Abstract: Database commands may be asynchronously forwarded between nodes of a database system. A read-only node may receive a request, such as a read request or write request, and determine that the request should be forwarded to a read-only node for performance. A thread that handles the request may forward the request to the read-only node and register a call-back event for a response to the request and be made available to perform other work. When the response from the read-write node is received, the call-back event may be triggered and return a response to the request using the same or different thread.