Berlin 1945
"Can you tell us what happened in Berlin during the war?" Jeremy Pineshade asked Magnus when he and Jace came into his cell the day after the Rome attack.
Magnus looked up at Jeremy, the young Shadowhunter's chestnut eyes a striking reminder of his grandfather. Magnus could almost picture the ten-year-old Joshua Pineshade –skinny legs, long arms, the mahogany hair his grandson would inherit –following him around the Paris Institute, a chess board under his arm, pleading for 'just one more game, Magnus.' An involuntary smile rose to his lips; seeing his old friend's features on the face of the young man in front of him filled him with nostalgia for years and lifetimes gone by.
"I will tell you what I know," Magnus said turning to Jace, "but first, you have to promise to transfer me to a more secured location. My presence here is dangerous."
"Surely, you are not planning to hurt us," said Jace, with a look that betrayed a complete lack of concern.
"Not me," Magnus stated lifting his hands and showing the manacles around his wrists "These, however, are like beacons and the moment Annaliese and her people home in on them, they will come after us, and I will be powerless to do anything."
"Can you remove them?" asked Jace.
"This is powerful magic that is also inhibiting my powers. Right now, I cannot conjure up a pair of clean socks, or a cup of coffee. I cannot even do my nail polish," Magnus said, turning his hands and looking at his nails, trying to sound like his usual sassy self.
"Don't worry," Jace told him and smiled playfully. "We will figure out how to take them off. In the meantime, we will make sure you have plenty of clean socks and coffee, and I am sure Izzy would not mind helping with nail thing."
"You are a darling, darling," replied Magnus with one of his mischievous smiles.
Jeremy who, until then, had only seen the warlock a handful of times and always in Alec's company, didn't know whether to laugh or frown at the exchange. The conversation sounded awfully casual considering the seriousness of the situation. Instead, he stirred the topic in a more familiar direction. "We have records that suggest that you were in Berlin during the war, and that you met Annaliese Fen and Khuno Jarh there."
"You found something in your grandfather's diaries, didn't you?" Magnus asked. Leaning back against the wall, he crossed his legs, rested his hands on his lap, and looked at Pineshade. "Tell me, did Joshua suspect that Annaliese and Khuno were alive?"
"Yes," Jeremy replied, surprised by the affection in Magnus' voice when he spoke of his grandfather, a Shadowhunter who, as far as he knew, wasn't particularly friendly with any Downworlders. "But his notes are brief and rather cryptic; he speaks of a mission but doesn't say what it was or your role in it."
Magnus sighted deeply and loudly. "You grandfather was a true and loyal friend who kept a secret of mine for most of his life. I loved him deeply and I trusted him until the day he died."
"He didn't betray your secret," Jeremy told him, wanting, for some reason, to reassure Magnus that his trust had not been misplaced. "As I said, his notes are very brief."
"It doesn't really matter now. We all know that secrets eventually come to light," Magnus said, and looking at Jace and Jeremy, he began to tell the story, his voice steady. Magnus was determined to tell the tale without justifications or apologies.
"I spent part of the war in France with a group in the French resistance that was made up of mundanes and Downworlders. The Clave had, as usual, stayed out of the conflict and had closed their borders determined to wait out the war in Idris. The European Institutes were heavily warded and kept only skeleton personnel. Your grandfather sent your grandmother and their three young children to Idris and he stayed to protect the Berlin Institute."
"One day I got a message from a warlock friend, one of the few that were still in Poland. She told me that a warlock by the name of Annaliese Fen was summoning our kind to a town about ninety kilometers south west of Berlin, called Brandenburg. I had met Annaliese and Khuno Jarh, her companion, two centuries before and I knew they were dangerous, so I decided to go and see what they were up to. I portalled to Berlin where I met with Joshua, who was a longtime friend."
Magnus didn't tell Jace and Jeremy that the night he arrived, he and Joshua spent the evening playing chess and, over drinks, Magnus told him his story. He spoke about his childhood, his youth, his time with the Silent Brothers in Spain, and his desire to go home after almost a hundred years of wandering. He finally told him about meeting Annaliese and Khuno; of feeling that he had found what he was looking for, a place where he felt completely and utterly fulfilled and loved; and how eventually he had come to realize that the price for that home and that happiness was too high. Joshua, a Shadowhunter raised to distrust and even feel disdain and disgust towards people like Magnus, had simply listened and when Magnus had looked up, he had seen not a shred of prejudice in his friend's eyes. Decades later, Alec's expression of unconditional acceptance had reminded Magnus of Joshua Pineshade, and he had felt that the universe had blessed him twice.
"I arrived in Berlin a few days before the Allied Forces began their last offensive on the city. The place was in bad shape but there were still pockets of Nazi troops that fervently and against all odds believed that they would be victorious."
Magnus had thought that the city was under a cloud of deep denial. Night clubs were still open for SS officers and soldiers to go have fun, even though there was hardly any liquor left. The Nazis radios continued to transmit information about supposed victories and propaganda that promoted the righteousness of the Aryan cause. Despite all evidence to the contrary, many Germans still believed that they would win and the atmosphere was almost festive. No one seemed to be concerned for the millions of deaths that the ideas of a madman had incited. No one seemed to care for the millions who were still dying in the extermination camps peppered throughout Europe.
"Joshua and I went in search of information that could lead us to Annaliese. We didn't have to go farther than a local night club that SS officers used to frequent. There we run into Annaliese and Khuno who were in the company of an SS officer, someone by the name of Krupp. Annaliese was apparently Krupp's date that night, but as Krupp got more and more inebriated, it became evident that he preferred Khuno. Of course, Khuno was glamored to look like a tall and dashing German officer. Krupp's tastes might have been eclectic, but I doubt he would have appeared in public accompanied by a man who was born in Africa at least a hundred years before the first white men arrived there."
Meeting Annaliese after two centuries had been like reopening a wound that Magnus had thought closed for a long time. Old memories and old regrets had come back to him all at once; memories of death and destruction that Magnus had failed to prevent or stop. Still, Annaliese had appeared happy to see him and she smiled broadly when she saw him enter the club. That is, until she realized that Magnus was in the company of a Shadowhunter. Her smile had frozen in her lips, and then it had turned to disappointment and, later, to a hatred so intense that Magnus thought that the emotion would burn through the glamor that disguised her eyes' true color. She didn't say anything to Magnus that night, she simply glared at him and Joshua across the room, conveying with her eyes rapprochements that Magnus needed no words to understand. Soon after, she stood up and giving Magnus a look a deep disdain left, followed by Krupp and Khuno. Perhaps, Annaliese and Khuno thought that Magnus and Joshua were a couple; perhaps they thought that Magnus had come to join them. Magnus never found out. One thing he was certain of, however: Annaliese never thought Magnus would get in the way of her plans. Until the very end, she thought Magnus was incapable of going against her.
"After that night, Joshua and I spent a few days tracking Annaliese around Brandenburg without much success, until we finally found her by following the movements of one of her mundane companions. He led us to a camp located in a forest in the outskirts of the city. The place was no more than three or four wooden barracks, four watch towers, and a building in which labs and a command center were located. We observed the place for a few days, using magic and Nephilim runes to listen in on their conversations, trying to ascertain their plans. That is how we found out that Annaliese and Khuno had told Krupp about the Downworld. Krupp was a doctor and a scientist who was obsessed with magic. Annaliese and Khuno had convinced him that if they could devise a way to harness the powers and abilities from warlocks and other downworlders, they could improve the Nazi's chances of winning the war."
"I don't know how much the Nazi line of command knew, but by the time Joshua and I arrived in Brandenburg, there were about forty SS soldiers guarding and working in the camp, including a team of about ten officers, most of whom were also scientists. Annaliese's old accomplices were also there: Gwydion, Edbert and a few of the others that, to this day, constitute her closest circle. In addition to the heavily armed guards, the camp was also warded, but one knight, Joshua and I jumped the fence and went inside, and we saw what they were doing."
"There were perhaps ten warlocks held prisoners in one barrack. The other barracks housed werewolves, vampires and even mundanes. The prisoners were all in very bad shape, wounded, burnt with silver, weak, half-starved, their power depleted. I think that's when Annaliese and Khuno developed the enchantment for these manacles," observed Magnus, lifting his wrists once again. "They had done experiments and medical procedures, and most prisoners showed signs of mutilation and disfigurement. I think they were trying to learn the effect of demonic powers on Downworlders, and the secret to immortality."
Magnus voice trailed off until he fell silent, his eyes lost in the distance as if he was seeing again that horrific place and the images of the terrible things that Annaliese, Khuno and the SS scientists had done to their captives. He never thought anyone could be capable of such cruelty, such savagery. The spectacle had paralyzed him and left him speechless and powerless for the first time in his very long life. He had hated himself for ever having felt anything for Annaliese and Khuno; for ever having agreed with their ideas; for once having believed in their plans.
"Please kill me," one of the vampires had pleaded when he saw Magnus. He was tied to a surgical bed and someone had cut his chest open, exposing his heart. They had left the wound open and exposed to see, Magnus suspected, whether, and for how long, the vampire would survive the loss of blood, or whether infestation would set in on the wounds. Magnus just stood frozen in place, overwhelmed by the pleading face of the young vampire trapped in a permanent state of agonizing non-death. Perhaps the werewolves had been more fortunate, if you could call their fate fortune; for they at least could die.
"Some horrors can never and should never be described," Magnus stated after a while, his voice heavy with sadness and dark memories. "Let me just say that Valentine didn't have the monopoly on cruelty; my people are as capable of it as anyone."
That night, Joshua practically dragged Magnus out of the camp, and towards the forest where, for the first time in who knows how long, Magnus got sick and threw up on green grass and fallen leaves. "Your grandfather was a brave Shadowhunter and even for him this was a lot to take in," Magnus added looking at Jeremy with evident affection, and remembering how drunk Joshua got that night when they got back to the Institute.
"What happened then? What did you do?" asked Jeremy, eager, Magnus thought, to find out whether his grandfather had found a way to save those poor souls. Perhaps he hoped that Magnus would tell him that his ancestor had found a solution, that at the end Joshua had been the hero of the story. But there were no heroes in this story, for nothing they could have done, would have saved all those lives.
"We went back a couple of nights later. It was the beginning of April and the Allied Forces were about to begin their last offensive on Berlin, the battle that would eventually lead to the end of the war. We had decided to find out what was behind Annaliese' plan, and we did precisely that. We learned that Annaliese was trying to open a rift between this world and Hades, the deepest, darkest and most mysterious level of hell."
Magnus told Jace and Jeremy that he and Joshua had arrived at the camp around midnight and had found it largely deserted. There were none of the guards that had been posted on the watch towers two nights before, and the camp was eerily quiet. A few minutes later, they found out the reason: Annaliese and her people had killed all the mundanes, including the soldiers, officers and Krupp. They had set the vampires who had survived the experiments free and, affected by demonic poisoning, they had fed on the mundanes. Magnus and Joshua found bodies strewn around the camp, some burned to death, others with holes piercing their chests from side to side by magic, but most were completely drained of blood. The scene was horrific and bloody. The warlocks had gotten rid of the mundanes prior to enacting the next step in their plan.
Magnus and Joshua had continued walking deep into the camp, following a strange sound that emanated from somewhere near the center. There they found Annaliese, Khuno and the rest of her people congregated around a huge pentagram drawn on the ground with what looked like blood. They had chained the warlock prisoners in a circle around the pentagram and they were standing on a bigger circle surrounding them a few meters out. They were chanting in the same strange language that the warlocks chanted in the recent attacks. A hole had begun to open in the pentagram's center, like the crater of a volcano that spewed hot lava and rocks. The heat and the flames gained memento until they reached the warlocks in the inner circle and their bodies caught fire. Magnus could still clearly remember the screams and the smell of burning flesh, the old memory mixing with similar and more recent images.
"What do we do?" Joshua had asked calling Magnus out of his stupor.
"What did you do?" Jeremy Pineshade asked now, echoing his grandfather's voice across the years, his eyes, so like his grandfather's, intent on Magnus.
"Joshua and I blew the whole camp up," Magnus replied, a tone of finality in his voice.
Allied Forces had intensified their air strikes on Berlin and the bombs could be clearly seen coming down like gigantic drops of metal rain that never stopped falling and that upon impact illuminated the German sky. Magnus ordered Joshua to leave and, using all his powers, he diverted the course of one of the bombers and then redirected the bombs to fall directly on the camp. As the bombs fell, he used the remaining of his powers to close and seal the rift.
"At the time, I thought that I was also sealing Annaliese inside the rift, or that the explosions had killed her. For a long time, I believed that she had died that night. All that was left of the camps, its barracks and the rift was a huge crater surrounded by scorched forest. I don't remember how Joshua got me out, but sometime later, I found myself slowly walking by the side of the road with him by my side. He was glamored but I wasn't, and the roads were dangerous. German and Allied troops were everywhere and the situation was confusing. We walked in silence for a while until I felt strong enough to open a portal to the Berlin Institute where we spent the next few weeks waiting for the Allies to finally take the city, and for the moment when it would be safe to leave."
"Why was Annaliese opening a rift to Hades? What was her plan?" Jace asked.
"She wanted to summon Lilith, the mother of all demons," came the quiet and gentle voice of Kat from the entrance to the cell.
"Yes," confirmed Magnus looking towards his friend, "and I think she is at it again. She has been obsessed with Lilith since I have known her. How are you Kat?"
"Better," replied his friend with a warm smile. "Magnus, can you tell me what this is?" Kat asked opening her hand and showing Magnus the charm that he had sent Catarina from Barcelona the night before the first attack.
"That, my dear, was made from metal that came from a rock that was expelled out Hades when Annaliese opened the rift. Joshua found it and he gave it to me a few days after we destroyed the camp. We learned later that the rock had magic properties, specifically the power to protect from demonic interference. It could also interfere with magic tracking and with attempts to summon warlocks against their will, as I am sure you have ascertained in the last few weeks. Joshua and I extracted the metal from the rock and with it, we fashioned three pieces of jewelry: this charm, the ring I sent Raphael, which Joshua wore until the day he died, and a third piece that I no longer have in my possession."
"Do you know whether the metal has any other properties?" asked Kat.
"I am not sure. I have never tried to do anything else with it, because I thought that the plan to open the rift to Hades had died with Annaliese."
"Is it okay if I conduct some experiments?"
"Ask Catarina, I sent it to her. It is hers now."
"Alright," Jace said after a few more minutes of questions. "I think we should call it a night. We are all exhausted and need rest. Magnus, I will send someone with coffee and clean socks. Is there anything else you need?"
"Just that you get me out of the Institute. Jace, as long as I remain here you are not safe," he said again. "We are taking a risk thinking that the wards on the walls of the cells will block any tracking. As long as I have these manacles on me, Annaliese and Khuno can find me."
"Can we remove them?" Jace asked turning to Kat.
"I am not sure. This is magic I am not familiar with. For all we know, we could kill Magnus if we try to remove them."
"Or we can create an explosion that can destroy the institute," added Magnus. "I am telling you, this is powerful and dark magic."
"Alright, we will figure it out. For now, it is better that no one knows you are here Magnus. Now get some rest. You look like you haven't slept in days."
"Thank you very much for the compliment. You look fabulous too," Magnus replied trying to keep his tone light.
Jeremy and Kat left first and as Jace was walking away, Magnus stopped him with a gesture.
"How is Alec?" he asked, his voice and his face full of concern and pain.
"I haven't seen him since we returned from Rome. I am going to go find him now."
"Promise me, Jace, that you will look after him if, and when, I am gone."
"I promise, but it won't come to that if I have anything to do with it."
"You may have no choice on the matter. Annaliese will come after me and she will try to get to Alec. She knows he is important to me, Jace, and she hates Shadowhunters. You have to promise me that you will put Alec's safety before mine, and that you will look after him when I am gone."
"Magnus, don't ask me to do that. Alec would never forgive me. Why do you think that you will be gone?" asked Jace.
"Because this has always been a battle to the death," Magnus said and the tone of finality in his voice filled Jace with foreboding.