The next day, the young woman stood in front of a house that was a little away from the city. It was huge and looked ancient. The stone walls were partially torn, spiders web hung in almost every corner and the plants in front of the house had not been watered for a long time. However, she was not deterred by this and knocked on the large, wooden door. It didn't take long for a small, older woman to open and smile kindly at her. "Hello, how can I help you?" She asked and looked at the young woman. The young woman looked at her and then pulled the note out of her pocket. "Um, I'm here because of the... Uh, because of the meeting." She held the note to the older lady at the door, she took it and took a quick look at it. "This way, please." She pointed in the direction of a long corridor. The younger woman entered the large entrance area of the house and looked around. It wasn't as scary as the house looked from the outside. Small lamps on the walls illuminated the hallway extensively. On both sides of the entrance area there were doors that led to other rooms. In the corners there were wooden benches with cushions on them that created a beautiful atmosphere together with the plants. The two women walked through the hallway that ended in a large room. The room was illuminated by a hanging chandelier on the ceiling. In the middle of the room were two long tables and a lot of chairs (reminds of Hogwarts.) There were bookshelves on the walls that were filled with many books. It looked really cosy. A few people were already sitting at one of the two tables. The young woman approached the table and wanted to sit on the chair at the beginning of the table. "Someone is already sitting there." Noticed a young woman sitting next to it. She was tall, slim, had light skin, black hair and brown eyes. She looked at her with a stern expression. "Oh, I'm sorry." She moved away from the chair and went to a free chair next to a blonde woman. She was smaller and younger than herself. She had green eyes and a friendly smile. The blonde held her hand out. "Hello, I'm Céline Montclaire. It's nice to meet you." The young woman shook her hand and also introduced herself. "I am Jocelyn Fairchild." Next to Céline sat a blonde, young man with blue eyes who now also introduced himself. "Stephen Herondale." Céline and Stephen were very nice and Jocelyn liked to talk to them. Jocelyn looked at the door. The older woman who had let her in had disappeared. She looked around at the table. Opposite them sat the woman Jocelyn had moused earlier and next to her sat two young men. One of them had olive skin, short brown hair and dark eyes. The other was tall, slim, pale, had short black hair and green eyes. He looked very good, but he looked gloomy. Suddenly the door to the room was torn open and two other men came in. One of the two sat down next to Stephen. He was tall, slim, had dark skin and hair. The other stood at the beginning of the table and leaned on the chair in front of him. Exactly the chair Jocelyn wanted to sit on earlier. He looked at her and everyone else who was sitting at the table and smiled. "I'm glad you've appeared since. If I may introduce myself. My name is Valentine Morgenstern. I welcome you to the circle...We're all here for a reason, aren't we?" He looked at them questioningly. "The aversion to the current situation in which we find ourselves. Shadowhunters commit a crime and are imprisoned, punished and even tortured for it. Downworlders commit a crime and simply get away with it. Doesn't seem exactly fair to me, what do you think?" Valentine walked behind them along the table like a tiger in his cage. "We have to protect them. If we attack them, we break the Accords. Every day, mundanes and shadowhunters are attacked by them and what does the council do about it? Nothing at all! They have meetings every day and nothing comes out of it. No decisions are made. Should we just sit there and do nothing? Watch how our world is perishing? How more and more people are attacked and killed?" He went back to his place. "No, I say we are protesting against it. I know what you think. How should eight people be able to change something? We may be a small group, but believe me, we will be more when people see what we are fighting for. And then the Clave and everyone else will see it. We will not give up. We will change something. Maybe not today, maybe not next week, but we will do it. No one can stop you from fighting for what you believe in." He pulled out a sheet of paper and a pen from his jacket pocket. "It may be that everything seems much too fast to you, but I wouldn't hurry if it wasn't necessary and I think you see it the same way, otherwise you wouldn't be here. Am I right?" He walked along the table again and steered towards the brown-haired man who was sitting opposite Jocelyn. He put the sheet of paper in front of him on the table and handed him the pen. The young man looked down hesitantly at the Paper. "You can still go if you want." Said Valentine. The young man took the pen and wrote his name on it. Since he was not sitting so far away from her, Jocelyn could take a good look at the sheet and the name that the man had written on it. Robert Lightwood. After he had signed, he passed the paper on to the dark-haired man next to him. And so they passed it further and further. Until the paper finally reached Jocelyn. She looked at the sheet of paper and looked up where her gaze met with valentines. They looked at each other in silence for a long time until Jocelyn looked down again. She went through everything exactly in her head again before she took the pen and also signed it. Her gaze briefly stayed with the names. Next to Robert stood Maryse Trueblood, Lucian Graymark, Stephen Herondale, Céline Montclaire and now Jocelyn Fairchild. She took paper and pen and handed it to Valentine. He took it with a short smile and put the pen back in his pocket while he ran back to his seat. "I don't want to do this meeting longer than it should be. That's why it's best to get straight to the point and to a quick end for today." Valentine took a look at his watch and then pulled out his stele. "What you may have noticed ,when you read the note, is the symbol of the circle. And that we will show it as a rune." Valentine said. Jocelyn stunned. That had probably escaped her. She had to admit that she had not read everything when she had signed. Well, she had also been quite distracted at that time...She noticed the red glowing rune on his neck. Why hadn't she seen that before? Now she noticed that the young man, whose name was probably Lucian, had also this rune. Would they all get these? Valentine went to Stephen. "Tell me, do you swear to be loyal to the circle?" Was that a joke? Where did she end up here? A kind of political sect? Jocelyn thought. What should she do? He had said that it would be fast, but so fast? Could she get out at all if she wanted to? "Jocelyn?" Torn from her thoughts, she turned around in her chair and looked at Valentine questioningly. He just smiled, which is why she had to smile slightly. It was so quiet as if no one was there. As if all their worries had disappeared. Is she bewitched? No, that couldn't be, it wasn't even a warlock here. Jocelyn turned forward again so that she sat upright on the chair. She brushed her red hair aside. She just closed her eyes and waited for the pain to come soon. Céline watched the two of them closely. She had to smile slightly. Even a blind man could see that they have something between the them. She had already realised that when they looked at each other for the first time. In her head, she already had a future plan to get them together. She and Jocelyn weren't friends yet, but that would change over time, the blonde was sure. She sighed. Céline herself didn't have a partner, but she couldn't deny that Stephen Herondale was really attractive. She also found the black-haired guy quite handsome, but he wasn't her type. The rune was completed. She shone lightly red on Jocelyn's skin. She drove with her finger over it. She turned halfway around again and looked up at Valentine. "She has become very beautiful. It suits you." He whispered before running to the others. Jocelyn only smiled with blushed cheeks. Was it normal for her to suddenly get so hot? What happened to me? She thought. She looked at Céline who sat next to her and grinned. Jocelyn rolled her eyes and turned away to hide the redness in her face. What may still come. That was just the beginning...
I will try to upload more chapters in the near future.
And I know that Céline and Stephen were probably already married at the time. But that was more of a forced marriage..even if they loved each other. And that's why I thought I'd write how they got to know each other and then slowly fall in love with each other, then get married and "get" their child...
Hope you like it so far.