'There comes a moment', Magnus thinks, when eventually everything stops. When the universe slows down and his eyes widen and the world spans out in front of him, lengthens and goes on forever bathed in blue light. In that moment, everything becomes clear, cool and clean. Soft sounds. Blowing curtains.
Sparks travel from Magnus' hands and crackle over his fingertips like Tesla coils, and he inhales, digging deeper. If he's not careful, he can get lost like this. Once he spent an entire week lost inside himself in an Italian brothel, staring at his face in the mirror, energy emanating from his eyes. The handmaiden who'd finally come to check on him had screamed, thinking him a demon. Perhaps thinking him his father...
There comes a moment...
Inside, Magnus is swimming. There is a lake, clear and blue and warm towards him. He's kicking down. Down towards the bottom. Through the darkness where his lungs should be burning but instead there's nothing inside but want and curiosity.
There comes a moment...
Magnus can see it in front of him, glowing, pulsing, calling towards him. The seal in front of him. It went down. Down to his core. Where the pulsing magic was born and grew. Magnus could see it, could grasp it.
He thought of the girl in the brothel. The one who'd startled him. Who'd screamed so loudly and nothing came out. Who he was able to freeze so quickly it startled even him. Her and the whole brothel until the place looked like a child's playhouse, women and men frozen in almost comical poses. He had frozen the world. The world the size of his hand.
The lake water is cold, and the seal is under his finger tips, pulsing and churning. He knows this is dangerous. Knows it is like playing with fire. Striking a match and holding it down to the nub, hoping he doesn't go up in flames like a wicker cabinet. It's going to burn and he's going to catch a flame and he's not sure if he'll be able to put it out. He pulls and it sparks and the world rushes over him.
There comes a moment...
"... Magnus."
There's a star in the sky. A twinkling light that Magnus can see above the lake water. The metal of the seal is heavy underneath his fingers, cold metal reverberating under his fingertips. Magnus pulls and his arms hurt and the water burns and calls to him and he wants more needs...
"Magnus."
The star is calling to him. Bright and warm and twinkling in a black sky. The water cools and Magnus is drifting towards it in the blue water. His fingers reach out and grasp, soft and warm heat and everything is-
"Magnus."
There comes a moment..
Magnus blinks and there's blue. Suddenly everything is pale and blue and soft and-
"Alec."
"There you are." The tone is soft and gentle "Thought I'd lost you."
"You... you brought me back."
"Yeah." and there's a coy grin that Magnus loves "I do that. Wanna put us down?"
Magnus blinks, cocking his head in confusion, before realizing that they were floating very near the ceiling, much of the furniture around them as well.
Magnus flushes, exhaling and returning them to normal. Alec glances around, small smile toying at his lips that he probably didn't even realize was there. Alec was young. Was warm. Was an 18-year-old with a stamina rune and still in awe of the way magic worked and changed the world around him.
'Don't ever loose that.'
"Where were you?" Alec says, turning from the table where the last few odds and ends rolled into place.
"Hm?"
"Just now. Where did you go?"
Inside there was a lake. A deep blue lake full of energy. And a seal at the bottom.
"Oh. Just... no where..."
A heavy metal seal that's cold around his fingers before burning the world around it.
"I was calling you-."
"I know. Just... daydreaming. Lost in thought."
Alec blinks at him, blank faced before tucking his hands in his pockets in a way that Magnus knows mean's he's just saving something for later.
"Oh."
Magnus swallows the lie like so many others.
The water around it comes alive and boils, filling him, singing to him. Beyond the seal beckons.
There comes a moment...
… That Magnus wants more.
X
Author's Note: I've just been on a huge "magic" kick lately, and I find the warlocks the most fascinating race out of all of those in the Mortal Instruments universe. This is just a drabble I came up with while thinking about how Magnus recharges his batteries and grows stronger. I'm new to the fandom, and as such, this is my first time writing a fic for them, or (obviously) working with the characters of Magnus or Alec. So, be critical, yet gentle.