++++++ Kinda hoping this story picks up soon in the amount of stats and stuff...

I hope you enjoy.

I do not own ++++++

Three

"You changed your name," Gabriella frowned, stalking Esme as she walked up the stairs, "The Nighthallow name is widely respected and beloved in Idris and you dropped it. Why?"

Esme remained silent.

Gabriella studied the girl from behind, there was that familiar shadowhunter air about her but there was something else…something almost ancient and powerful about her. The shadowhunter had no knowledge of the crime a sixteen-year-old girl could have committed against the Clave but it had to have been something dangerous…something evil to have them set out to strip her of her marks. "I'm talking to you," she snapped, grabbing Esme's arm.

Esme stopped mid-way up the stairs and turned around. Her blue eyes not on Gabriella but staring, seemingly, right into Clary's soul. "You were here not six months ago…where is Jocelyn?" she inquired.

Clary's eyes widened. "You know my mother?"

"Of course," she replied. "Your mother has been a friend to me for some time. In fact, it was Jocelyn who got me this job in the first place." Esme looked to Jace, "please explain to me what is going on?"

"We need to get Magnus to remove the block on Clary's mind," Jace explained.

"Wayland!" Gabriella hissed. "She's the enemy."

"And from where I stand, I can see that she's the only way we have to get to Magnus," Jace snapped. "Shut your trap for once, Gabby."

"What exactly is the party for?" Isabelle asked, trying to lighten the mood.

Esme continued on up the stairs. "Chairman Meow. He's Magnus' cat." She walked through an open set of doors and into one of the strangest gathering's any mundane were to set their eyes on. "There's one rule here, shadowhunter's. Do. Not. Murder. The. Guests. Enjoy." Brushing her dress down, Esme walked off as Gabriella made a mental note to send a message to the Clave and let them know she'd discovered a fugitive.

Clary looked to Jace. "I need to talk to her, she knew my mum-and me apparently." Before anyone could stop her, she followed Esme from the party and into a more private study/library. "Excuse me, Esme?"

Esme flopped down in a seat and picked up a book to sit it on her lap. "Take a seat, Clary."

Clary sat down across from her. "You knew my mum?" she asked.

She nodded. "Yes. Jocelyn is a friend. We'd meet up for tea twice a week…I take it you're here because your mother is missing?"

Clary nodded.

Esme sighed. "Understand, Clary, I warned your mother that what she did to you was wrong in so many ways. I warned her."

"What did she do to me?" Clary asked her.

"She blinded your inner eye," came a voice behind her.

Clary turned to a young Asian man watching them both. She blinked, struggling to remember where she had seen those cat-like yellow-green eyes before. "I'm sorry but-Magnus Bane?"

He nodded. "Yes. And you are Clary. Esme, do you mind, I need a moment with Clary."

Esme got to her feet and left the room, still clutching the book in her hands. Memories flooded her of the day that she'd met Jocelyn in the alley behind Garroway Books.

It had been two months after she'd fled Idris and had been unfortunate enough to have been on the receiving end of vampire gang but lucky enough to escape. It had been the first time that Esme had really understood that she wasn't the center of the universe like she had been raised to believe.

Jocelyn and her friend Luke Garroway had nursed Esme back to health and in turn she explained everything to them. Having hidden from the Clave for almost fourteen years, Jocelyn brought her to Magnus and in turn Magnus gave her a job as his assistant-very loose word assistant.

Gabriella was leaning against the wall sipping on some kind of clear liquid that looked like water but had a flowery smell to it. Watching her watch the room, Esme crossed over to her. "Yes?" she asked, seeing Esme wanted something from her.

"My mother," Esme replied. "I know you don't have to help me or speak to me but I need to know something…is she still in Idris?"

Gabriella snorted. "Well I suppose you're owed the truth. Gwendoline Nighthallow went insane. Six months after you were expelled from the Clave your mother murdered her husband and your siblings during the night. Your paternal grandparents and maternal grandparents were also slaughtered during the night."

Esme gasped. "What?"

"Oh yes, she slit their throats and burned the house to the ground," Gabriella informed her, chatting away like one does when they simply talk about what book they read or what music they liked. "I was amongst the party sent out after her and when we found her-" The young woman lifted the hem of her dress up to show Esme a set of old claw scars across her thigh. "-she was very well protected by Forsaken and also by demons. Your mother's name has been stripped from all Clave records for what she did."

Esme bit her lip. "Excuse me," she muttered, fleeing to her room. She closed the door behind her and sat down on her bed. There she sat for what seemed like a lifetime thinking about Gabriella had said what her mother had done. Her mother's life WAS the Clave.

So today she hadn't been hallucinating.

"He's coming, Esme," she answered in an ethereal tone. "He's coming, Esme…it's time to pick a side…pick the right one." Esme blinked and suddenly her mother stood in front of her…this woman was wrong…simply wrong. "So pretty…" she whispered, "those eyes…they're the eyes of the devil…I want to rip them out." Extending her hands, those blood red fingernails turned into sharp, deadly claws.

Esme stood and crossed to the mass of books on the shelves against the wall. "Right…" she muttered, "let's start with that mark on your neck."

-XXX-

"ESME!"

That was the sound she woke up to a few hours later.

Not the sound of music or dancing or people having a good time, just her name being screamed out…and not in a good way…not that she'd know anyway.

"ESME!"

With a sigh, the girl forced herself up out of her wingback chair and she trudged down the stairs.

Magnus sighed. "ESME!"

A few minutes later the exile hit the landing rubbing her eyes with a book in her hands. "What? I was sleeping."

"Red's rat friend was taken by vampires," Magnus answered unsympathetically.

Clary looked like she was about ready to kill him and Jace just looked bored. Gabriella on the other hand looked far too pleased with the situation, Alec and Isabelle were nowhere in sight.

"Why do I care?" Esme yawned.

"I think you should go with them," Magnus teased, pushing Chairman Meow back with his foot so he couldn't escape.

Esme made a sound in the back of her throat like a strangled laugh. "I don't think so. And have that kidnap me and take me back to face judgment for something I know nothing about. No thank you."

"Think of it as repayment for what Jocelyn did for you," Magnus explained. "We knew this day would come. Jocelyn helped you because you were young and knew nothing of the world but also someone of your talents would be good to have on her side. Protect her daughter."

Esme sighed. "Fine, but I cannot fight vampires in my underwear. Excuse me." She turned and went to her room.

"Esme is a friend," Magnus warned Gabriella. "Do you even know why the Clave hunts her anyway?"

Gabriella shook her head. "I follow my orders."

"Blindly is seems," Magnus smirked. "Esme knows where the vampires hold up during the day. Best be following her."

Esme came back out strapping a quiver onto her back wearing a pair of black leather pants, matching boots and a blood red shirt underneath a black vest. She was decked out for a fight, quiver full of arrows, seraph blade strapped to her hip and a wooden stake tucked into each boot. "There's a Church nearby, you two might need to get some supplies.

"You answered my question," Jace replied. "I still think you should go back with Alec and Izzy," he told Gabriella.

The shadowhunter in question shook her head. "No. This is an evaluation, remember? Let's go get our weapons and rescue the rat."