with recovering from across the continent; they each served a vital role in bringing light to the darkness that had befallen his land, but each also had transformative powers upon the one who gathered them. The Crystal Heart of the Gemstone Jury gave him prismatic might, the Tormented Teardrop of the Inverted Inferno gave him guard against all manner of flame, the Nurturing Seed of the Life-Tree's Carapace gave him immunity to all natural toxins and diseases, and the Frostwind Cloak of the Icy Imprisonment gave him not only shelter from the cold, but the ability to take to the air with each jump. Every one of them had given more reward than the risk they made him incur, all except for what he had found in the Clockwork Cradle; the relic was the gear of an ancient clock, but it was sealed against the outer shell of what appeared to be a pacifier. Whenever he deigned to slip the pacifier's nipple between his lips, and he used it properly, it would temporarily slow or stop time around him. As fantastic as such power seemed, it had come with a high cost to utilize; already he'd been stricken with a curse from the entity that guarded the relic, but using said relic would exacerbate the impact of the curse. His age would magically shift lower, at intervals that matched the striking of the hour, but his base age was definitely lowering as he kept having to use the Reversal Gear. He may have started this quest as a young man, but after some particularly sticky situations, he was continuing it as an embittered adolescent; half the time, he couldn't even claim to be that much, as the curse would leave him refitted into smaller and smaller tunics. It was but a small blessing that all his gear shifted alongside him, or else travel would have been all but impossible. So now he stood upon the precipice of the sixth essence needed to overcome the calamity back home; if he was able to scale the pale tower and best the demon of the thread, then he would he that much closer to saving all whom he cared for. As always, he was fearless in the face of this adversity; after taking on five other dungeons, and five other guardians, what danger could the sixth possibly impose? His only misfortune was to stand alone in the endeavor, at least this most recent of tasks; he had two others in his party, one a childhood friend and the other an ally he'd met a few dungeons back, but he'd requested for them to stay away from this one. Some part of it was ego, as his condition had worsened and he didn't want to be seen this way, but there was also the matter of this obstacle specifically. What little he did know about the pale tower, was that the brute force of numbers was a losing proposition, and that he should instead focus on the element of stealth, as to make it up the tower without alerting the demon to his presence. That handy tip had come from the tongue of someone he could trust, an archivist who'd been guiding him from the start of his trek. All these esoteric places, the treasures they hid, and those who would guard them, were hardly details known to the average rough-and-tumble hero. The relic inside was the Napstitch Needle, which held a power that was still unknown to him. If he had to guess, then his assumption would be that it could mend any wound, but only time would tell if that hunch had any teeth. The boy crept along the sand-blasted rubble that laid strewn throughout roads long smothered; keeping himself low, and with an ear to the ground, he would gingerly step his way through the remnants of the forgotten kingdom. The only reminders of what this place had once been, were the cracked pillars which no longer heaved cathedrals upon them, the skeletal remains of structures that'd been stripped by time's cruel grip, and the literal bones that he occasionally had to avoid cracking with the pitter-patter of his small steps. The sight of it all was depressing, and even more-so when he thought about the fact that his own kingdom bore a resemblance to this eventual fate. Much like his home, this land had been desiccated by the advent of an evil being, and the lasting result of that malicious occupation was the complete destruction of not only a people, but their very history. No other dungeon thus far had been similar to this; the places he'd delved into beforehand had all had their own fascinating histories to ruminate on, but they hadn't been grave sites of once great civilizations. The Gemstone Jury and the Icy Imprisonment had been ancient judicial structures that'd long been abandoned by those who built it; the Inverted Inferno was a festering wound, inflicted by a powerful demon, on the crack between worlds it had crawled from, but that demon had been slain for centuries; the Life-Tree's Carapace was merely the slowly decaying corpse of a once towering tree, whose roots had become vastly winding tunnels, and whose body had become the nurturing force of an endless sea of green. And then, of course, there was the Clockwork Cradle, for which there was substantially less lore to digest. Whatever its purpose had once been was lost, whoever had built it was unknown, and it honestly had even less established wisdom to go on than the Pale Tower did. Going through it himself had been an illuminating journey, and it was definitely the dungeon that had most challenged his brain instead of his brawn, but he had left it still clueless as to what its ultimate purpose was. All that said, it made the Pale Tower stand out as uniquely sad in its origin. What kind of people had once slept in these buildings? What traditions did they hold? What festivals made them smile? Did they have time to ponder their demise, or was it an extinction that immediately swept across them? He didn't have to imagine what terrible sorrow these people had felt, because he had seen it with his own eyes. The weeping of children who huddled close to their mother's bosom, the fear of men who had to live with the knowledge they were powerless to defend their families, and the screams of terror that filled the streets as the shadows of death came from upon high. What would his home look like, whenever he was able to return? Would it simply be twisted into the last of the nightmare he had escaped, or would it reduced to nothing but ash and broken dreams, like this nameless fragment that he tiptoed upon? He had to banish those thoughts from his mind, because if he didn't, then he wouldn't have the resolve necessary to march forward. To be anxious and homesick, that was the ethos of a whimpering child, not of a stoic warrior; he may be forced to bear the visage of immaturity, but he wasn't about to let himself internalize it as well. The door to the pallid spire was forged by more than steel; the cream construct was etched with elaborate runes, and trimmed with intricate ruffles that looked out of place. It far more resembled the overtuned entrance to a fancy dollhouse, than it did the entry to a demonic slab that'd been soaked in blood and steeped in human misery. The contrast was made all the more sickening by the juvenile reliefs that indented the four corners, each resembling the infantile symbolism of a different stylized animal. It felt strange to come across, as though he was about to enter a child's playroom, rather than a demon's quarters. There stood no guards at the door, which was itself suspicious, but not altogether unheard of. Demons were arrogant creatures, and one who had ruled here as long as this one, had likely long abandoned the concept of needing to safeguard his own dwellings, because he thought boldly that nobody would be foolish enough to encroach. Such hubris was something the young hero could use to his advantage; if there truly were no minions of the damned to concern himself with battling, then his plan of stealth would go all the more smoothly. Slowly, still keeping caution on standby, he pushed the doors opened. The heavy marble creaked quietly on its strained hinges, and as soon as enough passage had been made to squeeze through, he passed himself into the tower. The atrium was devoid of anything that might intrigue or frighten him; candles lit every corner, but no doorman was coming to greet him. The start of a grand spiraling stairwell laid to his left, while the right was littered by clumps of forsaken cotton and tattered fabrics. He wondered silently if the refuse was mere trash that'd been lazily kept by the door, or spare material that had long been forgotten about. This was the lair of 'the demon of the thread', and that demon did guard a mystic needle, so it didn't seem too strange of a jump to consider that they may be a seamstress in their endless spare time. It was amusing at first to think of, that a demon might spend their days sewing quilts or socks, like a warmly smiling old lady; that bemused grin would then fade as he considered what grotesque material might have been used in their practice. It was entirely possible that he should tighten his stomach and steel his nerves for the worst; on the floors above, he may very well come across the cross-stitched flesh of what used to be the people of this kingdom. Who knew what sort of cruel abominations may come about from the sadistic imagination of a fiendish monster? Up the spiral he ascended, taking each step with care; he'd already been caught in his fair share of traps over the last few months, and now traveling alone, he couldn't afford to make such an amateurish mistake as to he ensnared or impaled by one. The second floor of the tower was storage, as far as he could tell, with crates of various materials to sew or hem with. A plethora of silks, cottons, and hemp; buttons, buckles, zippers and snaps; dyes, threads, and accoutrements. It would appear that clothing was hardly the only thing being crafted here; was it possible that he would come across some taxidermy nightmare on the higher floors? The third floor is where he first came across something else living, if it could even be defined that way. This floor appeared to be used as a kitchen: there was an iron stove, an impressively sized larder, a spit above a burning hearth, a clay-fired oven, and dozens of cabinets and pantry doors. It was proof of a large appetite, which was common for a demon, but it was less typical for one to have such a sophisticated operation. Considering the tower's placement in such a hostile land though, it was sensible enough to think that predation didn't come easy, and thus stockpiling less bloody meals might become necessary. The kitchen was fully staffed, but not by human hands, nor by demonic servants of a lower caste; the hustle and bustle of the culinary operation was employed entirely by...Toys. Stuffed animals, to be precise. A bear with a chef hat and an apron, a lion with a wooden spoon, a rabbit with a mixing bowl full of assorted berries, and so on. They appeared so intensely focused on their task, that they hardly noticed as the hero wandered past them. Were they constructs that had been animated by some magical spell? Or were they complex puppets, being tugged along by invisible strings? Either sounded plausible, and their presence helped to explain some of the things he'd seen in the crates on the lower floor. The boy wasn't sure how to feel about it. The silliness of it should have put him more at ease, as it besmirched the ferocity of the demon waiting above, but it was also so surprising that it made him feel a niggling anxiety growing in his compacted core. Outside this tower was an entire civilization laid to waste, but inside it, were stuffed animals playing in the kitchen? He didn't linger, passing by them to get to the next staircase. The next few floors wouldn't do much to temper his suspicions; the fourth floor was home to an immaculate garden, which was also run by stuffed animals, and it was full-on proof that the tower itself was a mystic space. The garden was far too large, and instead of a ceiling there was a sunny sky, which could only be possible by way of advanced subspace magic. The fifth floor was a spa, the sixth floor a library, and the seventh a lounge. Floor by floor, he saw many majestic sights, all home to these toys and ultimately a love letter to hedonism, but he didn't come across any perils. There were no traps, no monsters, no threats to speak of; admittedly, it felt almost like he was intruding on a home, instead of braving a darkened dungeon of sins. Nearing the top, he would walk into what could only be described as a playroom for a small child. There were scores of non-living toys, colorful murals across the walls, and a soft yet bouncy floor; embarrassingly enough, with the daily coursing of his curse, he appeared the right age to be in such a whimsical space. Did the demon have a child? Could he use that to his advantage? It wouldn't be long until he had reached the top, so if he was going to change the nature of his plan, then he needed to make that decision very soon. The next floor felt like confirmation, as he entered a pastel nursery; a gentle melody hung in the air as sweetly as the mobile above the changing table, and the undeniable aroma of talcum and lotions swept across his nose. The crib looked a little large to be for an infant, or even really for a toddler, but demons came in all shapes and sizes, so he had little reason to be suspicious of that. His nose wrinkled as he passed by a diaper pail, and he stopped briefly to take a look out the window. This floor was very high up, there could only be one or two more above it, assuming no further subspace shenanigans. The stairs in front of him might be the last barrier before him and the demon. Taking into account that the nursery was empty, he thought it was a good assumption that the demon of the thread was with their child; additionally, he'd incurred absolutely no damage or fatigue on his way up here, so besides his unfortunate size, he was primed for combat it necessary. These details were ones that changed the calculus of the scenario; stealth may still be a fine option, having no reason to believe the toys had alerted their master to an intruder, but it was also worth considering a more direct approach. What if he negotiated terms? (Continued in the second post)