Forgotten places
4
The sworn enemies
Magnus studied the person sitting at his breakfast table, sipping coffee like a sponge. "Didn't get enough sleep?" he asked, slightly worried, when he saw the dark circles under the warlock's eyes. "No, I didn't," Henrik sighted, and sat the coffee down at the table in front of him. "Yesterday a fellow warlock called me from Oslo, and said that someone had ruined my apartment looking for me. They are working faster than I thought they would," he said bluntly.
"Did they take anything from your apartment that's important; like a spell book or maybe some potions?" Magnus asked, scared, because he knew that Henrik owned quite some strong spell books.
"Do you really believe that I would keep stuff like that in my apartment? I may be dumb sometimes, Magnus, but I'm not stupid you know." Henrik stated, and continued to drink his coffee. Magnus sat down at the other side of the table, and looked out of the window, where the sun was already shining brightly. This was about to become a very uncomfortable conversation, and he embraced himself for how Henrik would react. "How has it been since Nora died?" he asked, and tried to keep his voice as steady as he could. Henrik's expression changed from shocked to sad in a matter of seconds, and he changed his position in the chair. "What do you mean? Are you really asking me how I'm coping with my wife's death?" Henrik asked with a serious voice. Magnus nodded, his head bent. He couldn't bring himself to even look into the young looking warlock's eyes. "Well, how good would you've been doing if Alec had died, or if he was murdered?" Henrik continued. "Remember that Nora and I… we were together for almost six hundred years, and when you loose someone that you care about that much; you'll never be the same again afterwards."
Silence erupted in the room, and Magnus became worried when he saw that Henrik just stared at his own hand, where his wedding ring was. "You miss her, don't you?" Magnus said more than he asked. Henrik looked at him with eyes that were full of sadness and shame, like he blamed himself for the terrible loss of his wife and the fact that she was now dead. "Of course I miss her. There's not a single moment that goes by without me thinking about her."
Henrik walked over to the sink with his cup and sat it down. "You know that the person who killed her was a shadowhunter, don't you?" he asked and looked at Magnus. His friend stood up from the chair he was seated in and walked over to him. "I know that, Henrik, and that's why the next question I have to ask you is going to be rather difficult." Henrik looked up at Magnus, and asked; "What is it?" Magnus smiled nervously. "Maryse Lightwood, Alec's mother, would like to speak with you, and it's not because you are being targeted, but because she have been told some rumors about an uproar in the Norwegian Downworld."
Henrik sighted and made his way past Magnus. "I'll go talk to her, but I won't say anything about the uproar, because she'll tell the Clave and they will most certainly kill all of the participating downworlders." He looked at him with glowing, emerald green eyes. "And I cannot allow them to do that."
One hour later in the New York Institute
"Welcome, young warlock, Magnus," Maryse Lightwood greeted as Henrik and Magnus entered the room where everybody else was already waiting for them. "I believe it's not young warlock, but old warlock or Mr. Olafsson to you Mrs. Lightwood," Henrik grinned. "I've heard stories about you and your family." Maryse looked at him with an unpleasant look. "Only good ones I presume," she said, her voice as cold as the winter snow. "Of course," Henrik applied, and stopped in front of the shadowhunters.
Jace, Clary, Isabelle, Simon and Robert studied Henrik, their eyes doubtful. How could a warlock, that looked like he was fourteen years old, be a high warlock? The only one who didn't doubt him was Alec, who stood by Magnus, their fingers entwined. Henrik noticed that the others were looking at him. "You look like you don't believe I have a great amount of power," he said. "But just for your information; I'm even older than Magnus by more than two hundred years, so you shouldn't underestimate me if you don't underestimate him, shadowhunters." Henrik looked at Maryse who was standing near Robert. "I believe you wanted to talk to me, but judging by everyone's expressions I think that I'm allowed to say that you already know about the resent slaughtering of powerful downworlders? Am I right?" Maryse nodded, but didn't look pleased. "War- Henrik. What I wanted to discuss with you was not the slaughtering of your people, but the uproar that has begun to rise in Downworld," she said bluntly. "I really don't care about some downworlder who's slaughtering other downworlders, but what I do care about is the uproar and the fact that I might have to tell the Clave about this."
"You're afraid that the uproar will threaten the Clave," Henrik said, like he could read her like an open book, and he could, because she wasn't a person hard to read. "It's very you, Mrs. Lightwood, to think about the Clave at a moment like this. Now I know why they call you the Ice Queen in my country. Even the shadowhunters do."
"As I already told you; I do not care about your people, or who gets killed," Maryse growled. "I just want the uproar to stop, and can I conclude with the fact that you'll be the one to end it?"
Henrik made a disgusted sound, and eyed Maryse with an evil grin. "I see that the Lightwood's haven't actually changed through the ages. You're still the sickening beings that you've always been," he hissed at her. "You might not care for downworlders that much, but we're being killed, and considering that your son is actually in a relationship with one, I think you ought to listen to what I have to say." Maryse grinned back at him, before she answered. "So you're still mad at the Clave for ordering the death of your vampire wife?" she said. "Oh, what was that poor girl's name again? I believe it was something like Nora? Nora Olafsson. "She was interrupted by Henrik who had started to make green sparks appear around his fingertips. "Shut up! Shut up, you old hag! You have no right to talk about her like that!" Maryse didn't care about what he said. "I can't believe that you are a high warlock when you can't even protect the people you love or the downworlders of your own country!" Magnus stepped in between the two of them to try to calm down the situation. "Stop it, both of you!" he ordered, and the sparks around Henrik's fingers disappeared. "We have enough problems already! We don't need you two fighting over this too!" Henrik started to rush towards the door that led out of the room, but Magnus grabbed a hold of his hand and stopped him. "Let go, Magnus!" Henrik almost begged him. "You see; this is why I can't stand them! They care for no one else but themselves, well except for the vampire boy over there, but they'll never help us! I'm sorry." And by that Magnus let him go, and watched as Henrik disappeared into thin air.
Jace was the first one to speak after Henrik's disappearance. "Why did the Clave order for the death of his wife?" he asked Magnus, who was still staring at the empty place where Henrik had left. Magnus sighted and looked at his friends. "Nora got killed by the Clave because she had murdered a mundane couple to get a hold of their blood," he said. "But in reality it wasn't Nora who killed them, but by the time they found out it was already too late, and to maintain the Clave's reputation; they never told the truth." Alec looked at his boyfriend's sad face. "How terrible," he concluded, and Magnus smiled at him. "After that Henrik refused to listen to anything that the Clave had to say and because of that he really can't stand you guys." Clary looked at everybody, before she said in a hurt voice. "Who can blame him?"
Somewhere in the dark streets of New York
Henrik had no idea where he was, but he knew that he was still in New York, judging by the buildings. He was just so angry at everyone and everything in his life, that he couldn't think straight. The streets were unfamiliar to him, and he had no idea where he was going. He only knew that he had to get away from those people, or basically from everyone. His head needed time to recover after his heated discussion with that Lightwood woman. What a bitch, he though. "I'll never go back to that place," he said to himself as he made his way past a group of Chinese tourists.
When he thought about it, he had never actually been in New York before, and compared to the small town in Norway that he was from, they were very different from each other. He wasn't originally from Oslo, but that was where he had ended up, eventually, after many years of traveling.
He had heard about some cities that never slept, and New York had to be one of them, considering that even though it was quite late at night, the streets seemed to be filled with people from different origins.
Henrik wondered to himself where he should spend the night, because he didn't know any hotels in the area, and going back to Magnus' apartment seemed out of the question, so where should he go? He turned right into a dark alley, which would probably lead him somewhere, but his mind didn't think about where he was going, but rather what he was going to do next. Maybe he should have gone back to Norway, where he at least felt safe, but on the other hand he couldn't leave Magnus alone, or Alec.
A sound of footsteps sounded behind Henrik and he turned to see who it was, but before he could he was knocked unconscious by something that hit him in the back of his head. The warlock above him looked at his companion, before he looked down at Henrik's limp body on the ground. "Bel, I think we got the right one; small kid, white hair, pale skin, green eyes. This must be the one that the boss is after." The vampire nodded at the warlock, and grinned."Finally."
ObviouslyAnnoyed: Takk for tilbakemeldingen din! Det er alltid koselig å høre fra andre norske som også skriver her!
I don't know when the fifth chapter will be up, because we have a lot of things to do at school right now, but as soon as it's done I'll publish it!
- Lisa
