Heronstairs: A Fluff Collection

Day 3

"And I'd like to know why the hell Magnus would know where to find him," Izzy piped in, earning an eye roll from Alec. "Come on, is no one else curious?"

"Isabelle Lightwood. You are not allowed to grill Zachariah about his personal life."

"I don't know, I'm kind of curious too."

"Goddammit Fray."

She laughed, tucking the note into her back pocket. "Call Magnus. Let's get our answers."

•~•~•~•~•~

Magnus came into the Institute unannounced and said that he would be there sometime that afternoon. Zachariah arrived several hours later, looking for all the world like an ordinary modern man, albeit dressed more sharply than most.

As he came up the front steps of the Institute, smiling warmly in greeting, Isabelle leaned over and whispered in Alec's ear.

"I stand by my statement. January through December of the Hot Silent Brothers calendar."

"If you don't already have a birthday gift for me," Alec replied with a smirk, relishing in Magnus's shocked expression, "that should be it."

"Hello," Zachariah said with a smile, a crisp English accent sounding very out of place on the streets of New York. "Glad to see you're all in one piece."

"Mostly," Jace shrugged.

"Given the job, that's an accomplishment in and of itself," he said, turning to Magnus. "You still keeping an eye on this lot?"

"Somebody has to," Magnus said, heaving a long-suffering sigh.

Zachariah laughed. "I'll keep watch in Los Angeles if you take New York?"

"Deal. I can't keep all those Blackthorn children straight anyhow, there's far too many. Now, I am given to understand you recently celebrated a birthday, my dear Zachariah, am I right?"

"I'm surprised you remembered."

"Yes, well, it was an important one. 153 and all."

Zachariah laughed again at the shocked expressions of everyone else on the steps. "Yes, that's about right."

Jace, for once at a loss for words, stepped inside the Institute, waving a hand to everyone else. "Come on inside."

Izzy and Alec whispered back and forth as they went inside.

"Iz, he is way too old for you. Like, over a century too old. Also you have a boyfriend and he's smitten with Tessa."

"I know. But he's ridiculously beautiful."

Zachariah, kindly enough, pretended not to have heard them, walking down the hallway of the Institute and looking at the walls with a distant expression.

"So much changes," he murmured, "And yet these places stay much the same."

Jace opened the doors to the library, settling on the sofa with Clary beside him, Isabelle on her other side, and Alec perched on the arm of the sofa. Magnus sat in the adjacent chair, and Zachariah sank down opposite them, still moving with the quiet grace of the Silent City.

For a moment, the room was suspended in silence.

Zachariah grinned a little. "It's not like the Herondales to go quiet so easily. What did you want to know?"

Jace thought carefully for a moment before speaking. "Why do you know the Herondales so well? Were you one, when you were a Shadowhunter?"

"Heavens, no," Zachariah said with a laugh. "No, I'm not a part of the Herondale bloodline." He took a deep breath. "My name is not Zachariah, though it has been for decades now. When I returned to the world, my greatest loss was still too new to take up my old name again. But I have made my peace with it now. My name," he said, "is James Carstairs."