Runes are Better than Science Daddy, Let me Show You Why
AN: Hi, Seraphina Wayland here! Okay, so this is a story of the crazy rune I created and what it has done in the Shadow world. I was hesitant to tell this story because I don't like to toot my own horn, but I was told it's a part of our history and that I should tell it. So, here goes nothing!
After learning that I have special power with Runes, Dad put me into very extensive Rune training, so for the next two years after discovering my power, I had practiced every Rune in the Gray Book and learned them inside out, as well as learning and documenting many more Angelic Runes of older origin. But I think the thing that no one could possibly have anticipated, was my ability to create new, never before seen Runes out of thin air using only a Stele and my gut instinct.
I started creating Runes for almost everything. However, some of the Runes I created would not work when anyone else attempted to draw them. Some Runes, it seemed, could only be marked by me. I continued randomly, going where the inspiration took me for those two years, until finally, I stumbled onto something life changing, for all of us.
Dad wasn't home much in those days. Mom had made him move his laboratory to an unused building in Alicante because she grew tired of hearing people scream when some of the experiments were painful (and yes, every person Dad experimented on after the uprising, submitted to the experiments willingly.) A lot of the experiments centered around trying to find a cure for Uncle Lucian and other Lycanthropes as well as Vampires.
A vampire named Camille Belcourt underwent a ton of experiments down at Dad's lab because she said that if a cured could be found, she wanted to be the first one to have it. She stated that, she had lived many lifetimes already and found that immortality wasn't all it's cracked up to be. (Plus as a woman, I think she secretly wanted the chance to have children.)
Alec Lightwood-Wayland was another person who Dad experimented on. He wanted to find other ways to enhance the powers of a Shadowhunter without using Angel or Demon's blood. Through the experiments and with the help of Magnus Bane the warlock representative of The One Tenth, Dad discovered that warlock Magic in its purest form could as it was leaving the warlock's body in the form of blue sparks, be captured if done immediately.
One bottled, if a particular spell was cast over it, the blue fire could then be injected into a Shadowhunter and would thus cause that particular spell to flow through the person's blood permanently. Their individual life energy combined with the naturally angelic nature of Shadowhunter blood, would constantly refuel the spell's magic and whatever the effects of the spell would be sort of 'always on'.
It was though that experimentation that Alec became what we now call a Sureshot. Because of the nature of the particular spell that he was infused with, Alec's arrows never miss. And of course, as you can guess, something else wonderful came out of the experiments. Alec and Magnus met because of The Circle science program and they fell in love.
Another person who underwent a ton of time in The Clave science program and who I inquired with Dad about the other day because I met her out and about and she fascinated me, was Sky Madeline Amberjade. I won't tell you much of her story from that time because, well, you can ask her yourself. I will say, however, that I don't think another person exists anywhere besides Sky, who has traits from as many different species as she does and yet displays them so beautifully. To look at her, is to gaze upon one of the most mysterious marvels of the world.
For all intents and purposes, the results of Sky's experiments should not have been possible. In fact my father, being a meticulous person with a head for keeping records, to this day doesn't understand himself how Sky's creation was even possible. He has tried many times to replicate something similar to what he achieved with Sky, and nothing else like it has happened again since.
So, as you see, science can do many great and wonderful things. And as Valentine Morgenstern's daughter, I would be remiss to dispute that fact. However, there has been one thing over the years that science could not fix. No matter how many times Uncle Lucian or Camille Belcourt climbed onto the examining table in my father's lab, he sadly was not able to find a cure for either Vampirism or Lycanthropy.
And believe me, it was not for lack of trying. I used to go to the Lab to visit Dad sometimes, but one time I went and Uncle Lucian was undergoing a particularly painful experiment and he was just screaming over and over again 'make it stop! Make it stop!" I ran out of there and I never went back. That night at dinner, I said "Daddy, why have you been hurting Uncle Lucian? I thought the experiments were supposed to help people, not hurt them?" And I explained what I had heard.
He assured me calmly that Uncle Lucian wanted to be a Shadowhunter again and didn't want to be a werewolf anymore. He said that if they were going to find a cure, the experiments needed to go on, and that women in labor feel a tremendous amount of pain delivering their babies and many times they will yell things similar to what Uncle Lucian had said. But it doesn't mean they stop having babies because it hurts. And at the end, the little bundle in their arms is always worth the pain. Just the same as how getting to be Nephilim again would be worth the pain to Uncle Lucian.
After that I understood it, but it didn't erase the image and sounds of what I had seen from my mind's eye for me. And the next few nights I couldn't sleep. I had fitful nightmares of torture and gruesome experimentation. And every time, just before I woke up, I would see a symbol emblazoned in the sky. It was like a Rune, though not familiar. It was unlike anything I had ever seen or even created before.
Well, one day, Uncle Lucian came over and I was talking to him and just for a single moment, the symbol flashed behind my eyelids. Well, by this point we already knew that there are certain Runes which can be used on Downworlders. And Uncle Lucian had many times volunteered to be my guinea pig as well as father's. So, no one was entirely surprised when I said, "Uncle Lucian, would you come here a moment please? I just want to try something.
So he walked over to me and as I pulled my Stele out, he rolled up his sleeve. But I shook my head and said "No, my instinct is telling me this one needs to be over your heart." So he nodded and removed his shirt and then, I began to draw. What I drew was a beautiful series of intricate lines, even though none of us recognized it at all. When I finished, I took a step back to admire my work. Half the fun of creating new Runes was in being the very first person to admire their beauty and this one was exquisite.
However, it seemed at first, to do nothing. Or at least, that is to say that nothing happened. For a few moments, we all just stood there waiting. No one dared to move or speak and we all just stayed still and quiet. In the room at the time were Jonah and myself, Mom, Dad, and Amatis Lightwood-Wayland who had come over to visit her brother because Uncle Lucian was staying with us at the time.
To this day no one from that room has ever forgotten what happened next. There was a slight glow that appeared to spread throughout Uncle Lucian and as it moved slowly along, he screamed and clawed at his skin as if an irritating pain were burning through him. Amatis immediately began rushing around searching for acid to burn the Rune off, probably thinking it was killing her brother. For a moment even I thought my Rune might be killing Uncle Lucian, for I had absolutely no idea what it was supposed to be doing.
But just as Amatis ran back in with a jar of acid and was about to splash it over the Rune, something else happened. On Uncle Lucian's flesh, right where his old Parabatai Rune had left it's faded scar, an intense glow began. Lucian's eyes flew open with surprise and he began to clutch at the spot. He went down on his knees and at the exact same time, the exact same thing started happening to my father. He began to freak out as well and tore his shirt off then hit his knees as well. And there the two of them sat. Wide eyed and crying. I had never, ever, seen my father cry before and I never have again since. After a few moments, they both removed their hands to reveal the cause of the reaction. Where the old silver scars had been, a black, fresh, Parabatai Mark had been formed anew, which meant that the Parabatai bond was back! And that could only mean one thing.
My father looked Lucian in the eyes and said "See if you can change" we all knew what he meant. He wanted to see if Uncle Lucian was still a werewolf.
"I can't, the process won't even start, I'm trying!" Lucian exclaimed.
"Do you trust me?" I asked Uncle Lucian, suddenly knowing what I needed to do.
"At this point Sera? With my life, yeah." He grinned. So I took his arm and drew another entirely new Rune. As soon as it was finished, several of his other Rune scars turned black on his skin, making themselves new again. And again, he began to weep. This time accompanied by everyone else in the room as well. My Rune had turned Uncle Lucian back into a Shadowhunter. He was no longer a werewolf anymore.
"Seraphina, get a message to Ms. Belcourt. She's going to want to hear about this. I'm going into town to call a meeting of the Joint Council. Everyone will want to hear about this!" Father said and took my head in his hands kissing my forehead joyously. "Bless you child! By Raziel, bless you!" He laughed, still emotional.
And so, by the end of the week, I had successfully transformed four Downworlders back into Shadowhunters and successfully turned four Downworlders back into mundanes though four others did not survive the process. It seemed that former Shadowhunters were a guaranteed save, while former mundanes had a fifty-fifty shot of surviving the process. One of the four mundanes who did survive was Camille Belcourt. And she decided after all the wrongs she'd done in her long life that she wanted to do something to redeem herself and she has since completed her Ascension and joined the ranks of the Nephilim.
The other 'mundanes' who survived were a teenage wolf guy named Bat Velasquez, who was strangely also a D.J. He decided to Ascend and is now a Shadowhunter as well, along with a teenage wolf couple named Maia and Jordan. They all took postings at the New York Institute since they had previously been living in New York. Ever since then the joke has been 'New Yorkers live through it, they're made of tougher stuff.' And sure enough, none of the New Yorkers who have undergone the reverse transformation process since have ever died from it.
At any rate, we have a cure now. Sort of. The Rune doesn't work when it's performed by anyone but me. And since Dad doesn't exactly have any more Angels hanging out in the basement, there isn't really a chance of rebooting the Angel Babies program. Dad does think that if two of the Angel Babies were to procreate, then their children might get Angel Powers as a result. So we're all shipping Jizzy now :-P And some people are even shipping Amitrick. I dodged the Angel coupling bullet by getting married of my own free will. So, we'll see what happens with the others!
