Disclaimer: it came to my attention that I messed up when I was writing this. So I redid it and I'm sorry!

7 years ago

My name is Seraphina Morgenstern and I am the daughter of one of the most powerful men in Europe. Well Idris, because I know little to nothing about the mortal world. Besides the times when I was allowed to do anything on my birthday and I would go to the globe, spin it, and then randomly point to a location. Next week is my tenth birthday and I haven't planned yet where I want to go. I hope it is somewhere completely different than the other places: London, Beijing, New York, Mexico City, Seoul, and Paris. We would stay at the Institutes and I met other Shadowhunters and I have always enjoyed my birthday. I've seen so many things and I hope that I get to see so much more in my life.

My birthday is the best day of the year. Every other day I am training, and as I grow older training in longer and harder. Half of my days are spent inside the library with my father. I read book after book, language after language, and learn rune after rune. Runes, the language of heaven, are my specialty. As my father told me, I was to be his greatest warrior. When my mother was pregnant with me he fed her the blood of the angel and I am stronger than any other Shadowhunter.

When I'm older my arms will be decorated with runes for all different purposes. Angelic power, strength of the Angel, precision, stamina, recall, agility, sight, the rune of tongue, speed, and soundlessness. I have learned to control the pain of the stele. My father keeps a journal of the special runes I show him. There are so many, and I'm not allowed to use any of them during training. Father tells me I am too powerful for my own good, maybe he's right.

I learned from a young age to never grow attached to anyone or anything. Like my family, you could never count on anyone beside yourself. My mother died and left my father and me when I was baby. How could a mother leave her child? Father explains it as confusion and to the mundanes "depression." I never understood it, but maybe someday I will. I doubt it though, like I doubt everything he tells me about her. She doesn't sound like she cared enough about me to stick around.

My father trains me well, I could possibly even be considered an adult in the eyes of other Shadowhunters, but I am too small. I am just a girl, with freckles and fiery red hair. My father tells me I look like my mother more and more everyday. It brings me no comfort, because I don't want to be anything like my mother. She abandoned me because of a human emotion. The nephilim are more than human, we have responsibilities and we can't simply die because of something so human.

Today was no different; I was to meet my father in the study at dawn. It took me years to train myself to wake up at the same time everyday. All Shadowhunters are meant to be ready for battle at a moments notice and be available at any time of night or day.

When I approached the door of my father's study I heard him arguing with someone. I looked into the room and it stopped as soon as he noticed me. "Seraphina go to your room and I'll meet when I'm done here," he sounded angry.

I nodded and left the room hastily. I knew what this meant though; he was going to punish me for eavesdropping. There would be no pretending I heard nothing, even if that is exactly what I heard.

I left the manor to find a place in the woods to escape his wrath. Sometimes I ran away until he calmed down and he wasn't as hard on me; but other times his anger was much, much worse. I decided to run because I hoped he wouldn't be as hard on me.

In the woods there are many creatures that I have to be careful of. From my studies I learn all about werewolves, vampires, warlocks, nixies, peris, ifrits, vampires, merolk, pixies, kelpies, elves, nymphs, and pucas. My father also teaches me from his own experiences about how dangerous downworlders can be. I'm afraid of them, but at the moment I trust them more than my father.

I started running when I heard footsteps and leaves crunching. I automatically pulled me hand to my weapons belt and grabbed my dagger. I ran until I couldn't breathe. When I slowed down I heard nothing but the birds chirping away. I giggled at their innocence. I would give anything to be a bird. They are such free creatures. My father had two ravens, named Hugin and Munin. Hugin stays at the London Institute with the Herondales; Hugin is very fond of Stephen Herondale, my father's parabatai. Munin is now Hodge Starkweather's responsibility. Father didn't like the birds around me in case I got too attached to them. It worked; those birds were cruel and could attack on command. They were ruthless creatures and I'm happy I never had to learn to tame them. My father tamed them and they will always be his animals. Those ravens remind me that anything can be trained to be magnificent, depending on the trainer. They are magnificent creatures and I do not think I could ever train something as well as my father has.

I looked forward and I saw a small shed. It was beautiful and small. It was in a good condition and I suddenly got the feeling that it wasn't really there. As if I could see it, but no one else could. There were flowers, or well herbs. Salvia sclarea was present, which was weird because Idris was not the ideal place to grow this herb or any of the herbs really. The other herbs were jasmine, bergamot, and silverweed. I recognized them from my studies and the books in the library all had sections on these plants. But the weirdest thing about this shed was that it looked perfect. As if someone was tending to it, and that's what drug me the door, where I turned the handle. It opened with ease and I took a whiff of the scent and it was breathtaking. A strawberry aroma filled the air and I loved it, every bit of it. I never wanted to leave.

I looked around the room and noticed the desk next to the windows. There was a small, clear vase set on the desk. It held some of the salvia sclarea with water. I wondered what the person would want with the shed and I started to open drawers when I came across a book. No, not a book, a journal. I opened the cover and there was a name, Jocelyn Morgenstern.

I froze and I looked out the window to make no one was near the shed. I didn't see anyone but there were so many things in the forest that I decided it would be safer to close the door than leave it open. I didn't feel scared in the shed nor did I feel alone. I felt safe, and I wasn't about to leave any time soon.

I opened to the first entry, only to be surprised by the inscription on the first page:

To my daughter, if you have found this safe house then you are ready. You are ready to read what I have written, but please before you continue make sure you know that you are on a dangerous mission. One I had never dared try. If you are ready to read this, then continue but if there is any reason for you to doubt anything, don't continue. Trust me daughter; I would have never left you if I had been given the choice. I did everything I could before it was my time to go. He trusts you more than anyone darling, and you are his arrow whether he knows it or not.

Present Day

I wonder now looking around this room, before Valentine finally tells everyone to go home, if I had never found that shed if I would be anything like me. I suppose not. It's nice to know I'm nothing like my father, but sometimes I wonder if I'm just his no matter what choices I make or what I say. I will always be considered Valentine's daughter. I hated it, and I hated him. But I will try my damn hardest to be Jocelyn's daughter. I owe her so much; she gave up her life to me. I remember myself almost ten years old staring at my mother's handwriting for the first time, at how lost I must have looked. It took minutes, maybe hours, for me to get the courage to open that first page. Curiosity for this woman I didn't know, for everything in the inscription, and for the way when she read he trusts you made me automatically think of my father. I knew every back then that he trusted me more than everyone, but I used to trust him too. Now I don't and I never will again. He ruined that, he crushed it as he crushed my brother's neck and killed him.