The immediate family eventually adjourned to a comfortable room to talk and various family members came and went throughout the evening. They seemed to skirt around the topic of why Charles' father had left the Shadowhunters and concentrated on telling family stories. The other topic that was not brought up involved Elise's mother somehow and once the evening had broken up, Elise had taken his arm and offered to escort him back to his room.

She began to speak as soon as they were out of earshot of the others.

"You might have noticed a uncomfortable silence whenever we ventured close to mentioning my mother," she began, and then paused.

"I would not say it was uncomfortable; you all seem very adept at circling around the subject," he said.

"Well, yes, you see, she and my father do not really speak anymore," said Elise. "Not since an argument following my brothers' death."

"Your second brother," he noted.

"Yes, dear Silas," she said. She took a deep breath and went on, more quietly. "Silas was … well, he was … " she walked a few more steps. "Silas was an intense child and even more intense teenager. He was faultlessly polite, very kind, but entirely too focused on hunting demons and not enough on living life. He is not alone among us to have that problem, but he was very driven to change the world. When he became an adult, instead of touring other institutes he asked for the most dangerous assignments. Normally, one that inexperienced would not be considered, but he had a way of convincing people …" she trailed off again as they arrived at his door. She stopped and considered for a moment.

"May I come in to finish this?" she asked. "I do not really want to do it standing here in the hall, but some might not think it proper."

"I do not really have that kind of reputation with the young ladies," he teased.

"Well, I am hardly young anymore," she said.

He raised a doubtful eyebrow. "Really, well, then you hold your years well."

"How old are you?" she asked very pointedly.

"I will twenty-eight in a few weeks," he said.

"I turned thirty in April, and so we can get another uncomfortable subject out of the way, I am a widow of eight years as well," she said. Charles had no idea how to reply to that, so he just nodded and opened his door. She preceded him in and sat in one of the two chairs at a small table.

"Door, open or closed?" he asked.

"Oh, please close it," she said. "I am long past worrying about what others think of my ladylike manners." When he had sat himself, she went on. "I tell you this so we do not have to delude ourselves, we two. The rest of my family is very adept at ignoring things that are right in front of them. Sooo, Silas .. My mother thought he should stay home more, but my father said he was old enough to make his own decisions. Father did not actually encourage Silas, but he never turned down a request to train him and he pushed Silas to excel more than anyone else he trained, mostly because Silas practically demanded it. You never left a training session with Silas without a few bruises. Not because he was trying to show you up, but simply because everything was real to him. He would never do anything to hurt you, but not hitting you in training when you should have done better was doing you a disservice."

"I had a few instructors like that over the years; most of them were just bullies," said Charles.

"And that is the crazy thing about Silas; he was not a bully in any way," said Elise. "He would go out of his way to avoid conflicts with other people. All his passion was for killing demons."

"But you cannot keep taking risks forever without one coming back to get you," said Charles.

"Yes, two years went by and the Shadowhunters were hailing him as … not exactly a savior, but certainly something special. And he was. No one could compete with Silas. He was that rare combination of strength and quickness combined with too little fear. He was deadly but entirely too reckless.

"He was also best friends with my husband," she said. "Though I was not yet married when Silas died. They were quite a pair, Silas and Hiram. I sort of tagged along behind them for years, basking in their glory. I do not think Hiram really ever noticed me until after Silas died." She appeared lost in thought and Charles guessed she was recalling some sweet or bitter memory. "Anyway, Silas was killed in a demon ambush and mother blamed Father for not reining him in at such a young age. It was not fair. She knew him as well as anyone and there was nothing you could do to make him listen.

"Our family had lived at the Paris Institute my whole life where my dad was in charge of training," she went on. "Things became … very difficult … especially for little Richard. He did not understand what was happening because he did not know Silas very well, and he was too young. Nina and I tried to smooth things over, but mother was stubborn. Father tried to apologize, do anything that might make it better, but she was having none of it. Well, Father has his pride and he would put up with that for only so long; when the Institute opening here in Cornwall came before the Clave, they granted him the director's title. Christopher went with him, but Richard, Nina and I stayed in Paris. I wanted to go, but he told me I should stay with Nina and Richard. Leaving Paris and coming here was considered a large step down and that also infuriated Mother."

"And they have not spoken since?" he asked quietly. It sounded too much like the finality of his own family's departure from England to America.

"Our community is too small to avoid each other entirely, but there is a cold distance between them," she said. "It is very sad, what happened to their group of friends. Mother, Father, Stiles, Megan, and your father; they were all very, very close."

"I cannot imagine my father leaving such a community," he said quietly.

"As for that, I cannot help you, beyond saying that he came to visit Father in Paris the year I was born and saved your mother from a demon," said Elise. "My father has admitted to me that your mother was a beautiful and charismatic woman, but all your father's friends argued with him that it was wrong. I think Father was so shocked to see you because he told me the last words he had with your father involved accusations of 'traitor to his people' or some such language. They were young and he said he always regretted it."

That seemed to exhaust her store of conversation and she went silent before standing and moving to the door. She opened it and bid him a polite good evening before turning back.

"Forgive me for being presumptuous, but my family and friends are overly protective of me, and think I will break in pieces for talking about Silas and my husband; I am not," she said. "I would hate for them to discourage you from … getting to know me. That would be a shame." She smiled and closed the door behind her.

Charles had thought he would have a hard time sleeping after the most tumultuous day of his entire life, but something about the peaceful quiet of the institute and the perceived warmth of having found a family put his mind to rest. He fell asleep almost immediately.

Over the days that followed, Charles was not sure he was ever going to stop being surprised. The stele had been the tip of the spear compared to what followed after it. Glamour, mundane, angels, Alicante, seraph blades and Downworlders. The list went on and each time he had to shake his head and nod. It was crazy; almost too much to take in at once. When his cousin Dellia mentioned Faeries he could not take anymore and went back to his room for a while.

After about thirty minutes he recognized Elise' knock at the door and welcomed her in.

"They told me that Faeries pushed you over the edge," she said.

"You just cannot imagine," he said. "It is like someone telling you the sun is green and then you walk outside and they are correct."

"Well, father thinks that maybe we have been a little too hasty with so much information all at once; he asked if you would like to do some training," she said.

"We are not going to learn how to turn invisible or anything like that are we?" he asked.

"Nope," she said. "That is something to learn another time. How about swords?"

"Swords," he mused. "It sounds so mundane compared to everything I have learned. Even the word mundane means something different. Swords. I can do swords." He stood up and then something hit him. "Wait! Did you say turning invisible was something for another time? You can do that?"

"Well, yes, there is a rune for it," she admitted.

He shook his head again. "Swords sound like a great idea," he said and then noticed how she was dressed. She wore what people would call "men's" clothes, but in the light of her offer he immediately shifted his paradigm a bit and thought of them as fighting clothes. From bottom to top she wore slim, lace-up leather boots with the trousers tucked in, a loose shirt, and her dark hair was pulled back severely from her face in a long pony tail. She looked quite different and it was not the clothes; her stance, expression and body language were more aggressive. He followed her to the training room that he had been shown earlier on a tour of the institute, but now he walked around and examine the weapons and armor. He had been surprised to see they did not use any firearms and then surprised at the explanation why. The sun was green.

He limbered up and then was amused to see that he had an audience. Both of Abram's young son's were there with their father, as was Dallia and Elise's brother Richard, though the later two were the only ones in gear. Stiles was there as well, as the head of Institute Training.

"Just warm up and show us what you can do, Charles," said Stiles. A small smile crept across his face. "She will take it easy on you."

Elise gave a most unladylike snort and took an en garde position. "Tu est prêt?"

"Oui, commencez!" he said and she came at him with a steady, if not overwhelming attack. He met the attack easily and they began to circle back and forth with their practice swords, smoothly shifting stances and trying different techniques. After perhaps ten minutes of sparring, Stiles called a halt. While Charles felt like he had plenty of breath left, his arms were screaming at him. Too little practice had left him with much less endurance than when he had been training with Honu.

"You technique is fine, but you clearly need more regular conditioning," announced Stiles.

"I cannot disagree there," said Charles. "I have not been in a position to practice for some time now."

"Well, it shows a bit, but it is not like we have to take a guy off the street and train him with a sword," said Bran. He let the boys go and they ran up to Charles and peppered him with all sorts of questions which he could not possibly have answered without a week of time. \

Elise winked at him and smiled. "Another round? Unless Abram wants to have a go."

"No, I am fine for now Elise," he said. "I do not need you showing me up again." He smiled when he said it, but he sensed he was complimenting Charles by implying he was able to hold his own with Elise.

"I know you are not used to it, but our women fight as readily as our men," said Stiles.

"Oh, I already saw her hack the head off a 'gator demon," he said.

"I did not 'hack' its head off," said Elise dryly. "I just poked it in the eye."

"Well, it distracted the thing from eating me," said Charles.

Elise gave him a direct look. "Modesty is a wonderful trait in a man; let us not take it too far."

They worked with other weapons throughout the afternoon until Charles muscles were screaming. By then the others had long since lost interest, so he was alone with Elise.

"I am not going to enjoy waking up tomorrow morning," he groaned.

"Probably not," she said. "You worked entirely too hard trying to impress me for someone who has not been doing regular training."

"Was I so obvious?" he asked, coloring slightly.

"Yes," she said. "You did not notice Abram and Stiles' smiles when they were leaving and you said you still needed some more work?"

"I guess not," he admitted.

"You have created quite a conflict in the family, actually," she said.

"How so?" he said, slightly alarmed.

"Their desire to be overprotective towards me is warring with their obvious joy at seeing the son of their dear brother and friend," she explained. "They are not really sure how to react. It is really quite amusing to watch. They have been chasing away potential suitors for years."

"What does your mother think?" he asked.

She snorted. "My mother thinks I should have three or four children by now. But even she cannot make up her mind because she had memorialized Silas and Hyrum's memories to the point where no man could ever live up to them. She wants me to remarry but does not think any man is good enough for me."

"Ah, the joy of family relationships," he said with such irony that she laughed and he joined her.

Another question came to mind for Charles. "So do you live here, or are you visiting with Richard?"

"I live here now and Richard has been visiting for the past year or so," said Elise. "It has become more or less permanent. My older brother Christopher lives with his family in Alicante and Nina's husband obtained a post in Cape Town."

"So your mother stayed in Paris?" he asked.

"Yes, she runs the library there for the family in charge," she said.

"Well, I am a little old for going on an Institute tour, but I think we should at least visit Paris," he said.

"That sounds like a wonderful idea," she said. "We should do that."

"I am sure I am likely breaking some Shadowhunter rule, but I would like to look for my mother's family."

"Technically, you would be, but since they cannot consider you a true Shadowhunter yet, then they can hardly object," she said with a wink.

"You do not really strike me as one who is very concerned about 'the rules'," he commented.

"Not when they are stupid and are put in place to force people to do what you want," she said. "I heard all the arguments when I was in school, learned all the reasons, but it is really silly. We only diminish ourselves when we force that choice."

"So are you saying you will show me Paris?" he asked.

"All you need do is ask, my dear," she said and took his arm as they walked out of the training room.

Time seemed to speed by at the Institute as Charles drank in all the new ideas and history of the Shadowhunters. While at times it was heavy reading, the Codex continually brought exclamations of amazement each time he learned something new and extraordinary. Against the protests of the rest of the family, Elise began to take him out with her patrolling for demons. Apparently this was not particularly common practice, but when pressed, both her father and Charles' uncle admitted she was very good at it.

Before he could be useful to him, he needed nice clothes so that they would be an expensively dressed and well-matched pair.

"Rich fools out courting," was how she put it. In truth, he was quite pleased that they were able to spend so much time together alone. For the most part they simply walked about, for all appearances enjoying themselves. As he began to see the pattern, Charles realized that he had, of course, seen her first on one such attempt to trap demons. Apparently the part to which everyone objected was that she went out often by herself. That was unusual.

"I cannot begin to tell you how nice it is to have a decent fighting companion," she expressed one day. In the two weeks they had been patrolling, they had killed demons three different times and had one run-in with a vampire. After the vampire incident, Charles stopped acting surprised and he and Elise shared his favorite new saying. "The sun is green today."

None of the creatures they had met so far had been anywhere near as dangerous as the Ravener demon they had encountered on their first meeting. Most were demons impersonating and attempting to prey upon humans. It was always tricky to stalk or track demons because you had to wait for them to transform before you acted so you could not shoot them with a crossbow from a safe distance. Despite all that, none of them had managed to wound either of them since the first incident.

"Before, I had to practically sneak out of the institute or hear an endless lecture from father or Stiles," she continued. "Even worse was the wordless look Aunt Meg would give me. That one is a master at producing guilt."

"How do you normally go about this?"

"Usually in pairs or groups," she said. "There is no real procedure for hunting demons. Too often we are reactionary and only find them after they have already done great harm."

"Well, I am thinking it may be time to vary the routine a bit," he suggested.

"Oh, and what do you have in mind?" she asked.

"I do not know, but if I learned anything on my many patrols during the war, it is that you should never show your enemy a pattern," he said. "Make it too easy for them and they have taken the initiative. "

"What was the purpose of these patrols you did?" she asked thoughtfully.

"To keep the enemy from surprising you and find out the positioning and composition of your forces," he said.

"So you were trying to avoid ambushes," she said. "We are trying to attract them."

"Indeed, but I am guessing they were onto your pattern and sent the Ravener to dispatch you," he said. "What would have happened if there had been two?"

"You would have killed one and I would have killed one," she said, as if it was the simplest thing in the world.

"Maybe, or maybe they would have killed both of us," he said.

"That's a morbid thought," she said.

"But possible," he said. "The sergeant who trained me was insane about varying our routine and being different every time. When General Hooker needed to find out where anyone was, he sent out our squad because we always came back with the needed intelligence. And then, at the Battle of Chancellorsville, we walked right into the Confederate's main body flanking attack. Sergeant Elam took a shot right to the head. I got to him first but he was dead. Of our ten men, only four of us made it back to report and Hooker was too slow to believe us that we had seen such a large force.

"Sometimes, even the best preparation cannot account for bad luck," he finished.

Neither of them spoke for some time.

"Sometimes I forget that you have seen more fighting and battle than many us will ever see in our entire lives," she said. "I only know about your American conflict in broad terms, but it is amazing that you survived four years of such fighting. I would be very foolish to discount such good advice. Let us go back to the institute."

Instead of continuing on their current path, they stopped and crossed the street to a hat shop and Charles made such fun of the ridiculous fashions currently available that Elise was nearly doubled over in laughter. Eventually the scandalous looks from the shopkeeper drove them out but the laughter continued down the street and more than one passerby looked at them oddly. The final cross street that would take them back to the institute was strangely quiet and devoid of foot traffic as they turned down it. Had he not been telling a humorous story of one patrol concerning his former sergeant he might not have noticed, but his former leader's caution still floated there in the back of his thoughts.

"So there we were all hyped up for a fight and out walks a raccoon from the bushes …" said Charles. A bird called and something about it rang oddly in his ears. He stopped dead and looked around. A dark cloud was covering the sun and the shadows were just lengthening in early afternoon. The trees overhead added to the oddly dark afternoon. "I do not think that was a bird," he said, just as a demon he had never seen before burst on them from behind the bole of a large tree. Several more followed it quickly and Charles hazarded a quick look behind and saw another coming across the street. He had never seen their like before but apparently they were familiar to Elise.

"Moloch demons," she said and had her blade out of its sheath in the next heartbeat.

"I got the one behind us," he said and spun to face it. It looked a bit like a wolf, but with scaly hide instead of fur and claws way too large for its legs.

"Careful, they spit fire," said Elise calmly. In that case, distance is better, he thought and heaved a tomahawk at it from a few feet away. Its shrill cry was unnerving, but the hatchet buried in its snout between where its eyes would have been. It reared and clawed at the hatchet with its grotesque hooked, claws, conveniently exposing its softer belly which he opened up with a broad two-handed swipe. Sure enough, flames shot out of its head, but fortunately pointed the other direction. Charles kicked it hard and hacked it once on the ground. When it disappeared, he picked up his tomahawk and turned back to Elise, who was fending off the other two with her blade in one hand and her parasol in the other.

Unfortunately, her dress was also on fire.

He swapped hands and threw right-handed, but the beast attacked at the wrong moment and he missed completely.

"Coming on your left," he yelled and rushed one demon with his other tomahawk and blade in hand. By some sense other than sight it shifted towards him and he ducked under the flame to impale his blade down its throat. He used the crude control of the blade to position the head and hew its neck with the tomahawk. A flailing clawed foot caught in the material of his coat but he was wearing long greaves underneath and he batted the attack aside and kicked it hard. It flopped on its back and he hacked it several times before it disappeared as well.

With the smell of smoke in his nose he turned to see the other demon gone and Elise rolling over and over in the dirt. This proved effective and he ran to offer her a hand up. Her hair was disheveled, half her dress was blackened by fire and she was covered in dust. She took his proffered hand and rose. When he made to let go she gripped it harder and pulled him in close.

"Do you want to know why I am so very fond of you?" she asked, taking him completely by surprise. For once he did not have a witty comeback. "Because when we were attacked by three demons you did not tell me to run; you did not tell me to stay behind you; you simply summed up the situation, told me your planned action and went to work assuming I would take care of myself."

"Well, other than catching fire, you survived just fine," he began.

"And did you tackle me to put it out? No. You killed the other demon and let me take care of it," she said. "Hyrum treated me that way. Every other man I have met since he died has felt the need to protect me." And then she kissed him. Hard.

He came up for air, blinking in surprise and still could not think of a witty remark.

"Are you injured at all?" she asked, as if nothing else had happened.

"I do not think so," he said and then conducted a quick examination. "How bad are your burns?"

"I was wearing armor under the dress," she said. "It does not even hurt at this point."

"I had no idea; that must have been warm, walking around," he said.

"You think so?" she said and he laughed. "Let us depart."

They hurried down the street and Charles commented that it was odd nobody was out.

"I wonder if changing our course so suddenly threw off their ambush that they had planned for elsewhere," she said.

"Do these … what did you call them?" he asked

"Molch demons," she supplied.

"Yeah, those. Do they normally fight in packs?"

"Yes."

"So seeing three of them was not unusual," he said.

"No; normally they come in groups of four, five or six," she said. "That was what made me wonder if our change threw them off." They emerged from the tree-lined street and turned toward the institute. At that moment the sun came out and the feeling of foreboding dissipated.

"Five or six of those things," he mumbled. "Now that would have been ugly."

"Very much so," she said. "Shadowhunter gear does not burn easily, but taking them on in a dress was a bad idea. Not that we had much choice."

They arrived at the institute and entered. Charles offered to scout ahead and give her warning. "You know what they are going to do when they see your dress."

"I have a better idea," she said and turned down a corridor, took stairs down below ground level and went into what appeared to be a clothes washing area. She found a laundry bag and removed her dress with his help, which she stuffed in the bag and handed to Charles. "Figure out a way to get rid of that," she said.

"You still smell like smoke," he pointed out.

"Then it is off to the baths for me," she said. She kissed him quickly and was out the door with him holding the sack. He wandered about for a while and eventually found the container where they dumped their trash. It was quite ripe with old food and things, so Charles doubted the smell would be a problem. Finding his way back to his room was a challenge, but Hattie, the cook found him and set him on the correct path.

"Given the furtive scurrying of Mistress Elise and your present state of rumpled attire, either you and the miss were naughty at the park or you met more demons and are trying to cover it up," she said. Hattie was cheerful, loved to cook and loved to eat her cooking. She was a bit plump, but since she trained with Elise as well, he knew she happened to be quite wicked with a hand axe and had enjoyed learning to throw his tomahawk so well she was having some made for herself. 'Just something to keep in the pocket, you know,' she had said.

"While I am sure I would have enjoyed the former, I fear the latter would be more true," he admitted.

Her bark of laughter rang down the hallway.

"Well, here you are," she said. "One left and one right from here."

"Thank you," he replied and managed to make it back to his room unnoticed.

Elise asked him to accompany her to discuss the attack with her father and the door to his office was open when they arrived.

Lamar looked up at them, squinted a bit and then offered them both a chair.

"I am guessing from the looks on your faces that you are about to tell me you encountered more demons today," he began.

"Yes, Father," said Elise. She could sound amazingly contrite when she wished.

"I suppose this is the best way," he said. "Obviously you came back or you would not be sitting here, so now you can gloss over the dangerous details and tell me it was a stroll in the park."

Charles gave Elise a look and said, deadpan, "Elise's dress caught on fire."

"Charles," she said, exasperated. "How is that glossing over the details?"

"But she had her armor on and neither of us were injured," he said quickly.

She gave him another withering look and went on in a more dignified fashion. "They were Moloch demons. We came at us on Stewart Way from behind the large trees there. Charles identified another coming from behind so went to dispatch it while I held off the others. Once finished with the one, he returned and together we each took care of one of the remaining two."

"And where was the dress burning part?" asked her father.

"It was nothing, Father," said Elise. "Once the demon was gone I rolled a bit to put it out and Charles gave me a hand up and we walked back to the Institute."

Her father looked at her for a moment and she was the perfect picture of composure.

"Why only three, I wonder," he said finally.

"Ah, well, we speculated that perhaps changing our pattern threw off their planned ambush," said Charles.

"Charles related to me some stories he learned in the American war just concluded," said Elise.

Lamar nodded. "I rather suspect in four years of fighting, Charles learned a lot of lessons that might be helpful for us to consider. In any case, the unspoken point of this may be that they had an ambush planned for you and generally Moloch's come in packs of no less than five or six. What would you have done against so many and not in full gear?" He raised a hand to forestall a protest. "Never mind. I am sure you will tell me that you would have managed somehow and I have no doubt that you are correct. Elise, you have been channeling a bit of Silas intensity of late and I do not think I have ever seen you fight better. You Charles, while not being particularly large or strong, have a fantastically quick ability to react, choose the most effective strategy in a fight and then kill the demons at the least risk to your person. Together, well, I have been watching you this past month. You are starting to develop that uncanny ability to work together than is the basis for almost all parabatai." Elise gave him a startled look. "Oh," continued Lamar, "I know you have no such intent, and you are too old, but you certainly fulfill all the other requirements."

"What is a parabatai?" asked Charles

"Parabatai are companion fighters who take an oath to support each other in combat and other ways," offered Lamar. "The oath lasts as long as they live or one of them dies and you cannot take another. They gain increased fighting skills and awareness; also, some runes only work on one's parabatai." He paused, "And they are forbidden romantic relationships by the law. But the two of you are much too old anyway," he concluded smiling. "Well, as the director of this Institute, I must commend you on yet another successful mission and warn you at this rate, you will get yourselves killed before you manage to produce any grandchildren for me."

Charles was quite amused to watch the battle of wills played out before him. Lamar looked very relaxed as if the heated look he was receiving did not faze him in the least. Elise had gone from scorching fury to righteous indignation and ended up at a sly smile, which she turned on Charles.

"You should be careful Charles," said Lamar. "When she announced her engagement to Hyrum I am not sure if he even knew it was coming beforehand."

"Do not be silly Father," said Elise, but she looked away from Charles.

Lamar have Charles a more serious glance before speaking. "Charles Duclot-Nichols, in your short time here at the Cornwall Institute, I have found you to be a gracious man, kind and loyal, with a great wealth of experience that will benefit our people and any children you may have in the future. If you should choose to court my daughter you have my full blessing." He stepped around the desk and offered his hand. "Not that you really asked or that you are not old enough to do things on your own."

"Thank you, sir," he said.

"We are going to need to visit Mother, first," said Elise.

"Yes, that would be best," said Lamar. "She will already be upset you started looking without first consulting her."

"Well she should have been here with the rest of the family," said Elise. "I am also going to help Charles look for his family in France."

Lamar shook his head, yet again. "You have always chosen which rules you wanted to follow and which ones to ignore."

"How did you feel when you saw Stiles reunited with Charles?" asked Elise. Lamar gave her a look that said he was not going to answer. "Would you deny that to other family?"

Lamar walked back around the desk and looked defeated. "You know I would not."

"The Clave has its rules, Father, but some of them are stupid," said Elise. "They denied Stiles a brother for thirty years."

"Perhaps," said Lamar, "but there are always reasons. Some of them are good. Now, you two get out of my office and let me get some work done."

Elise ran around the desk like a little girl and kissed him on the cheek. "Thank you, Daddy."