Magnus Bane

October 24, 1882

Magnus Bane did not a have a permanent address. The appearance of automatons on the steps of Parliament had convinced enough of Britain's upper class mundanes to be elsewhere that he could squat in rather better style than he would have been able to accomplish on his own. His current place was a three story townhouse on Cheyenne Walk. It had been decorated by someone fussy and fond of things with frills. It was very pink. He liked it for its sheer absurdity. The person who had decorated it had no taste and did not care. Magnus liked to think he had better taste but he respected the lack of concern.

The servant's entrance banged open and Magnus rolled his eyes and put down his book before standing up. He wore black. A black suit, a black shirt, his hair hung almost to his shoulders, also black. He caught a look at himself in the ornately framed mirror in the hallway and smiled. He looked like the antithesis of the decorating style and that entertained him as well. In days like these, one needed to find entertainment where it popped up.

"You were supposed to be here an hour ago," he said stepping out into the hallway and heading for the kitchen.

In the kitchen was not only the surly but interesting Shadowhunter he had expected but also a girl. Magnus pursed his lips and the logical part of his brain told him to push them both out and slam the door. Will's face said "I have brought trouble" as brightly as if he were wearing a placard with the words printed on it. But she was pale and drawn and not breathing evenly. She was also dressed rather unconvincingly as a boy.

"You would have more luck dressing as a woman than she does dressing as a boy," Magnus said as greeting.

"Magnus," Will said.

"I suppose your new friend is someone I will regret inviting into my home," Magnus said.

"This isn't your home," Will retorted. "But yes. Most of Mortmain's allies are probably looking for her right now. You have good warding right? A tracking spell couldn't work in here?"

Magnus threw up his hands in exasperation and turned to return to the frilly drawing room. He did have good warding. It annoyed him that Will thought he was entitled to take advantage of it. He called over his shoulder, "Bring her in, wipe your boots."

Will told the story, as much of it as he knew and Magnus listened. Tessa Gray who was not a mundane, not a warlock and not a Shadowhunter, lay on her back on the chaise lounge while Magnus used magic to fix her three broken ribs and the internal bleed from her ruptured spleen. She kept glancing at Will whenever something hurt or Magnus made her uncomfortable. Will gave her the softest look Magnus had ever seen on his face. The strange, broken boy was someone entirely different than Magnus had ever met when he looked at the girl.

"Sit up," Magnus said reaching out a hand that the girl took as she did as she was asked. She took a deep shuddering breath and then another smoother one and then gave him a little bob of her head in what might have been thanks.

"She's the antithesis of you," Magnus mused.

"What does that mean?" Will asked.

"You never stop speaking, even when it is in your own best interest. She hasn't said a single word since she came through the door," Magnus said. "Also I suspect she's kinder than you are and she smells better."

She gave him a little smile at that.

"Remember when I told you I had a friend who had an issue with a compulsion spell?" Will asked ignoring everything else. "She's the friend. It stops her from speaking. Anything she says is painful. I asked you if there was anything you could do and you told me that you'd need to see the spell. So, is there anything you can do?"

Magnus glared at Will, "Will you pay me the going rate?"

"What's the going rate?" Will asked glaring back.

Magnus considered quoting him something absurd but Will saw through the bluster faster than most people. Instead he said, "You can owe me a favour."

"That's a little steep," Will said.

Tessa watched them bandy back and forth with curiosity. Based on the story she'd never seen Will interact with anyone else. She seemed entertained by the little show. Magnus considered telling her to wait until she'd seen him argue with one Sophie Collins, ex-maid and current London spymaster. Magnus had only ever seen it happen once and it had been a display worth remembering. Few people expected humanity out of Will. Magnus knew why Will had been so awful for much of his youth and even he expected sarcasm and disdain. Sophie expected more from him and wasn't afraid to tell him when he failed to live up to those expectations.

Magnus gave Tessa a sly smile that did not include Will at all. She returned it a little smaller, an echo. He held out his hands and she put hers out as well without prompting. There was more than one spell on the girl. Magnus frowned at her as he tried to sort through them. There was something big and heavy that hung over her but he couldn't resolve what it was or what it meant. The compulsion spell was focused.

"You can fight this?" Magnus asked her. It was very a terrifically well laid spell.

Will leaned against the wall near the door. He was pretending that he wasn't a bundled of coiled energy. His anxiety fairly buzzed off him and Magnus considered telling him to leave but it wouldn't have made it better as Magnus suspected the anxiety would climb the farther he was from the girl.

She nodded and held up a hand to show him a small space between her fingers. It was a clear message but Will translated anyways, "Just a little. She can say about one word at a time."

"Say something," Magnus said. "I want to see how the magic reacts when you fight the spell."

"Yes," she said and her fingers tightened on his as a shudder ran through her. The magic rippled. The compulsion spell fed into the large one in some way and they both reacted. That wasn't the interesting part. The interesting part was that what he had thought were extra spells weren't spells. They were just her. A cacophony of competing magics.

"What are you?" Magnus asked. It was asked with genuine curiosity but as soon as he said it he realized that it might be construed as a slightly rude thing to ask a lady.

"She's a girl who needs help," Will said before Tessa could even start to give him an answer. She turned away, her hands still in his and looked at Will who turned that intense and gentle look on her again. Magnus couldn't see her reaction to Will as he said, "That's all that matters."

"She's an incredibly powerful girl who has already saved your life more times than you have saved hers. So hush," Magnus told him and Tessa turned back to him with a little amused smile. Will's face was suspended between bemused and defensive. They were an interesting couple. Similar but oceans apart. She was soft and gentle with iron underneath while Will was all iron armour with all the softness buried beneath it.

"I can take off the compulsion," Magnus told them. "It won't be difficult. The other thing, I can't even figure out what it is."

She tapped his hand, pulling his attention back to him and held up a hand so he could see the space left by a missing wedding ring. His first thought was to wonder where the jewelry had gone but then the rest of it came together.

"Wait here please," he said to the girl and then grabbed Will by his jacket collar and hauled him out into the hall where he pushed him back into a wall. Magnus considered banging him against the wall again just to get the point across but at the moment Will was too surprised to take a swing at him. He decided he didn't want to start a fight with the stupid Nephilim that much.

"You brought her here," Magnus growled.

"Most warlocks don't speak to me," Will said evenly. Magnus still had a hold of his shirt but being manhandled didn't seem to bother him.

"I shouldn't either," Magnus said.

"I don't know what you are so concerned about," Will said.

"You're going to have half of London's Downworld coming after you by morning," Magnus said. "And you are going to bring them all down on me. I should have left this country before the borders closed. I certainly should never have gotten involved with you. He's married to the poor girl." He swore a little in a language he didn't expect Will to know.

Tessa had appeared in the doorway of the room and watched them with steady eyes. Her lips were pressed tightly together and her hands were clenched into fists. The man's suit she wore made her look very tall and even thinner than she truly was. Magnus let go of Will's shirt and gave him one last hard look before turning back to the girl. He softened his expression before he turned around. This was not her fault.

"Come sit down, I will explain this to our stupid friend," he said to her. She sat down on the sofa, farther from Magnus than she had been before. Will sort of flung himself down beside her. He straightened his shirt and adjusted his jacket with exaggerated care. Magnus ignored him and dropped into a floral armchair across from this very odd pair.

"There are rumours in Downworld that Axel Mortmain made a deal with a demon. That he is a demon. That he is a warlock or a disgraced Shadowhunter. Most of these rumours are so much garbage but there is one persistent one, that he isn't invincible. Yet," Magnus started.

"We've heard that too, that if we want to kill him it will need to be done sooner rather than later," Will said and Magnus wondered what it was that he wasn't telling, "It's very rare anyone has a proper theory as to why."

"Her," Magnus said pointing at Tessa who raised her eyebrows but didn't look particularly surprised. "There is an unfinished spell hanging over her and a compulsion to force her to speak very specific words. Any word that isn't the one she needs to say is painful to speak. The unfinished spell is a ritual marriage, am I correct?"

She nodded slowly.

"You are a warlock but a very unusual one," she nodded again, "And once the marriage is complete, Mr. Mortmain will have full access to all her abilities. A warlock's immortality and all the magic she possesses as well as other benefits depending on who cast the binding. He's a man and look at all that he has done. This will give him incredible powers and she's keeping it away from him. Like a marriage, vows must be exchanged. If she does not vow, the spell remains unfinished. If she does vow she loses most of her free will and her life will become tied to his. I can see the appeal of silence."

"We got the same story from someone else. Why not find another warlock?" Will asked nodding and Magnus wasn't sure whether to be annoyed that he was being used to verify information or gratified that Will seemed to think his opinion worth more than the other contact's.

"Like your parabatai ritual, some things can only be done once. He has tied his only chance at this to her," Magnus said and he turned to Tessa directly, "It's really quite an impressive feat of defiance. How long ago was the ceremony?"

She held up four fingers.

"Four months? That's longer than I would have expected," Magnus said.

"Years," Will said.

"What?" Magnus said.

"I've known her longer than a few months. It's been years," Will said and the girl nodded.

Magnus looked back at Tessa. Thin and fragile looking but then, fighting a spell like that every hour of every day would take something out of a person. Magnus had been prepared to throw them out. He had been on the brink of throwing them out since he'd seen the girl but he just couldn't do it.

"I can remove the compulsion spell but I can't break the other," he said shaking his head at himself. There are worse hills to die on, he though. Anything that brought the end of Mortmain's reign over England closer to an end had to be a good thing.

"That favour," he said pointing at Will, "Is likely going to involve saving my immortal life. I like my immortal life."

"I will do my best," Will said.

"That's oh so comforting," Magnus rolled his eyes. Tessa met his eyes when he turned to her to explain, "That feeling of the compulsion fighting you for control will get much worse and then it will be gone. It won't be pleasant. Stay here."

And then he pushed himself up in one fluid motion and left the room. He came back with a bundle of supplies to find Will sitting beside the girl with her hand in his, speaking in a low voice. Magnus paused in the door way to watch them. This Will was an alien creature, utterly different from the Will that Magnus thought he knew. Magnus liked the entire boy better for the fact that this Will was a possibility.

Magnus kicked a rug out of the way and chalked a circle onto the wood floor and added a series of runes. Tessa came over to look at what he was doing and her expression wasn't just idle curiosity. He started to talk through each step and got one of those little smiles from her. She knew enough about magic to have some idea of what he was doing.

Will didn't have nearly as much knowledge of the process but he stayed near her and displayed polite interest. He had every mannerism of a dinner party guest being forced to listen to a dull conversation he couldn't escape. It might have been true boredom. It might have been an act. It was often impossible to tell with Will. Magnus flicked a finger and lit up the candles he had just finished placing. He didn't often get to do magic before an audience that might be impressed by his antics and he wasn't going to waste the chance.

Once it was done, he asked her to step into the middle of it. This time she didn't turn to Will for reassurance before meeting Magnus's eyes. He had passed whatever test she had to determine whether a person was a threat.

"This is going to hurt. Are you prepared for that?" Magnus asked. The girl squared her shoulders and nodded. He turned to Will, "Are you?"

"It will hurt me?" Will asked.

"No, are you prepared for it to hurt her?" Magnus said, "You're just a touch protective. Know that if you break the circle, you risk the spell. Don't do it."

"I will sit right here until you tell me it is over," Will said.

Tessa gave Magnus just the smallest bit of a smile when he turned back to her. She nodded again to tell him that she was prepared for whatever happened next.

Magnus settled himself into the magic and said the words that would light up the spell. The runes glowed and twitched and Tessa tensed. He met her eyes before finishing the incantation. He hadn't been sure how much it would hurt only that it would. She screamed and curled into herself with her arms locked around her stomach as though trying to hold herself together. Magnus had a hand out and grabbed Will's jacket, yanking him back hard.

"Not yet," Magnus said.

The light died away and the runes on the floorboards faded away. Tessa knelt with her head down, her arms still locked around her body. Magnus let go of Will's shirt and let him finish crossing the room to the girl. She flinched away from his touch before raising her eyes to meet his. There were tears on her cheeks. Magnus felt a pang of guilt. There had been no other way to break a spell like that. It couldn't be done gently, it needed to be ripped away before it could force her to do what it wanted.

She wiped the tears away with the back of her hand, a childlike gesture. Will crouched beside her, his hand hovering over her but not actually touching.

"Hello William," she said in a clear, soft voice. The tears came harder and she leaned forward to cry into Will's shoulder.