Heronstairs: A Fluff Collection

Day 3

A/N: Italicized portion at the very beginning is taken directly from City of Heavenly Fire, to refresh your memory, and I diverge from canon after the italics stop.

Tessa smiled radiantly and disappeared into the crowd, saying she was going to bid Jocelyn good-bye; Zachariah gathered up his coat and her wrap, Clary watching him curiously. "I remember once you told me," she said, "that you had loved two people more than anything else in the world. Was Tessa one of them?"

"She is one of them," he said agreeably, shrugging himself into his coat. "I have not stopped loving her, nor my parabatai; love does not stop when someone dies."

"Your parabatai? You lost your parabatai?" Clary said, feeling a sense of shocked hurt for him; she knew what that meant to Nephilim.

"Not from my heart, for I have not forgotten," he said, and she heard a whisper of the sadness of ages in his voice, and remembered him in the Silent City, a wraith of parchment smoke. "We are all the pieces of what we remember. We hold in ourselves the hopes and fears of those who love us. As long as there is love and memory, there is no true loss."

Alec and Magnus had come up behind her while Zachariah spoke, standing beside her.

"Love and memory doesn't bring Max back," Alec said bluntly.

Magnus shot him a look, but Zachariah gave a sad smile. "No, and I am terribly sorry for the grief your family has been given. But he is not lost to time if he is remembered and loved even after he is gone."

Alec looked at Zachariah with a strange expression, his gaze returned by deep, steady eyes.

"You don't sound like a stranger to grief," Alec said finally.

"No," Zachariah agreed. "I suppose I am not."

"There are questions Jace wanted to ask you, questions we all wanted to ask you," Alec went on, Clary nodding. "Will you ever be able to answer them?"

Zachariah hummed thoughtfully, eyes distant as he grew lost in thought. "Not tonight," he said after a moment. "Tessa and I have something of a plan, and I have kept her waiting long enough in our lives. But perhaps someday soon, when I return to New York."

"Thank you," Clary said. "For everything."

"Tell Jace Herondale that he plays Chopin quite well," he replied, smiling and moving to leave.

Magnus, who had been silent until now, caught his thin wrist before he could move away. "Hey," he said in a low voice, "Are you going to be okay?"

Zachariah nodded slowly. "I shall do what I have always done," he said, squeezing Magnus's hand appreciatively. "I shall endure."

He slipped away into the crowd, leaving Clary behind with more questions and the lingering feeling of a deep sadness older than she could know.

•~•~•~•~•~

It was several quiet months before they received word from either Tessa or Zachariah again.

Then, one day in the late fall, a letter arrived at the Institute, addressed to "Miss Fray and Co." in neat script.

Should you still have questions for me, I am in New York for the week. Magnus will know where to find me.
I hope you all are well. - Zachariah

Clary showed the note to Jace, then Izzy, then Alec.

"Do you still want to talk to him?"

Jace exhaled slowly, nodding. "He was... Cryptic, when we saw him last. He knows about my family. If I'm going to wear this ring," he said, absentmindedly fiddling with the Herondale ring around his finger, "I'd like to know the story of my line."