Clary looked out at her family and smiled. Jace was teaching new fighting moves to their ten year old son, Max, and their youngest, six year old Stephen, was doing lessons on the patio. Their eldest, thirteen year old Iris, was probably out there in the forest somewhere, as always. It was a beautiful day on the borders of Idris, where she, Jace, and their three children lived. But, alas, all beautiful things must come to an end. It was time for dinner, and as Clary yelled out to Stephen, Max, and Jace that they had to come inside, Iris emerged from the forest.
"Hi honey," Clary said to Iris "Did you have a nice day?"
"Yeah!," Iris replied. "I found a new patch of orchids and these huge new trees and…". As Iris chatted on, oblivious to the fact that nobody was really listening to her, Clary thought about how Iris seemed so different than her. Besides the the same fact that they had physical features- Iris had the same long red hair, the same petite features, they were really different in every possible way. As an example, while Clary maintained a constant, not-so-silent but not-so-chatty display, Iris was basically always silent, with the exemption of when she just left the forest and was telling the story of her adventures to her mother. Then, nothing short of bombs going off would shut her up.
When the whole family was finally at the dinner table, Iris had retrieved her usual silent mood, and was listening to Jace tell Max the story of how Clary had killed her first demon. "You see," Jace said "Your mother had just learned that she was a shadowhunter, and had no training whatsoever."
"None?," Stephen asked.
"None. So, she had just arrived at her apartment, and there was this HUGE Ravenor demon right there. Terrified, your mother acted without thinking and shoved a sensor down it's throat. For some reason, that killed the thing, and she ran right back to me, terrified and scared about what just happened- because she had never seen a demon before in her life."
"Wow.," Max said. "Nice job, Mom!"
"Thanks Max. But I noticed not one of you touched your dinner while Jace was telling you that story, and it's almost time for Stephen to go to bed. So hurry up and eat!" Clary said.
"But mooooom," Stephen said "It's only eight!"
"Yes. And in the time it will take you to finish dinner, get your pajamas on, and brush your teeth, it will be around nine. So, hurry up! You have a big day tomorrow and I don't want you to be to tired for it." Clary replied
"Fine, fine," Stephen said. "I'll hurry up."
Clary knew that if she brought up the prospect of tomorrow, Stephen would hurry. There was a big family reunion and Simon, Isabelle, Magnus, Alec and their kids would be there.
"I'm done. May I be excused please?," Max asked.
"Yes you may.," Jace replied
"Can I go too?," Stephen said. He always wanted to be like and near his older brother.
"Sure"
"May I?" Iris asked
"Yep."
Clary and Jace were the only ones left at the table.
"You know, we really need to tell them about Seb-," Jace started, but Clary cut him off.
"Look Jace, I know we do. But we should not talk about that now. The kids could hear us.," she said. "We can talk about it later, while they are in bed. Ok?"
"Sure, honey" and Jace gave her a quick peck on the cheek and left the table.