Just what Alina wants

Chapter Two from Thorne: The Withering Shore

Welcome to the second chapter for Thorne: The Withering Shore.

There are six chapters to the Withering Shore but Thorne’s story doesn’t end there, so stay tuned for more adventures.

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Thorne: The Withering Shore

I was always told that the day belonged to us but the night belongs to them. It was never a truth I wanted to unfurl but all paths are leading me there, down to the pier at the end of the line. Down to the darkness that bleeds into the withering shore.

Chapter Two - Just what Alina wants

Since Thorne had seen the Artach on the floor of the Elison’s building, it was all she could think about. The last time she had seen that mark it had been drawn in light. It had felt warm and full of opportunity. The Elison’s mark was drawn in blood which told Thorne two things: they were trying to open a door to a different place; they had no idea what they were entering into.

When her dreams were full of painted Artach’s and golden doors, she threw herself back into work. A new case had found its her to her inbox and she agreed to meet without hesitation.

There was a low level hum beneath the chatter of the crowded diner. A familiar noise that Thorne liked to settle into to, using it to hide from those around her. It was difficult to deceive a crowd but nothing that Thorne couldn’t handle. It was a matter of using the distractions around her. She didn’t have to convince people to look away from her but look towards the sounds of something else. A man in the opposite corner was trying to chat up a woman at the bar, laughing at his own jokes in loud cackles that cut through the room. It was easy to direct people towards him, to see how the woman responded, to judge his stance against the bar, to wince each time his laugh burst from his mouth. 

If they looked in Thorne’s direction their eyes would refuse to focus and they would be drawn back to the obnoxious man. She was hiding in plain sight while she watched everything. 

Thorne kept the charade going while she waited for her new client, Alina. She didn’t know anything about her apart from her name, so the illusion would give her enough time to pull some assumptions together - anything to help her understand what she was taking on.

A roar of a car engine broke her focus as it came to a stop outside. Thorne didn’t know much about cars but this one screamed expensive. She waited for the driver to step out - maybe it was her next client and she could comfortably charge overtime. But when the woman opened the car door, Thorne realised that she knew the driver.

‘Braya,’ she gasped. She hadn’t seen her in over ten years but she was the same Braya that Thorne remembered with raven black hair that fell down to her waist. Her clothes were nicer than the ones she’d worn at university when she worked three jobs and lived off coffee and Adderall. Now it was layers of cashmere over silk, expertly tailored to her svelte frame.

Thorne tried to build her illusion taller, shrinking behind the laughter at the bar so she could hide from her. She had always liked Braya but didn’t have the capacity to deal with an old friend. She needed distractions not reminders of the old days when she gambled with Artach’s like playing cards.

But Thorne forgot that people grew used to her tricks. Her attempts to draw her attention away only highlighted her more and Braya’s eyes snapped in her direction where she saw Thorne looking back. She smiled and waved, weaving her way through the crowd towards her. Thorne watched in shock as she took off her coat and scarf and sat down opposite.

‘What are you doing here?’ Said Thorne.

‘Rose, it’s me. Alina. Alina Bray?’

‘Shit,’ sighed Thorne to herself. ‘Alina.’ She wasn’t just an old friend appearing out of the blue. She was her next client.

‘You thought my name was Braya, didn’t you.’

‘I can’t believe I didn’t make the connection - I’ve just never heard anyone call you anything else.’

‘Someone came up with it on my first day at school - I always hated it but it stuck pretty quick. School isn’t exactly a choose-your-own-adventure, is it. No matter what we want.’

‘Well, Alina, how can I help?’

‘Business first, then? Good. I’m starting a new job, CFO at Maven. I need someone to run a background check.’

‘What do you expect to find?’

‘Nothing. But that’s what I want. I want boring. I want to know that the place I’m going to puts work second to everything. These places always say the same thing to get you on board, harping on about work, life, balance. Then when you sign on you find out that they expect you to work on your death bed. I just want to make sure that they’re telling me the truth.’

‘I’ll see what I can do, but you should know that with a car like that - I’m not charging you mates rates.’

‘Charge me double if you like, I don’t care,’ she said as she opened the menu wide and disappeared behind it. ‘So - what are you thinking for lunch?’

Alina watched Thorne over the rim of her coffee cup while she finished her burger with extra fries. They ate in silence, the years of not speaking growing heavy between them.

‘You know,’ started Alina. ‘I always thought you’d be doing more than this. You were really on track to becoming someone.’

‘Hmmph, thanks?’

‘I don’t mean it like that. I just, well… what happened? You were solving cases that teams of people hadn’t worked out. You were saving lives and now…. this.’

‘I wanted a quieter life.’

‘And how are you enjoying it so far?’ she said. Thorne pushed her plate aside, abandoning the rest of the meal. If this was the conversation they were going to have, it needed her full attention.

‘Great,’ she quipped. ‘What about you? CFO at Maven - sounds a lot like a sell out.’

‘I like to call it an awakening.’

‘Bullshit,’ laughed Thorne.

‘I’m serious. I used to believe that we should avoid using our gifts and try and fit in with the world. I used to think that the best way to live was the quiet life. Not making waves just getting along. But we aren’t just gifted, Rose. We have power. We should be using it.’

‘And that’s why you want a work-life-balance background check, is it?’

‘I have other interests. I want to make sure that I have enough time to enjoy them.’

‘Why not use your full power then. You’ve got a way with numbers. Why not just guess the lotto numbers and be done with it.’

‘You’re thinking too small,’ she said.

‘Well, you always were the one with big ideas,’ snapped Thorne and Alina grinned, not debating it. She waved the waitress over for the bill and began searching through her bag for her wallet. Then there was a shift between them; their friendly debate was over. It was back to business.

‘How’s Alice?’ She asked while she handed her card over.

‘We’re uh… we’re not together anymore,’ said Thorne. Alina stopped, her fingers hovering above the keypad part way through entering her pin. ‘It’s okay. Some things just don’t work out.’ Alina gave an understanding nod and Thorne loosed a breath - she didn’t think she could handle talking about it any further. She watched as Alina finished gathering her things and swung her bag onto her shoulder with a casualness that said she didn’t care that it cost more than a car.

‘Well, I’m still sad to hear it. I always thought you were the real thing.’

‘Thanks,’ said Thorne

‘I’ll wait for your call but I said I’d let them know by the end of the week.’

‘I’ll see what I can find.’

Thorne didn’t need every client to be exciting but with the exception of her last blood-on-the-floor client, more and more they were becoming particularly boring. Alina’s case was no different. A background check on a company that had a strong online presence was basically an in-depth google search. But it was easy money and as far as Thorne could tell there were no skeletons in the closet of Maven. 

With corporate companies like these, there were often a secret lawsuit that was swept under the rug or a gruntled ex-employee crying about pay. But Maven has a thick network of mutual recommendations from past and present employees and for a small company it had a strong track record of high-quality clients. Workers on social media were showing happy lives filled with family and friends that went beyond the usual photos on holiday. It wasn’t over the top either, they were dressed nicely but not showing off. You could tell they were living lives of luxury but nothing that screamed ‘I earn more money than you’. It was quiet luxury and their socials made it seem like authentic lives - as much as you could make it seem like that in a curated online presence.

It was what Alina was looking for. 

It was boring. 

Thorne packaged it up into a single file and sent a message to Alina: Looks like they’re legit. She replied within the minute: ‘Can you bring it by this evening?’

Thorne looked at the clock on the mantel, it was already 7pm. She grabbed her coat and headed for the door. 

‘It wasn’t hard to find any of this,’ said Thorne as she handed over the file that she’d made and walked further into Alina’s kitchen. ‘Why did you have to hire me?’

‘I’ve never been good with computers. I find it all very stressful. I just stay in my lane and do the numbers.’

‘I always remember you being a tech genius,’ said Thorne.

‘I don’t know, as I got older I started to get more scared by them. Well, more frustrated by them, I guess. I just like to keep things simple.’

‘Right - I suppose you don’t need them for work with your skills. How exactly do you explain that, anyway? Or do they just accept psychic abilities on your resume.’

‘I tell them that I have my own private processes and then when I show them the money I’ve made clients they don’t question it.’

‘Right.’ Before Thorne could ask anything else, Alina disappeared down the hall. She re-appeared moments later with an envelope.

‘Is cash ok?’ She said. ‘It’s not a good look for me to have a background check of my future company on the books.’

‘Fine by me,’ said Thorne and Alina handed over the thick envelope. She didn’t have to look inside before she pushed it back towards her. ‘That’s far too much.’

‘You’ve turned this around in a day - you’ve earned it.’ 

‘I told you, it wasn’t hard.’

‘Just take it, would you?’ Thorne reluctantly took the envelope and couldn’t help but let out a sigh at the weight of it. This would set her up for at least four months. Maybe that would be enough time to find clients who were a bit more interesting.

‘Drink?’

‘Whiskey?’ Asked Thorne.

‘Absolutely,’ she said. Thorne sat down at the kitchen island while she started grabbing glasses and a bottle when a letter caught her eye. It was partially hidden beneath a stack of mail that was thrown on the island. She shifted the letters on top aside and revealed the full mark. The same one that she had seen painted in blood. 

The Artach. 

Only now it was printed on what looked like an invitation. Instead of blood, it was thin, gold leaf that shimmered in the glow of the light. Thorne pulled it closer to inspect it.

‘What is this?’ She asked.

‘Hmm? Oh, some end of year event. I don’t want to go but now that I’m officially accepting the role - thanks to you - I’ll have to.’

‘But why this? Why does it have this mark?’ Alina pulled her eyes from the glass to the invitation to look at the mark. Thorne watched her try to recognise it. She was certain that Alina would have seen it before. She was around when Thorne had first learned about it. But she studied it like it was just a smudge on the page like it wasn’t important at all. 

‘I don’t know, didn’t really notice it. I think it’s supposed to be winter-solstice themed. It’s on the longest night of the year.’ 

Thorne didn’t believe in coincidences. And whether she liked it or not, it was deeply suspicious that one of the most powerful men in town had painted an Artach on his floor weeks before an event held by a wealthy financier that heralds the same symbol.

She didn’t believe in coincidences.

But all she had right now was a hunch and a bad feeling. She couldn’t warn Alina because it could all turn out to be nothing. She had to find out what was going on. She took the glass that Alina held out to her and asked:

‘Do you need a date?

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