December 11th, 1993
Bordelain Plains
Valentine Morgenstern
His black horse galloped on the beated down path through the trees for cover, he didn't need it though. No one was on the plains except for secret supportors.
Valentine's group, the Circle was beaten by the Clave so as a last resort, he faked his death to get the Clave off his trail. He now stayed at the Morgenstern manor and Wayland depending on his schedule.
The baby in his coat started to cry but he just pushed the cloth over its nose, removing it once it went back to sleep, he didn't have the time nor patience to look after a crying child.
He steered his horse roughly around the trees, it slipped on the mud but didn't go down. He urged it faster until they were soon galloping across the bare field and into a small tree coven where his manor was located.
Valentine dismounted easily, the baby not stirring as he untacked his horse and put it on the pasture. He didn't wait, and ran into his manor, escaping the rain.
He picked the worst time to steal the child and burn the manor, especially when it started to rain right when the fire was burning the bottom walls. But even he was sure they were dead.
He looked around the foyer for any sign of Jonathan, his son from Jocelyn and his marriage.
His mind wandered to his wife, oh how she enraged him. She left and fought against him, causing his downfall and thought he was dead.
Oh how she was, oh so wrong.
He looks at the child in his arms as he climbs the stairs to the next level of his home. The child has light brown hair but he's seen that she has the same tawny eyes that his second child Jonathan Herondale has, well of course she does since she's from the same parents.
The Herondales gave up Jonathan since Valentine also fake his death, making them think he got caught up with a demon since they frequiently roam the forest. So they had another child and Valentine took this child since he knew, Angel Ithuiel told him so, and then killed Stephen and Celine.
The baby starts to move and he walks into the bedroom he had assigned the child. He puts the child in the crip and she falls back asleep.
"Her name is Wilhelmina, after my great grandmother." Celine Herondale had told him, looking the part as a proud mother. That was when he sliced her throat.
It was gruesome, especially since they were friends of his, but it had to be done. He had a feeling the child would be a breaking point in his comeback and he knew that she could win him the Clave.
"Father?" A voice comes from behind him in the doorway. The man turns to find a smaller version of himself. The two year old looks at him tiredly. "I thought you wouldn't be back until morning."
"Yes, well, I brought something back." He beckons the child over and he complies, looking into the crip at the sleeping child.
"Who is that, father?" He asks, his toddler voice curious.
He lets himself give a ghost of a smile, "That is your new partner, she'll grow up and you'll be the best warriors."
Jonathan grins, "Never as good as me."
Valentine smiles softly at the child, he didn't have to deal with the child stages when Jocelyn was here since she took care of the baby and he was kind of annoyed to be having to since it was a hassle, but he was glad he would have a disfunctional family.
And his little disfunctional family would triumph.
oo0O0oo
July 3rd, 2000
Morgenstern Manor, Idris
Wilhelmina Celine Herondale
"Again." Valentine orders, looking at me intensly with his ebony eyes.
I fling the dagger as hard as I can toward the target and it sinks in around the center. I do the same thing until one hits perfectly in the middle.
"Good." He says simply but that's the best and only compliment I will ever get. He gets a thinking smirk on his face and calls over Jonathan who is aggressively punching at a bag. He has always intimidated me since he was always so aggressive and cruel but I also admire him, he's a wonderful fighter and so fluid.
"Jonathan, come here." Valentine orders and Jonathan does, meeting my eyes. I shrug slightly, I never know what Valentine is thinking until he says it.
"I want both of you to spar together, go grab a weapon."
My mouth parts in surprise, eyes widen fractionally but do what he says. I would be lying if I wasn't afraid since Jonathan is such a good fighter and two years older than me. I'm good, at least I think I am, but he's already got most of his permenant marks also and I only have three.
I grab my trusty sword, that's the weapon I feel most comfortable with. I watch Jon grab a bow staff, I raise an eyebrow at him and he smiles slightly. I'm awful at staffs, I can never get the blades to come out, but I wouldn't be surprised if we was good at it.
We get on the mat and get into our fighting stances, my stomach starts to flutter with nervousness and he smirks at me, "I'll take it easy on you Wil."
"Aw, are you afraid, Little Jon?" I pout at him and he's about to throw back another insult when Valentine shouts.
"Enough talking, more combat!"
I jump slightly and Jon spins his bow stick at my head and I duck, kicking out as his stomach. He stumbles back, loosing his momentum on the stick. His eyes narrow at me, play dirty are we? they seem to say. I just smirk.
But all I'm trying to do is keeping him from activating the staff, I know that once I do, he's going to come at me with everything he has.
Instead of trying to get the blades out again, he just smacks me in the side with it, awfully hard. I gasp out, stumbling back almost out of breath. He spins his staff and slams it down before I can stop him, menecing blades come out of the end.
I charge in, avoiding the sharp knives and stabbing at his side. It cuts into the outside skin of his ribs but we were trained not to stop when you got injured so he just attacks at me next.
Jonathan launches at me, moving his staff fast at my sides, my sword clinks as it hits it each time but during the last strike, it cuts into my thigh. I yelp in my throat but keep going.
Valentine finally lets us stop after we've battered ourselves enough. But I'm happy, I was equal with Jonathan, well at least with a bow staff, I'm not sure about with his primary weapon, a sword like me.
"Good job, Wilhelmina, Jonathan." Valentine nods at us, happiness in his eyes. "Go get healed up, you have the rest of the day off."
Jon and I share a look of surprised as he walks out, spinning on his heel.
"He must be in a good mood, I don't remember the last time we've gotten time to ourselves." I say, rubbing a bruise on my shoulder. I'm cut all over, my thigh bleeding adequatly, but it didn't hit an artery. My arm has a pretty deep cut and smaller scratches all over and a line of blood from my forehead keeps getting in my eye.
Jonathan got off better though, he only has that one cut on his ribs and a few scratches on his arms, a bunch of bruises though. I bet his stomach is sore.
"True, want to go outside Alicante?" He asks.
I nod happily, "Definitely. Just let me get healed and changed."
I run up to my room, as fast as I can with my hurt leg. I grab my stele and put some iratzes on all the wounds then change into my leather gear pants and a grey sweatshirt I got from France when we went there last. I put some daggers in my waist band and skip down to Jon's room.
I knock on the door and he opens it suddenly, yanking me in. I yelp, looking at him through my gold eyes and into his black ones, "What was that-." He pushes his pale hand onto my mouth, quieting me.
"Shhh, we have to sneak out."
"Sneak out? Your father will be super angry at us." I mumble through his hand.
He rolls his eyes, removing his hand from my mouth. "Yes, but when will we ever get another chance like this? He's talking to some and they're having a pretty rough argument, he's not even going to check."
"I guess..."
"Live a little, Wilhelmina. Come on." He beckons, going to his window on the second floor. He opens it and shimmings out onto the slanting room, sliding down it until he gets to the edge. He looks at me with a tilted head. "I'm going with or without you, you could just help make sure I don't do anything stupid."
"This is stupid Jon." I roll my eyes.
"Bye Wilhelmina." With that he jumps off the room.
I make a face, feeling torn. But as I see him jogging off I finally huff, jumping out the window and sliding off the room. I fall ungracefully, landing with a roll but still tweaking my ankle. I dash off after my blonde haired friend though, not caring about the pain.
I walk with him, side by side, running until we get into the forest and out of the peering eyes of Valentine. I'm sure he'll know we're gone, Valentine seems to know everything that happens. But I guess Jonathan is right, since when had we lived a little, done anything that wasn't training or learning our lessons.
"How far is the Glass City?" I ask, I know Jon went there when he was around my age with Valentine and I was stuck at home alone becauee he said I wasn't old enough.
"About a forty five minute walk." He replies, that isn't too bad. Valentine makes us run about five miles a day so a walk won't be any problem for us.
We past the time while walking while seeing how many times we can flick each other where it hurts. Jon gets me in the neck many times and I hit him in the forehead. Just as he's about to do it on the side of my face, I turn and he gets me right under my eye.
"Ow!" I exclaim and he laughs, running away. I chase after him, jumping onto his back, "That hurt, Jon." I say, flicking him in the neck four times before we pries me off.
We get docile afterwards though when I see the demon wards. "Wow." I breathe, It looks like something out of a story book. "I wish we could go inside."
"Yeah, Father said that there were so many cool things like weapon stores. He said they had the best swords made out of pure atmatis."
My lips part in amazement. "Why can't we just go now?" I ask, frowning. "He isn't here."
Jonathan leans on a tree, "Because Father said that they would recognize me, and that they have to know who every shadowhunter is that enters so it would be too much of a hassle to create a facade and change my appearance."
"No one knows me, I could just change my last name to something like Grasstree."
Jonathan snorts, "That is a terrible name, they would surely lock you up."
I shrug, taking another look at the city. "We should get back, Valentine could check on us."
Jonathan sighs, nodding. And we make the long trek back to our manor.