"The purpose of life is to live it, to taste experience to the utmost, to reach out eagerly and without fear for newer and richer experience." - Eleanor Roosevelt
Chapter 4
Some way across Brocelind Plain they dropped their horses from a canter to a trot, not wanting to tire their mounts. Jace was still ahead with Clary, and Alec, Isabelle and Jonathan were in the rear.
"So, Max didn't mind being left out again today?" Clary asked Jace as they rode.
"Oh, he minded, but Robert and Maryse don't like to let him come with us all the time," Jace answered. "We're happy to have him come with us when he's allowed, usually, but he's a lot younger, so he isn't allowed to come often."
Clary nodded and looked thoughtful.
"So, Isabelle, Alec and Max are your siblings, but you call The Inquisitor and Mrs Lightwood 'Robert' and 'Maryse'?" Clary asked curiously.
"The Lightwoods are the only family I've ever known, and I've grown up with Alec, Isabelle and Max, as if we really were siblings, but Robert and Maryse aren't my parents. I love them, but I've never called them Mom and Dad, and they've never asked me to. They knew my parents, and I think they understand that I will always think of them as my parents, even though I never knew them," Jace explained seriously.
Clary nodded understandingly and replied, "Jon and I have always called Luke 'Luke'. Jon has a few memories of our father, but neither of us knew him, but he'll always be our father. It's actually kind of hard to forget that seeing as we are who we are because of him. I'll always be Valentine's daughter, regardless of whether I want that title, and regardless of whether it actually is at all relevant to who I actually am."
"Good to get that off your chest?" Jace asked in amusement.
Clary had the grace to look a little abashed, but Jace said, "I like it, you know, your honesty. I like that you don't care about the popularity that could be yours, if you chose to take it. You're focused on training to be a great Shadowhunter, which is what our lives are supposed to be about, not about revelling in who are relatives are."
"Demon hunting is not just a job, but a way of life," Clary replied. "That's what we were always told at home. We're Shadowhunters, we're appointed by God to fight against evil, to protect those who can't protect themselves. Raziel gifted us with abilities so that we can fight the evil in this world and that's something I've always taken seriously."
"And your father died protecting The Mortal Cup," Jace said quietly. "That's kind of a burden, isn't it?"
"Well, it does add to the significance, for me, of what my responsibilities are as a Shadowhunter," Clary allowed. "I understand the sacrifice he made, and I'd make that sacrifice too. The Mortal Cup, The Mortal Instruments, The Gray Book, were given to us by the Angel and are part of our history, and are important to the work we do still. I wish that's what people focused on when they thought of me, the sacrifice my father was willing to make, instead of just viewing him as a hero. I'm glad they think well of him, but I wish that they just respected the sacrifice he made as a part of what anyone would do to stop evil."
"Life is complicated," Jace agreed. "I wouldn't worry too much about the whole hero worship thing though."
"Yeah, because that's the story of your life," Clary retorted. "Unwavering adoration from everyone."
Jace looked at her in amusement and replied, "Well, pleasant as all that may be, I was just going to say that as long as you know what you believe, and you're secure in your understanding of the calling of Nephilim, then who cares how anyone else acts. You respect what your father did, and in their way, so does everyone else. You don't have to refuse popularity or avoid society, just because you don't agree with worshipping a fallen hero, even if he is your father. If you base any of your actions on others you're letting them win."
"But don't you think that at least some of our actions should take into consideration the feelings of others and potential consequences?" Clary asked.
"I wouldn't know, I've never tried it," Jace replied with serene self satisfaction.
"Well maybe you should," Clary suggested tartly.
"Well maybe you should try not being weighed down by what others think," Jace retorted.
"Maybe we could both have things we could learn from each other," Clary allowed. "And for the record, I don't think I bow to everyone around me. I defy society's expectations, I don't pander to them."
"Yes, but you choose to defy them to spite them, not because it's what you really want," Jace pointed out with a satisfied grin.
Clary glared at him.
"You hate that I'm right," he chuckled, pleased. "Think about it, what do you really want?"
Clary looked at him, a little astounded by the depth he possessed, and the shrewdness of the way in which he'd analysed her. She realised she found him absolutely fascinating, and not just because he was physically flawless, though she did rather enjoy that too. With a start she realised that what she wanted was to spend more time with him, as much time as he would give her, and that scared her a little. She wasn't telling him that though.
"What I want is a drink," Clary declared, deciding to try to take a turn away from the serious and personal topics they had fallen to discussing.
"We'll probably stop soon enough for a break," Jace told her, allowing her to redirect the conversation. He could see that his words had actually provoked her to thought, and he didn't want to press her to tell him anything more. With most people he would have been happy enough to give them a hard time, purely for his own amusement, but not with her. Somehow he knew she expected more of him than that, and he didn't want to fall short of those expectations. It wasn't that he was scared of hurting her, he didn't think she was fragile, far from it actually. He didn't want her to resent him or for their conversation to be filled with constant barbs and banter. He liked talking with her about things of substance, he felt comfortable sharing with her, and he'd never felt that way about a girl before.
At that moment Isabelle rode up alongside Jace, her horse prancing a little and getting quite close to Jace's horse.
"What out, Iz! Cleo almost crashed into Rocky," Jace said sharply.
"Well, it's not my fault Cleo finds Rocky as annoying as I find you," Isabelle retorted.
Jace threw her a withering look.
"Your horses have interesting names," Clary remarked.
"Cleo is short for Cleopatra, and Rocky is short for Rochester," Isabelle supplied. "We name our horses after characters from iconic English Literature."
"I'd say that was weird, but we name our horses after mythological gods," Clary said with a grin. "Family traditions are the best."
"I'll say," Jace said wryly. "Trust me, we didn't come up with our horse naming habits, they're a long standing tradition to. According to Grandmother Herondale, my ancestor Will Herondale, who I'm sure you've heard of, started the whole iconic characters naming thing. His sister Cecily married a Lightwood, hence the sharing of the tradition."
"I love that you see Imogen once every few years and that was one of the things she chose to talk to you about," Isabelle teased. "I'm pretty sure there was cooler family history you could have discussed."
"Do you go to see your grandmother, or does she come here?" Clary asked.
"I visit the London Institute, which she runs, every few years, usually at Christmas. They have a pretty big party there at Christmas every year, and I think she figures that if there are extra people around she'll have to spend less time with me," Jace explained, sounding almost bitter.
"So what's Alec's horse called? Oliver? Maud? Polonius?" Clary asked teasingly, deciding to move away from the topic of Jace's grandmother. She was curious to know more about their relationship, but she sensed that it wasn't the time or place.
"Pickwick," Jace answered with a broad grin. "But funnily enough Maryse had a horse called Oliver at one point."
"Are you making fun of my horse's name again?" Alec called, digging his heels into Pickwick and trotting up alongside them, Jonathan following almost immediately. The five of them were riding five abreast now, which was not an issue as they were travelling across the vast openness of Brocelind Plain.
"Well, I hadn't started to yet, but I have a whole string of insults ready to go," Jace told him.
"We know, we've heard them before," Isabelle said with a roll of her expressive brown eyes.
"What's wrong with the name 'Pickwick'?" Jonathan asked. "Pickwick was a great character."
"You're a guy and there's nothing amusing you can find in the name?" Isabelle asked incredulously.
"I wouldn't answer, you can't win," Alec advised. "I think we should pull up for a drink."
Clary was relieved, but less impressed as she listened to Jace and Alec niggle over why Alec got to decide when and where the breaks were taken, with Isabelle adjudicating with thinly veiled disinterest.
"They're like a whole new breed of siblings," Clary murmured to Jonathan.
"They're pretty much a whole new breed of people," Jonathan replied with a grin. "Especially Jace. You never know what you're going to get with him. He's not giving you a hard time, is he? I know you got stuck with him for a while there."
"I can hold my own, and he's not so bad," Clary replied casually.
"Please tell me you're not falling under the Jace Herondale spell," Jonathan said suddenly.
Clary glared at him and hissed, "They're only just over there. Sure they're pretty involved in their argument, but still. And no, I'm not. Isabelle asked me that same thing yesterday though."
"Doesn't that only validate my question?" Jonathan asked pointedly.
"Not really," Clary informed him firmly. "What, have neither of you ever seen Jace just talk to a girl before, and for her not to fall at his feet?"
Jonathan looked in amusement at Clary and she immediately looked sheepish.
"Of course you haven't. All girls fall at his feet, usually of their own accords, he doesn't even do anything to make them," Clary mused. "So I can see why you and Isabelle would wonder, but I wouldn't worry, I'm not like those girls, and Jace isn't being his usual arrogant self, most of the time."
Clary then moved away to speak with Isabelle, leaving Jonathan to think over her words. At first he was placated and quickly becoming unconcerned, until he thought more over Clary's reasoning and he realised that Jace wasn't behaving like typical Jace, and that wasn't a good thing. Jace didn't voluntarily pay attention to girls, and he was paying attention to his sister, and his sister was enjoying his company. Jonathan looked over in alarm to where Clary was standing a few feet away with Jace, Isabelle and Alec, laughing at something Jace had just said to Alec.
Isabelle suddenly looked over at him, and their eyes met, and he knew that she knew what he was thinking. They were both going to have to keep an eye on the situation. They both liked Jace, in their own way, but both felt protective of Clary, to one degree or another, and didn't want to see her get her heart crushed.
Their break ended a few minutes later and they remounted and continued to ride, the mountains they were aiming for looming ever closer.
As they had intended, they reached their destination a little before lunch time and settled in to pitch a sort of mini camp to have lunch and look around the area. They secured their horses, Isabelle grabbed a couple of blankets from her saddlebags and spread them out. They all grabbed the food they had brought and settled down to eat, all too hungry to do anything before they ate.
"What's the plan now?" Jonathan asked once they'd finished eating.
"We could lay here, look at the clouds, and take a nap," Isabelle suggested lazily.
"Or we could have an impromptu fighting tournament," Jace suggested, his face serious, his eyes sparkling with mischief.
"Oh good, Jace would like another opportunity to prove how much of a man he is," Alec said sarcastically. "He must be rather insecure in his self worth seeing as he needs to keep proving himself."
Jace hurled his apple core at Alec, hitting him firmly on the shoulder.
"Or we could have a look around the area, head up the mountain a bit, or check out the forest?" Clary suggested placating.
"I'm vetoing the forest, you know what Luke said before we left," Jonathan said firmly.
"So up the mountain it is," Jace decided.
"We should be on our guard though, you never know what could have strayed from Brocelind Forest," Alec warned seriously.
"I'm always prepared," Jace said superiorly.
"Yes, because I always make sure that you are," Alec retorted.
"And I keep you both from killing each other, which I don't get nearly enough credit for," Isabelle interjected. "Sometimes I forget that you two actually like each other, and enough to be each other's parabatai."
Alec looked abashed and Jace grinned warmly at him.
Jonathan and Clary shared a look of confused amusement, they still didn't quite understand the completely different sibling dynamic.
They packed the things up from their lunches, made sure their horses were secure, checked that they had all the weapons they might need, and then headed to find a path up the mountain.
The spent a fairly uneventful hour nimbly making their way around the slope of the mountain, taking the chance to practice their fighting and coordination ability on hilly terrain.
They then had to start the ride back into the inhabited countryside of Idris, so that they would be home before nightfall, as specified by Jocelyn. The Lightwoods had accepted the dinner invitation, so all five of them were headed for the Fairchild Manor.
Clary was intrigued to see how Jace would act around her parents, not because they were her parents, but because they were parents. Her mother had pretty firm ideas on what she thought was appropriate behaviour, and Luke was pretty big on respect, so she had no idea how they would take Jace, and Alec and Isabelle for that matter. She assumed they were tamer around their own parents, but still, it was hard to tell. At least she knew that both Jocelyn and Luke were familiar with Jace's story, and were friends with the Lightwood parents.
At the Fairchild Manor Cleo, Rocky and Pickwick were temporarily stabled with Aura, Poseidon and the rest of the estate's horses, and the five of them headed inside.
"Mom, we're back," Clary called.
"She's out the back, putting the dinner on the table," Luke supplied, appearing from the office. "Did you all have a good day?"
A collection of positive answers were given and they headed towards the patio, the Lightwoods following the Morgensterns and Luke.
"Have you finished your notes ahead of tomorrow?" Jocelyn asked, hearing footsteps but not looking up.
"We didn't have any homework, Mom," Clary said cheekily.
"Oh, you're back," Jocelyn said brightly. "And you know I was asking Luke about his notes for The Council meeting."
"There's a Council meeting tomorrow?" Alec asked with interest. "Dad hasn't mentioned it."
"He doesn't mention a lot of stuff like that to us," Isabelle pointed out. "He probably thinks we'd get bored hearing everything."
"He'd be right," Jace said naughtily.
"It's just a routine meeting, nothing special," Luke said, in answer to Alec's question. "I was just at the Los Angeles Institute on business, so I have some information to share, which is why I was making notes."
"Oh, sure," Alec replied, a little at a loss for what else to say.
"So everything's alright?" Clary asked. "The Accords were only renewed a few months ago, so there shouldn't be anything to worry about, right?"
"Everything's fine, I promise," Luke said with a laugh. "No one has broken The Law, The Accords are intact, and The Council's Downworlder representatives are all cooperative. There's nothing to concern yourselves with right now, except eating dinner."
They needed little convincing, and were soon all setting down to eat.
AN: Thanks for reading! I appreciate all the reviews, follows and favourites :)
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