Chapter 3

first of all I'm really sorry i haven't updated like at all~ i looked at the date and it's been nearly a year to the day. I had just kindof forgot about it and i got busy really busy because school and all.. but i'm here now so here are two chapters I had laying around that i just remembered about

This was unlike any way that Clary had seen a new rune. The detail of the vision was nearly overwhelming – her eyes were still closed, her head still throbbing with pain. Not two minutes after the vision had ended, she heard a car pull up and somebody get out. She opened her eyes to see Simon walking toward Luke's house, toward the steps where she was sitting. She stood up as he approached and walked toward him. He stopped and waited for her to reach him.

"Were you asleep?" he asked as she fell in beside him and they began walking back to his car. "I didn't take that long, did I?"

"No, I just have a headache." Clary replied as she walked around to the passenger side "Do you have an aspirin or something?"

Simon got in the car and pointed to the glove box as Clary sat down. "There should be some Tylenol in there," he said, "but I don't have water or anything."

"That's fine," Clary said, opening the glove box and retrieving the bottle. She shook out a tablet and swallowed it whole as Simon turned off of her street. It left an unpleasant taste in her mouth.

"What are you really doing at the Institute?" Simon said after a few minutes.

Simon was right, it was a Sunday afternoon, and she normally just hung out at home on Sundays. Only he could see through her. "Jace and I were going to do some research. We wanted to find out more about his heritage and... hang out.. I don't suppose you would want to help?"

"Naw, I don't want to intrude on your... heritage discovery... I've got other, more vampire-y things to do anyway. Besides, I'm sure – no, absolutely positive – that there will be more than that going on. If you're catching my drift. And plenty of things like 'Oh, Jace! Your great great great great grandmother was Queen Victoria of England! And your great great uncle was Hitler's cousin! And your aunt's brother's second uncle had a pet giant Chihuahua named Goku! And – Oh look! – you're descended from the Angel himself!"

Clary laughed at that, forgetting her vision for a moment, and Simon looked over at her with a slightly confused face. "It wasn't that funny," he said, then laughed too.

Clary continued laughing. "If it wasn't that funny, why are you laughing?" she asked. "And there's no such thing as a 'second uncle.'"

"The fact that you are laughing at something that wasn't really funny at all is kinda funny and makes me laugh. And I have a second uncle. His name is Janet." he said as he pulled up to the Institute.

Clary smiled, her laughter beginning to cease. "I'll see you later, I guess," she said, stepping out of the car. Simon waved and uttered a cheery farewell, and she waved back as she turned to walk up the steps to the Institute.

Church greeted her with a rather displeased meow as the elevator opened to the second floor, as if she had woken him from his fat, grumpy cat slumber - which was most likely what she had done. Despite being so rudely awoken, the cat meowed again and turned to lead Clary to the library.

"Is Jace already in the library?" she asked. The cat, clearly agitated, stopped, turned its face toward Clary and gave a long meow, as if to say, "Don't ask questions and just follow me." As the cat turned back and resumed sauntering onward, Clary followed.

The heavy library doors were closed, and Clary pushed one open, leaning against it with her side. Jace was sitting at the desk in the center of the room, papers spread about him in somewhat-organized stacks. "Hey," he greeted Clary as the door swung closed behind her. "Come look at these."

Clary made her way over to the desk and to Jace, where she realized that the papers were not only papers, but family trees. There were books too – thin books that resembled photo albums, about the size of printer paper, she thought. "Woah," she breathed, looking at the family trees. "Is yours here? What about mine?"

"Mine had better be here. The Institute would be absolutely out of their mind not to have my record. No one can resist me – in any way."

"Okay, well, have you found it at least?"

"I've found Lightwood, Starkweather, Pangborn, Penhallow, Branwell, Whitelaw..." Jace shuffled through some of the family trees. "There's a Charlotte Fairchild on the Branwell one, and a Cecily Herondale on the Lightwood one."

Clary sat down next to Jace. "Is there an extended Fairchild or Herondale? Or is that all we have?"

At that moment, the library doors swung open and a tall, slim, cat-eyed and sparkly man strode in. Magnus Bane. He came further into the library a few paces, stopped, and looked around the shelves as if searching for someone. "Have either of you seen Alec?" he asked.

Jace smiled. "I'm not exactly sure where he is. Probably out planning your next vacation. Or possibly tearing a demon to shreds. Either would be believable."

Magnus gave Jace a look that dripped with sarcasm. "Really," he said. Magnus wore very nice dress pants – they looked, from Clary's angle, like silk – a black button-up shirt and a shimmery deep purple vest. Clary smiled at his fashion choices, from his shoes that were most likely authentic Italian leather, to the scarf he wore in place of a tie. She thought it was all kindof adorable, in that strange Magnus kind of way.

"So, he's not here," Magnus sounded disappointed, if only a little bit.

"Nope. I can't say he is..." Jace trailed off, obviously not knowing what else to say.

Magnus sighed. He turned to leave, then looked back. "What exactly are you doing?" he asked, seemingly just then noticing the stacks of books and papers on the desk.

Jace glanced down at the Whitelaw family tree he still held in his hand, then back up at Magnus. "Just some research, really; heredity and the likes. You wouldn't care to join?" He laid the family tree back down on the table.

"Actually, I wouldn't care to join. What have we got here?" Magnus pulled up a chair on the other side of Jace. He trailed a finger along the spines of the record books, reading the titles in a whisper to himself, then peeked at the papers scattered on the table. "Ah. You're looking for your family background. I see. Well, if I could point out that I am the most reliable source in this room presently..."

Jace picked up the Lightwood family tree. "Okay," he said in mock defeat. "Why bother with books when you have Magnus Bane?"

"Books are no match for The Magnus Bane, young one. I've seen many, many things." He took the piece of paper and studied it carefully, stroking his chin with a thumb and forefinger. "Ah, Gabriel and Gideon Lightwood – nice boys, they were."

Wanting to know more, but not wanting to stop Magnus from studying the family tree, Clary began to search the stacks of books. She flipped open the cover of the closest book, and was surprised to find the title: An Account of the Lightwood Family 1831-2007. She quickly flipped through the pages, seeing a few family trees, even a few old, splotchy black and white photos; a couple miniscule paragraphs on about every other page, most likely going in to more detail about the family. A lot of the pages looked like official documents about the people – like birth certificates and the like. Excited at the idea of possibly finding out more from the books, Clary reached for the second one and opened the cover. An Account of the Carstairs Family 1838-2007. She flipped through the pages and found the same layout as the Lightwood book – family trees, pictures, and writing.

Magnus was still looking at the Lightwood family tree, mumbling to himself as he read the names, obviously remembering the faces of the people he once knew. "Cecily Herondale," he smiled. "Almost annoyingly stubborn. And she always burst out in Welsh like we were supposed to understand what she was saying. Although I do have to say that she made a good choice in her husband."

At that time, Clary had just opened the third book, and peeked inside as Jace leaned toward Magnus, most likely trying to see who Cecily Herondale had married. "Gabriel Lightwood," he said as Clary read the title on the inside page of the third book. An Account of the Herondale Family 1835-2007.

"Aha," Clary singsonged as she scooted her chair closer to Jace and Magnus, bringing the three books with her. "Look at these!"

"Posh!" Magnus scoffed as Clary set the books down in front of him and Jace. "I can tell you far more than some silly record book can."

Jace gave Magnus a strange look, maybe from his use of 'posh.' Magnus smiled and added to his statement, "That record book wasn't there, and didn't share the same experiences as I did."

"Well, we're going to have a look through them and you can tell us any extra information you think we might need to know." Jace picked up the Herondale record book and opened to the second page. A family tree took up the entire open space, and Clary leaned in to read some of the names.

"My, my. There you are," said Magnus as he pointed to a name at the bottom of the right page. Sure enough, the small italic script read "Jace Herondale 1991- "

Jace ran his finger over his name that was inked onto the page. Clary began tracing the lines of the tree up, to Jace's ancestors. His parents – Stephen Herondale and Céline Monteclaire – both died in 1991, the year Jace was born. His paternal grandfather, Marcus Herondale, also died that same year. She traced the lines of his family tree all the way up to his paternal three-times-great-grandfather and grandmother, Elias Carstairs and Colette Verlac.

"Carstairs," Jace mused. He was about to go on when Magnus cut in.

"You should be proud to have even a little Carstairs blood running through your veins, Jace; courageous and trustworthy people, and powerful too. One in particular –"

"What about him?" Jace pointed to a name at the far left of the page. "James Carstairs 1861- to present," he read. "He's not dead?"

Magnus sighed. "He had... a disease, if you will – an addiction, really, if you want to get technical. He lived in the Shanghai Institute ran by his parents until he was twelve, when his parents were murdered by the demon Yanluo. That's where the addiction came from. He was injected with a drug – a poison – called Yin Fen, and it was slowly killing him."

"Was he actually Chinese?" Clary asked, remembering her vision for a moment.

"His father was an Englishman, and his mother was Chinese – both were Shadowhunters, however. His mother had killed the offspring of the Greater Demon Yanluo, and the demon broke into the Institute, captured the family, and injected Jem with the demon poison right in front of his parents. The poison gave him hallucinations, but he could hear his parents calling for him. The next day he only heard his mother. The Shanghai Enclave broke into the Institute and found both parents dead." Magnus paused for a moment, rubbing his forehead.

"Jem?" asked Jace, leaning forward in his chair, elbows on the table in front of him.

"That was – is – his nickname."

"So he isn't dead?" Jace asked again.

"No," Magnus answered, crossing his left leg over his right. "No, I can't say he is." He looked around the room for a few seconds, his gaze finally landing on the book-covered table in front of them. "You two look like you've got a lot to look through here... any more questions?"

Clary was curious about this James Carstairs, especially after being told he was Chinese. Could he have been the boy in her vision? And if so, why was his hair such a silver color? Shouldn't it have been black? Was it the disease? She obviously couldn't ask these questions without stirring suspicion, so she settled for a more vague approach. "You seem to know a lot about him, Magnus. What did the disease do? And what was he like?"

Magnus chuckled. "You seem rather interested, child."

Not quite subtle enough. "Just... curious."

"He became addicted to the demon poison that he was injected with. He probably wouldn't live to be much older than 20, if even that old. They tried to wean him off of the drug, but discovered that doing so would kill him faster. He took only a small amount per day - enough to keep him functioning - and that was all anyone could do. There was no cure. Sometimes he'd have a fit, and he would cough up blood or collapse and maybe be bedridden for days. The Yin Fen also turned his hair and eyes silver."

Clary tried to hide her sudden sharp intake of breath at the information. Jace didn't notice, as he was still looking over the family tree in front of him. Magnus raised an eyebrow, but otherwise didn't question her further. "Oh, that must have been terrible." she managed to speak after a few seconds. James Carstairs had to be the boy from her vision. If he wasn't, she didn't know who was.

"It wasn't great, by any means, but he had Will and Charlotte and Sophie to take care of him." Magnus paused, rising from his chair. Then he chuckled, seemingly to himself; Clary gave him a confused look. "Oh. Excuse me. I was just remembering how useless the love interest was. Which reminds me - Jace, have you ever wondered where that little star on your shoulder came from?"

Jace looked up from the record book. "Do you know?"

"Pre-marital sex."

"You're joking, right?"

Magnus smiled. "Nope. I was there when it happened. Now if you'll excuse me, I must be going."