Chapter 25,
ENTER THE NIGHT CRAWLERS
Chapter 25
(There has been a time-skip since the last chapter, it is now midnight and Clary is in her room of the Raven Tree)
Clary leaned against the balcony of her room and looked up at the midnight sky; she twirled the feather-stele in her hands and not for the first time, wondered why Chloe had given it to her. As far as she knew, none of Nightshade knew about her power with runes, or her and Jace's odd heritage.
There had to be a reason though, Chloe may be crazy, but it had seemed as if that had been one of her rare moments of clarity…
"Clary?" Jace's voice called from the entrance to her room. Clary turned, Jace was standing there, watching her with an unreadable expression.
"Hey." Clary said, still holding the feather-stele. Jace smiled and walked over to her.
"So, figure out what that thing is? Other than being some sort of stele." Jace asked, coming over to her and leaning against the balcony next to her, Clary sighed and twirled the feather in her hand.
"Not really, it seems like a pretty powerful stele though, I just have to think of the rune I want to draw and it appears from the quill." Clary explained, she touched the feather's tip, feeling the usual rush of energy and warmth that seemed to accompany it.
"That could be useful; you don't have to waste time drawing the thing." Jace said, chuckling. Clary leaned into his arm, it was moments like this that she liked, moments of peace, of just her and Jace, when they could relax and not worry about saving the world from certain doom.
All of the sudden there was a flash of darkness, Jace stiffened and Clary jolted into a full standing position.
Then there came a meow.
Clary turned, and saw a cat perched on the balcony's railing of branches and vines. Only it wasn't a cat, at least a normal one, this cat was pale blue in color, with long front teeth that must have been at least two inches long, its snout was shorter than your average house-cat too, and despite the heat of a tropical island, the fur was quite long, but the most surprising feature of the strange feline was that it had wings, pale blue feathered wings coming out of its shoulder blades, which were larger than that of any cat that Clary had ever seen.
The cat meowed more, and walked over to Clary and Jace, Jace whipped out one of his new seraph blades and the cat cocked its head, it continued towards them and brushed its head against the seraph blade's tip, obviously not caring. As it got closer, Clary could see that its eyes were a bright violet.
Hello, I haven't seen many of your kind here for a long time.
The voice in their minds was startling, but from the way the cat was looking at them, and the memory of the ROUSs, Clary started to put two and two together.
"You're a Night Crawler, aren't you?" Clary asked, looking at the cat, it purred and sat down, wrapping its fluffy tail around its paws.
Yes, I am, I am a Nyryn, one of the lesser-known cousins of the Gryphons.
"A Nyryn?" Jace asked, the name was unfamiliar, but the combination of feline and avian features suggested that the Nyryn was speaking the truth in regards to the Gryphon relation.
Yes, I came looking for Nightshade, I did not expect to see Shadowhunters, but from what the Rodent Clan has said; it did not seem impossible. My name is Skyah.
Rodent Clan, the ROUSs, of course, if Nightshade's island was anything like the Downworld, gossip would travel extremely fast.
"Why do you want to find Nightshade?" Jace asked; Clary turned to see his wary expression, even after nearly a month on the island; Jace was still suspicious, although it seemed any good Shadowhunter should be. Clary had noticed Alec and Isabelle behaving similarly.
Mundanes poisoned this island many decades ago, we, the Night Crawlers, and Nightshade have been trying to undo the damage that was wrought on this island, and the Nyryns have found more evidence of the poison.
Skyah's eyes gleamed, and it cocked its head. Skyah's thoughts/words were fragmented, suggesting the Nyryns were more animal than not.
"Didn't Roxy or whoever mention something about that?" Jace asked, Clary nodded, it was one of the things that Nightshade seemed to not want to talk about.
"The island is poisoned?" Clary asked, looking at Skyah, Skyah bobbed its head up and down.
Yes, Mundanes came to the island and nearly destroyed it, then Nightshade came, and killed every last mundane here, the island was then hidden, many died that day, my parents killed alongside the four of Nightshade.
Jace narrowed his eyes; it did explain a lot, if the Shadowhunters knew that Nightshade had killed Mundanes, the group would not be held in the favour of Clary or any other Nephilim.
They did what they had to, and I commend them for that, the Mundane population is large, why should a few matter so much?
Skyah's minorly judgemental tone rang in their minds and Clary stopped to think, but then pushed it away, killing Mundanes was wrong, Nightshade could have just driven them away with glamours, but instead they had launched a massacre.
"Hey guys, what's up-oh, hi Skyah!" Roxy said, walking in, she had her staff in hand and was wearing armour made of leaves and wood.
Hello Roxy, it is nice of you to join us.
Skyah turned to Roxy and purred.
"Timor came with the message, and apparently there's some other issue too, Magnus heard and wanted to come, then the werewolf-couple wanted to come too, then Chloe decided that everyone should come, so I was sent on gather-all-the-idiots-duty, so move your asses!" Roxy said before Clary or Jace could say anything.
"We need to talk to you, Skyah here told us about the poison on the island." Jace growled, Roxy rolled her eyes and muttered something about stupid cats, Skyah purred.
"Yeah, yeah, tell you on the way, we gott'a go." She said, and darted away, leaving Clary and Jace with no choice but to follow her.