ʜᴇᴀᴠᴇɴʟʏ ꜰɪʀᴇ ~ ᴛᴍɪ

Chapter 14 - Mind Is Strange

Isabelle huffed, which seemed childish.

"Cleverly said." The Queen nodded in contentment. "Yet vengeance can rot one's beliefs on peace. As an heir to the Inquisitor, aren't you affected by it even a tad bit?"

Even Simon sat up in curiosity. 

Allison never considered herself as rallying for becoming the next Inquisitor. It seemed...surreal. 

"I am surprised why you are interested in such questions, my lady." She said with adding much respect as she could. "Why would I need vengeance in my heart now?"

The Queen's serpentine smile made her reconsider. Yet, "I am interested because I want to be well versed with you if we are to meet again with a talk more political. Which I'm sure we are too soon. Furthermore, you get acquainted with the children of the man who was the reason for your current position, I am surprised by your naivety."

"We may just be his children," said Clary, as Jace and Allison remained frighteningly silent. "But we don't love our father, we hate him."

"Do you?" The Queen looked almost bored.

"You know how the bonds of family are, my lady," said Jace, recovering his voice. "They cling as tightly as vines. And sometimes, like vines, they cling tightly enough to kill."

Though the Queen ignored him as her eyes bored into Allison's now. "You do know the story of your father's death, on why you hate him and the hatred now extends to your grandmother."

Allison went still.

"What do you mean?" Isabelle asked.

The Queen leaned back in her divan, taking a swig from her silver chalice. "Stephen Herondale was the second-in-command of the Circle after Lucian Graymark, this is common knowledge of the course." Her smile was like a razor. "Due to Valentine, he left your mother and you had to grow up with the words illegitimate daughter and bastard born filling your ears. I'm sure those words don't resonate well in Alicante. Quite a backward city." The others fell silent.

Speech failed her. Her throat was constricted, not even a sound escaped.

The Queen knew where to hit and also how to hit hard.

"Don't you ever wonder how your life could have been?"

"I don't-" Allison started but froze mid-sentence. She felt something surround her vision and the air pressure dropped and in a moment, all she saw was brightness.

~~~~~

Perfectly trimmed grass swayed as a gentle summer breeze blew. The trees shuddered and withered brown, and fresh green leaves fell slowly - a single green one grabbed by a small fist.

A small girl, no more than five, giggled as she studied the leaf, tracing the outline with a chubby finger. Sun rays hit her eyes, which glistened like sapphires.

"Allison!" A woman called out, who was sitting on a marble stone bench. "Don't wander off far."

The small girl turned towards her mother and smiled brightly with all her teeth. It was clear that the girl resembled her mother.

The woman was Amatis Herondale.

That's when a man, possibly in his late twenties slipped into the bench beside Amatis, a small box in his hands.

"If you're not going to come here soon monkey, " He called out, his blond hair ruffled around his ears due to a gentle breeze. "Dad's going to finish all of your mother's cookies."