(A/N: AGH I'm a terrible person! I'm sorry for leaving everyone hanging for over a year, I promise I haven't given up on this story! I should have updated a very long time ago… You can scold me in the reviews. Anyways, enjoy!)
Rose woke from the pleasant memories still in a daze. The sun shone through the wisps of cloud, its warmth heating her face—a welcome feeling so different from the cold hard cement beneath her. Wait… She blinked quickly, reminding herself that she was no longer at the Taipei Institute. Rose sat up with a start and slowly peered over the edge of the roof into the alley below. The coast was clear. She saw no trace of mechanisms and concluded the automatons gave up after all, called back to whoever their master was.
Sighing partly from relief and partly from the disappointment of no opportunity to fight, Rose clambered down from the roof as gracefully as she could. Fortunately no one was around to notice a girl awkwardly climbing down from the top of a building. Since it was already morning, walking to the port was no longer an option. She didn't even know when the next ship bound for Liverpool was to leave. The second she hit the ground, Rose ran instead toward the slums of the city where Downworlders and demons generally clustered. Hopefully she could catch an old family friend. Surely he remembers my father, thought Rose, smiling at memories of the two bickering over ideas. "Debating," her father called it, though they obviously weren't very organized arguments.
The sky seemed to darken as Rose neared the area, and she grew wary. Since the invasion, the Japanese had taken over everything—even the slums. She had nothing against the Japanese because they were human too and she was a shadowhunter first, Chinese second; but she knew exactly what they did to young women in these parts of town and suddenly wished she had changed into gear to look more like a man, as they tended to bother men less, but it was too late now. She tried to pull her hood over her head and her cloak tighter around herself. As she did so, her family ring glinted in a ray of passing sunlight.
A ratty-looking man stumbled to her, grabbing at her diamond pendant and hissing in her ear in Japanese. She understood exactly what he said, for she was required to learn the language, and fought the urge to release the blade on her cane and end it. Some men were simply disgusting. When he began touching her inappropriately, she recoiled and slapped him across the face. The man's face flickered to something inhuman just for a second, but it was enough for her to realize: he was an Eidolon demon.
Rose instinctively sprang into action, drawing on of her seraph blades for close combat. "Saraqael." The blade lit up and she made a move, but not nearly fast enough. The demon had already sent a streak of blue sparks in her direction that hit her square in the shoulder, throwing her backward. She rolled to distribute the impact and jumped back on her feet. The Eidolon smirked and shot another bolt of lightning aimed straight at her chest. She brought her seraph blade up just in time to ricochet it back at the demon.
"Foolish little Nephilim girl," it snarled menacingly. "Coming down to these parts alone… I will have so much fun with you." It lunged at her, finger lengthening to razor-sharp claws.
Rose wasted no time and stabbed the Eidolon, ichor splattering her qipao and cloak. The demon vanished. "Disgusting creatures," she muttered, tossing away her seraph blade as the acidic blood disintegrated it.
She picked up her pace, walking with purpose through the dilapidated streets. The area remained eerily quiet as the people in the streets. As she rounded a corner, Rose heard a whir and a click. Immediately she tensed. Not again.
Whirling around, Rose met the face of a crudely assembled automaton. The intricate workings of clockwork were bare for her to see since there was no skin to cover it all. The automaton clicked again as it fixed its macabre gaze on her. For a moment, Rose was completely frozen.
"Give me… your family ring and no harm will be done," the machine recited, holding out the hook it had for a hand.
"W-why?" Rose couldn't keep the tremor out of her voice. "What do you want with it?"
Mechanisms whirred as if the robot was actually considering her question. "One does not question the Magister," it said.
"The Magister?" Rose repeated in a whisper. That's Latin for 'master', she recalled from her lessons. Well, if a man already had such power to be referred to as such, what good would my family ring do for him? It's nothing but a bit of metal!
The automaton seemed to take her silence as defiance. "Give me your family ring and no harm will be done." It took a step closer to her.
Rose tightened her grip on her phoenix cane and shook her head.
"Give me your family ring!"
Even with all her training as a shadowhunter, nothing could have prepared her for the speed at which this machine moved. It sprang at her in an instant, knocking her to the ground and leaving her barely enough time to flip her cane to defend herself. Its hooked hand was sharp, shearing through the side of her qipao easily. Her side stung suddenly and she realized she had been cut. Furious at being bested by a machine, she shoved it off and dug her cane hard into its chest with a satisfying crunch. Gears came loose as the automaton spasmed, sparks flying from the indentation made by the cane.
Rose bent to pick up another gear to add to the parts she already had, intent that her father's old friend, Henry Branwell, could examine them. She cast a final glance at the crumpled mess of gears, pistons, cogs, and plates of metal. This one won't be alone, she thought. More are coming for me.
Though she did not understand why she was hunted, she knew enough to understand there was someone—The Magister—who knew something about her family that even she did not know. There was something he wanted from the Wakefields that he would kill for.
The stinging wound was really beginning to slow her down, but Rose refused to give in. She had to get to this old family friend. Luckily, the shadowhunters of the Taipei Institute visited often enough to know exactly where he resided in Taiwan so Rose didn't have to think too hard on where she was going.
"Rosetta Wakefield!" a cheery voice cut through her haze of pain. "How nice to see you again, it's been years! Though, I didn't expect you to be limping along with a walking stick the next time you came to visit me. At least that stick is fashionable. I rather like the diamond phoenix design on its head, and ooh… is that mahogany?"
Rose looked up with a small smile despite everything. "Hello Magnus."