December 5th - Magnus
It's still quite early when I get up, so I expect to see Toby still sleeping in the guest room. But when I poke my head around the door, he's not there. However, when I emerge sleepily into the living room, he's sat on the sofa, gazing out of the window.
"Morning, Toby." I say quietly, so as not to wake Alec, who's still sleeping - predictably, as he's rarely up before ten unless he has to be. I suppose Shadowhunting requires a certain amount of early rising. An extra hour in bed is probably the reason he moved in.
"Good morning, Magnus." He replies, looking away from the window and up to me instead. He cocks his head to the side curiously. "You look...under-glittered."
I laugh.
"Yeah, I'm not ready yet. I thought I'd be the first awake. Why are you up so early, anyway?"
"It's my first day of training today." He reminds me.
"It is." I agree. "And...?"
"I'm nervous." He admits. "I might be bad. I've never fought before."
"Don't worry." I tell him, going over to the window beside him. "You'll learn. That's why you're going to training. If you knew everything already, there'd be no point in training you."
He nods, seeming less tense, but I can tell he's still worried. I don't think anything I say could completely take away that apprehension.
"Can you fight?"
"Kind of..." I say ambiguously
"What do you mean?" He asks, curious.
"I..." I think about it, decide I probably ought to tell him, and continue. "I'll show you."
I wiggle my fingers and let the familiar blue sparks web between my fingers, then rise into a sparking swirl above my hand. Toby looks on in awe and I touch my fingers to my palms, dousing the sparks. Toby looks at me like he's just seen the coolest thing in the world, childlike joy lighting his eyes. It makes me smile. I think of when I went with Raphael to see his family, conjuring up images of stars and rainbows and flowers, making magic something safe and non-threatening. I cup my hand and blow, and sparks erupt from my palm, forming a shooting star. Magic isn't often like this, but for an introduction to it, I could've certainly done worse. Toby reaches for the sparks, but they disappear as his hand approaches.
"That's amazing!" He breathes, turning to me.
I laugh. "Thank you. I'll be one second. I'll use the mirror in here to do my hair. Don't want to wake Alec."
I slip past the closed bedroom door, behind which Alec is still sleeping peacefully - or so I assume from the lack of noise - and sweep into the bathroom, grabbing a handful of makeup and hair gel tubes. I poke my head silently around the bedroom door, finding Alec asleep on my side of the mattress, hair stuck up in peaks with tossing and turning. I smile and close the door again.
When I reemerge in the living room, Toby is attempting to summon sparks from his fingertips. I laugh, ruffling his hair as I pass.
"I don't think that'll work, kid." I say, tracing eyeliner around my lids in the mirror on the mantel. It's a practised art, I think to myself, smudging the line gently with my little finger. Perfect.
He sighs. "How come you can do it?"
"I'm a warlock. It's...like a wizard." I add, at his confused expression.
"Like Harry Potter?"
"Yeah, sure." I answer, distracted.
I squeeze a veritable heap of glittery gel into my palm and run it through my hair, spiking it up and simultaneously transforming into a more Magnus-ish me. I carefully tug on one of the spines of glitter-caked locks and hitch it into position.
"What's that?" Toby asks.
He's so inquisitive. It's probably all his enquiry which has made his transition into the Shadow World so much easier and more informed. Admittedly, curiosity about my hair products might not help him in the Nephilim world, but an enquiring mind surely will.
"Glitter." I respond, absent-mindedly running a hand through his hair as I go to throw myself onto the sofa beside him. It's far too early for me to think properly about what I've just done. I look up and burst out laughing, forgetting entirely about waking Alec, when I see the state of Toby's hair. There's a long stripe of glitter running down the centre of Toby's head, where I ruffled his hair moments earlier.
"How do I look?" He asks jokingly, trying to smooth down his hair, looking mildly horrified when his hand comes away glitter-coated.
"Like a particularly stylish badger." I grin, indicating the stripe on his head.
He laughs and Alec lopes into the room, looking exhausted. He takes one look at Toby and turns to me, resigned. I'm not quite sure this is the way he expected to begin the day, but nevertheless.
"Why does Toby have a line of glitter down the middle of his head?"
"Everything's better with glitter!" I protest, laughing, and Toby giggles beside me.
"I doubt that extends to young children, Magnus." Alec sighs, but he's smiling.
SLAM. Toby's blade clatters to the floor again and Isabelle picks it up and hands it back to him in one swift motion. He narrows his blue eyes and hurls the seraph blade at the target on the wall. It falls to the floor and Isabelle once again retrieves it. I'm impressed by her patience with Toby, though I suspect it's partly because she wants to show Alec all the training she's been doing whilst he's been living with me.
Toby takes the blade from Isabelle, looking disheartened. He seems disappointed to see another blade fall to the floor, and I take pity on him. He can hardly expect to be wonderful immediately. But, I suppose, the only models he has for how to do it are shadowhunters who've been throwing blades end over end with pinpoint accuracy for years.
I walk slowly over to Toby and put my hands over his. I slide them further down the blade, lower on the hilt so he can get more power behind his throw. He looks up at me, confused, but keeps his hands where they are.
"Throw it." I say, stepping back.
He hurls the blade and it flies, end over end, eventually coming to land sticking wonkily out of the edge of the target. But this time, at least, it stays put in the wall.
I slip back to my previous position beside Alec, who's staring at me, shocked.
"I didn't know you could do that!" He exclaims, impressed.
"I've been alive a while. I've thrown a blade or two in my time." I reply stiffly.
I look at Toby, who's beaming with pride at his successful throw, as he rushes to yank the blade from where it sticks in the wall.
"Great throw, Toby."
I turn to see Jace, who's not made an appearance until now, leaning lazily against the doorframe. His gold hair glints in the light, and he's managing to make his ruffled hair and bare feet - sure signs he's only just woken up - look calculated and intentional. Toby spins to look at Jace and halts, blade held half-aloft. His eyes widen a little. Jace has that effect, I suppose.
It's only now that I realise Jace and Toby haven't actually properly met. However, we have told Jace about Toby. Alec, reading my mind as usual, speaks up.
"Toby, this is Jace. He's my brother. And, urm." He coughs, and I glance across, wondering why this is so difficult for him. Perhaps he's just trying to protect both of them. Probably; it's something Alec would do. "A-And he is your half-brother."
Toby, looking utterly stunned, nods. Finding out Jace Herondale is your brother, I imagine, is for a little kid like winning the lottery. Jace is what a shadowhunter looks like, acts like, in the stories. Carved in gold, quick of wit and swift of courage, conventionally brave and strong and gloriously angelic.
"That was a great throw." Jace repeats. "That's the throw of a Herondale. Am I right?"
Toby nods again, awestruck, then seems to find his voice.
"Yeah, yes. I'm...Toby Graymark. But my dad was Stephen Herondale."
Jace smiles.
"Well, keep practising." He nods, pushing gently off the wall with a foot, and moving silently from the room.
"Come on, Toby. He's right. We need to keep training." Isabelle says.
Toby agrees, but not before watching Jace leave, looking on in quiet admiration.
"Come on, let's go." Alec says as the Institute door shuts behind us with a bang.
We travel home, Toby full of bubbling enthusiasm about training. It's hard to believe, in this moment, that he's the boy who would barely talk to us only a few days ago. I have to smile at the thought. If only we could preserve that confidence, that outgoing personality. But then he wouldn't be Toby, I remind myself.
"See?" I say, as we go into the apartment. "You had nothing to worry about. You were great!"
He smiles, looking exhausted but happy, his blonde hair damp with sweat. The ends of his hair curl at his temples, and he looks so utterly worn out. He looks like a shadowhunter, though. In black training gear borrowed from the Institute, with his eyes glittering with adrenaline, he looks like he's been raised to hunt demons. His skinny limbs have a sheen of perspiration, but his smile is wide enough to make me know that the effort is completely worthwhile in his opinion. He's probably more dedicated than most adult shadowhunters. But that might be the novelty, of course. And if he decides this isn't for him...well, Alec and I would stand by him.
"Change out of your gear and get some sleep, Toby. You look exhausted." Alec says, and Toby obeys sleepily.
Alec smiles to himself, sitting down on the sofa. He looks like he's thinking about something, with that faraway look in his big blue eyes that is a guaranteed sign he isn't here in the present. He's lost in thought. I watch him for a second, leaning against the doorframe. He's utterly oblivious to my gaze, and observe fondly as a slow smile creases the corners of his mouth.
"What is it?" I ask, throwing myself down beside him, pulling him from whatever reverie he was in.
"Oh, I was just thinking how much Toby reminds me of you." He grins.
"What?"
"You know, clever and quick and curious."
I laugh, surprised. Is Alec blind? Toby is his double. "No, he's far more like you!"
"What? How?"
"Blue eyes, shy, serious? Oh please, he's just like you."
Alec smirks, blushing. "He's not like me."
"He so is."
"Whatever." Alec replies, smiling, but his grin and his flushed cheeks makes me think that, secretly, he's quite pleased.