The Art of Survival

Chapter 8: Fallen Alliance


When Izzy is pulled from her sleep by a loud thud and an aborted cry of pain she finds herself instantly alert, shooting up from her cot and reaching for a weapon she doesn't have. Her eyes zero in on where Alec has fallen from his own bed and for a heart-stopping moment she's frozen in terror.

Her brother is convulsing violently, back bowed and forehead pressed to the floor as thick black tendrils of fire and smoke curl over his body like tentacles reaching up out of a bottomless ocean. She can hear the crack and pop of joints as he writhes in agony, wings tearing free to curl around his body in an unconscious protective gesture.

Black feathers flutter to the ground all around him.

His runes are ignited, pulsing with a deep crimson glow that casts him in sharp relief against the plumes of darkness trying to swallow him whole. He throws his head back with a terrible scream, fingers clawing at the cold floor beneath him until his nails are tearing against the rough gray stone, leaving bloody streaks in their wake. When he turns towards her, pupilless black eyes stare straight through her, unseeing. It's like all of her nightmares come to life. More putrid smoke pours from his nose and mouth with every labored exhale.

Izzy feels her entire world shattering around her. She darts forward to fall beside him, the pain of her knees colliding with hard stone a distant echo as she desperately searches for some way to help. She's shaking, hands hanging helplessly in the air above his hunched form. The heat radiating off him is visible in its intensity, like the translucent waves that simmer above concrete in midsummer. Beads of sweat form at her hairline from the proximity and drip down her temples.

"Oh god, Alec."

She chokes on a sob at the broken animal noise that escapes him.

Izzy flashes back to the idea she'd had a few days ago. She was hoping to be able to talk to him about it, run through the potentials and the risks, make the decision together. She's been putting it off, telling herself that she's trying to find the right way to bring it up, but the truth is that she's been terrified. Now, as she watches Edom's taint consume him, she realizes she's out of time and options. Even with her help, she isn't sure he's going to come out of this her big brother and the guilt is nearly suffocating.

"I need my stele!"

The guards are watching the scene with a mixture of fear and morbid fascination. Neither of them moves at her furious shout.

"Please!" She's crying, tears streaming down her cheeks unchecked as she hovers helplessly by Alec's side. She wants to reach out to him but the black flames, hellfire she realizes, are growing hotter, her palms are already starting to redden and blister. She'll only have one shot at this.

"He's going to die!" She snarls. It's not strictly a lie, but the brother she knows and loves will be dead if she can't find a way to ground him, to anchor his soul to something tangible. She's banking on the guards' ignorance. "What will your master say if you let that happen?"

The two demons exchange weary looks, shuffling uneasily as they have some unspoken conversation. Finally, hesitantly, one of them retrieves her stele and shoves the box through the bars of her prison, clearly too afraid of what's happening to follow proper protocol. It slides to a stop several feet away with a light scraping sound.

Izzy scrambles across the room to rip the box open. She quickly scrawls the first half of the alliance rune on her forearm before reaching for Alec and repeating the process on a bare strip of skin on his back. Technically, the rune is meant to be used between a shadowhunter and a downworlder, and she's desperately hoping it will recognize the demonic taint of a fallen Nephilim as such.

Izzy hisses, grits her teeth against the pain as the fire and smoke begin to curl around her now, seeking out another living creature it can infect. It licks across her arms and up her throat, charring her flesh as it goes. She forces her hands to remain steady as she burns the second half of the rune onto Alec's body, watches as it blooms to life, red like all the others. The rune on her own arm begins to flicker like a strobe light as it fights to solidify and she forces her thoughts to remain steady, focuses her intent on making the rune permanent. Like all magic, runes react to intention, and she will not lose her brother in this awful place. She won't.

The smoke lashes out violently now, sinking into Izzy's nostrils, and forcing itself past her lips, down her throat until she can't breathe. She tastes fire and ash on her tongue and her vision goes black. She can feel the second the rune takes hold, the darkness clawing its way under her skin and through her ribcage to settle thick and hot around her lungs. It pulses in time with her heartbeat, vicious and pleased to have another host.

Is this what Alec has been fighting on his own all this time? She's both awed and heartbroken by his strength, that he's been bearing this burden alone. A scream tears itself free as her arms give out beneath her, convulsions wracking her body as darkness pulls her under.

-oxoXOXoxo-

"Izzy!" Alec's voice is cracked and gravely. He sounds miles away, like he's calling to her from underwater.

"Izzy. Oh god, Izzy please."

She's aware of the pain first, the deep ache that permeates every cell in her body. Her bones feel brittle beneath skin that has been sapped of moisture and left stretched taut like cured leather. Little by little the world around her starts swimming back into focus. She's wrapped up in Alec's arms, his wings a cocoon around them both. She absently strokes a hand over soft, dark feathers. It's something she used to do as a little girl, before her own wings had grown in, and the nostalgic gesture grounds her. A relieved laugh bubbles up in her throat and she buries her face in the coarse fabric of his shirt.

"Hey big brother." Her voice is hoarse from her own screams and she swallows thickly. She can still taste ash and fire, wonders vaguely if it will ever go away.

Alec hugs her fiercely and she can't tell which one of them is shaking harder.

"Izzy, what have you done?"

She balls her fists in the back of his shirt. "I told you, I can't lose you. Even if it means I have to fall with you."

He sounds broken as he sobs her name into her hair and all Izzy can do is cling to him harder. No matter what happens next she knows that she will never leave her brother's side.

-oxoXOXoxo-

Magnus glances around at his friends and allies assembled in the abandoned warehouse with him.

The eight of them stand at four equidistance points around the summoning circle, their locations strategically chosen, one warlock and one anchor at each cardinal direction suited to their unique energies.

He can't help but run through it in his mind just once more. Just to be sure.

To the north Tessa stands with Simon at her side. They represent the earth, both of them fiercely loyal protectors of those they care about. Stable and stalwart companions.

Catarina and Clary stand to the west, representing water. Catarina, a healer to her very core and Clary with her uncanny ability to bring people together despite their differences. Both of them intuitive and endlessly kind.

Addicus and Maia stand at the north point representing air. Intelligent, crafty, and free-spirited.

Magnus himself with Jace at the last point to the south, representative of fire, transformation, power, and destruction.

They are as well prepared as they can be, but despite the faith his companions all have in him, Magnus can't shake the bad feeling he's getting.

"Magnus?" Tessa's voice is gentle and she regards him with kind grey eyes. "Is everything ok?"

He purses his lips. "I'm not sure." He rakes his eyes over the summoning circle for the third time. Clary's work is impeccable of course, it's perfect. Or as perfect as a spell hastily cobbled together from three different branches of magic can be. "What if…" he hesitates.

"Magnus, what are you thinking?" It's Catarina who speaks this time. She stands at her appointed place inside one of the 4 points of power, blue skin and snowy hair on display. They've all dropped their glamours in order to devote their full attention to this summoning.

"Instead of summoning one of those creatures to us…what if we sent someone to them instead?"

There's an abrupt cacophony of noises, everyone shouting their protests all at once and Magnus sucks in a frustrated breath.

"That could work." Addicus's voice breaks through the noise, effectively halting the argument.

Magnus snaps his head up to meet the other warlock's wary gaze. It's the first time Addicus has made eye contact with him since that night in Alec's office.

"Tell me."

Addicus licks his lips, shifting uncomfortably under the heated glares he's receiving from the rest of their companions.

"It would be safer, technically, than trying to bring something through to us. As we discussed before, we don't know what we'll get, if it will even be sentient enough to give us information. The energy you collected acts like a beacon. If you can give me a base to work with, I should be able to use it to pinpoint the location where your shadowhunters were deposited and send you there. But…to do that we have to figure out how to open a rift for you to travel through. As far as I know, very few people have ever willingly gone to Gehenna."

"We reverse engineer the summoning."

Catarina sounds furious even as she provides a potential solution and Magnus thinks it's because she knows he will do this without them if they don't help. He finds his love for her nearly overwhelming in that moment. She is one of his oldest and dearest friends, his staunchest supporter even when he does questionable things, like getting involved with shadowhunters.

"Do not smile at me like that," the blue-skinned warlock snaps.

Magnus's bites his cheek and attempts to school his expression into something less fond.

"The spell you used to go to Edom," Clary suggests hesitantly. She takes an unconscious step back when all eyes suddenly focus on her. "Alec told me about it. Would that…would that work as your base?"

Magnus chews on his thumbnail absently, mentally calculating the potential risks of altering the foundations of magic like that on the fly. He's pioneered more difficult spells, he's sure of it. Surely this is doable as well.

"Theoretically, if I can swap out the base layers of the spell and infuse it with Gehenna's energy, it should reroute the spell to the correct place. Much like thinking of a specific place allows you to portal there."

"Theoretically?"

Magnus huffs at Jace's skeptical tone. "This," he waves his arms to indicate their entire setup, "is all theoretical."

Jace holds his hands up in front of him placatingly. "Look, I get that we're all flying blind here, but Alec will literally murder me if I let his husband go trapesing off to some hell dimension to get himself killed if there was something I could have done to stop it."

Magnus rolls his eyes at this but there's no real heat in his voice when he responds. "I am not going to die in Gehenna." Probably.

Long minutes pass in silence and Magnus is starting to feel the itch of frustration under his skin. He knows the plan is shaky at best, but he has to do this.

"I'm going with you."

Magnus snaps his eyes up to Jace. The blond shadowhunter has a look on his face of stubborn determination, posture stiff and tense, and Magnus realizes that he's waiting for an argument.

"Ok."

Jace looks momentarily taken aback, his mouth opening and closing a few times in surprise before he snaps his jaw shut and nods sharply.

Magnus shift his eyes to Clary, but she is wearing a similar expression of fierce resolve, though her eyes are shiny with moisture. She nods and gives him a tight smile. They both know the importance of the parabatai bond and he realizes that she would never try to stop Jace from trying to rescue the other half of his soul. Just as Magnus would never try to force Alexander's hand if their positions were reversed.

"Ok," Magnus repeats. He throws his hands out wide and erases the summoning circle. "Sorry biscuit, I'm going to need you to draw something a little different."

Clary is quick to construct the new layout. It's simpler, a pentagram in the center with 3 additional converging lines that connect to their own circles. It's an alteration of the spell that allowed him to go to Edom, the connecting points of power will allow him to draw on the energy of the other people within them, fueling the magic, strengthening it in case of any pushback. Jace stands beside him, one hand on his shoulder so they don't lose each other when the portal opens.

"Are we ready?"

Once he receives confirmations from everyone in the group he opens the jar of rift energy, throwing his magic out to contain it before it can dissipate. The spell doesn't require speech or language to activate, just intent. Magnus feels Addicus's magic first, silver whisps of energy twining with his own and latching onto Gehenna's remnant magic to pinpoint a direction. Next is Catarina, her magic a soothing deep blue, only a few shades darker than Magnus's own. It bolsters his strength and eases the painful burn of the flames as hellfire begins to rise up from the lines of the pentagram. Lastly is Tessa, her magic a soft pearl white that offers focus and concentration.

Around them, an unnatural wind whips up debris and garbage as the magic intensifies. It buffets them from all sides and Magnus is vaguely aware of Jace clapping another hand on his shoulder, fingers digging in almost painfully. He can hear the shadowhunter echo his cries of pain as the fire consumes them both. It feels as though it lasts for hours and seconds at the same time before there is a massive backlash of power and then they are falling through fire and darkness.

The spell ends abruptly and Magnus stumbles as his feet hit the ground. He nearly trips over Jace where the shadowhunter has collapsed to his knees to empty the content of his stomach.

Around them stretches an empty wasteland, all bleached sand and ochre stones emitting wisps of sulfurous smoke. It's blisteringly hot under the two suns that hang low in the sky and Magnus is quick to wrap a cooling spell around both himself and Jace.

"Thanks," Jace mutters from where he's still crouched in the sand. He wipes the back of his hand across his mouth with a grimace before pushing to his feet. "Well…now what?"

Magnus turns in a slow circle, catching sight of what appears to be tiny huts clustered together in the distance. He nods in that direction. "Let's start there. If the creatures here are organized enough to build structures then it's possible they can give us some information."

Jace nods. "I…I think we need to hurry, Magnus. I can feel him but…something… something is wrong."

TBC…


AN: Sorry for the delay everyone, life has been crazy lately. I hope you all enjoyed chapter 8.