Pandemonium: Chapter 19
The usual accreditations to those to whom I am indebted are instead replaced by this statement. That statement, however, does not decrease the amount by which I am indebted to those individuals; nor does it attempt to diminish the importance of their works in mine.

A/N: I'm feeling oddly happy today, so you get this chapter super early! If I'm still this happy later today you may get the next chapter too!

Alec shot up out of his bed, his eyes bloodshot, still reeling from his nightmare. All of a sudden, Alec felt two warm arms encapsulate him. They felt nice, natural. They smelled faintly of sandalwood.

It was Magnus.

"What," he thought, "was Magnus even doing in his bedroom at this hour?"

Before even asking the question, or even opening his mouth for that matter, he was quickly hushed by Magnus. It took Alec a moment to get over the shock of being in Magnus' arms, and it was after that moment that he felt how cold the world outside was; his body was shaking vigorously from both the cold and the fear.

Again Alec tried to speak, and yet again Magnus did not acquiesce to his request. Rather than let the boy speak, Magnus was going to comfort him in the only way he could: physical contact. He gently kissed Alec on the lips and told him to lie back down. Still shivering, Alec curled back up in the bed where he was covered by a warm blanket and Magnus' body.

Though he was never one to be sappy or good with words, Magnus saw that shivering and afraid Alec needed more than his warm comforting arms; he needed words. Therein, however, was the problem for Magnus. He dithered with his words and pontificated periphrastically. How was he supposed to comfort the boy who would spend his life in the library with words?

Luckily for him, Alec had returned to sleep, though perhaps it was unlucky, for once again Alec was thrashing. He was moving uncontrollably, sweating profusely, moaning in pain, pleading to some unknown object to stop, and covering his ears to block out the noise of that same object. The nightmare had returned.

Magnus balled his fists in rage. This was unacceptable to him; the person he loved most in the world could not-should not suffer such nightmares. The night was certainly dark, but it was not full of terrors. It was the night that let them be together. The night was wonderful, loud, and vivacious. The night was an island of serenity in the insanity of the day that brought them both peace.

Magnus' mind turned to a play he once saw with another person. It was ages ago, a love long lost. He still could recall the warmth that he felt when their skin touched, the softness of touching that hair, the delicate touch of soft lips on his...
The flashback wasn't the point. Magnus focused on the play, not the person. There had been a passage, something he barely could sense in the recesses of his mind. Perhaps it was something to make Alec feel better. Perhaps another's words could provide the cure that his own couldn't.

With that thought in his mind, Magnus gently shook Alec awake and out of his nightmare. Alec looked at him with those blue orbs surrounded by red, pronounced veins. His hands barely steadied in Magnus' own. The tear ducts looked as if they were ready to spill their contents all over his soft moon-lit face. It was then, right before the tears, that Magnus softly said:

Be not afeard; the isle is full of noises,
Sounds and sweet airs, that give delight and hurt not.
Sometimes a thousand twangling instruments
Will hum about mine ears, and sometime voices
That, if I then had waked after long sleep,
Will make me sleep again: and then, in dreaming,
The clouds methought would open and show riches
Ready to drop upon me that, when I waked,
I cried to dream again.

Soft tears poured down Alec's face as he stared at Magnus in wonder. Then silently hushed, he was rocked back and forth in Magnus' arms till he softly fell asleep, this time with neither dreams nor nightmares.

When Alec awoke in the morning, he could feel the light of the sun on his face. His muscles no longer ached and longed for a stretch. It seemed as if the tempest of the mind had finally calmed itself.

Stretching luxuriously in the light of the beautiful morning, his mind ventured to the events of the night before. He had the most peculiar dreams. It was as if his dream cycles were broken in to parts: two horrifying nightmares and two comforting moments where he was being held by Magnus. For a moment, he considered the possibility that the latter of the two parts was in fact real, but the evidence of it ever happening was entirely nonexistent; Magnus was nowhere to be seen, his bed only seemed to have been slept in by one person, and there was no glitter anywhere. The only thing pointing to the dream being real was the faint scent of sandalwood in the air, though that could have been a figment of his imagination missing Magnus or more probable yet, his own scent resembling Magnus since they spent so much time together. The fact that made Alec question the realness of those dreams most though was Magnus' quote. Almost laughing out loud, Alec thought about how unlikely it would be for Magnus to ever quote any piece of literature-it just wasn't his thing-and least of all quoting the Bard himself.

With all the evidence in place, Alec decided rather conclusively that it must have been part of his dreams.

And compared to some of his other recent dreams involving Magnus this was rather conservative to say the least.

Nonetheless, Alec began the day in a happier mood than normal. Well, happier in the sense that he wasn't entirely miserable. That was until he had yet another encounter with her glorious majesty Queen Charlotte.

"You're late boy!" She snapped, and took Alec by surprise. Gone was the cockney old lady and in her place was the bratty old aristocrat well past her prime.

"How's that ascension ball planning going? Good I suppose. Your type are supposed to have an eye for that sort of thing, decorations and what not."

"M-m-m-my type?" Alec asked waveringly.

"Don't stutter boy, it's unbecoming of a Prince and future King! You have a type? I hope your type is that redhead Morgenstern girl. I'm not about to lose an alliance with the Baron. He owns half our treasury as it is!"

Alec was extremely confused at this point. Perhaps he had imagined it, though it seemed unlikely; he was almost certain that the Queen was alluding to his proclivities, yet when pressed she refrained from making a comment and moved on.

"Lost in your thoughts, boy?" She asked whilst cackling a bit. "Not surprising. I heard you prefer the company of books to people."

"Your Majesty, I-"

"I'd rather not hear your platitudes at this time. I have better things to do than worry about your problems. Here's what I'm going to say to you simply: the day of your ascension ball I'm going to announce your betrothal to the Morgenstern girl."

Alec looked downcast and said, "Of course, Your Majesty."

"Good. Now get out of here and do whatever it is you do. Visit that friend Moncrieff of yours or something. I hear he has a serious case of pentapox."

Alec simply bowed and left the room. It was odd that the queen would say those two things in such a short while. It was as if she was goading him into not making a choice between the two things that he valued most in life: his duty and his love. Either she was completely insane or utterly brilliant; unfortunately, nobody would ever be able to know the truth.

Alec then spent a number of hours mulling over the queen's supposed insanity and/or intelligence, but to no avail. Luckily, it prevented him from being bludgeoned to death by boredom on what looked to be an entirely uneventful day.

Of course that idea was completely incorrect; no day was ever going to be entirely uneventful, and this one kept to that universal rule.

On his way to yet another meeting with some feckless noble begging for some inane favor, Alec's ears picked up soft whispers coming from the tiny niches in the hallway. Immediately, his eyebrows raised suspiciously and his lips pursed, for in front of him stood Jace and Simon deep in some conversation, both trying to look inconspicuous. Alec gently folded his arms and stared at them intently. For some reason he desired to know the contents of the conversation, probably because he assumed it was going to be about him, but perhaps also because the two of them had exchanged nary a word before and now they were enthralled in conversation.

As it turned out, Alec was not very good at making himself inconspicuous, so his eavesdropping was quickly noticed by Jace, who then said "We're not talking about you, Alec. We're talking about her."

Of course they were. Jace would try to find things out about Clary and he would go to Simon, who was not only someone who knew all the nobility well, but was also the closest thing Clary had to a real friend.

Simon, meekly as always, decided it was best for him to speak: "I was just telling Jace that Clary probably still really likes him and that her reason for doing that probably has something to do with her father."

Jace, still somewhat unconvinced said, "I doubt she feels that way. I was probably just some passing fancy, some thing she could entertain herself with."

Alec looked down at the floor, and said, "Well it's somewhat about her father... it's just that he's forcing her to do something-to marry someone. The queen is forcing her to do that too."

Simultaneously Simon and Jace exclaimed, "WHAT!? WHO?!"

Alec refrained from looking up. He noticed that the floor had quite a bit of dust on it, and that his shoes needed a good polish. Finally after what seemed like an eon he quietly mumbled, "Me."

Alec had only seconds to shut his eyes before he found himself on the floor writhing in pain.

Immediately after hearing Alec's revelation, Simon had started blathering on incessantly about forced marriage laws and something about bad noble practices-generally stuff that neither Alec nor Jace actually cared about. Jace on the other hand was completely silent, utterly devoid of comment. Not a single witty thing came out of his mouth, which was entirely surprising because he always had a retort.

In those seconds that was the first thing that worried Alec, so naturally he lifted his head from the ground. Bad move.

What Alec saw in Jace's eyes is best described as the combination of rage, hurt, rage, betrayal, and more pure, unadulterated rage.

It was no surprise then, that Alec saw Jace's fists balled up at his sides. Unwilling to fight his friend, he simply closed his eyes waiting for the fist to land on his face. He deserved it for not telling him beforehand.

And so there was Alec lying on the floor, hand over his eye in pain. By that time Simon had returned from planet legalese and stared at the two of them dumbfoundedly.

Not that it mattered to Alec of course, who at this point was seeing stars and trying to regain his balance to get up again. In fact, by the time he got up a minute later everything seemed to be fine, except the dull throb around his left eye that would undoubtedly be a bruise by the morning.

The better reaction came from Jace, who started by apologizing profusely and doing his best to get a good look at Alec's eye. In fact, in his profuse apology he accepted the fact that not only was he going to be fired from his job but that in all likelihood he would be charged with the battery of the Crown Prince and then summarily thrown in jail for the rest of his life. At this point Alec decided to interrupt him.

Alec then calmly and collectedly said, "You're not going to jail because I'm pretty sure I deserved that. Now if both of you won't mind, I'm going to go upstairs and lie down since my head is hurting. Simon, please cancel all my appointments for the day and tell them I'm feeling indisposed. Jace, accompany me upstairs."

Despite their initial surprise at Alec's somewhat cheerful, commanding tone, the two of them parted ways and obliged immediately. While Alec and Jace didn't do much talking on the way to his chambers, once they made it to Alec's rooms, they had a serious conversation about Clary.

"I'm sorry I didn't tell you earlier, I just wasn't sure how to." Alec said.

"Even still, that doesn't merit getting punched in the face."retorted Jace.

"I'd disagree with you on that, especially since it's my face. But I think I have good news for you."

"Well I know now that she definitely does like me, so it can't be much better."

"When Simon was rambling I realized I should probably just convince the queen that Clary loves someone else and that marrying her would be a mistake for me because I can't marry someone that doesn't love me."

"And you think that would work?"

"It's worth a try, isn't it?"

Jace would have liked to respond to that statement, unfortunately he at that moment, found himself lying on the floor seeing stars.

While the two of them were on their way up to Alec's rooms, Simon had done what he was supposed to do: cancel Alec's appointments. Unfortunately one of those meetings had been with Magnus, so naturally, he did the only thing he could think of: run upstairs to see how Alec was doing. Upon seeing Alec's bruised eye and hearing about the punch from Jace's own mouth, Magnus did what was entirely expected of him. Thus Jace was lying on the floor in pain, seeing stars, Alec was staring at Magnus with an odd mixture of adoration and horror, and Magnus felt the need to hold Alec in his arms for the next few hours despite the fact that Alec wasn't really that hurt.

It was in this situation that Izzy and Clary found their friends. Naturally Izzy's only response was to laugh haughtily at the situation, while Clary only looked at Jace with horror and sadness. After her good laugh, Izzy saw the looks that Clary and Jace were giving each other; she could hear the words unspoken between them; she could feel the tension mounting in the air as they were ready to explode. Considering the importance of such a conversation on their relationship, she pushed the two of them into Alec's bedroom and promptly landed herself on the couch precariously placed between Alec and Magnus.

"So" she snarked, "someone finally decided to sock you in the face?"

"Sad it wasn't you?" retorted Alec.

"Devastated. It's always been a life goal of mine."

Alec's only response was to roll his eyes at her and turn away. Izzy, graceful as always, turned to him and stuck out her tongue.

"Ahem," interrupted Magnus, "while I'm sure you'd love to continue this-uh-sibling love, I'd like to take a look at my boyfriend."

Izzy unwillingly got up and moved to a different couch leaving Magnus to scoot over next to Alec and stare at his slowly bruising face.

"You know," he said smiling, "the black and blue around your eyes really works well with your hair. You don't look half bad like this."

Alec pushed Magnus back and scowled.

Magnus laughed again and said, "Well now that's not fair! You can't put your lips in that shape in front of me, it's simply too tantalizing. I have no self control."

And with that he proceeded to softly plant his lips on Alec's.

They proceeded to kiss, softly at first, but then with more and more ferocity, even beginning to tug at their clothes when Izzy interrupted, "Get a room!"

Magnus rolled his eyes and retorted, "We would, but the one we were planning on using is currently occupied because of you darling, so sit back and enjoy the show." He leaned in to kiss Alec again, but Alec decided that this wasn't something he wanted his sister seeing, so naturally he stopped Magnus.

This time Magnus pouted and huffed haughtily saying, "Alexander you little incubus! This is entirely unfair."

Alec, suddenly feeling rather tired, leaned into Magnus' shoulder and rested his head. His eyes slowly began to droop, when he heard a door open.

Out of that door walked Jace and Clary. They were holding hands and seemed happy. They gracefully sat down together; Clary said, "We've decided to make this work somehow. I'm ready to face my father and I think he'll relent to me. I mean power can't mean more to him than his only daughter, right?"

Magnus, Izzy, and Jace nodded in unison smiling broadly. Clary looked to Alec for affirmation, but noticed that he was soundly asleep on Magnus' shoulder.

Chuckling softly, Magnus said, "Well that's nice and all, but I think it's time you all left. I'm going to put my boyfriend to bed and then probably stay there with him doing all kinds of scandalous things."

Jace's jaw dropped, but Clary and Izzy just laughed. Before giving Jace a chance to protest, they dragged him out of the room saying something about how Alec would need his rest before visiting some sick friend in the countryside.

Alec felt as light as a feather. He was simultaneously soaring in the sky and diving deep in the sea. The entire time, Magnus was there with him. They smiled in the sunshine and traversed the sky and sea with finesse and prowess.

Then Magnus said he had to leave. Alec tried to protest, but the words wouldn't come out of his mouth. He thought he felt Magnus kiss him softly on the head and then disappear from the sky and sea.

Alec was there alone. He flew and swam for a few more minutes.

Then it ended. He plummeted out of the sky; the ground reached up from underneath him and claimed him on the sharp jagged rocks. The sea dried underneath the oppressive heat of the sun; the sand sucked him in, deeper and deeper until he ceased to exist.

It was dark again. It was always dark.

I began to cough a sputter again. The air was barely reaching my lungs. I stopped and took a gulp of water. The Professor stared at me with wide eyes filled with worry. I motioned with my hand that I was fine. He looked entirely unconvinced.

Still, he moved on and asked, "How is it that we know the contents of Prince Alexander's dreams and nightmares?"

I looked at him blankly for a minute. He was asking me for my source on the information. I should have known this would happen eventually. Still, the timing isn't right for that. It's still too early.

I had to reply, "Some of it is written as a first hand account from Alec himself; most of it, though, was written by an ancestor of mine; she had-ah-intimate knowledge of the events involved."

Before being able to continue, I began to sputter again. The cough was more violent this time. I was heaving. My lungs felt like they were going to implode. I noticed that there was blood in the phlegm. The end was almost near.

I noticed in all my heaving, that there were black spots in my vision. I saw the Professor's dark eyes boring holes into my own with concern and consternation. Then my body and mind gave way. I collapsed.