Disclaimer: I own nothing - it's all Cassandra Clare's, except for the plot.
A/N.: So, actually I'm not home this weekend either, but look, I'm using the 15 minutes of internet access that I have solely to update this story...sometimes my dedication to this worries me ^^. Enjoy!
P.S. Ouch. This is why I shouldn't do things when in a hurry - I uploaded the unedited version by mistake. Sorry for that - it should be fixed now.
#322 Wandering hidden paths
.
"I don't think I understand."
Magnus's grin widened. "When I say 'get in the closet', I mean it literally, not figuratively. After all, we both know there's no need for you to go into the metaphorical one because you're already in there, safely hiding behind tightly locked doors. Now-"
"Stop that!" Alec cut in, trembling with rage. "Stop saying that! You know nothing about me!" Realising he had raised his voice to a volume near to shouting, he bit his lip and took a deep breath, trying to calm himself. He didn't make much progress with that, but he found that clenching and unclenching his fist helped to fight the urge to punch something – or rather, someone. "I'm in no closet at all," he insisted. "I don't know why you keep saying that."
"Of course you aren't, darling," Magnus said, his voice oozing with sarcasm. "I'd pull the 'denial ain't just a river in Egypt' joke, except that one is ancient and stopped being funny about five minutes after being used for the first time. You don't wanna talk about it?" Magnus shrugged. "Fine then. Whatever you say, love."
"Stop calling me that." Alec grimaced. "I'm not your darling, I'm not your love, I'm not your anything."
The warlock pouted, but didn't raise any objections, possibly because Alec looked ready to throttle him. "No pet names either, I get it. I'll try to refrain myself, I promise. Let's get back to the original topic before I can put my foot in it once more. The closet."
Alec tensed, but luckily Magnus didn't seem to plan to tease him any more. "What's with it?" he asked.
The grin returned to Magnus's face, making him look extremely pleased with himself, like a cat that had gotten all the cream. "The books," he announced magnanimously, "are in there."
Alec blinked. "...right," he said slowly. "Look, I don't want to disappoint you, but the only things you will find in that closet are my clothes. I think I would have noticed if there were any books in there."
"Maybe you need to look again," Magnus replied, sounding smug. "Or you should get a pair of glasses. Ever been to an optician?"
"I'm not fucking blind."
"Oh, that's what you mundanes all think," Magnus muttered under his breath. "You all think you are so clever, but there is so much you just can't see. You go through the world and you just refuse to see its beauty, its diversity. You only notice what you want to see. So yes, you are blind, all of you. Worse than moles, if you ask me. In this particular case, I can't blame you, though. In fact, I'd actually be worried if you were able to see them. " Upon seeing Alec's incredulous look, he chuckled. "You didn't think I'd leave my precious and invaluable spellbooks lying around for everyone to see, did you?"
Alec contemplated that for a second. "Well...probably not," he admitted.
"I rest my case," Magnus smiled. "Now can you just stop being difficult and do as I say?"
"Please."
"What?"
"Can you do as I say, please," Alec emphasized.
"Dear Lord," Magnus rolled his eyes and buried his face in his right hand. "Of all the people in the world who could have come to live in this room I get the one with the older brother syndrome. Are you really going to try and give me lessons on courtesy and politeness?"
"Well, apparently it's something your parents failed to teach you," Alec commented dryly. "But don't worry, it's never too late to start learning, even if you have to make up for several hundreds of years worth of decent education."
Magnus's expression darkened considerably at his words. "Thank you, but I don't think I need you to teach me any manners. My manners are impeccable if I want them to be," he replied coolly. "Although my parents did indeed fail to give me an understanding of them."
There was an edge to his voice that made Alec prick his ears, but he deemed it better not to call him out on it. It seemed that he had already put the warlock on an edge, and it would be no good pissing him off completely. As much as he disliked it, they had to work together. If he wanted Magnus out of his mirror, he'd better do as he said.
He inhaled deeply and then got up and walked towards the closet. "Okay. So what do I have to do exactly? Get in the closet – and then what?"
There was a small pause, and then the tension vanished from Magnus's face. "On the left side, just below the top shelf – can you see something there?"
Alec poked his head in, narrowing his eyes as he scrutinized the wood. Even with the light turned on, it was hard to make out any details. Slowly, he raised his hand and let his fingers slide over the surface until he felt it: a slight asperity, hardly noticeable. Frowning, he followed the contours with his fingers. "Yeah," he said, "there's something carved into the wood here. Some sort of sign. A rune, maybe? I don't know, I've never seen anything like it before."
"Of course you haven't. This sign is ancient – a rune from a demonic language. Its purpose is to block people out, to lock doors," Magnus explained. "I put an additional spell on it, too, to strengthen its effect. No one can get past it except for me-"
"The how do I get in?"
"Let me finish, please. No one can get past it except for me and people who I specifically allow in. Since I've practically ordered you to go in, it should open automatically if you put your hand over the rune. And if it doesn't," Alec looked back to see Magnus shrugging, "you can always try the password."
"The password? What, like 'open sesame'?" Alec joked.
"I'm a bit more original that that."
"I bet you are," Alec mumbled, covering the rune with his hand.
Nothing happened.
"Well," he remarked, "I hope you haven't forgotten the password, because this doesn't seem to be working."
Magnus let out a quiet curse. "I should have known. My magic doesn't work the way it used to while I'm in here." He sighed. "The password is quaerere verum."
"'Quaerere verum' – seek the truth?" Alec echoed. "I suppose that's kind of fitting – and a lot classier than I expected it to be," he added quietly in a voice so low that he was sure Magnus couldn't hear it. He didn't feel up to another argument with the warlock.
"I didn't know you knew Latin." Magnus sounded surprised.
"I didn't know you did," Alec shot back. "I- whoa!" All of a sudden, the wood under his hand had begun to emit a radiant warmth, and when he pulled back his hand abruptly, he saw that the rune had started to glow red.
"Is it working?"
Alec swallowed. "I think so," was all he managed to get out as he stared in wonder at the events happening right in front of him. The light coming from the rune spread, creating a thick web of glowing lines all over the wooden surface, drawing mysterious patterns, and the air started to buzz around him. And then, just as promptly as it had begun, it stopped. The light was gone and so was the sound, and for a second, Alec thought that something had gone wrong. The next thing he knew was that he could hear the soft, creaking noise of a door opening, and there was a faint streak of light breaking through at the edges of the closet walls. When he gently pushed against the wood, the board yielded and swung open to reveal a room so stunning that Alec felt his mouth drop open once again.
The room was spacious, with high walls that were mostly covered by lines and lines of bookshelves which were interrupted ever so often by large windows reaching from the floor to the ceiling, allowing the sunlight to flood the entire library and illuminate every minuscule corner. In the middle, there was a large, round table next to some oddly ornamented but comfy-looking armchairs in all sorts of bright colours. Unlike Alec's room, which had been covered in dust an cobwebs after hardly ever being used in the past decade, everything about the library looked as if the owner had just been away for not longer than five minutes with open books lying on the table, next to an open bottle and a half-empty glass of red wine, and a coat carelessly flung over the backrest of one of the chairs. It wasn't exactly what Alec would call clean, but that was only due to the eminent chaos and disorder predominating in the room, not because it had been abandoned for fifteen years.
"I've been pulled into a fucked up version of Alice in Wonderland," he murmured, shaking his head in incredulity.
Two thoughts crossed his mind.
One: This room was quite possibly the most beautiful place he had ever seen.
Two: There was no way in hell he could search all these books for possible counter spells. If he did, they'd still be sifting through everything by the time he had finished college (and quite frankly, he didn't really intent to stay with his parents for that long. Moving out was quite the appealing prospect at this point of his life.).
"Alec?" Magnus's voice interrupted his thoughts, sounding mulled and distant, a thousand miles away. He really hoped he wasn't shouting; what if Izzy and Jace could hear him? "Did you get in?"
Quickly, Alec moved back out of the library and into his room. "Yeah," he said, once he'd scrambled out of the closet and moved into Magnus's field of vision again. "It's...impressive."
"Why thank you," Magnus grinned. "I would have been slightly worried if it hadn't had any effect on you, I must say. It took me centuries to collect all these books."
"Yeah, well, I just hope you remember how you organised them all. Did you alphabetise them by titles or authors, or arrange them according to topics?"
Magnus blinked at him as if he'd just started speaking Chinese.
Then again, he might understand it if Alec started talking in Chinese, for all he knew.
"What?" Alec asked.
"They're not organised," Magnus said slowly.
"You're kidding me, right?" said Alec. "Please tell me you're kidding me."
"Unfortunately, no."
"This is..." Alec was at a loss of words. "This is unbelievable. Really. Where the hell am I even supposed to start looking?"
Magnus shifted, suddenly looking quite uncomfortable. "I have no idea."
Alec threw his hands up in a gesture of utter exasperation, and began to tear at his hair. "I can't believe you and your fucking incompetence. No wonder you're stuck in there. You want to be a powerful warlock? Don't make me laugh! I bet you didn't even find a single spell you were looking for in there."
"Hey!" Magnus growled deeply. "Just because I'm not a neatness freak like you doesn't mean I don't know what I'm doing. I never needed to organise the books, or anything in my house, really, because I could simply snap my fingers and hold the desired item in my hand a second later. And yes, that means I actually do know every single book and its contents in there."
Alec frowned. "If you can simply snap your fingers to conjure up your books and have a general idea which books you are looking for, why don't you just do exactly that now that the library is opened? It would save us all a lot of time, I suppose."
"I fear that is not going to work," the warlock sighed. "You see, the problem was never that the library was closed. Technically, I am able to conjure up things from all over the world as long as I have an at least vague picture of it in my mind. But, as I said before, my magic hasn't been working the way it should ever since I got trapped in this mirror. In fact, I'm not quite sure whether I can use magic in here at all. No, wait. Actually, I know I can use it," he went on, leaning against the frame of the mirror. It was a very odd image, Alec thought. He would have resembled a male model in some fashion advert with his casual posture if it hadn't been for the frustrated look on his face. "I've used magic in here before. See?"
Magnus raised his hand, and rainbow coloured, glittering sparks bounced up and down above his palm like little kids on a trampoline. It reminded Alec of watching fireworks on New Year's Eve.
"The thing is, I don't think my powers extend to any point outside this room that I am in. I've tried to magick things into the mirror, but it didn't work. It's as if the power was hitting a brick wall it cannot overcome and then vanishes into nothingness. I've even tried breaking the walls with raw magical strength, but even that didn't work. Actually, a great deal of it was repelled. Bounced off the walls and nearly hit me. It's not something I'll ever do again."
Alec let himself fall backwards on his bed. "Wonderful," he mumbled. "So I guess it is searching every single one of these hundred of books, then."
"Start with the shelves on the left hand side," Magnus suggested. "The ones on the right should be mostly for potions and therefore useless for our purpose."
"Now that narrows it down," Alec said, rolling his eyes and throwing his arm over his face to cover his eyes. Sometimes he really hated his life. What had he done to deserve this? All he had wanted was some peace and quietness, but no, apparently whatever greater force was out there wasn't having that. Now he had a nosy warlock in a mirror and hours over hours of research ahead of him that probably wouldn't even get them anywhere. There went his hopes of getting rid of Magnus quickly.
Alec had an idea. He plopped himself up on his elbows to look at Magnus, who was still leaning against the frame of the glass and was observing him with his strange, bright eyes. "So, if you really know every book in there," he began slowly, "can you at least make me a list of books I should look for? That would probably be more effective than having me look through every book, randomly looking for something I know basically nothing about."
Magnus nodded. "That's a good idea," he acknowledged. "Also, it would be best if you brought them here for me to see once you've found them. Some of them – no, most of them, actually – are written in languages you won't understand, so you might not even recognise whether the spell described refers to a situation similar to mine or not. If you brought them to me, though, and held them up in front of the mirror, I could see which ones might work or not myself. You'd only have to turn the pages."
"Oh, that's nice. I'm being reduced to a bookrest."
"Stop complaining," Magnus admonished. "I'm minimising your workload here."
Alec shrugged. "You've got a point there. Now," he sat up slowly and searched the room for his shoes. Eventually, he spotted them under his bed. He couldn't remember putting them there, but considering how dead tired he had been yesterday, that didn't come as a surprise. "I suggest that you think up a list of books for me to search while I'm out buying pancakes for Izzy. I don't feel like being decapitated toda-"
He was abruptly interrupted by the sound of the door to his room swinging open and crashing against the wall, making in it shake within its frame. Alec whirled around. Hs sister was standing in the doorway, perfectly dressed with her short, silver-black dress and knee-high boots. On every other person, it would have looked slutty. On Isabelle, it made her look like a combination of Catwoman and Elektra, always ready to kick your sorry ass to the next galaxy if you didn't cooperate. Why she was wearing this on a Saturday morning, he had no idea.
"I heard my name mentioned," she announced majestically.
"Um...yeah," was the intelligent answer Alec managed to produce. He was still too dumbstruck to react in a more appropriate way, like, say, telling her to not bang the doors like that or to knock before entering, which was what he usually would have done.
"There are no pancakes," Izzy stated matter-of-factly.
And thus, the reason for her presence was revealed, Alec thought wryly. "I was just about to go and get some," he said, slipping into his shoes. "Anything else?"
"Yeah," Iz said, looking around the room with a frown. "A question. Who were you talking to earlier? I heard your voice and thought that Jace must be here, but..." she trailed off.
Alec stopped in his movement. "No one," he mumbled hastily, "I was just talking to myself." As inconspicuously as possible, he threw a glance at the mirror to see if Magnus had disappeared.
He hadn't. He was still there, right in the middle of the mirror, and Izzy was standing right in front of him, looking at him while pulling at her dress without seeing him. Alec swallowed. I guess that answers the question as to whether everyone can see him or not, he thought.
Magnus didn't seem to be even the slightest bit fazed by the fact that Izzy took no notice of him. Instead, he look Alec's sister up and down, nodding approvingly before flashing Alec a quick grin. "Not bad," he declared. "Your sister has got some style."
Isabelle didn't even blink. So she couldn't hear him, either.
Why was it that Alec could see him and she didn't? What was the difference between the two of them? Alec shook his head. He shouldn't worry about these questions now, he wouldn't be able to find an answer to them anyway.
Magnus's teasing voice drifted to his ear through the thick mist of questions slowing down his brain. "You should let her dress you up sometime," he said, smirking. "She might be able to teach you a thing or two about fashion."
Alec glared at him. "No way in hell," he hissed under his breath, momentarily forgetting that Isabelle was still in the room.
"What did you say?" she asked, turning around quickly.
"What? Me? Nothing!" Alec spluttered. "I wasn't saying anything."
Iz gave him a weird look. "I think you might be losing your mind," she remarked. "Jace and I always knew this was going to happen one day. One day your brain would break and melt under the pressure of being used too excessively."
Alec snorted. "Yes, thank you very much." Deeming it better to end this conversation right here and now, he got up and grabbed his jacket. "So, was there anything else you wanted?"
"Yeah. Grab some Starbucks coffee on the way, will you?"
"Sure."
"Hey, wait." Isabelle grabbed his arm as he walked past her, holding him back. "Are you sure you're alright?"
Alec looked at her. Her face didn't give much of her emotions away, but he could see the worry in her eyes. With her high heeled boots, she was nearly as tall as him. "I'm fine," he said.
She smiled faintly, sarcastically. "Liar," she said simply.
"Aren't we all?"
Her smile widened a little bit, and she leaned up to give him a quick peck on the cheek. And then, just like that, she whirled around and strutted out of the room. "Don't forget: a frozen cappuccino with soy milk, caramel flavour and no cream," she called. Behind him, Magnus was laughing quietly.
Alec rolled his eyes and followed her out of the room.
A/N.: Reviews, please? I know you're all still reading this story, and I don't know where half of my reviewers have vanished to last time, but please come out of your holes again and motivate me ;)
Dftba,
Dustland-Fairytales
