A Thorn mystery: Lady J’s locket
Hi everyone,
Lady J’s Locket is finally complete!
I started working on this book at the end of January, so it’s been almost six months in the making, easily the longest I’ve worked on a single piece. It’s good to see it finished, but I’m also happy that there’s room for more stories to come (Thorn is way too much fun to imagine to limit myself to one story).
Here you can find all the pages with their text and links to their specific making videos (you can also find all the videos in this playlist). At the top you’ll find the final video of the playlist, where I flip through the pages and read out the story. I think it’s nice to see how the pages work together, but for details - the photos here are probably better. Still, I had a lot of fun recording the storytelling, and I hope you enjoy it too!
1. Published Jan 30, find the video here (live stream).
One night,
when the moon was bright,
it’s light piercing through the clouds,
a moonbeam touched the ground.
And in the place the moonbeam touched
a small glimmer remained.
Shimmer, shimmer
Flicker, flicker
And in the middle
A small figure
2. Published Feb 9, find the video here.
As the glimmer faded to the night’s darkness
The figure stretched one arm then the other
Flattered their wings, and wiggled their tail.
They glanced into the darkness shrewdly
Where a shimmery shadowy figure formed.
It was as much a shadow as it was a glow, and her hair and garments seemed to flow around her in an otherworldly breeze
The ghostly figure floated toward the tailed one, her hand outstretched
And in her hand yet another shimmer, a trinket
3. Published Feb 19, find the video here.
The tailed one glimpsed at the trinket, then at the woman
“Are you the one who summoned me then?”
The woman lifted the trinket closer, it was a locket of some sort
“Return”
She said, her voice soft and wispy like her form
“Return where? Return what?” asked the tailed fae, confused
She presented the locket again
“Return”
“Return this? To whom? Whose is it?”
“Return”
she said again
and there was such longing in her voice and eyes that the fae sighed and reached out a hand
“All right, all right. I’ll return it”
She placed the locket in his hand and smiled
And before he could ask anything else
She was gone
4. Published Feb 20, find the video here (live stream).
“Well, that was informative.”
Muttered the tailed fairy.
He looked at the locket in his hand
“guess you’re my main clue”
He murmured, and opened it
Locket dedication:
To my beloved Elijah, yours always
J.
detail of the opened locket.
5. Published Feb 28, find the video here.
After examining the locket, the tailed one looked up and finally noticed his surroundings. He was in a graveyard, weathered tombstones stood all around him, the moonlight gleaming on their cracked surface.
Before him, where the spirit stood before, was a large but simple looking headstone:
Jane Hallow
Beloved sister, gone before her time.
1887 – 1906
“You’re J. then?” whispered the fairy, crouching before the grave “should this be returned to Elija?”
He examined the ground and noticed a small wiggle.
“Why hello there, Mr. Worm, how are you this night?”
“mmm…?” the worm wiggled some more “Fine, fine, and who might you be?”
The fairy pulled out a card and laid it near the worm
“I’m Thorn, fae detective, at your service.” He nodded to the worm, who was now wiggling excitedly around the card
“Oh that’s nice! Look at that, quality paper an’ all, delicious! murmpf”
“Err… thanks” Thorn said, trying not to laugh “Say, Mr. worm, do you know anything about the lady in this tomb?”
“hmm? Mrpf Lady Jane?” the worm’s voice was muffled from eating the card “sure, sure mrpfrm, Real pretty she was, they say, and delicious too, my grand-grand-grand-grandfather said so. Or was grand-grand-grand-grand-grandfather?... mrumpf can get confusing you know.”
“Right, of course” nodded Thorn politely, trying not to think about the question of Lady J. taste.
“Don’t know much, you know, bit before my time! haharmpf” continued the worm “but ask the oak, he’s an old one, he is, he might remember.”
6. Published Mar 6, find the video here (live stream).
Thorn looked up. An old oak was standing nearby, his trunk wide, his branches tall.
He flew up to the tree
“Good evening Mr Oak, could I bother you with a question or two?”
The old tree harrumphed a little and let the wind ruffle its leaves.
“Questions?” Oak sounded thoughtful “why not, it’s a lovely night and you look like a polite little fairy, some conversation could be nice.”
“Thank you, kind sir,” Thorn bowed his head gracefully “I was summoned here you see, by Jane Hallow, but she couldn’t tell me much, speaking is hard for the dead. Do you remember anything about her?”
“Hum Lady Jane? Of course, of course, very famous, her story, very sad. I was but a wee sapling then, but I remember her.
“Lady Jane, she died very young, they say from sadness, broken heart, you see. She loved this boy, and he left, went off for a job or something, never heard from him again. And after a while, she just stopped, gone she was.”
“That is very sad.” Agreed Thorn “The boy, was his name Elijah by any chance?”
“Oh yes! That was it! Elijah Jones, he was. No one spoke much of him till she died, scrawny little thing, but kind he was. When Jane died a lot of people blamed Elijah, said he was no good, but there were rumours… See, he just disappeared, never got on the boat he was meant to, and no one heard nothing from him. Some said maybe he died too.”
7. Published March 20, find the video here.
Thorn cocked his head and smiled at the old oak
“Those sound like human rumours, what do the trees say?”
Oak laughed, it sounded like the ruffle of leaves and the cricks of branches
“Clever little thing, aren’t you? No wonder you’re a detective”
Thorn bowed, making a bit of a show of it, then looked at the tree expectantly. The oak humpfed and hampfed a bit but finally said
“We don’t usually share with non-trees, but you’re fae, your people grow old like us were our friends before they left. And we liked Jane and Elijah, they often walked among us, set beneath our canopies and never carved their names into our bark humpf! As if we need carvings to remember!”
Oak seemed to sigh.
“Elijah, he is in the forest. I do not know the details, but he lies there, never left. Shame, shame”
The old tree went quite for a while, lost in thought. Then seemed to straighten up a bit
“You go and ask the trees there, say the graveyard oak sent you.” he said with deep pride.
Thorn thanked him
“I’ll come back,” he promised “to tell you how the story’s ends.”
“That will be much appreciated.”
Rumbled the oak and ruffled his leaves goodbye after the small flying figure
And Thorn flew into the forest and asked the trees, but most of them were birch trees and even the oldest ones could not remember Elijah or Jane.
“Go to the center of the forest,” one said “there is a clearing there, where the oldest of us died many years ago. There is something in the ground there that won’t allow anything to grow.”
Thorn thanked the birch and quickly flew deep into the forest. There he found the clearing.
It was an odd sight, there were no bushes or grass, just soil, surrounding the remains of a great birch tree, long ago fallen to decay. Even the shape of the clearing was odd, like a long wrangling thing. Thorn flew high above the trees and looked down,
“Elijah” he murmured “what happened to you?”
From high above, the soil of the clearing glared at him, twisted limbs of a fallen man, marking the place Elijah lay, but did not rest.
8. Published April 15, find the video here.
Quickly, swiftly, Thorn flew back down. He touched the bark of the old birch and could feel the anger still coursing through it. The soil was the same. Like poison, the anger slithered and spread from this spot, chasing away life.
“Elijah,” Thorn spoke quietly “will you tell me your story?”
There was an angry rumble, not words, only snarls and growls, but Thorn understood the complaint: ‘I’m dead! How can I tell you anything?’
“I’m a good listener,” smiled the fae “even for the dead. Come speak to me, I will hear you.”
There was a pause, a silence, and then there was a figure.
9. Published April 23, find the video here.
Years of anger and hate changed him
Elongated limbs, stretched and darkened features, unnaturally bright splatters seemingly still dripping from the side of the head, from the long, sharpened, twisted fingers.
But Thorn could see Elijah under the fiendish form.
The fae settled himself on the ground before the angry spirit and looked at him expectantly with an encouraging little smile. As if saying ‘go ahead, I’m listening’
10. Published May 6, find the video here.
The spirit seemed taken aback by Thorn’s nonchalance, he growled menacingly
“I was murdered,” he hissed “beaten and put to the ground before I even drew my last breath. The taste of soil still fills my mouth, stained with my own blood.”
“Who did this to you?”
Thorn asked in a low voice
“I know not” Elijah’s tortured spirit moaned “strong he was, but I never saw his face. But I will find out, I will have vengeance, if not him than anyone, everyone!” the moan rose to a roar
“Even Jane?”
“Jane”
The spirit quivered with the name, and the blank eyes filled with sorrow
“Jane… She must have thought I left her, and moved on, found another…”
“No.” Thorn said softly
“She knew” he took out the locket and held it out to Elijah
“She gave you this, yes? She asked me to return it to you.”
Gnarly, sharp-nailed fingers reached out toward the locket
“How? It was with me under the earth” the other deformed hand touched the decimated chest, searching for the locket
“She didn’t say, I’m not sure how she got it, but she knew Elijah, that you didn’t abandon her. I think she tried to join you.”
“Join?”
The spirit cocked its head, an odd movement on such a gruesome figure
“She died not long after you, from what I could gather. She called me here, to return this to you. She’s waiting for you.”
“Waiting? For me? Jane is?”
For a moment the anger and hate diminished, revealing the features of a pale, young man, his large eyes looked longingly at the locket, but in a horrible screech shadows erupted around him, engulfing Elijah in the darkness again
“I was taken! Lost! I will find who did this to me! I will be avenged!”
“He is long gone” Thorn said calmly, unperturbed before the raging form “It’s been over a century, your murderer is dead. And what of Jane, will you abandon her now?”
“I…” the spirit breathed, the voice both hollow and full of sadness “I want justice.”
Thorn sighed
“I understand.” He said sadly “I do, but is this justice?” he gestured at the barren ground and decaying birch “The soil and trees are your witnesses, not your assailant, yet you punish them?”
He could see the rage accumulating in the ghost and raised his palms
“I do not blame you, only state what I see. I cannot punish the dead, but I can find out who killed you and make it known among humans too so no one would believe you abandoned Jane any longer.”
The darkness quivered again as he spoke
“Take the locket,” he offered the silvery jewel to the slowly appearing Elijah “go to her so you can find peace together. I will find the truth, you have my word.”
The hand that took the locket had delicate looking fingers, pale and long, but naturally so. Thorn looked into the large eyes, that seemed to regain some of their brown as the pale hand took the locket.
11. Published May 18, find the video here.
As the first light of dawn touched the graveyard grounds, a pair of figures walked it. Dim and continuously fading, the two walked into the forest they loved hand in hand. As they reached the clearing, a ray of early sunlight touched the ground they stood, and when they faded completely, a green sprout stretched out of the soil and greeted the new morning.
Thorn and Oak greeted the same morning together, watching Jane and Elijah step into the forest. Oak sniffled a bit, and gave the fae - currently seated on his branch, swinging his legs cheerfully - a serious look
“I believe you have work to do, little one.”
Thorn returned a cheeky smile
“That I do.”
~ fin ~
(but not completed…)
Jane & Elijah’s story was complete, but this is a Thorn story, and he did have a promise to keep.
Some time after the events of Lady J’s Locket, this article appeared…