Magnus Bane had come to the Institute, since Alec's message had requested that. He had said it was important, and Magnus believed him. Magnus hoped nothing bad was happening. The war against Valentine had happened recently, and Magnus hated that sort of wars. He would have gone into hiding if it hadn't been for Alec. Alec sat on a chair in the living room, he looked serious. With Alec, that wasn't much of a surprise, he was a serious person. Isabelle, Jace and Clary were there as well, and they had a Phone on the speaker. The vampire boy, Magnus guessed. He couldn't enter the Institute.
'What happened?' Magnus asked, and he looked worried at Alec, who looked worried as well. So did Isabelle. And Jace. Clearly, something was going on. Magnus sat down next to Alec.
'The Clave wants me to kill the Wicked Witch of the West,' Alec said, 'Mostly because of you, Magnus, because you can help me find her. I don't know what to do. I'm not even sure if I could kill her, would I find her. I'm not particularly good at killing, not downworlders.'
'Of course, we'll all help him and go with him,' Jace said, 'But we have no clue where to start.'
Magnus remembered the Wicked Witch of the West. He felt a bit guilty. The first time he had met her, she attended one of his parties, and he had met her after that once. She had asked him for help, but he had refused. Maybe if he had helped her, she wouldn't have turned evil. Magnus had believed when she had asked her for help that she was evil, the news was out in the world already, that's why he had turned her down. But later he thought, she didn't appear evil then, but after killing those shadowhunters, she was now.
'She has a sister,' Magnus said, 'Rosaline, a warlock, nowhere near her own power, but maybe she know where to find her.'
'Don't they call her the Wicked Witch of the East?' Isabelle asked, 'Do you think she would help us to kill her sister? Just guessing, but the name sort of says she's Wicked. Besides, if Alec were an evil warlock, I wouldn't betray him to you either.'
Alec looked at his sister. 'I'm not a warlock and I'm not evil, that wouldn't be the same. But if her sister is evil, than we'll have to force her to tell the truth or something, and we would have to kill her, even if we don't want to.'
'Why would we have to kill her?' The voice came trough the Phone. The vampire boy.
'Because it is the law,' Alec said, 'If we can prove a downworlder has broken the law, we have to kill the downworlder.'
'I'll be careful,' vampire boy said as a joke, 'I wouldn't want you to kill me, Alec.'
'I'm serious, Simon,' Alec said, 'I may soon be responsible for killing both witches.'

Ariadne was in fighting gear, and had taken a seraph blade, another dagger, and her chakrams, which were her weapons of choice. She was going to find the Wicked Witch of the East, and she wasn't taking any risk. She had to be armed. She had runed herself as if she were going to battle, just in case. The place were the witch lived wasn't exactly listed, but she had found a way to find a dimensional hole. It appeared that the witch lived in an appartment in Manhattan. She was going to break in, that was the plan. She used an opening rune on the door, something mundanes wouldn't notice. She walked up the stairs, and opened the door to the witches house with an opening rune as well. She closed the door behind her, so the mundanes wouldn't notice anything. From the inside, the place was gigantic. Ariadne didn't know where she had to go to find the witch.
'Hello?' she shouted. Her voice resounded trough the hall. From the outside, it looked like a smart appartment. From the inside it was more like a castle. Everything was beautifully decorated. And, Ariadne remembered the story about the wizard of Oz, the Wicked Witch of the East wouldn't die because a house fell on her. A man walked towards her. When he got closer, she saw he wasn't really a person. He was made of clockwork, and she heard a ticking sound from him. Was that the replacement of a heart? What was this? A robot?
'Who are you?' the clockwork creature asked, 'Have you come to save me?'
'Save you from whom?' Ariadne inquired. Had the Wicked Witch of the East done this? But she wasn't that powerful, was she?
'The Witch, of course,' The clockwork creature said, 'She removed my heart with her magic, and then her sister turned me into this, so I wouldn't die of losing my heart. They're both wicked.'
Ariadne thought deeply. 'What were you before you became a clockwork man?' she asked.
'I was a young man,' he said, 'My sister's a warlock, and I was going to become a vampire, so we could both live forever. She is all I ever had, my sister. But then I met Rosaline, and at first she seemed nice. Her sister was odd, though, with her green skin. I also met Christabel. You may know her as the Good Faerie of the North. I fell in love with her, but Rosaline loved me, and because of her disability I stayed with her, after her sister turned evil. But she turned as evil as her sister, for she wouldn't let me out of the house, not ever, and neither were the servants allowed to leave. Then her sister gave her enchanted shoes, and now she can walk. I wanted to leave, for she didn't need me, but she wouldn't let me, and when I told her I love Christabel, she made me lose my heart to her, literally, and then her sister turned me into this clockwork creature.'
'You were a mundane. Using this kind of magic on a mundane is against the law,' Ariadne says, 'That means I am allowed to kill her. Firstly I will try to find out where her sister lives, because I will kill her, but then I will kill the Wicked Witch of the East as well. Will you help me? Do you have any idea what you can do with your clockwork body? Where is the witch?'
The clockwork creature showed her the way trough the house. Hadn't the witch noticed she was there? But she wasn't powerful, not that powerful.
'In here,' the clockwork creature said.
Ariadne walked in. It was a huge hall, with a beautiful chair with wheels. The clockwork creature had told her the witch no longer needed the wheel chair. Ariadne saw her standing, and then she looked at her.
'Who are you?' she demanded, 'Shadowhunter.'
'I'm Ariadne Midwinter, witch,' Ariadne said, 'You broke the law by what you did to that mundane, and you will die for it!' She grabbed hold of one of her chakrams, and then the second. Chakrams weren't easy weapons to fight with, but when you were skilled, chakrams were very useful. The witch created blue flames and threw them at her. Ariadne evaded the attack and threw one of the chakrams. The witch almost evaded it, but it cut her arm. Ariadne saw blood streaming over her arm. It was easy to notice in the white dress she wore. Ariadne caught her chakram again.
'Kill her, Ariadne!' the clockwork creature screamed.
'Even you, Jamie?' she asked, 'Are you against me? Do you want me dead? Kill me then, shadowhunter. Kill me, and live with the guilt of killing an innocent woman.'
'You are no innocent woman,' Ariadne shouted while throwing her chakram again, 'You tried to remove this boy's heart! But I might have mercy. Tell me where your sister is, and I'll let you live. Tell me where your sister is!'
The witch looked at her. 'I won't. Kill me if you want to, it doesn't bother me anymore, not without Jamie. It is true. I am the Wicked Witch of the East, but I never wanted to be. All I wanted was for him to stay with me, to stay 'till my sorry life has ceased. Kill me, take him with you if you want to, but my life is over.'
Ariadne caught her chakram, which had missed the witch in purpose and was meant as a distraction. 'Die, then, witch!' she screamed, and once again she threw her chakram, and this time, it hit the neck of the witch, piercing deep trough, and she collapsed. Ariadne knew she was dead. She walked up to the dead witch to recollect her chakram. By the law, she could have some of this things. The witch had been rich, Ariadne could be rich. She had proof the witch had broken the law, and officially this was all hers. But Ariadne didn't want it. She wanted her brother to be safe. Now that the witch was dead, she did feel some guilt. She knew it had been her right to kill this woman, but the way she looked, dead, it was sad. Now she was dead, Ariadne started to understand part of her. This woman had been madly in love with the mundane, and tried to make him lose his heart to her. That happened, but too literal. She wasn't evil the way her sister was, though she had done bad things.
'What is your name, Clockwork man?' she asked.
'Jamie,' he answered.
'Jamie, help me search this place for clues, where the Wicked Witch of the West is.'

They had all come together at Magnus' place in the end, because Simon couldn't enter the Institute, and it wasn't easy for him to just talk with them trough his phone.
'So you know where we can find the Wicked Witch of the East,' Simon said, 'Isn't that the witch who was crashed under Dorothy's house or something? And the Wicked Witch of the West melted because Dorothy threw a bucket of water over her.'
Alec stared at him in disbelief. 'Are you suggesting I should throw water over her? Because I really don't think that would kill her.'
'Forget about it,' Simon said, 'You don't really look like Dorothy either. She wasn't exactly a shadowhunter, you know.'
Alec sighed. 'Magnus knows where the Wicked Witch of the East lives, but we don't know if she could help us. It is our only lead, so we'll try.'
'If it is a dead end,' Jace said, 'We could travel to Los Angeles, that's where the dead shadowhunters were found. That may also be a lead.'
Alec looked at his parabatai. 'That might be a good idea, if the witch here can't help us. We'll need a plan, though, to enter her house, and to survive her, if she is dangerous.'
Magnus shook his head. 'She isn't powerful, the Wicked Witch of the East. Not like her sister. I don't know who the Wicked Witch of the West's father is, but he must be a very powerful demon. Like...'
Magnus didn't finish his sentence, but Alec knew he meant his own father. Compared to Magnus' father, Alec's own father wasn't even that bad.
After Izzy and Jace had gone back to the Institute, and Simon and Clary both went home, Alec went to bed together with Magnus. He was tired, after the council meeting that morning, and making plans to succeed Alec's impossible job. He also felt tired of Idris. Shadowhunter there were less acceptant of relationships with downworlders, and most of them were very homophobic. It was painful and exhaustive for Alec. He lay down close to Magnus, and he put his arm around Magnus.
'Magnus, have you ever had to deal with homophobia?' he asked. Alec didn't know exactly how old Magnus was, but he probably had lived for a while, and in a time when homosexuality was even less accepted than now.
'Well, yes of course,' Magnus asked, 'But your parents, they have accepted it, haven't they?'
Alec lay down his head closer to Magnus. 'My father not really. He asked me what he did wrong, what turned me gay. I just want to know... how to deal with it.'
Magnus put his hand in Alec's hair. 'It isn't easy, Alec, certainly not with your father not accepting you, I can understand that. Best thing to do is try to be stronger than that, or try to explain it to your father.'
'I'm tired,' Alec finally said, 'I'm going to sleep if that's okay with you.'
'Good night, darling,' Magnus told him.
'Good night, Magnus,' Alec whispered back, and soon after that he fell asleep.