London-1878
Will Herondale was scowling as he pulled a seraph blade out of his coat and held it before him, leading the Shadowhunting trio along a harsh wooded path, gradually going upwards. "Who decided you could come along?" he asked the girl beside him with a glare.
"You did," a Miss Theresa Gray replied promptly, plucking at phantom skirts as the trio began to scale the hill before realizing she was in the unfamiliar tunic and trousers of shadowhunting gear. "Out of the kindness of your hearts and generosity you asked me along."
"That, Will," a slender, white haired boy beside them put in, looking amused. "Is another way of saying she snuck into the carriage."
"Ah," Will said, glowering down at his sensor. "And how exactly did you do that? Shape shift yourself into a bug, did you?"
Tessa shot him a rather annoyed and bewildered look. "You know that's not how it works."
"He does," explained Jem congenially, putting an arm out for Tessa to grab as her foot slipped on a wet patch of leaves. "He's in a rather bad temper today. It's not just you."
"How do you know it isn't just her?" Will began fiercely, plucking at the buttons on his coat, clambering up the hill ahead of both Jem and Tessa. "Personally, I think that Tessa is-"
He cut off, staring wildly ahead. "Something moved."
Jem's eyes moved up quickly, scanning the woody terrain. "Where? I didn't see anything."
Will whispered to his blade, and it glowed blue. "If you would cease and desist goggling at Tessa then you would've," he said, but without the usual bite, his eyes trained on the forest. "There. Up ahead." He gestured with his blade.
It was an average morning for London, the sky a dark almost-downcast, the air fresh with the scent of barely falling rain. Charlotte had been set two weeks to find Mortmain, two simple weeks, and every lead was viable. Charlotte herself was besought, running this way and that, rather hopelessly in Will's opinion, trying to get everything, and really getting nothing, done all at once. So it was that when a note was left on the door of the Institute, bright the morning of the last week, Charlotte herself didn't even fully read the note. The moment she saw the name of Mortmain was mentioned in its phrases she left it in the hands of the others, with commands to follow up. Jem and Will had eagerly offered their services, seeing that being around Charlotte these days was a bit depressing. Or at least, that was Will's thinking. He couldn't say for Jem. So they had set out, Cyril taking them as far as possible in the carriage.
The note was, in short, a confidence, from an anonymous witness, claiming that there lived, in the countrysides of the outskirts of London, a warlock by the name of Echius. The note itself was in a rather disgusting scrawl, smeared with what looked like grease, and worded like a foreigner or an illiterate, so at first they paid it no heed. Upon brief investigation, however, the parabatai set had quickly found that there was no such warlock registered under that name in the Clave, which, if he truly existed as the source claimed, would be in direct violation of the Accords. In Will's opinion, it was what one would call a wild goose chase, but that didn't stop him from going. Beside killing demons, arresting rogue downworlders was second best in his opinion, and if this little trek meant a chance to arrest an illiterate fool meddling in an already incredibly tedious investigation, he thought it completely worth it.
It hadn't been raining when he and Jem left the institute in the carriage, driven dutiously by Cyril, who Will was still, though he wouldn't admit it, vaguely uncomfortable around. There was just something about being around the lookalike of a man you watched die, that was extremely disconcerting. Regardless, he assumed he was kind enough, even to the extreme of being courteous to Will himself.
Will did not want Tessa with them. He tried desperately to despise every little smile, and honestly despised every time she caught on to her fiance's arm (which was quite often). He was using the best of his abilities to show utter disdain for the fact that she was here at all. How could one take their minds off of horrible things by destroying downworlders if the center of one's aggravation insisted on following them?
So, when motion caught his eye up ahead, he was infinitely grateful for the distraction. He took a firm step in front of his companions.
"Who's there? Name yourself!"
Jem stepped up beside him, surreptitiously moving himself directly in front of Tessa. "Will," he murmured. "How do you know it's not simply a forest animal?" Yet, as he spoke, he slowly twisted his cane, letting a slip of blade glint in the light of Will's blade.
"Gut feeling," Will muttered back, eyes remaining on the forest. He moved forward once more. "By the authority of the Clave I demand that you show yourself!"
"The Clave doesn't scare me, boy," came an almost elderly sounding, crackling voice from the foliage, causing Jem to jump slightly, and Tessa behind him to suck in a loud breath. Will stayed perfectly still, jaw tight. None of the group could see a thing. "I like to think I'm old enough to be Jonathan Shadowhunter's own father. How does that settle with ye?"
Will and Jem tensed, Will's blade flashing bright, Jem sliding his blade out completely.
It was Jem who responded first. "Are you the warlock Echius?" he asked, his voice cautious but firm.
It was then that a man stepped forward from behind a crowding of ivy and dead vines, standing before them on the crest of the hill. He was not what one could call intimidating, with a small, hunched over frame and cane that made him look much older than his eternal youth would portray, a mop of sandy hair that was rooted in dirt, leaves, and what looked, at a distance to be. . . maggots. He suddenly grinned at the travelers with a large, toothless smile, that made something in Will's chest go cold.
"And if I be? What do the likes of the Clave want with a simple man like me?"
Jem seemed to be struck speechless by the strange sight, his face a mirror of Will's own bewilderment. However, it was Will who spoke this time.
"We are currently in an investigation for the clave," he said, eyes unblinking on the feeble warlock. "We were told that you could give us information we need."
Echius twirled his cane in a hand, looking thoughtful. "Ye best be coming into my home. No good talking out here in the dank with that pretty miss ye've got behind ye."
Tessa straightened slightly, looking slightly disgruntled as Jem and Will simultaneously glanced back at her.
The man turned and began to disappear deeper into the forest. The three exchanged a look and began to follow.
"Are those maggots he's got in his hair?" Tessa hissed, leaning over their shoulders.
Neither responded, excepting Jem, with a simple shudder.
They followed him deeper and deeper into the dark wood, the sun almost completely eclipsed by the tangles of trees. Finally, without warning, they nearly bumped into a ramshackled house, shoved between two cypruses. Echius, who had been far in front of them despite his seemingly frail frame, waved to them from the shack's door, already safely inside.
"I don't like this," Will cut in quickly to his companions.
"Neither do I," said Jem grimly. "But we've seen worse. One insane warlock won't keep you away, Will. That I do know.
"Well, are we staying outside all day or shall we go in?" Tessa spoke up, looking at the two of them in turn, eyebrow raised.
Will and Jem exchanged a look. Jem shrugged slightly. "What is there to lose? From the looks of him you and I alone could control the situation easily, if needed."
Will nodded. "In it is then." He stepped to the door, opened it and disappeared inside.
Jem and Tessa exchanged a glance before Jem held open the door for his fiance and they too disappeared inside the shack.
The inside was worse than the maggoty man himself, reeking of what smelled like stale urine and sour milk. Upon entry, one's eyes did not know what to look at. Whether it be the rotting green boards of an ancient bookshelf, falling to pieces, several broken windows, their glass dotting the floor, or what looked like a long ago abandoned squirrel nest in its ceiling. As for the man, sitting in an armchair in the corner, he was almost unrecognizable. Sitting up straight, cane merely a toy in his hands, his appearance had changed entirely. What had been grease coated rags were suddenly a sleek foreign fabric, in the set of tight trousers, a buttoned shirt, and a jacket of sorts. What had been hair coated with maggots and filth of all sorts was now combed down across his forehead, a starling blond. Instead of a sickening toothless grin, a small, tight lipped smirk smiled out at them.
Jem, in his bewilderment, asked the less obvious question. "You. . . live here?" he asked, dazed.
The man's eyes glinted. "Oh no. No, no, no, no," he spoke, his voice as silky as the fabric he wore. The strange lilt and 'ye's' were gone, leaving no trace of anything but a pure, cultured British accent. "I wouldn't dare live in a hovel like this."
Will stepped forward, eyes burning dangerously. "Are you Echius?" he demanded, pointing his seraph blade at the man.
The man continued to smile, his smile tamed but his eyes bright and wild. "Oh, I am Echius. I am most certainly Echius, young man. And you are what will soon be my greatest achievement."
"Explain this," demanded Jem forcefully, pointing his bladed cane at the man beside Will's sharp pointed knife. "Now."
"What is there to explain?" he asked in response with a titter, leaping to his feet with grace that made the three in front of him back up a step in surprise. "I have successfully lured three Shadowhunters exactly where I planned without a hitch. I have exactly what I wanted and I plan to make the best of it." He grinned wildly at the three horrified faces in front of him. "Oh, and now don't be hasty!" he called loudly, as Tessa, teeth gritted and determined, attempted to reach behind her for the door knob. "You really think I'd bring my biggest achievements to a room and leave the door unlocked? You must think me stupid!" He laughed out loud at this, Tessa's white face growing taught.
"You wrote the letter to Charlotte. Luring us here," Will said without emphasis, face tight and resigned.
"Oh, yes. Yes, yes, yes," sang the man gleefully, his eyes darting from one to the other of them with the look of a small child on Christmas. "I must say you caught on rather quicker than the last one. He wasn't much of a help, had to call a demon up to possess him," he said with a pouting expression, as if this was the most tedious of stories. "Although, he did manage to bring me back some nice presents." He stroked the strange fabric of his clothing lovingly, as if caressing it.
Jem stepped firmly in front of Tessa, who had already drawn a blade from her own belt, but it was Will who spoke this time. "Back from where? Why did you lure us here?"
"He didn't last long enough," Echius replied, turning on them with wild eyes. "The trip hurt his brain. But you. There's three of you. One goes down, I have two more!" he sang, gibberish, in childlike glee.
Will's lips twisted. "No, you don't. Whatever's wrong in that sick mind of yours we want nothing to do with it. And you can't possibly possess all three of us," he said defiantly.
"Will," groaned Jem from beside him.
"Who needs possession?" shrieked Echius, eyes wild and gleeful, bouncing on his toes. "I learned last time that didn't work well enough. This time, this time, you're going differently. THIS TIME-"
Tessa grabbed onto Jem's arm, eyes wide.
"Jem," called Will loudly over the Warlock. "Get Tessa out! NOW!"
"-THIS TIME YOU'LL NEVER COME BACK!"
"JEM! NOW!"
The sound of Jem's shoulder slamming into the door resounded just as Will dove at the warlock with his blade, and Tessa threw hers through the air directly towards the crazed Warlock's face. But nothing came of any of these actions , because, at that exact moment, the world as it was for Tessa, Will, and Jem, went black.