Angels and Warriors // A.L

Chapter 2

After giving me the run down on the weapon, I turned it over in my hand. It was a beautiful weapon, a silver hilt encrusted with blue stones. I looked over to see that Alec was about to pick up an identical one.

"They come in pairs, like these. These kinds of weapons don't respond to everybody, so they may not work for you. Even if they do, the pair will only respond fully if both are being used by the same person," He explained, then as an afterthought he added, "or I suppose a parabatai pair or two people with a similar bond could use one each as their bond makes them each a part of the other."

"Parabatai?" I asked. Alec stopped and looked at me.

"A parabatai is a pair of Nephilim warriors who fight together as lifelong partners, bound together by oath. Their bond is not reflected only in their closeness and willingness to lay down their lives for one another, but also as sworn in front of the Council. Not all Shadowhunters are required to have parabatai; it is actually less common to have them. A Shadowhunter has only eighteen years to find and choose a parabatai; once older than that, the ritual is no longer available to any Shadowhunter," he explained.

I nodded, taking it in. "Okay."

"What, not going to ask if I have one? Who it is?" he asked skeptically.

I shrugged, "I figured it's not my business and if you wanted to tell me you would've."

He nodded, accepting my answer with a small smile, probably grateful that I wasn't as nosey as Clary.

He bent down to pick up the twin dagger and he nearly dropped it out of shock when it glowed at his touch. He turned quickly to inspect mine too, which was also glowing, emanating a warm flow of electricity up my arm. I didn't find any of this strange because I didn't know what it meant so I waited quietly for Alec to say something. He recomposed himself but didn't mention it.

"We'll start with hand to hand, sometimes you might not have access to any other weapon and you might be too close for throwing. It's a lot like using your seraph blade but you need to be quicker as it's much easier to mess up and get hurt with one of these." I replicated his actions, learning new combinations and how to attack and defend close up - much closer than with a seraph blade.

"It would be extremely unlikely that your opponent would have a pair of kindjal so I'll be using my seraph blade." I nodded. He put down the twin dagger and the warmth radiating from mine stopped, and the glow dulled. "We'll start you with just one, then I'll teach you how to use both at the same time," he answered my questioning look.

He was right in saying it was much harder to fight with, but it guided me in a way, led me to block a strike I didn't even see coming. When Alec gave me the second one, it reacted to his touch again, and he quickly handed it over to me, where this time the warmth and bright glow remained because I had both. It was the same feeling as when I had one and Alec had the other.

We moved on fairly quickly as I picked it up quite fast. He explained that that was because they responded to me and that's why it was glowing. Finally, he reached for the bow.

"I personally use a bow as my weapon of choice, but it can be very difficult to learn, so don't worry if you don't get it straight away," he said.

He walked back over to the armoury and returned with another bow and set of arrows, "This one's mine." He loaded his bow and in one fluid motion, shot the arrow straight into the center of the target. My jaw dropped. He made it look effortless but in fact when it came to my turn, it was the first weapon that I struggled with.

After a few attempts, Alec suggested, "Why don't we come back to this one, it might take a bit more time."

I thought that had been the last of them but he pulled out what looked like a thin, silver belt. I raised an eyebrow but he held a finger up telling me to wait. He cracked the belt like a whip and it snapped into a black and silver Bo staff.

"Electrum laced," he informed me.

"Wicked," I grinned.

He explained to me how to use it, showing me a few moves before we started to practice against each other. We fought with the Bo staffs - Alec grabbed a regular one - until I managed to get Alec pinned down, the blade at the end of my staff at his throat. 

I'd suddenly switched from defence to offence, which had caught him off guard. I used his moment of hesitation to attack, pushing him back and moving so quickly that he barely had time to react and block. I feigned for a headshot and as he lifted his staff to block it, I ducked down and swiped at the back of his legs, knocking him off his feet.

He was so shocked that I couldn't help it, I laughed.

I heard slow clapping from behind me and turned to see Jace walking up the steps towards us.

"Impressive," he said with a grin.

"Thanks," I held my hand out for Alec, he grabbed it and I pulled him up.

"I've got Simon down there, he said he wants to talk to you, Izzy went to see Clary," Jace nodded back to where he came from and I could see Simon, standing there awkwardly.

"All right, we'll put this stuff away and then I'll come down," I waved my hand at the weapons Alec and I had lying around, not willing to leave it all for the Lightwood to clean up. Jace nodded and jogged back down to Simon before he could touch or break anything.

"Thank you, Alec," I said as we collected the things we used. He nodded at me. We carried the various blades back to the wall and started stacking them quietly.

Suddenly Alec spoke. "Its Jace."

"What?" I turned to look at him and found him looking down at me.

"My parabatai. Its Jace."