I have recently become extremely obsessed with The Mortal Instruments series, and after finishing the series last night I decided I wanted to continue the experience in any way I could. So here I am, writing my own version of events that take place after City of Glass. Hope you all enjoy it.
Reforming
Chapter One: The Unseelie Court.
Disclaimer: I own nothing created by the wonderfully talented Cassandra Clare.
"And whatever you do don't eat or drink anything." Isabelle Lightwood lectured turning to her companion as they walked through a park on the outskirts of New York. Her long black hair was tied up in braids; her usual style for Shadowhunter business.
"You said that one already." Replied the girl next to her. She was shorter than Isabelle was and had hastily pulled her red hair into a ponytail while running out the door. How she'd managed to convince Isabelle to allow her to tag along on official Clave business, she'd never know.
"Oh," Isabelle began again. "They're going to call you Clarissa. That's just what they do."
The girl, Clarissa, sighed. "I wish they'd all stop doing that. I know Clarissa's my name, but I just don't understand why they can't say 'Clary'; it's not that hard to say. They'll probably call me Morgenstern too."
"You can't escape your past." Isabelle stated quietly, understanding etched into her voice.
The girls stopped at a large tree to the side of the park; Clary had to jerk herself to a standstill as Isabelle forgot to point out which tree lead to their destination: the Unseelie Court.
Clary had seen the inside of one court before and was trying to remember the hypnotising dancers and startlingly beautiful creatures wandering the enclosure. Her memory obviously wasn't as good as she thought it was; she could only vaguely recall colours and scenes, probably because she'd spent so much time trying to repress the events that occurred.
Turning back to the present, Clary watched as Isabelle knocked firmly against the trunk of the tree. It swung open sharply to reveal a disjointed looking boy with green skin. He took in the Marks covering Isabelle's body, grinned and directed them to follow him.
"Ugh, devious little pixies." Isabelle muttered as she crossed into the faerie world inside the tree. "Come on Clary, I don't want to be here all afternoon."
The pixie had led them down a dark tunnel that emerged in a large underground room; at least Clary thought it would be best described as a room, or perhaps a hall. She noted the deep brown and red colours that travelled across the walls. Trailing her finger down the side she discovered it was made up of compacted dirt. She hoped the roof wouldn't collapse on them, dying in a tunnel wasn't one her list of goals to achieve.
The contrast between the Seelie Court and the Unseelie Court were startlingly obvious. Though she thought there was nothing tangible to be remembered from her trip to the light court, Clary had been wrong. The Seelie Court had been full of brightness, but was structured completely on order and formalities. Clary recalled that everyone had a station and held their place in society with respect to the Queen. The Unseelie Court, however, was nothing like that.
Darkness shocked Clary until she remembered most Downworlders, those with part demon blood or with demonic infections, could see in the dark a lot better than she could, being essentially human. Once her eyes adjusted to the dimness surrounding her, she gazed upon a chaotic scene. The fey here weren't dancing in orderly patterns; in fact most of them weren't dancing at all. There were tables set up for food and drinks, gambling, fortune telling and, much to Clary's distaste, torture.
Isabelle placed her hand on Clary's shoulder and lent towards her ear to assure that her words received. "I have to go talk to the Unseelie Queen. Stay here and remember everything I discussed with you on the way over." She stressed the last part and waited for Clary to nod before turning away.
"Mmm, human." Someone whispered from beside her. "I haven't played with a human is such a long time."
Clary jumped and the faerie laughed harshly before wandering if. She hoped that would be her only encounter with this court, but she wasn't so lucky. She heard the voice before she saw the group of fey making their way towards her.
"I told you there was a human standing on the sidelines." It was the same voice she'd encountered. "But she doesn't seem tempted by anything."
"That's not a mundane Rita." A gruff voice came from one of them. Clary tried hard not to look or listen to them, but they were so intriguing. Their clothes looked to be made of silk, but they glistened as though made of the surface of a lake in the sunlight and of dark and hidden tones that allowed them to blend into their surrounding comfortably; though how anyone could be comfortable in such a cluttered and busy environment puzzled Clary. She looked down at her own jeans and pale pink top, cringing at the thought of standing out in this crowd.
"I never said it was a mundane." They voice, Rita, replied; emphasising the word used to describe humans with no knowledge of the hidden occurrences in the world that involved Demons, Downworlders and the Angel fighting Nephilim. "I only said she was human."
"Hi human." One from the group said, coming up beside her and running an elongated hand down the side of her arm, making Clary shiver and earning a giggle from the group drawn to her.
"Do you want to dance with us?" Another asked grabbing Clary's hand and directing her towards the crowd. They were a disjointed bunch, but their lack of formality reminded Clary of Pandemonium, the club she often visited with her best friend Simon. She was tempted to say yes and lose herself in the familiarity of it all. Until she remembered, they were faeries; dancing with them would probably cost her deeply with something like her life.
"N-no thank you." Clary replied, her voice falling into another eruption of giggles.
"She's a Shadowhunter." Someone whispered behind her. "You smell it, the light blood coursing through her veins. Can I have your Angel blood; I've never had Nephilim blood before."
"We won't tell anyone you shared your blood." Rita said taking a step towards her. "It'll be our little secret." She grinned at Clary, showing her the sharp pointy teeth that were hidden beneath her dark lips.
"Clary!" The voice made her jump high enough to knock the fey in front of her backwards a few steps. It was Isabelle's voice. She'd finished with her meeting and was ready to leave once more. Remembering where she was, she raced over to Isabelle eager to escape the tempting faeries. "What did you think you were doing?"
"I didn't approach them, they came up to me." Clary defended herself as they twisted back through one of the exiting tunnels. Turning to get one last glimpse at the Court, Clary saw her admirers' wave and blow kisses at her. She gave a small wave of her own, not sure what the proper greeting was in these situations before Isabella huffed and pulled her along the hall. Once outside in the open air, Isabelle marched down towards the roads in the distance not once looking over her shoulder.
Clary had to jog to catch up to Isabelle who'd be walking as fast as she could away from the hill they'd just emerged from. Apparently the entrance they came through wasn't the exist. "Why does the Unseelie Court seem more…"
"Dark? Twisted?" Isabelle said guessing Clary's thoughts. "It's supposed to be like that. It's the evil to the Seelie Court's good. Or whatever good can come from the Fey."
"I was going to say "more inviting". Is it really all that evil?" Clary asked looking at the girl next to her.
"Clary, you of all people should know the faeries are a dangerous race." Isabelle began hinting at their run in with the Queen of the Seelie Court earlier that year. "Think of what the Seelie Fey can do and then magnify it by ten."
Clary shuddered. 'If I'd pricked myself there I don't think an innocent kiss would have got me out safely.'
"They only seem more inviting," Continued Isabelle as though Clary hadn't reacted. "Because they're not trying to hide their devious ways. Everyone knows they're up to no good already, there's no point claiming otherwise. Not that they'd be able to anyway, one of the plus sides of not being able to lie."
"That all depends on how far they sway the truth." Clary muttered to no-one in particular. Faeries had a way of telling you the complete truth while leaving out all the important details. 'Like how Jace wasn't actually my brother. The Seelie Queen could have save a whole lot of heartbreak if she'd only said "You both have the same Angel blood in your veins, but don't worry you have different parents." How hard would that have been?'
"Whatever you do, don't tell Alec and Jace I let you come with me today." Isabelle said jolting Clary out of her thoughts.
"Let me guess, Alec still thinks I'm too young to do any real Nephilim stuff and Jace would flip?" Clary asked.
"You got it in one. They really should have learned by now that you're perfectly capable of attending a few simple meetings with other Downworlders. It's not like you haven't come in contact with them before." Isabelle shrugged her shoulders and moved out of the way of the people coming towards them. They'd reached one of the streets not far from the Unseelie Court and were heading for the train station hoping to reach New York before dinner.
"Wait, meetings only? You all don't think I should fight, do you?" Clary voice held frustration underneath its seemingly calm tone. They had an ongoing argument at the Institute about whether Clary was capable of fighting like any other Nephilim; all because she didn't have a similar upbringing.
Isabelle was saved from having to take up her end of the argument once more when her phone rang. She twisted her electrum whip around her wrist before pulling the phone out of her pocket and looking at the caller-id.
"Crap." She whispered squeezing her eyes shut before answering. "Hey Jace, what's up?" Her voice sounded cheerful, which was practically normal for Isabelle; though Clary could see the tension in her body and who could blame her when she was trying to keep something from Jace. Clary kept watching, not knowing what was being said on the other end of the phone.
"No, haven't seen Clary all day…Of course I'm being series. I've been at the Unseelie Court all afternoon, I didn't exactly have time to wander off and hang out with Clary, besides the Court was a lot more entertaining than Clary is." To Clary she mouthed 'Sorry'. "Look, have you tried calling her?...Well Jocelyn has a pretty good need for it…I don't know why she hasn't bought her own phone yet! Let me go catch the train and I'll help you look for her, ok? Bye Jace. Bloody annoying!" She said into the phone after having hung up on Jace.
"Thanks Izzy." Clary said giving her a small smile. "You go catch the train to the Institute, I'm going to head off to Luke's. Come looking for me there first. I'll say I was wandering around the streets for a bit, trying to escape all the wedding stuff." Before she could get an answer, Clary turned down a street that headed in the opposite direction to the train station.
Clary mentally slapped herself on the hand remembering she'd just called her home "Luke's". It still felt strange living at Luke's house behind the bookstore. She'd always felt comfortable there, but now it was to be her permanent home; or it would be once her mother married Luke. 'Finally I'll have a father who actually loves me. And Luke's always been like a father to me; this will all work out well in the end.'
Coming into Luke's street, Clary saw that the house was a mess. People were standing in and around all the doors, most of them on phones. Confusion crossed her face.
"What's going on?" She asked the first person she came across, one of Luke's friends, a werewolf she supposed since he was leader of the local lycanthrope pack in New York.
"Oh, Clary. Thank God." A male voice said from the front door. Clary looked up to see Luke standing in his doorway, a phone held up to his ear and a look of relief washed over his face. "Jace, I've got her here. She just walked up. Come round later and you can grill her yourself."
Luke walked up to Clary and gave her a hug around the shoulders. "Next time you decide to go wandering through the City, take a phone with you. We've had half the downworlders out searching for you, and most don't even know what you look like so it was going to be a tricky search. Come on inside, you're mother is worried sick."
Clary looked up at Luke, nodded her head and walked with him inside. 'I didn't think they'd be that worried, and certainly not Jace. I'll have to make sure Mum gets her own phone so I can always be contacted.' Clary thought to herself. 'Well, at least my life's still exciting.'
A/N: There you have it, the first chapter in my newest story. (It also happens to be the first time I've written something that wasn't Harry Potter based, so I hope it turned out well)
Reviews are most welcome, they make me feel loved.
~James' Girl Lily
