City Of Stone
Chapter One
The Arrival.
There was a cry in the distance, like a baby. The sound of dogs barking came from around the corner. The cry became louder and louder. The air was cold in the East New York alleys, that you were almost able to see your breath as a cloud of fog. The dogs bark came closer, louder. And a door burst open. The barking had ceased, a murmur of voices came from around the corner, and the sound of footsteps and water splashing came from the distance. The baby stopped crying. A sound of a heavy heaving of breath came from two pairs of legs, that stood before the baby's basket.
A man, he looked like he'd been awake for several hours, came into view. He had somewhat dark dirty blonde hair, and eyes the color of deep sea blue. His eyes looked tired like he hadn't slept for days, instantly widened at the sight of the baby in the basket. He looked around, searching for whoever may have left the child in the alley. He'd heard the dogs barking from before, and then bent down gently moving the blanket from the baby's face. And he noticed her eyes, how they seemed to glisten a kind of dark greenish tone, and then the tone seemed to fade into an emerald jaded color.
"Who left you here..." he spoke as soft as a small whisper. The air was cold, he realized, as he could see his own breath in puffs of foggy smoke. He looked back down at the baby, gently stroking her soft face. The cheeks were flushed a dark pink, and her nose was almost as cold as ice. He knew he couldn't just leave her out there, he needed to bring her inside. So he picked up the basket ever so gently, and wrapped it under his long dark robe, entering their small apartment home again.
As he entered, there was a sound of a baby cry. Another baby, he passed one hall, filled with past pictures of the man in various fighting arenas, holding medals in each hand. Boxing, martial arts, kickboxing. He entered a small room, setting down the cradle gently on a small chair that was set on the bedside. There was a woman, softly sleeping, she was pale, but beside her, was another baby. She held it closely in her arms, the small child gently sleeping against his mother. The man looked them over, and the woman suddenly awoke. Her eyes fluttering open, slightly glancing over to the man.
"Andrew..you're still up. Come to bed, its late..oh, my.." she started to sit up, but the man, Andrew stopped her. He kept his worried look on his face, filled with grief. "Andrew, she's beautiful.." the woman continued, sinking back into the bed. He looked down at the cradle at his side, a hint of worriedness still across his face, he looked up again. Their home was a small place, an apartment home. But even though it was small, they'd managed to make it look like a decent home. It wasn't much, but it was all they had for what they called a home.
"But Ariel, we-" he stopped, looking over his ill wife. He'd been by her side since the beginning of her pregnancy. The birth of their son seemed to be the most happiest moment of their lives. A beautiful baby boy, it had been a year since then. And their home was still a small place, built under an old town public library. They'd shared it with some other people, but since they'd been expecting a baby, the neighboring hosts had been considerate into letting them take the bottom, not bothering to climb up the stairs.
"Andrew, He has blessed us with yet another blessing," the woman said in a soft voice of whisper. She looked at the baby, sleeping soundless in the basket. She had dark hair, and rosed cheeks from the chillyness from the outside. "We can't just ignore his blessings. Andrew, we can take care of them, both of them. Our two blessings," she smile a weak but happy smile. Andrew's face softened a little, and he returned a smile.
"Alright, get some rest. Shh, sleep," he stroked his wife's hair, brushing some away from her beautiful face. Even through the paleness of her skin, you could still see the angelic image from her face. She had the dark fair hair, and her face seemed to glow, even through some of the darkest of places. And even through her image, she still managed to stay joyful and spirited, bringing happiness towards the others around her. To Andrew.
As he looked down, he saw a small glass like canister. and tied around it, a piece of paper. He cautiously picked it up from the basket, and untied the paper from the bottle. As he did so, he unrolled the paper and look it over, as if it were an ancient scroll from ages ago. He looked from the paper to the baby, still sound asleep. He looked at the bottle in his other hand, it was filled with a clear water liquid, and a mark on it the shape of a 't'.
A shadow moved from behind the curtains, a hooded figure. It had been watching them from a distance, a slight breath coming from his mouth. Andrew looked up and turned, looking at the window, nothing. But he could sense that he was being watched at one point. The hooded figure ducked from under the window pane, still breathing slowly and steadily, and then held its breath.
"Who's there?!" Andrew moved the curtain from the window, and all heard was the sound of footsteps, splashing from the puddles, and the sound of breaths heaving from the distance and into the night.
o0COS0o
Sun peaked from a couple of buildings down the block, and sounds of cars running came from almost every direction. A girl casually walking from one corner of a building, her head looking around casually, a basketball in one hand and her other clinging to a strap from her guitar case, and then suddenly, she bumped into someone.
"Whoa, sorry dude," she nodded at him for a second as she stumbled to one side. He looked at her for a moment and then nodded back. His body was almost like a stoned wall, knocking her slightly off the pavement. His hair seemed to glow a kind of golden color, and his eyes a similar matching tone. As they turned towards the opposite directions, they'd eyed each other for a moment, and then kept on walking.
As the girl dribbled her basketball, she looked back, and got to catch just a glimpse of the back of the boy's head. She seemed to enjoy the way it shimmered in the sun, she stuffed something in her pocket. She ran around one corner and then stopped in front of a huge crowd of people walking across the streets under the stoplights. This was what many would have called the typical New York traffic, business workers in their long coats and suite cases in one hand and a cell phone in the other. She somehow seemed out of place. She took looked up and took in one breath before slowly bumping through the people.
She stopped then, in front of some cement steps that lead to the front of wooden doors. A huge marble made building, with a carved lion that layed at the two ends of the building. There were words that were also carved at the stop part, above the pairs of pillars that stood firmly in place that read, THE NEW YORK PUBLIC LIBRARY. The girl smiled and let out a satisfied breath as she trudged herself up the steps and through the doors.
"Nicole! How are you?" a woman greeted the girl with a small. She was a woman in her mid fifties, and a pair of spectacles that rested atop of her nose. She was a slender woman for her age, and she had a lightish gray tone for hair. She welcomed the girl in with a nod, and she walked over to her.
"Hey Ms. Meridith," the set her stuff down at one side, and looked around the library, in awe. The seats were filled with people, all whose faces were buried in books, and others, some teens huddled together on the public computers. She smiled at the sight, and shook her head, looking back at the woman. "Looks like this place is pack, as usual."
"Oh, come take a seat here, Nicole. And what did I tell you? Call me Meri," she smile. Nicole was a very dedicated library goer since she was very little, and went there whenever she had any spare time on her hands. As she turned towards Meri, she handed her a keychain that had a single golden key attached to it. Nicole smiled and took it casually. "The room is all yours."
"Thanks Meri! I owe you!" she stumbled towards her things and walked hastily forwards towards a stairwell. Once she made it up a few flights of stairs, she stopped at one part. An old storage room from the library.
She'd found it one day, while she was helping Meridith clean the library and storing some of the old books in the spare rooms. This room in particular was an old forgotten storage room, rarely used. It looked untouched except for the books that filled the side wall shelves, and the windowsill that had a space for you to sit in, like the ones from the Peter Pan movies, and how Wendy always left the window open for Peter. She trailed her hand through the rows of books and found one that she took off the shelf.
As she plopped herself onto the windowsill, she dug through the side pocket of her guitar case, and then took out a small green notebook. It wasn't much, just a notebook with a leatherlike cover that had a weird scale design on it, she'd bought it for five dollars at Target. Small, but durable. There was a pen that she unattached from the side and then turned to a page with an unfinished paragraph on it.
"Okay...where is it?" she whispered to herself, turning the pages of the book titled, PARADISE LOST. It was an epic by John Milton, that he'd written in ten books, but then it was redivided into twelve. Nicole's family wasn't that religious, but she'd become interested in the angels and God from her mother. She always talked about Him and how she and her brother were the greatest blessings from Him. Meridith had said that any book in this room would be okay for her to keep, since no one ever bothered to read any of them anymore. There was always another copy of the Paradise Lost downstairs.
"When God said,'Let there be light,' you came to light up the creation of the world...' " she said softly to herself. She had been righting the whole book in the way normal people would understand it. She would sometimes even memorize what she'd written, without even knowing it, it would repeat back into her mind a million times. She let out a scowl as she dropped her pen, it seemed to run out of ink in the middle of her paraphrasing. "Darn it! Ugh..lets see. What do I have..."
She dug through her pockets, searching for another pen, anywhere. She brought her hand out slowly and brought out what she'd stuffed in her pocket earlier. She grabbed the boy's wallet, which didn't seem to have much in it, thirty dollars, a bus token, and the piece of paper that had come with it. She saw only a single word on it, but she didn't really understand what it meant. She'd grabbed something else from the boy too. A silver metal stick, she held it in her palm, and then set it down.
Nicole took the small torn paper, it looked sort of scorched, someone had tried to burn it before, leaving nothing but this one word. She layed it on a page at the very back of her notebook and took out a small piece of tape from her guitar pocket, taping it carefully in place on the page. The sun gleamed from the glass of the window pane, making the name stand out from the blank page instantly, as she looked at the word once more before turning back to the previous page.
Jace.
o0COS0o
"I can't believe you were pick pocketed!" Alec's voice rose from the other end of the table in the kitchen. Jace looked up casually, not a hint of worry visible from his face. He took a bite out a green ripened apple, blinking normally. He spoke as he swallowed the chewed apple bit.
"Well, I couldn't actually tell that I was pick pocketed, there wasn't anything suspicious about the person. She was just a girl, cute by the way," he spoke again, taking another bite from the apple. Alec stood from his chair and slapped one hand onto his forhead in frustration. Isabelle rocked slowly in her chair, eating her cereal in a bowl.
"Oh so now it was a cutepick pocket girl. JACE! It was a flame message from the Council! And what if Clary..." he stopped.
"What if Clary what?" a red haired girl entered the room, with a cup of water in her hand. She grabbed a chair and sat by Jace, as he took another decent bite from his apple. Alec eyed him with an angered look, and then turned to Isabelle for back up. She just blinked twice at him before she finally spoke."The thing is, you see,
"You genius boyfriend here got a flame message from the Council," Clary looked at all of them carefully and then at Jace. "Well then? Come on, what did it say?" she took a sip from her cup and waited for Isabelle to continue, Jace munching on the last of his apple.
"Well, your oh so amazing boyfriend got his wallet pick pocketed by a street girl before any of us could read it," she said as though it was nothing. Alec turning towards the two, Clary spat her drink out, leaving a mist of water dissolving in the air, soaking Alec's face. "I remember me saying that I didn't read it, now did I?" Jace answered back in his nonchalant cocky way.
Alec slammed his hand against the table, about to burst into a tyrade of anger, but was then interrupted by another voice. Maryse. She entered the room followed by her husband Robert. They didn't at all seemed to be bothered by the room that seemed to be bursting with nonstop screaming and arguments. Instead they passed their soaking son, who recieved a towel from Isabelle, wiping is face, and approached the center of the room, waiting for silence.
"The Council has approached us, handing us a very brief but important message. It has been said to us that someone had reported a very legendary discovery. They want all the head of the Shadowhunter families to arrive there, and listen in on what they have to say."
"So what?" Jace scoffed, tossing his eaten apple bob into the trash. "You're going to leave us, just so you can go back to Alicante and listen to some people give you a lecture on history? Lame," he leaned back from his chair. Clary gave him a soft glare that sent him to forcefully roll his eyes and sit back up.
"What is it thats so important for everyone to hear?" Clary asked, half interested in the question. Maryse gave them all a sterned look, preparing to answer the question. Jace looked up, wondering why she had to pause. What was so big about this news, anyways? Robert stepped up from beside her and took a breath from his nostrils.
"It is said that this new is what could possibly lead them to a connection for the Children of Michael and Lucifer," he stopped. Jace yawned, still looked at them, losing interest, but Robert continued anyways. "In other news, it also means a mission for the Santan's secret city," all the kid's heads looked up, Alec, from drying his face. Jace's ear's twitched as his eyes shot up, curiously. Maryse added on to the information.
"It was a city said to be housing the Underground Tournaments. Its a secret society that both downworlders, demons, and Shadowhunters alike fight in various levels of battles. They say that the secret city was made to defy the Angel's ways. And maybe even God himself. But the place is so ancient, so unknown, that none have even pinpointed where it is. Many Shadowhunters gave it names such as Santan's Secret City, Devil's Headquarters, or Lucifer's Kingdom. But now we only know it for what our own knowledge knows."
Jace sat up straight, now, somewhat interested, "And that is...?"
"The City of Stone."
