Yo! Whats up mis amigos? this is a mini-fic (yes I realize it's a Mary Sue, but u don't have to read it...)
At Magnus's flat...
Magnus: OKAY! EVERYBODY HIDE!
(Everybody hides, lights go out)
(I walk in)
Me: Worst. Birthday. Present. Ever...
(Lights go on)
Everyone: SURPRISE!
Me: OoO...
Alec: We know your mom's birthday present was...
Magnus: a lecture about your grades...
Clary: SO...
Simon: We decided to throw you a little surprise birthday party!
Me: AWW (gives big group hug to everyone) Thanks guys, you're the best!
Isabelle: Unfortunately, we couldn't give you the rights to us...
Me: That's okay! ^^ The party's enough!
Alec: WHO WANTS CAKE?
Jace: ME!
That's right today's my b-day, and while I'm STILL working on getting the book into my possession, I thought I'd spread the love and give you this next super long chapter!
So what are you still reading this for? ONWARDS!
Business...
"Nice place," said Jace, surveying the room. I knew him well enough to know that he was marking all possible weapons and escape routes. I would have been doing the same, but I was a little…preoccupied. "Guess it pays well, being the High Warlock of Brooklyn?"
"It pays," Magnus said. "Not much of a benefit package, though. No dental." I could feel him shut the door behind him and lean against it. I looked up, just to in time to see him cross his arms, causing his T-shirt to ride up, and show a strip of flat golden stomach unmarked by a naval. I quickly looked away. If I didn't, I would end up staring. "So," he said, I could tell by his voice that he was smirking. Well what do you know, living with a total asshole has advantages. "What's on your devious little minds?"
"It's not them, actually," Clary said. Good. She's figured out that letting Jace talk to someone we need information from was a bad thing. "I'm the one who wanted to talk to you."
Magnus turned his eyes towards her. "You are not one of them," he said. The way he said…like it was a known fact…made me a little suspicious, though not enough for me to consider him untrustworthy. "Not of the Clave. But you can see the Invisible World." Was it just me, or did I hear a note of affection in his voice? Wait a minute…was I feeling…jealous?
"My mother was one of the Clave," Clary said. "But she never told me. She kept it a secret. I don't know why."
"So ask her." Perfect logic.
"I can't. She's…" Clary hesitated. "She's gone."
"And your father?"
"He died before I was born."
Magnus exhaled irritably. "As Oscar Wilde once said, 'To lose one parent may be regarded as misfortune. To lose both looks like carelessness.'" Whose Oscar Wilde? Whoever he is, he certainly is smart.
Jace made a hissing sound. Uh-oh. "I didn't lose my mother. She was taken from me. By Valentine." Clary looked a little indignant.
"I don't know any Valentine," said Magnus. I looked up. He wasn't looking at me, thankfully. He couldn't tell I was looking him in the eyes. Even if I didn't know for a fact that he knew him, his eyes had given him away. For someone whose half-demon, he was a terrible liar. "I'm sorry for your tragic circumstances, but I fail to see what any of this has to do with me. If you could tell me-"
"She can't tell you, because she doesn't remember," Jace said sharply. "Someone erased her memories. So we went to the Silent City to see what the Brothers could pull out of her head. They got two words. I think you can guess what they were." I shot Jace a warning glance.
A short silence then, Magnus let his mouth turn up at a corner, his smile was bitter. "My signature," he mumbled. "I knew it was folly when I did it. An act of hubris…"
"You signed my mind?" Clary said in disbelief.
Magnus raised his hand and traced a fiery outline of letters in the air, when it dropped back down to his side, the words Magnus Bane hung there. I was captivated by it. Heaven knows why.
"I was proud of my work on you," he said slowly, looking at Clary. Though I got the feeling he was partially talking to himself. "So clean. So perfect. What you saw you would forget, even as you saw it. No image of pixie or goblin, or long-legged beastie would remain to trouble your blameless mortal sleep. It was the way she wanted it."
Clary's voice had a thin layer of tension. "The way who wanted it?" Who do you think? The Inquisitor? Honestly Clary, let's be realistic…
Magnus sighed, causing my heart to sigh and the fire letters to sift away.
"Your mother." He said.
"My mother did this to me?" Clary demanded, but she didn't sound surprised. It was impossible not to feel sorry for her. "Why?"
"I don't know." He spread his hands. "It's not my job to ask questions. I do what I get paid to do."
"Within the bounds of the Covenant," Jace reminded him, softly, deadly.
Magnus inclined his head. "Within the bounds of the Covenant, of course." He sounded a little annoyed…
"So the Covenant's all right with this-this mind-rape?" Clary asked bitterly. It's not mind-rape Clary, it's a memory wipe. But I said nothing and she sank down on the bed when no one answered. "Was it only once? Was there something specific she wanted me to forget? Do you know what it was?"
Magnus paced restlessly to the window. "I don't think you understand. The first time I ever saw you, you must have been about two years old. I was watching out this window"-he tapped the glass-"and I saw her hurrying up the street, holding something wrapped in a blanket, I was surprised when she stopped at my door. She looked so ordinary, so young." He seemed as if his memories were transporting him back to that time. It made me wonder…what else did he remember? He's lived a long time… "She unwrapped the blanket when she came in my door. You were inside it. She set you down on the floor and you started ranging around, picking things up, pulling my cat's tail-you screamed like a banshee when the cat scratched you, so I asked your mother if you were part banshee. She didn't laugh." I smiled a little. He paused, everyone was watching him intently. "She told me she was a Shadowhunter. There was no point in her lying about it; Covenant Marks show up, even when they're faded with time, like faint silver scars against the skin. They flickered when she moved." He rubbed at his eyes. "She told me she'd hoped you'd been born with a blind Inner Eye-some Shadowhunters have to be taught to see the Shadow World. But she'd caught you that afternoon, teasing a pixie trapped in a hedge. She knew you could see. So she asked me if it was possible to blind you of the Sight." Oh. My. God…Clary made a little noise but Magnus ignored her.
"I told her that crippling that part of your mind might leave you damaged, possibly insane. She didn't cry. She wasn't the sort of woman who weeps easily, your mother. She asked me if there was another way, and I told her you could be made to forget those parts of the Shadow World that you could see, even as you saw them. The only caveat was that she'd have to come to me every two years as the results of the spell began to fade."
"And did she?" Clary asked. Again, Clary, use that little brain of yours. C'mon, you can do it…
Magnus nodded. "I've seen you every two years since that first time- I've watched you grow up. You're the only child I have ever watched grow up that way, you know. In my business one isn't generally that welcome around human children." Okay, so that's where the affection came from, but I still had that terrible twist in my stomach…
"So you recognized Clary when we walked in," Jace said, "You must have." Thank you, Jace. We all knew that. You may put your hand down now.
"Of course I did." Magnus sounded exasperated, "And it was a shock, too. But what would you have done? She didn't know me. Just the fact that she was her meant the spell had started to fade- and in fact, we were due for another visit about a month ago. I even came by your house when I got back from Tanzania, but Jocelyn said that you two had had a fight and you'd run off. She said she'd call on me when you came back, but"-an elegant shrug-"she never did."
"You were there that day," Clary said. Huh? What was she going on about? "I saw you coming out of Dorthea's apartment. I remember your eyes." Magnus looked as if he might purr. Shivers started to race up my spine. I tried to suppress them as best I could, but it didn't work. Luckily though, no one seemed to notice.
"I'm memorable, it's true," Magnus gloated. Then he shook his head, his face going serious. "You shouldn't remember me," he said. "I threw up a glamour as hard as a wall as soon as I saw you. You should have run right into it face-first—psychically speaking."
Clary said, "If you take the spell off me, will I be able to remember all the things I've forgotten? All the memories you stole?"
"I can't take it off you…" Magnus mumbled…looking uncomfortable.
"What?" Jace sounded furious. Great, this should be fun…"Why not? The Clave requires you-"
Magnus looked at him coldly. "I don't like being told what to do, little Shadowhunter." It looked like the 'little' comment really bugged Jace, so I spoke before he could say something stupid…or start a fight.
"Don't you know how to reverse it?" I interrupted quietly. They both stared at me, making me flush. "The spell, I mean." I added at Magnus's slightly confused expression. Magnus sighed, calming down, unlike Jace who still looked ready to attack.
"Undoing a spell is a great deal more difficult than creating it in the first place. The intricacy of this one, the care I put into weaving it—if I made the smallest mistake in unraveling it, her mind could be damaged forever. Besides," He added with a tilt of his head, and a small shrug "it's already begun to fade. The effects will vanish over time on their own."
Clary looked at him sharply. "Will I get all my memories back then? Whatever was taken out of my head?"
"I don't know." At least he can admit it…"They might come back all at once, or in stages, or you might never remember what you've forgotten over the years. What your mother asked me to do was unique, in my experience. I've no idea what will happen."
"But I don't want to wait." She looked frustrated. "All my life I've felt like there was something wrong with me. Something missing or damaged. Now I know-" News flash Clary: There. Is. Nothing. Wrong. With. You. If anything, there's something wrong with me. I'm the guy that's got a problem. I'm the guy whose not attracted to girls, like he's supposed to be. I'm the guy whose never dated anyone. Whether it be guy or girl, and I'm eighteen years old! God damn it!
"I didn't damage you." Magnus curled his lips back, showing his sharp white teeth. Good, I'm not the only one who thinks she's being unreasonable and whiny. "Every teenager in the world feels like that, broken or out of place, different somehow, royalty mistakenly born into a family of peasants. The difference in your case is that it's true. You are different. Maybe not better—but different. And it's no picnic being different." Truer words have never been spoken. "You want to know what it's like when your parents are good churchgoing folk an you happen to be born with the devil's mark?" He pointed to his eyes, fingers splayed. Wait, what? "When your father flinches at the sight of you and your mother hangs herself in the barn, driven mad by what she's done?" HUH! "When I was ten, my father tried to drown me in the creek. I lashed out at him with everything I had-burned him where he stood." I couldn't imagine it. Couldn't imagine the immense guilt he felt… "I went to the fathers of the church eventually, for sanctuary. They hid me. They say that pity's a bitter thing, but it's better than hate. When I found out what I was really, only half a human being, I hated myself. Anything's better than that." Your right…but how can anyone hate YOU?
There was silence. "It wasn't your fault." I said, gradually raising my eyes to his. "You can't help how you're born." Magnus's expression was closed, but something told me that he was trying not to cry.
"I'm over it," he said, turning to Clary. Now our roles were switched. He was avoiding my gaze. "I think you get my point. Different isn't better, Clarissa. Your mother was trying to protect you. Don't throw it back in her face."
"I don't care if I'm different," she said, her hands relaxed. Of course you don't, just like I don't care that I'm…you know…"I just want to be who I really am."
Magnus swore in the language of the ancients, a language like fire. Warm and dangerous. "All right. Listen. I can't undo what I've done, but I can give you something else. A piece of what would have been yours if you'd been raised a true child of the Nephilim." He stalked across the room to the bookcase and dragged out a dusty book that looked suspiciously like-
Jace raised his eyebrows. "Is that a copy of the Grey Book?"
Magnus ignored him, flipping through the pages, sending dust everywhere.
"Hodge has one," I said absently. "He showed it to me once."
"It's not gray, it's green." Naïve and ignorant Clary…
"If there was such a thing as terminal literalism, you'd have died early in childhood." Jace, being the neat-freak that he is, brushed off the windowsill. "Gray is short for 'Graymarye'. It means 'magic, hidden wisdom'. In it is copied every rune the Angel Raziel wrote in the original Book of the Covenant. There aren't many copies because each one has to be specially made. Some of the runes are so powerful they'd burn through regular pages."
Wow. "I didn't even know all that." I said.
Jace hopped up on the windowsill and swung his legs, like he was a little kid. "Not all of us sleep through history lessons."
Jeez. I'd forgotten how much of a jerk Jace could be. Try to compliment the guy, and you end up with insults being thrown in your face. The only thing I could think of was obvious, cliché and immature. "I do not—"
"Oh, yes you do, and you drool on the desk besides." Jace interrupted. I felt my face going red. Oh great…
"Shut up." Magnus said mildly. He hooked his finger between two pages of the book and came over to Clary, setting it carefully in her lap. "Now, when I open the book, I want you to study the page. Look at it until you feel something change inside your mind."
"Will it hurt?" Clary asked nervously. If you want it badly enough you won't care, Clary…
"All knowledge hurts," he replied, and stood up, letting the book fall open on her lap. Clary stared down at the rune for remember and she turned to the next page, then the next, then the next, and finally Magnus snatched the book off her lap.
"That's enough," He slide it back onto the shelf and brushed his hands on his pants. "If you read all the runes at once, you'll give yourself a headache."
"But—"
"Most Shadowhunter children grow up learning one rune at a time over a period of years," said Jace, the ever annoying know-it-all. "The Grey Book contains runes even I don't know."
"Imagine that," Magnus mumbled what I was thinking.
Jace ignored him, thank the Angel. If he didn't, things could get ugly. "Magnus showed you the rune for understanding and remembrance. It opens your mind up to reading and recognizing the rest of the Marks."
"It also may serve as a trigger to activate dormant memories," Magnus said. "They could return to you more quickly than they would otherwise. It's the best I can do."
Clary looked like she was trying not to cry. Are you sure she's a Nephilim? She's pretty weak… "I still don't remember anything about the Mortal Cup."
"Is THAT what this is about?" Magnus sounded astonished. "You're after the Angel's Cup? Look, I've been through your memories. There was nothing in them about the Mortal Instruments."
"Mortal Instruments?" Clary echoed. "I thought—"
"The Angel gave three items to the first Shadowhunters. A cup, a sword, and a mirror. The Silent Brothers have the sword; the cup and the mirror were in Idris, at least until Valentine came along." Finally, Jace said something that wasn't exactly right!
"Nobody knows where the mirror is," I corrected. "Nobody's known for ages."
"It's the Cup that concerns us," said Jace, completely ignoring me. "Valentine's looking for it."
"And you want to get it before he does?" Magnus asked, his eyebrows winging upward in surprise.
"I thought you said you didn't know who Valentine was?" Good, Clary's actually paying attention…
"I lied," Magnus admitted candidly. "I'm not one of the fey, you know. I'm not required to be truthful. And only a fool would get between Valentine and his revenge." I won't dare tell anyone this…but there's some truth to that…
"Is that what you think he's after? Revenge?" said Jace, managing to look like he didn't give a damn what he thought.
Or maybe he didn't…
"I would guess so. He suffered a great defeat, and he hardly seemed-seems—the type of man to suffer defeat gracefully." Hmm…
I looked harder at Magnus. "Were you at the Uprising?"
Magnus's eyes locked with mine. I felt myself go tingly all over. "I was. I killed a number of your folk." He spoke coldly. I couldn't look away…
"Circle members," Jace said quickly, but he sounded like he was a mile away… "Not ours—"
"If you insist on disavowing that which is ugly about what you do," Magnus interrupted, still looking at me, still talking coldly… "you will never learn from your mistakes."
OH MY GOD HE KNOWS! I finally managed to tear my eyes away and plucked at the coverlet with one hand and flushed red. "You don't seem surprised to hear that Valentine's still alive," I was avoiding his gaze, desperately trying to change the subject.
Magnus spread his hands wide. "Are you?"
Jace opened his mouth and closed it, looking baffled, for once. Finally he said, "So you won't help up find the Mortal Cup?"
"I wouldn't if I could," said Magnus, "which, by the way, I can't. I've no idea where it is, and I don't care to know. Only a fool, as I said."
I sat up straighter. "But without the Cup, we can't—"
"Make more of you. I know," said Magnus. Wait…he was on Valentine's side? I thought Valentine was sworn to destroy his kind… "Perhaps not everyone regards that as quite the disaster that you do. Mind you," he added, seeing Jace's expression "if I had to choose between the Clave and Valentine, I would choose the Clave. At least they're not actually sworn to wipe out my kind." Ahh…that makes more sense…
"But nothing the Clave has done has earned my unswerving loyalty either." Well…I can see that… "So no, I'll sit this one out. Now if we're done here, I'd like to get back to my party before any of the guests eat each other."
Jace was clenching and unclenching his hands, looking like he was about to say something that could set Magnus off. So before he could, I stood up and put a hand on his shoulder and squeezed hard. It was the only way I could think of to calm him down, but it wasn't working that well…
"Is that likely?" I asked. I was grasping straws, trying to take Jace's attention off of Magnus.
Magnus was looking at me, his eyes flashed with...was that jealousy?...only to be replaced quickly with amusement..."It's happened before."
"I'm fine." Jace muttered, and even though I knew he wasn't, I let go.
He walked over to Clary and had a low conversation with her.
Magnus was now standing back by the door, looking at me, grinning. I looked down and blushed again…GAH!
After a moment, he snapped his fingers impatiently. "Move it along, teenagers. The only person who gets to canoodle in my bedroom is my magnificent self."
"Canoodle?" Repeated Clary, confused.
"Magnificent?" repeated Jace, just to be nasty. Magnus growled, "Get out before I get mad." but I was the only one close enough to hear.
We left the bedroom. I was the last one out. "But I don't mind a little company every now and then…" Magnus whispered lightly into my ear as I passed. I gulped softly and blushed deeper. Magnus snickered and started trailing behind us after he paused to lock the bedroom door...
Magnus: Okay, Jace. Where'd you put the presents?
Jace: What presents?
Isabelle: The presents...
Jace:...
Alec: That we left at the Institute...
Jace:...
Simon: with you...
Jace:...
Clary: That we told you to bring, and we'd take care of everything else...
Jace:oh yeah...I...sort-of...forgot...
Magnus: YOU FORGOT THE PRESENTS?
Alec: Great...what now?
Magnus: *sigh* I've got it,
PEOPLE READING THIS: Please review. She thinks reviews are better then anything in the whole world!
Me: What's going on?
Everyone: Nothing...
Alec: *whispers* HURRY!