Chapter 11

He was back in his room, although he had no memory of what had happened since he left that morning for the training room. He knew the guard would be bringing his lunch soon. He took a moment to grab his book and read for a little bit before his lunch arrived. He tried to think back on his morning and all he could really remember was waking up, eating his breakfast, going to the training room, and then nothing until he got back to his room. He almost felt like there was something important that he needed to remember, but he didn't know what it was. He focused as much as he could on his missing memories, but his head started to hurt again. The more he thought about it the more he realized that he never could remember what he did in the mornings before his afternoon training sessions.

He turned when he heard the guard entered his room. The guard placed his lunch in front of him and reminded him that he only had 20 minutes to eat his lunch. He nodded his head in understanding and began to eat. He quickly ate his food with tasting any of it and wondered what it would be like to be able to take his time to eat and actually enjoy what he was eating. He knew if he wanted to be able to do that, Simon needed to beat him in a couple of weeks when they fought. He had thought about the fight quite a bit and figured that the best chance Simon had to beat him was to continue to spar against him so the other boy was familiar with his fighting style. If he tried anything else, the guards could catch on to it and know he was letting Simon win. He quickly finished his lunch and knocked on the door to let the guard know he was finished eating. The guard came in and got his plate. He was informed that the guard would return in 45 minutes to take him to the training room.

He had some time before his session began and so figured he would plan his escape some more. He almost wondered if he could get some involved in helping him escape. As he thought about this, he put his hand in the pocket of his pants and felt a small bottle in there. 'That's strange,' he thought, 'Why would I have this in here. I've never had anything in my pockets.' He pulled the bottle out to take a look at and saw the words restoration potion. He wondered what a restoration potion was and why it would be in his pants pocket. He had to of put it in there but he couldn't remember ever even seeing the potion before in his life. He knew he would have to think on it and decide on whether or not he would take the potion.

The guard returned to his room before he could think about it any further. He quickly returned the bottle to his pocket and turned to face the guard. He quietly followed the guard to the training room. Out of habit he looked down the corridor and saw the man with the dark hair again. He looked like he was talking to someone but he didn't see anyone else there. The man turned to face him and stopped moving. He could see that he was a shadowhunter because of the runes on his arms, but what really caught his attention was his eyes. The man had eyes that were green with bits of yellow in them and it almost seemed like he was staring straight at him. That didn't seem possible though and just as quickly he saw him, he was gone moving in a direction that he couldn't see.

Magnus and Jace arrived back at the institute after two eventful meetings with Catarina and Luke. They still had questions about what was going on, but it seemed as though the attacks on the werewolves and the demon sightings were connected. The only way they could connect them at the moment was through the image of the rose (the tattoo and the drawings). Jace knew it was a start, but there was still more to figure out. They were quickly met by Izzy shortly after entering the institute. Jace could tell that she had something to tell him. He motioned for Izzy to follow him and Magnus to his office where they could talk in private.

"Magnus, can you find Underhill and have him meet us in my office? I would like him to be aware of what all we found out today," Jace explained as they stopped walking for a second.

"Of course, Jace. I will find him and meet you at your office," answered Magnus turning to head to the ops center.

He started to walk away and quickly stopped when he felt as though he was being watched. He turned around and saw a boy, almost as tall as him, just watching him. The boy had black hair and extremely blue eyes. He was looking at Magnus as though he had never seen him before. He noticed the resemblance to Izzy through the coloring of the hair and some of the facial features and knew that the boy had to be Alexander Lightwood. He looked for a few more minutes before remembering he needed to find Underhill. He thought about what he had seen and knew that he would have to mention it to Izzy and Jace. Magnus was amazed to know that Alexander was in the institute and that made sense of many of the statements that he had heard of people thinking they had seen Alec throughout the years. He quickly located Underhill and the two headed to Jace's office. They walked in when they saw the door was open. Magnus noticed upon entering that there were other people in the room aside from Jace and Izzy. He recognized them from pictures that he had seen and knew that they were Maryse and Robert Lightwood, former heads of the New York Institute.

Jace motioned for everyone to take a seat and closed the door to his office. The arrival of his parents had been the reason why Izzy was so quick to meet them. It was well known that the Lightwood parents did not like to be kept waiting.

"Mom, Dad it is good to see the both of you again. I'm sorry I was not here to greet you when you arrived. I'm sure Izzy told you I was out taking care of a few things," Jace explained as he walked over to take a seat behind his desk.

"Yes, Isabelle told us all about your meetings. I imagine they were productive," stated Robert looking at his son.

"Yes, they were very productive. They helped shed some light on a case we have been working on and a new one that was brought to our attention," Jace said. "I just wanted to introduce you to Magnus really quick before we go to much further. He has been such a big help to the institute these last few weeks and we are glad to have him."

"Well I suppose you can update us on that, but first the reason why we are here. As you know your mother and I have been in Idris since my appointment to inquisitor. We have been able to look into your brother's disappearance a bit more. Consul Penhallow is aware of our research and sympathizes with us for our loss. However, she explained that since we have been unable to find anything over the last six years that we need to stop our search for him," Robert explained looking at both of his children sadly.

"No dad we can't do that. I know he is still out there. We just have to keep looking," exclaimed Izzy standing to face her parents.

"Isabelle, as much as we want to believe he is out there all our research indicates otherwise. It really is like he just vanished into thin air. There hasn't been a trace of him in six years regardless of what people have said, thinking they have seen him," confessed Maryse her voice shaking.

"We aren't going to stop looking. We just need to be more careful in our search for him. Jia cannot know that we are looking," Robert stated looking at both his children sternly.

"Mom, Dad I think Magnus may be able to help. He has been looking into Alec's disappearance and he may have found something," Izzy replied looking at Magnus.

"Wait Iz, before we get started on that let's hear about the meetings your brother was in this morning," Robert commanded looking to Jace to start talking.

Jace looked over the room. He knew the conversation wasn't going to be a good one, but hopefully his parents could help them connect the pieces together. Jace started talking, "Luke called me yesterday about some issues he had been having with the pack. Normally we don't deal with pack business, but Luke had called me because it looked like shadowhunters were involved in the attacks. Just to clarify, none of the shadowhunters involved are currently posted at the New York Institute. The attacks on the wolves have been vicious and they've barely made it out alive. The shadowhunters who are attacking the wolves are taking trophies. The wolves are coming back with claws and teeth missing. Some of the wolves were able to give Luke a description of the shadowhunters who attacked them. Luke is going to send them over this afternoon so we can go through them and see if we can find any matches in our database.

"One of the descriptions that Luke received matched that of Hodge. Now before you say anything there is more and we can discuss is all after I'm done. All the shadowhunters who attacked the wolves had one thing in common, they all had a tattoo of a rose on their right wrist. I don't know what the rose signifies but we will need to look into that.

"The meeting with Catarina was much quicker. As you know she has been looking into a series of demonic sightings that have happened over the last month with each of these sightings the demons haven't attacked but a drawing has been left at the location. Izzy has been meeting with Catarina to figure this out. I spoke with her today because Izzy had other business to attend to. Magnus asked to look at the drawings and was able to figure out that each one was part of a larger picture. Each drawing is a piece of a rose. We think this may be the same rose tattoo that was seen on the shadowhunters.

"I don't know what the connection is between these two events besides the roses, but I imagine there is something larger going on. I've already set up a time to meet with Catarina and Luke together to go over what we've found. Underhill, I know that you're meeting with Raphael tonight about some clan business. Let me know what you found out and also bring up the rose drawings with Raphael, maybe he knows something. Izzy were you able to get in touch with Meliorn to see if anything unusual was going with them?"

"I sent Meliorn a fire message and will be meeting with him tomorrow. I'll let you know what I find out and I'll ask him about the rose as well," Izzy answered quickly.

"Okay thanks, now thoughts anyone?" Jace asked looking around the room.

"Is Luke sure about the description matching Hodge? I know he hasn't been seen in two years, but it just seems strange to me that he would be a part of attacking downworlders. When we were all in the Circle together, he was always more in the background and he wouldn't participate in the raids that Valentine sent us on," Robert explained hoping to make some sense of all he had heard.

"That's what Luke said to, but he may not be the same Hodge that you went to school with. We think he gave Valentine the Cup in exchange for breaking his punishment rune and then he disappeared off the map where we couldn't find him. This has been the first sighting of him in over two years and I think we need to follow up on it," Jace explained to his parents.

"I agree with you. There is something going on and we need to investigate that. If Hodge is part of if then we need to find him and stop him," Maryse replied.

"Well, if that is all for those two cases, then Underhill you are okay to leave. Keep me updated on your meeting with Raphael this evening and if there is anything strange going on with the vampires. Magnus if you are ready, we will hear about what you found out," Jace instructed and motioned for Magnus to stand up.

Magnus had been listening to Jace's report to his parents and the investigation into ongoing cases. He was a little nervous to tell them what he had found and also worried that they would brush off what he was telling them. He felt the things he had learned were important.

Magnus took a deep breath and started talking, "I was talking to Izzy a few days ago and she talked to me about Alec's disappearance. I have been looking into the unused corridor here at the institute because I have seen guards down there. It didn't make any sense to me so I wanted to find out everything that I could.

"I happened to notice that the corridor was unusable and Alec disappearing coincide with each other. So, I think the two events are related. I spent this morning, before going to meeting with Jace, looking at what happened around Alec's disappearance. I also looked at warlocks who visited the institute frequently over the last six years. As we all know Alec disappeared after his rune ceremony, in looking at the records there isn't a lot of information on the events that took place and the ceremony itself. The report reads like there is information missing.

"Something that stood out to me though is who was in attendance at the ceremony. There was everybody who is normally there, but it was also listed that Catarina Loss was in attendance at the ceremony and she also participated. Now, I know you are all thinking that's impossible. I asked Catarina about it today and she was not present at the ceremony. She told me that warlocks being present at the ceremony would interfere with the angelic nature of it. I don't know who was there, but I think someone was impersonated Catarina so they could be present at the ceremony for some reason.

"The other thing I found today was besides frequent visits from Catarina and Tessa over the last six years, the only warlock who visited was a woman named Seraphina Rose. Her visits started about a month before Alec went missing and stopped right before Hodge left the institute. It was written in the visitor logs that she was visiting Hodge, but I'm not sure what the meetings were about or why Hodge needed to meet with a warlock that wasn't Catarina or Tessa."

Magnus stopped talking for a moment to let everything he had said sink in. It was a lot to think about and a lot of pieces to a puzzle that was becoming harder to put together for everyone involved.

Magnus resumed his explanation, "Before we came in here for the meeting, I happened to look down the corridor that is out of use. I saw a guy with black hair and sapphire blue eyes. The eyes stood out to me because they are so blue. He looked almost identical to Izzy, which made me wonder if it was possibly Alec. I don't know what he is doing in the institute, or how he had remained hidden for such a long time. It makes no sense, but I don't think I'm hallucinating. I think Alec is here in the institute and he has been the entire time."

Magnus finished up his thoughts and everyone just sat there stunned. He could tell that none of them knew what to say or even what to think. It was a lot for one person to take in and even begin to sort out.

Maryse was the first person to speak up and let the others know what she was thinking. Maryse started talking, "This is a lot to take in. I think what you are saying makes a bit of sense. I can speak for all of us, when I say that most of us don't remember what happened the night Alec was taken. There has to be some connection to that. There must be a reason why none of us remember."

"I think it is a bit of a coincidence that Hodge was meeting with an unknown warlock for months starting before Alec went missing and up to when he himself disappeared. Magnus thank you for looking into his and please keep us updated. Look into the report that was filed when my son went missing and see what was left out or removed. Use who you need to in order to help you out in recovering the information. Just keep your investigation under the radar so Jia doesn't catch wind of it," Robert stated looking at Magnus. "Report what you find to Jace and Izzy and they can pass it on to us."

Magnus nodded to Robert he was at a loss for words. He wasn't expecting their response to what he had told them, but he was glad he had the green light to keep moving forward. The meeting was finished shortly after that. Magnus was sent to the ops center his shift while Jace and Izzy had some other things to speak to talk to their parents about.