[Lanrete]: 546.Title TBA.Chapter 4

Chapter 4

When Jade sat up, Thorna was clutching her left cheek.
“In the name of all things eternal, Jade, I was only waking you up, not murdering you and all you hold dear!”
Jade rubbed her eyes sleepily. She felt horrible, as though she had not slept at all. “What did I do?”
“You socked me, right in the face. All I did was wake you up!” Thorna looked offended.
“Well, don’t bloody shake me like that, it’s rude!” Jade did not feel like reasoning this early in the morning.
“I didn’t shake you at all, I just patted your arm and told you to get your lazy ass out of bed.”
“Oh, that was you? I thought it was the portrait. And you definitely shook me! Pretty damn hard, too, the whole room shook.”
Realizing that Jade wasn’t fully out of her dream, Thorna let it drop. Jade had never told her about the nightmares she endured every nearly every time she fell asleep.
She didn’t plan on it, either. Thorna had enough on her plate without worrying over some silly dream.
 Thorna waded through the clothing on the floor to Jade’s closet. She rummaged around for several minutes, finally drawing out a long gown of deep plum silk. 
With a solemn face, Thorna ordered, “I want you downstairs in an hour, with bags packed for a fortnight or more. You’ll be needing to look more than presentable, so bring anything formal you might have. Don’t bother with jeans or even pants unless they’re REALLY nice. Wear this,” she added. “You’d better look decent, too, or I’ll let my great-aunt choose your clothing, so help me gods!”
Jade immediately protested violently and incoherently. “What in Loki’s name…? But… I can’t… Where? I don’t have any…”
Thorna sighed, exasperated. “What you don’t have we can pick up on the way, or you can borrow some things from me. Just hurry up.” With a genuine look of pleading on her face, she added meekly, “Please? I’ll explain later, just… You’ve got to trust me on this one. It’s important.”
Jade was fully awake now, and noticed the change in her friend. She nodded silently, and Thorna slipped out the window. Jade didn’t bat an eyelash at this stunt, as she knew that Thorna always entered and exited her apartment through the ancient maple whose branches bowed right by her bedroom window.
Knowing that she didn’t have time to take a shower and wash her long hair, Jade drew a rune in the air over her head. Immediately, her hair looked perfectly clean and brushed, her face freshly scrubbed, and she felt as though she had just stepped out of the shower, only less wet. She pulled off her robe, and picked up the purple gown. She struggled with it for a few minutes before realizing that there were actually two parts, the dress and a black silk underskirt, which had spiraling patterns embroidered on it in the same plum as the gown. She separated the two, stepped into them one at a time, and laced up the bodice. Glancing at herself in the full-length mirror that graced the back of her closet door, she pulled two strands of her waist-length hair from beside her face, fixing them at the back of her head with a silver hairpin. I actually look halfway decent, she thought in satisfaction. Although I suppose Thorna will still find something insufficient…
Now came the problem of finding conventionally decent clothes. She had a few old gowns, but not enough to last a fortnight by any means. She went through the closet, pulling out anything that might possibly pass as elegant, and anything that could be altered and bullied into being formal-looking. With that resource exhausted, she went across the hallway to the crawlspace she used as storage. Ten minutes later, Jade had four large boxes of clothing on the hallway floor, and her time was half up. Thorna was expecting her to be outside in thirty minutes. Really, she is impossible, Jade grumbled to herself. How can a girl be possibly be packed for a fortnight in an hour? And before breakfast, at that!
In the end, Jade took everything that looked remotely fancy from the boxes and shoved it unceremoniously into her old traveling trunk. She also took all of her favorite everyday clothes, because even if she didn’t end up needing them, having them with her made her feel better somehow. Besides, it would piss Thorna off, and that was always fun.
Three minutes before the hour, Jade was left to shut the trunk with a few hastily scribbled runes, since it certainly was not going to close by normal means. She clattered down the stairs, no doubt annoying the neighbors to no end. Most of them weren’t overly fond of her anyway.
Thorna was waiting, obviously impatient. “You made it by a hair’s breadth, Jade,” she snapped irritably.
Jade was about to reply when suddenly, the quiet street around them wasn’t there anymore. In its place was blackness, filled only by a great swirling wind. The bottom of her stomach dropped out along with the ground beneath her feet, and she could feel Thorna’s strong grip on her wrist, pulling her forward. This is taking way too long, she thought anxiously.
As if she had read her friend’s thoughts, Thorna shouted over the roaring wind, “The bloody thing should quiet down in a minute or two. I’m not used to taking two people.”
Before long, the sound had subsided, to be replaced by a low rumble. All was still black, but Jade felt a seat of some sort materialize beneath her. She could sense that they were in a small, confined space, and that this space was vibrating slightly and rocking to and fro. 
Jade realized slowly where they were. “Thorna, we’re on a bloody-“
“A train, yes.” Thorna answered, as though this was entirely to be expected.
“But why… I mean, what the… Where?” Jade floundered, trying to form a solid enough connection between her thoughts and her mouth to be understood.
“All in good time, my dear. As to why, well, that will take some telling. But where? Why, I believe that we’re currently…” Jade felt Thorna reach out to the side, feeling for something in the utter blackness. Suddenly, a beam of bright light fell directly on Jade’s bemused face. Her eyes streamed. “We’re somewhere in Spain by this point, I’d wager. Near the coast, by the looks of it.
Jade was dumfounded. “How in bloody hell did we get from Lexington to the bleedin’ coast of Spain in about five seconds? In the name of all things eternal, Thorna…”
Thorna laughed, cracking a grin that could be described as evil at best. “Again, all in good time. But that’s not what’s important at the moment. I think I am correct in saying that I owe you an explanation? Your facial expression indicates that you might need one. Not your most intelligent look, by the way, dear, you might want to try shutting your jaw. You’ve begun to drool.”
Jade quickly composed herself, replacing her look of dumfounded idiocy with sheepishness.
“You asked me why we are on a train, headed to gods-only-know where, and on such short notice. Well, m’dear, the short answer is that there is no short answer. Therefore, the not-outrageously-long answer will have to suffice. 
“My occupation, which I shall explain shortly, has suddenly come to involve you, whether you like it or not. I, for one, would much rather you stayed out of it, because it puts you in unnecessary and fairly great danger. However, my own personal feelings on the matter aside, here you are. We are traveling, as you so brilliantly pointed out, on a train. I myself am not entirely sure just where we are headed, as I was only told to be here, on this particular train, at this particularly time, accompanied by you. I’m not often given the particulars about my assignments until the last possible moment, to minimize the risk that I might be captured by hostile forces. My job, you see, is to-“
There was a bang, and the door to their cramped compartment opened. Jade could not see anyone standing in the passageway outside, but the sudden interruption seemed to mean something to Thorna. She swore softly, and stood. “Jade, stay here. I should be back in anywhere between thirty seconds and two hours. Don’t talk to anyone, even if I appear to be with them, all right? Don’t even talk to me, unless I come to you alone.” 
Jade tried to respond, to protest at her fuzzy and utterly unhelpful instructions, but Thorna vanished. Jade issued forth a long stream of curses in several obscure languages, and then began to mull over the cryptic tidbits of information that Thorna had just fed her. She pulled a notebook and an expensive pen from the batik handbag resting on her lap, and began an attempt to make sense of it all.


"Thorna’s job involves me- she doesn’t like it
Could involve me getting hurt
She doesn’t know where exactly we’re going
Her boss (es) don’t tell her much
Could be captured
Don’t talk to anyone even if she’s with them- why? Illusion? And who does she not want me to talk to? 
Who/what opened the door?"

Jade stopped, frustrated. Her brainstorming had raised far more questions than it had answered, and questions were the last things she needed at the moment. 
Despite her confusion and yes, fear, Jade’s eyes began to feel heavy. The seat was big enough for her to curl up on, catlike, and it was oh so plush…