Lucy Thorne (8 August 1837 – 1868) was a British occultist.
Biography[]
Lucy Thorne was born middle-class in London. Her father was a successful but stuffy tea merchant. Her mother was well-educated and the daughter of a minor noble house - she liked the good things in life, and grew up among relative luxury; however, increasing family debt would become a problem in her adulthood. Lucy was clever and quick as a child. Her mother educated her in all of the qualities that should have ensured her a successful marriage, but Lucy decided instead to immerse herself in books. She branched out into the study of obscure religious knowledge, into magic and occult philosophy. In Lucy's teens, her father struggled to run his business and pay for his family's needs. Lucy's home life went downhill quickly as less money came in and more went to pay debts. She was encouraged to find a husband who could provide for her. Instead, she took on work as a shop girl in her father's business, gradually taking on more of the management.
In her spare time she grew more and more taken with occult philosophy and supposedly magical objects, such as the Shroud of Turin. She collected rare manuscripts, overspending on auctions of rare papers. When she outbid Crawford Starrick at an auction, he tracked her down and attempted to buy the papers. Lucy wouldn't sell, but her enthusiasm for the topic appealed to Starrick, and he quickly introduced her to the Templar Order, where she became his second-in-command.
In 1868, Thorne headed to St. Paul's Cathedral to locate a coveted shroud that the Assassin Order also sought, and she found Evie Frye there. She told Evie that she would take the shroud, and Evie responded by questioning her theory that the shroud held the power of eternal life. The two of them fought each other, and she put up a heavy fight; she tried to kill Evie with a knife, but they eventually struggled over the knife. Lucy lunged for Evie's shroud necklace but was also aimed for the window, holding onto the necklace as she was hanging out of the window. Evie broke the necklace to prevent the window shards from killing her, but Lucy managed to jump on a ledge and escape death.
Death[]
Thorne's death
Evie Frye tracked Lucy down to the Tower of London during her search for the shroud, and Henry Green told Evie that she could infiltrate the tower with the help of a friend in the guards. Thorne bribed several guards and had the Templars replace the real guards, making the tower a fortress. Lucy killed three Templars in disguise and told the guard about it; she got the guard to pretend that he was turning her in, and she reached Lucy in the White Tower on the second floor. Lucy told Evie that she would find the shroud and strangle her with the necklace, and she turned around to read a book on her table as two guards watched Evie. Evie killed one guard with a hidden blade and rushed up to Lucy, stabbing her through the left shoulder with a knife and puncturing her lung. Lucy refused to tell Evie where the shroud was, and she died of her wounds.