Tide
Magnus lets the blue flames of his magic play around his fingers.
A nightmare forced him out of bed in the early morning hours and he knows he won't be able to go back to sleep anytime soon. Well, it hadn't so much been a nightmare as memories coming back to haunt him.
So, now he is sitting in one of the ornate armchairs in his living room, while trying to focus all of his attention on his magic, on the playfulness of the flames, their light, their warmth. On anything really, anything to keep his mind from wandering to those memories of what he had been doing up until a few decades ago, while under his father's care.
It has only been roughly forty years since he finally managed to leave Edom. And he hadn't even had the damn guts to face Asmodeus head-on. No, Magnus had just silently left, stolen away in the metaphorical night - there is no such thing as real daylight in Edom - instead of manning up and telling his father just what he thought of him.
Although to be honest, that was probably one of his smarter ideas. Confronting his father the first time around hadn't really worked out all that well for him.
Magnus sighs, feeling almost ridiculously gloomy right now.
He gives himself a metaphorical shake. The important part is that he had gotten out.
And now he is finally back on earth, has been for roughly forty years now.
Forty years of trying to integrate himself back into normal life.
Forty years.
After staying with his father in Edom for centuries.
Magnus suppresses a shudder as images of his time in the other dimension immediately spring to the forefront of his mind. Images of the things he had done. Because when Asmodeus had first taken him in, Magnus had been willing to do literally anything in his desperation to be accepted by his father, by the only person with eyes like his.
Asmodeus had truly known, how to time his interference perfectly.
He had shown up when Magnus was barely twelve, more than three years after he had killed his stepfather. And by then, Magnus had barely been able to remember those few happy years at the beginning of his life. Those few years before his parents realized exactly what he was, before they made Magnus hate himself.
His mother had been so repulsed by his very existence that she had killed herself in order to get away from Magnus. And his stepfather had been trying to convince her to try and kill Magnus for quite some time before that. Magnus had heard them talk, heard as his mother had adamantly refused. Not out of love, but purely out of fear of her own son.
All because of Magnus' eyes.
To this day, he doesn't really regret killing his stepfather. Well, burning him to ashes where he stood might not have quite been his intention, but he had lashed out with everything he had in him. But for all the influence and control Magnus had had over his magic at that age, it could have just as well turned the man into a frog. A just-as-fitting existence in his opinion.
But then - after his stepfather's death - Magnus had been forced to live on the streets. He had been young, pretty and naive as all children are. Even with his magic protecting him from the worst, it had not been an existence Magnus would wish on anyone.
And then Asmodeus had 'found' him. The man who had eyes like him, who didn't flinch away from Magnus' eyes or his powers, who even told him to use his magic more, who taught him how to 'properly' use his powers. In that first century down in Edom, Magnus would have done literally anything for his father.
He truly hand't cared about what he was doing to others in order to keep Asmodeus happy. Because why would Magnus show mercy to anyone, when no one had ever bothered to show him any?
But then the doubts came. Quickly followed by nightmares of screams and blood and torture. All inflicted by him or by others as he just stood by and did nothing.
It still took him several decades to finally speak up against his father.
He never regretted anything more.
The subsequent years, decades, centuries had been spent in pain, constantly drained of his magic, sometimes even without control over his own mind or body, as his father very effectively taught him the price of insubordination.
It was certainly a lesson, Magnus will never be able to forget.
Well, not the part about disobeying - Magnus will never allow himself to be brought that low again that anyone would even dare to demand his obedience at all - but rather the part about picking your battles. And that all the years spent loyally serving his father meant absolutely nothing if he so much as dared disobeying once.
He knows now that his loyalty is only worth giving, if it is returned with the same level of devotion.
Magnus focuses back on the blue flames now agitatedly dancing along his palms, up his arms, spiking aggressively at his memories. The protective warmth of his magic soothes his mind like nothing else can.
At least that's one thing he can be grateful for about having a greater demon as a father.
His magic is Magnus' one steady, true companion throughout. He would not give up it for anything.
At his thoughts, the blue flames calm somewhat and start gently playing around his fingers again, even further calming him.
Now that Magnus is actually back on earth, he doesn't really have to worry about retribution from his father.
Because thankfully, Asmodeus has a surprisingly healthy approach to self-sufficiency. His father is of the firm opinion that as long as you need help, you clearly don't deserve it and would rather torture you to insanity - for even daring to ask - than lend a hand. But if you are able to do it on your own, then, good luck to you.
Yeah, greater demons apparently have principles. It's a surprise to everyone.
So, Magnus is at least reasonably sure that his father won't come looking for him to make his displeasure at Magnus' sudden and unannounced departure known. At least not now that Magnus has already made it out.
And being more than 300 years old, Magnus has by now reached a level of magical strength that lets him confidently claim to be able to defend himself against most anything or anyone coming to challenge him. Well, except for a direct confrontation with one of the original greater demons. Then he is toast. But that will always remain true, so he has long since stopped worrying about it.
Don't piss off anyone who can blast you out of existence. It's not a hard rule to live by.
Which brings him back to his original goal of finding something to distract himself from his memories tonight.
He recently integrated himself into French society - while he was gone his home country had changed names and native language, but still reminded him far too much of his childhood and the losses suffered there - seeing as France is currently a comparatively nice place to be, what with Europe having one of the most advanced societies of the mid 1600s.
Not to even mention their current king, Louis XIV - the Sun King - sure knows how to throw a party.
Hm, now there's a thought. He could join that celebration at the new palace he heard about. It should at the very least be entertaining - what with the Sun King being the one to organize the festivities - and Magnus has heard that the recently finished palace gardens are a truly spectacular sight. It would also give him a chance to mingle with the mundanes and maybe find some additional entertainment to keep him busy for the rest of the night.
After having spent literally centuries amongst demons and their offspring, Magnus has been trying to stay as far away from his fellow Downworlders as he possibly can. Even more so, right now with his memories so close to the surface.
Alrighty then, the king's party it is.
Decision made, Magnus is about to get up, when suddenly there is a shift in the air.
Magic. Someone else's magic.
Someone is doing magic in his living room. Despite his wards. Wards which are able to keep literally everything out, including seraphs and greater demons.
How in the name of all that is magical is anyone able to reach past his wards?
And it's not any kind of magic either. No, this is dimensional magic.
An sudden tug at his own magic almost makes him stumble.
Magnus' magic promptly takes exception to that and aggressively pokes back, lashes out at that foreign magic, tearing at it.
Abruptly, something reaches for his aggressively curling magic - apparently undeterred by its current state of aggression. And Magnus' magic doesn't fight back as something seems to simply latch on.
And then, suddenly, something is pulling at him. And while it doesn't feel malicious in any way, Magnus still plants his feet.
It will be a cold day in hell - there are none of those, believe him, he knows - before he will let someone else's dimensional magic take a hold of him.
If there is one thing Magnus' stay in Edom has given him in excess, it is power. He is still running on the additional boost of his prolonged stay at his father's side, probably will for quite some time. Thus, while Magnus might be somewhat limited in the variety aspect of how to apply his powersbut he sincerely doubts that there is anything outside of Edom that would be able to actually overpower him.
Although, focusing on the magic which is continuing to build up in the air around him, continuing to pull at him, Magnus tilts his head.
Whatever this is, it's no ordinary dimensional portal. No, this is at the very least inter-dimensional. And even that doesn't feel quite right.
By all that is magical, someone is trying to forcefully open a time portal in his living room.
Magnus feels a grin stretch across his face, even as he gathers his magic to play around his fingertips. This is just as likely to be a friendly visit as it could be an attack. Either way, it is definitely interesting.
And at least this solves his problem of trying to find some entertainment for tonight.
A/N: Ok, so this will be very Magnus/Alec-centric. As in, I haven't quite decided which timetravel version to use yet, but it will be at least several chapters until anyone else from the future-that-is-the-present part of the 'verse makes an actual appearance.
I've only seen some of the series, read none of the books and only read a few Shadowhunters fics (it's a fairly recent obsession ^^), so I'll definitely mess something up. Feel free to point out any errors and I'll try to fix it (beware, I'm intentionally messing around with some of it, Magnus' backstory in particular). Other than that, I'm claiming creative license XD
On that note, the timeline of this entire story is based on that one brief comment from Magnus about Asmodeus taking him in after his mother's death. I don't know if there is any other mention of this, but in this fic Asmodeus took him to Edom and Magnus stayed there for about three centuries (willingly at the beginning and then not-so-willingly) before returning topside. Thus, for this story Magnus was born in the 1200s, stayed in Edom for about 300 years and returned topside in the early 1600s (I've seen it mentioned a lot that Magnus is supposedly 400 years old and my explanation for that would be that he is only counting his years on earth in that and ignoring his time spent in Edom).
And despite what the first chapter might indicate this is not actually going to be angsty at all but rather a happy, if not mostly fluffy story (well, there will be some angsty segments throughout, because it just wouldn't be a Shadowhunters fic without it ^^). Next up, Alec's POV :)
Please let me know what you think!