Trust
Alea felt her body again. She was stretched out lengthwise on something softer than the floor she had woken up on the last time. Her arms were shaking and her eyelids were sticking a little, and that's when she realized that her body was responding to her emotional state. A single tear moistened her right cheek and she quickly raised her hand to wipe it away and then rubbed her eyes.
At least, she tried to. The only thing that happened, however, was that her hand twitched, as if her nerves weren't yet functioning properly again. Silently, Alea groaned as she tried to stay calm and not panic. Her efforts were interrupted by a voice that had both a warm pleasant sound and a firm tone.
"You can't shut me up, Magnus. We should talk about this."
"Oh really?" someone answered right next to Alea, and that voice had already burned itself into her. Magnus, her stepbrother - and she would have to get used to the idea of suddenly having a brother - sounded upset, hurt and angry. That he could make that expressively clear in just two words told her a lot about his current emotional state and his relationship with the other person. "I think we've talked about this enough, Alexander. You've made your point more than sufficiently clear. And even though it pains me to have to watch two more lives go down the drain because of modernity's failure to overcome prudishness and antiquated thoughts and simply accept and live love in all its facets, I'm not responsible for your life. You are an adult, Alexander, and shouldn't push me to accept or even approve of your decision!"
For a moment there was silence, which couldn't have been any tenser after this forceful outburst. Alea could vividly imagine that the two men were staring intently at each other right now.
"That's... I..."
"Yes? So much for wanting to talk." It sounded more neutral, as if he had calmed down a tiny bit, but Alea had met enough people to know when such a tone masked an inner vulnerability.
"That's not what I wanted to talk about," she heard this Alexander reply very quietly. He no longer gave the impression that he wanted to appear strong and unaffected. Patiently, Alea waited to hear what he had wanted to talk about, but he didn't speak further. This led her to conclude that whatever history the two had had together, it had been very intense. Or could have been? Rejected love, perhaps? Repressed love? The vibes in the room definitely gave her confidence that there was something there. But whatever it was, it didn't give her the right to eavesdrop, even if she was a little trapped in her own body right now and couldn't help it.
The two men remained eloquently silent. When Alea felt Edom's heat rise up in her throat once more, it was she who finally broke the silence with a panicked groan.
Immediately, she felt their eyes on her and pushed herself slowly along the couch with clenched teeth so that she could rest her head on the armrest. Why did her back hurt so much? Ah yes, some psychopath had impaled her...
What a miserably long and insanely crazy day!
Another attempt to raise her hand worked this time and so she was able to loosen the encrustation that had stuck her eyelids with a mixture of tears and ashes. Looking incredulously at the remains on her fingertips, Alea slightly shook her head. "I hate magic..."
"That's an interesting statement for a warlock."
This Magnus' eyes were now a rich brown, but otherwise he looked exactly as Asmodeus had shown him to her. And, oh boy, there was indeed no denying the family resemblance. And thanks to her father, she now had at least a rough idea of what a warlock was, too, and forced herself to smile a little.
"Hate might be a bit of an exaggeration. I-" Her throat clenched and coughing, she quickly pulled her legs to her body and turned onto her side so she could curl up even further to prevent the painful stomach cramps which always occurred whenever she had to cough or sneeze while lying down. Alea could really do without these at the moment. She was hurting enough as it was!
"Would it be possible to get a glass of water please?" she begged after the cough had subsided a bit.
"Why don't you conjure it yourself?"
The question made her glance past her brother to the other person in the room. It was the dark-haired man who had been aiming his bow at her. Her brother she remembered Magnus' words and swallowed. The man was discreetly dressed, but he sat in such a way that the marking on his neck were impossible to miss! And even though he sat there motionless and she could see his hands, both of which were empty of weapons, the sight immediately caused her body to tense. Alea felt hot and cold at the same time and found herself unable to take her eyes off this ominous tattoo. She didn't know if her breathing sped up unhealthily or stopped completely, but her chest felt tighter with each passing second. The rational part of her brain screamed at her that she was slipping straight into a panic attack, but then her brother pushed himself into her field of vision and completely obscured the other man.
Focusing on him helped her a little, and her thoughts began to stop spinning in circles so insanely fast and slowly begin to buzz around in a more orderly fashion again.
But why had he helped her? They had never met before and she had attacked that woman which he obviously knew and probably also liked very much. Or did he know she was his sister? Had he seen her eyes and drawn the right conclusions? According to Asmodeus, Magnus was centuries old. No one survived that long if they weren't clever.
"You need to calm down, do you hear me?"
His words came through to her as if through a wall of water, and she had trouble focusing her gaze.
"Alec won't hurt you, I swear to you. I'm here and I'm not leaving. No one is going to hurt you, but you need to calm down."
Alea was no fool either. No matter where she was, she was clearly in a house of these tattooed people, and if she caused any more harm with her father's magic, there would definitely be consequences. Magnus would then intervene again to protect her and the others. Unconsciously, she winced. She didn't want to be hurled into Edom again. At least not so quickly and not separated from her body.
To her horror, this Alec then suddenly stood next to Magnus and knelt so that he was at eye level with her.
"I'm Alec Lightwood. I apologize for pointing my weapon at you earlier."
With his hands slightly raised, he showed his empty palms and this gesture drew her gaze, which had immediately gone back to the tattoo on his neck, to them now. She knew what this one meant; it was a peace offering and that she had to accept it if she wanted to get out of there alive. Warlocks, magic, people, armed with swords, who had no problems with aggression... Within a few hours, the world she knew had gotten a lot bigger, and Alea hoped she was capable of adapting to it. That in the end she would find a place in it and be fine, just as she had promised her mother. For she had read too many fantasy novels to naively assume that she would be able to return to her strange but tranquil simple life.
"Alea Hallowwell, double l, ww and again ll," she stammered, trying to collect spittle in her mouth. "I'd really like a glass of water now, please."
To her relief, Alec Lightwood eased back so that he was sitting cross-legged in front of the couch. He frowned slightly while doing so, but then nodded at her brother.
"Magnus?" With an appropriate - slow - gesture toward her, he made it clear what he wanted. A hand wave from Magnus shrouded in blue haze later, a glass with transparent liquid in it floated in the air in front of her and quickly she closed her hand around it and drank a big gulp. At first it almost hurt, but then the water cooled her battered throat. Relieved, she closed her eyes for a moment.
'How can it be that the air of Edom has dried out my throat so much, when my body wasn't there at all?' she wondered but didn't let that stop her from quickly looking at the two sitting in front of her again.
"Thank you," Alea spoke. Nervously, she quietly drummed her fingers against the glass. "And... I am sorry as well. It was not my intention to hurt your sister. Honestly, I didn't. Even if it's embarrassing to admit it, but I really have no idea about any of this."
"What exactly do you mean?"
Uncertainly, she looked at her brother. "Magic? Warlocks?" When she let her gaze drift to Alec, she simultaneously lowered her eyelids a bit. "Whatever you and the other tattooed people are..."
"Huh. If you have no idea about any of this, as you say, how come you know what warlocks are? How old are you? And yes, I know women don't like this question, but it's important to untangle this whole mess that caused your appearance. And where did you come from? You-"
"Magnus."
Blinking, she looked at the two of them in turn, staring at each other. Sighing, she pulled her legs back to her body and took another big sip.
"Who attacked you?" the young man then suddenly asked, and Alea almost relaxed at the thought that he seemed to be sympathetic to her. But his question immediately brought back the memory of the brutal violence, which was still fresh anyway, and she saw before her the faces of the men who had attacked her.
"Hey, Alea. Can I call you Alea?"
"W-what?" she stammered, fixing her gaze on the tattoo that would probably be burned into her mind forever after that day.
"I think it's probably best if I get started, don't you agree? Have you ever heard of Shadowhunters?"
Frowning, she tried to remember if she had heard that term anywhere before. But after a few moments, she could only shake her head.
"Okay. Well, I'm a Shadowhunter. Born as a Nephilim, I trained from early childhood to become a Shadowhunter. As part of the Shadow World, we are there to protect the humans and downworlders from demons who not so rarely enter our reality through dimensional rifts or fissures and endanger the lives of everyone living here. Warlocks, like Magnus here and yourself obviously, are as much a part of the Downworld as, say, werewolves, vampires, and seelies."
For what felt like an eternity, she could only stare at this young man. Thankfully, they both allowed her time to process what she had just heard. Then, when his words had sufficiently sunk into her mind, she ran her free hand over her face and closed her eyes for a moment.
"So, translated, that means I was literally pushed into a fantasy novel. At least that explains a lot... Thank you, Mr. Lightwood, for the explanation."
"Alec. Mr. Lightwood only when we are speaking on official business. Based on the fact that Magnus was supposed to be questioning you, I feel that we are just talking off the record here, and as a friend, I can give you information that will help you understand all of this better." He winked at her.
The smile that adorned his face was slightly crooked, but all the more honest.
"After everything that's happened today, I could definitely use a friend who knows about all of this. And yes, Alec, you may call me Alea, to answer your question from earlier."
Still smiling, he nodded, and Alea felt much of the tension slowly but surely begin to fall away.
"Do you have any questions?"
"Despite your great textbook description? Where do I even begin... Huh. Were the others Shadowhunters earlier, too?"
"Izzy, Jace, and Lydia? Yes. We're here at the New York Institute, the local Shadowhunter headquarters so to speak."
"I'm in New York?" Alea exclaimed, looking incredulously toward the large window adorned with an angel image that she immediately thought was beautiful. She didn't see much of the surroundings behind it, however. "Was I beamed up by Scotty, or how did I get here?"
"I'm afraid I haven't invented a beam yet, buttercup. But you almost certainly landed here by means of a portal. It allows you to get from one side of the planet to the other in a matter of moments," Magnus explained, swinging his hand once in her direction. Confused, she looked at him until she noticed that her glass had magically filled up again. Astonished, she looked at the liquid from several sides, but after a quick sip, she sighed inwardly. It was water again.
She would have that shown to her first, Alea decided. This ability was more than handy, apparently.
But then she cleared her throat. "You asked," she began seriously, trying to keep her breathing steady so as not to panic again, "who attacked me." Alec nodded and she pointed to his tattoo. "There were four men like you and the others who had drawings or tattoos or whatever it is like that on their skin."
Alea saw both Alec and Magnus frown almost in sync. If the subject hadn't been deadly serious, she would have been tempted to smile at the sight. But instead, she tried to recount the experience in as much detail as possible.
"There was a woman with them as well, but I think she was a warlock? She introduced herself as Dorothea Rollins and-"
"Dot?" Magnus suddenly snapped at her and Alea flinched involuntarily. "She's still alive?"
"Magnus! Calm down, please."
"You want me to calm down? A warlock under my protection disappeared without a trace, along with her magical aura, so I can't assume anything other than that she was killed and now I find out that she's reappeared somewhere today? Sialan semua!"
His fiery gaze turned back to Alea and she quickly closed her hands tighter around the glass of water so that they wouldn't start shaking again. She may have no idea about magic and auras, but what she felt from Magnus right now was... intimidating! Powerful!
"Tell me everything, Alea! And by that I really mean every little detail!"
She swallowed. But then she did just that.