The first time Magnus Bane saw Isabelle Lightwood, the first thought he had was of her ancestors cousin, Eugenia Lightwood. They looked the same.
But he was the master of the poker face, and so he hid his surprise well. The more he got to know her, the more he realized she reminded him not only of Eugenia, but her parabatai, her practially twin sister Barbara. Isabelle looked like Eugenia, fought like them both, spoke like Barbara, and acted like Eugenia. The same blunt but girly voice, and girly mannerisms that sometimes haunted his dreams.
She kept on coming back to him. He realized he'd be seeing a lot more of her when he started to see Alec, but still. He was thinking of Eugenia and Barbara when he told Alec that his ancestors had green eyes. And they were monsters, just not jealous ones. Ones who could kill you in 39 different ways with their bare hands if you angered them enough. Ones who had tamed a cocker spaniel and a pitbull, and named them Killer and Pepper, respectively. Once he left, Magnus stood in his loft with the Chairman in his hands, looking out the window. He thought of Eugenia's clear-glass green eyes and Barbara's muddy green eyes. The last time he had seen them...better not to think of that day.
Then Isabelle tried to protect Jace, that night at Lukes when the Inquisitor came in. Once Gabriel Lightwood was the Inquisitor, he thought. But before him... Magnus could almost hear Barbara and Eugenia pleading with Inquisitor Whitelaw that night when smoke filled the air in Idris, and Jesse, Thomas, Anna, and Christopher were all hurt.
"It's not James's fault that he brought a mundane to the London Institute! He had to! She had the sight, and she was going around telling people to beware of a Shax demon!"
"It's your fault for not keeping them in line enough to prevent the Shadowhunters from breaking out into fights until someone burned down houses, for the Angel's sake!"
"James is only 13. He doesn't understand what he's doing!"
James and Jace sounded the same, you know. He tuned out the conversation until Alec stopped defending his parabatai.
The next time he saw Isabelle, there was a fight and he could practically see Eugenia over her, fighting demons with her whip in the London streets. As he pushed her into the portal, she smelled like Barbara, all vanilla and sweet scents. He stared up at the sky pondering the question-What did I do to deserve seeing the same batch of Shadowhunter families?-until Clarissa, the darling girl she was, came along and opened her own portal. Simply wonderful.
Tossing and turning all night was not something he did until he saw the Lightwoods. But he did it, and pushed the Chairman off the bed various times, and got his face clawed various times as a result. Then Ragnor called, and off he went to Idris, where he met Clarissa again, along with that weird boy who used way too much hair die-He had an eye for fashion. He could tell these things. He preferred not to think of Isabelle as he slept for the next couple of days.
Except, he had to fight, and fought alongside Alec. Until they came to the Gard, and Isabelle was being held by her mother as their father held Max, and well shit, he could remember another Lightwood family mourning the death of their young son. He turned away. He didn't stick around for the funeral. Isabelle might not have clear-glass green eyes or muddy green eyes, but he was sure that when she sobbed at her brothers funeral, he would see those eys. Turns out she didn't even go.
Then Isabelle fell in love with Simon Lewis, and when Alec told him in Paris, he remembered a young boys voice telling him, "And Eugenia's- that's Anna and Christopher's cousin, mine as well I suppose- she fell in love with Michael Wayland. Took her father and uncle some time to come around, but they did. They're set to get married in Idris in the winter. They'd like it if you'd come, and here's the invitaion."
Turns out that Isabelle and Eugenia both fell in love with people they couldn't be with, although he had a feeling Robert and Maryse weren't going to come around.
The night that he and Alec broke up, he had a bunch of nightmares. And when he woke, this was the first one to come back to him:
"Magnus Bane! So we meet again. These are our daughters, Barbara and Eugenia, and our son, Thomas. Sophie's over there with them." As he looked up, he saw two girls, each with perfect wavy hair, one blonde and one brunette, heart-shaped faces, and destined to be beautiful women when they grew up standing near the ever gorgeous Sophie. They all looked down at the 3-year old boy in her arms who was sleeping. He too, was destined to be handsome when he grew up. A kladiscope of colors went over his eyes, the pale icy colors of balls, the bright greens and blues in the summer estates, the crispy browns and oranges in autumn, and the dark blues for winters. Every season that he saw the Lightwoods, all the years that went byt as he knew the girls. The years flashed by until he settled on one image. A body being burned into the night. A handsome man and beautiful women holding eachother as they looked toward the sky bravely. And their two daughters on the floor, crying, tears escaping their eyes. Shadowhunters are expected to die young, are expected to know that their children, their siblings, their parents, that they could all die at any minute of any day of any year. Later, Gideon Lightwood noticed him and went up to talk to him. He pointed out Sophie. Standing around her were two girls with perfect wavy hair, one blonde and one brunette, heart-shaped faces, and destined to be beautiful women when they grew up. Sophie was holding a 3-year old boy in her arms who was sleeping. Gideon said that those were his grandchildren, that their mothers and fathers, Barbara and Troy Montclaire, Eugenia and Michael Wayland were by Thomas's casket, which they both knew had only a few of his possessions, a meager exuse for his body. His wife, the former Lucinda Morgenstern, now Lucinda Lightwood, sat with her two children crying silently. His parabatai, Christopher, was talking to Grace and held Isidore in his arms. He was crying. Anna was holding on to Charles Fairchild, and their children were playing around Gabriel and Cecily, who were crying. Magnus nodded as Gideon said all their names, offered his condolences, and left. Later, he would remember that that day was not the last time he saw those clear-glass green and muddy green eyes, but rather one day that he met the Circle, and Celine Montclaire and Michael Wayland had them. But that day, after his nightmares, he could only remember Gideon's voice.
"Barbara, he daughter's name is Isabelle. Eugenia's daughter's name is Sophia. Her son's name is Joseph."