Okay, so here is the next chapter! Sadly enough though, there hasn't been any new teasers posted by Cassie Clare, so this chapter will lack one. And maybe for the next couple of chapters too. Eh.

But on with the show! I don't own the Mortal Instruments.

Juvenescent

"You generation are charming," Magnus commented softly, a wry smile curling up the corners of his lips. Clary turned from the group of arguing Lightwoods and Herondale to the Warlock by her side, who seemed to have lost himself in distant thought. She propped a hand under her chin, and looked at him.

"Why the sudden compliment?"

His cat-like eyes flicked to her side, and Clary immediately saw the age and mellow gathered up from the past few hundred years of his life in the single gaze. The smile was still there, but it lacked the amusement and humor it should've held. "You're all so young," he said, reminding Clary of Luke's late father, whom, for the moments Clary could remember, was practically her grandfather. "You haven't seen as much as you think you have. You haven't had as many regrets."

"Have you?" she asked.

Magnus nodded once. "More than I can count."

"What did you do when the people who were important to you left?"

"What could I do? I still had to live." Magnus sighed, and his figure suddenly crumpled slightly like water soaking into paper. "Once you've lived long enough, Clary, you'll realize that it's possible to grow strong enough to the point that living without anything would be fine. It took years of experience, but I had to learn that, or else my life would be truly wasted," he paused, and glanced at the younger girl, "even if it is unlimited."

"Magnus," Clary said, for a moment unsure of what to do at his crestfallen expression. "You don't always have to be strong; it will just wear you out."

The Warlock slowly raised a hand to her head, and rested it into her curls of red hair. He was smiling sadly again. "Things like that can be solved when being strong is the only choice you have."

-sob- I'm sorry! I wasn't able to post a heart-racing teaser to this chapter AND I wrote it without laughs. I feel bad. I promise: Next chapter will be an absolutely joyful one! Unless you guys like hurt/comfort drabbles, of course. I can write a couple more in the future.

BUT, just as an author's thought, I've always loved Magnus and Clary having some sort of father-daughter relationship, because he practically saw her grow up. What do you guys think of those two? What do you see them as?