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L Y D I A
B R A N W E L L
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The New York Institute was probably the most technologically advanced Shadowhunter Institute in the world. There were many Institutes worldwide, with seven being in America alone, but the New York one had developed so much it was a wonder there weren't more Shadowhunters being trained there.
The walls were stone, and there were still the proper arches of the cathedral that it once was. Had it not been for the Shadowhunters taking over the cathedral would have become so depleted that it would have crumbled into nothing more than ruins. Now it was thriving with life. When Chris entered the Institute he was blown away. There was more vitality here than there was at one of Magnus' parties. The sound of chatter instantly filled his ears, a sense of effervescence rushed over him like a tsunami and there was a different sort of energy inside the Institute than there was outside.
A Shadowhunter - in black, of course - pushed by Chris, not even taking notice of the warlock. Chris shrugged, used to being treated that way by the apparently superior race of non-mundanes. It stopped bothering him a long time ago, he didn't get upset about it anymore. Now, he just felt bored by their lack of understanding or caring. But he wasn't there to care about being treated badly by Shadowhunters. He was there to find Isabelle, and maybe check up on Alec as he passed through.
With confidence, that had to be pushed up from the very ends of his toes, Chris made his way through the Institute, not giving notice to the curious eyes that followed him. He had to push all the other Shadowhunters out of his mind. Just seeing so many Shadowhunters brought back unwanted memories and he had to fight to push them away.
"Alec, you think you could get my stele back?" Chris whirled around at the sound of a familiar name. Of course, the voice saying the name was not in anyway familiar and sounded like it belonged to a child. But that name was enough to make Chris' head spin ina good way. He grinned when he saw Alec walking with a little boy - not wearing black, surprisingly - who didn't even reach to his elbow.
"They took it away because you tried to burn down the Mumbai institute." Chris snorted and quickly moved so that when he spoke he would be heard.
"You tried to burn down the Mumbai institute?" Chris asked the little boy as he caught up with him and Alec. The older Shadowhunter looked surprised to see him walking with them so casually. "That's pretty badass."
"Language," warned Alec, causing Chris' lip to quirk up into a smirk. Alec smiled back, unable to stop himself.
"I don't know any synonyms for badass, sorry," he apologised to the little boy, who grinned up at him with a shrug.
"Alec never lets anyone curse in front of me, he thinks I'm too young," said the boy. For some reason it hadn't clicked in Chris' brain that this must be the youngest Lightwood sibling. He looked nothing like Alec and Isabelle, his hair was light and he dressed pretty nerdy.
"Well if you're too young for cursing, you're too young to be burning down an Institute, kid."
"It was an accident!" Chris' brows furrowed in confusion, but before he could ask how burning down an Institute could be an accident in anyway whatsoever, Alec kneeled down with a sigh.
"Max." So that was his name. Chris liked knowing people's names. He never remembered them, unless he really had to, but it was nice to know them. "Somebody very important is coming to visit, alright? You think you can stay out of trouble for just a couple of days?"
"I don't know," sang Chris sarcastically, causing the Lightwood boys to look up at him with raised brows. "I'm a bit of a troublemaker, it might be hard for me-"
"I wasn't talking to you," deadpanned Alec. Chris snorted rolling his eyes at the stoic faced Shadowhunter who was far too pretty for his own good. Alec was the type of pretty boy who didn't know he was a pretty boy, whereas Jace was the type of pretty boy who knew and flaunted his pretty boyness.
"I was joking Alexander. I, and quite a lot of people I've met, have this thing called a sense of humour. I could find you one, but I don't-" however, Chris was cut off by the Institute doors sliding open. His eyes immediately caught onto the daunting face of Valentine Morgenstern and he froze in place. The last time he had seen the cunningly evil face of the monster that was Valentine, he had watched one of his best friends die. It brought back so many haunting memories.
He felt his blood run cold, as every little hair on his body stood on edge and every bad feeling he had ever felt in his entire 221 years of life resurfaced. His mouth became dry and he felt he might be sick. But then everything came crashing down around him when Alec drew his bow and the arrow went flying towards Valentine's face. He caught it and they watched his face flicker into one of a smaller, blonde woman covered in runes.
"That reaction time was abysmal," she said, and Chris could already tell that he wouldn't like her. Maybe it was the fact he had caused his demons to claw away at his mind again, or maybe it was the way she glared at almost everyone like they were something to step on. Whatever it was, Chris hated her.
"Except for you." She was closer, and looking directly at Alec. "I'm Lydia Branwell, envoy from the clave." Suddenly the blonde noticed someone behind Chris and Alec and she pushed past them, causing the warlock and the Shadowhunter to share a look that pretty much read 'who-the-fuck-does-she-think-she-is?'
"Maryse!" called out Lydia, causing Maryse and Isabelle to look over at her in shock. Chris felt his mouth turn dry again as he saw the face of Maryse Lightwood for the first time in 18 years. He wanted the ground to swallow him whole, to take everything he was and destroy it. Just so that he wouldn't have to face the demons that Maryse Lightwood brought to light.
"The Clave has ordered me to take temporary control of this Institute." Izzy looked over at Chris with wide eyes. If her mom found out that they had allowed a warlock into the Institute with the envoy from the clave there, she would kill them.
"Wait a minute, nobody informed us." Maryse Lightwood hadn't changed a bit in Chris' view. Except for the fact that she was older now, she was still gorgeous, with her hair pinned up and her clothes professional. She wasn't covered in the blood of his peers nor was she holding a sword to his head. But she still had the same unemotional expression on her face, and her eyes were cold and dark. It chilled Chris to the bone.
"The Clave doesn't need to!" Chris heard Alec gulp beside him and turned his head, seeing the way that Alec's face had drained of colour. "And, to repeat myself, it's temporary." She walked past them to get to one of the computer screens.
"Nothing's been decided yet, but I do need full clearance in order to assess how the Institute is running." Izzy folded her arms across her chest and allowed her glare to follow Lydia's movements. A wave of pride rushed over Chris and he grinned at the dark haired girl across from her.
"Where is Clary Fairchild?" asked Lydia, looking over at where Alec and Chris stood on either side of Max, her perfectly plucked eyebrows raised. Chris tasted dirt in his mouth. "I would hope somewhere here knows." She then looked at Izzy, but Izzy only glared back at her.
"She's in the field, training," Alec lied smoothly, causing lydia to look back at them. Chris didn't actually know where Clary was, but he supposed she was somewhere with Jace looking for her mother. Maybe if he helped Clary find her mother more then she would lead him to Caroline. Sometimes he strayed away from his original purpose for being in New York, and it was all Alec Lightwood's fault.
"You're telling me she's just....out and about in the streets of New York?" asked Lydia, moving closer and closer to Alec with each venomously questioning word. "Valentine's daughter?"
"Isn't she also your cousin?" came Izzy's voice. Chris' lip quirked up into a smirk.
"Distant cousin."
"You do realise she's a Fairchild more than a Morgenstern. One of the last living Fairchild's, if I remember correctly, and I usually do," quipped Chris, causing Lydia's eyes to finally settle on him. The look in her eyes, so cold and calculating made him think back on a time when eyes like that had stared down at him cradling his dead best friend's body against his chest.
"They just let any old random Warlock into the Institute these days?"
"She's with Jace," Alec cut in, trying to keep the attention off of the warlock beside him. He didn't want to get in trouble with Lydia, his mom or the Clave for allowing a warlock to be in the Institute without being invited to do work. But more importantly he didn't want Chris to get thrown out, he liked being around the warlock, strangely enough.
"The same Jace Wayland who decided to lead an unsanctioned raid against the vampires?" Lydia asked walking over to another screen. Chris wanted her to leave. Well actually, he could have left himself and not ever see Lydia Branwell's stupidly pretty face again, but he wanted his jacket and he also wanted to stay and talk to Alec some more.
"I've read reports." Maryse had followed Lydia's movements, but before she turned her temperamental expression onto Lydia, she sent Chris a sort of guilty look. As if she knew what plagued his lonely thoughts, and she blamed herself. She should, but so should her husband, and Lucian Graymark, and Valentine Morgenstern. Every single Circle member should be blamed. They should all feel guilty for the nightmares they caused Chris and thousands of other warlocks. They should all feel guilty for the pain and suffering that they caused. They should all feel guilty for the rest of their lives.
"Jace might be unconventional, but he's our best soldier." Maryse argued back to Lydia. "If he's with Clary, then she's in good hands."
"I hope so, and for your sake, all of New York." Lydia looked around, her icy glare landing on Chris' rigid form. "All of your jurisdiction better be well protected."
After a few minutes of stunned silence, life started to stir again in the Institute. A maddened Maryse led Lydia away, sending her eldest a pointed look as she passed. The words were obvious in her eyes 'get that warlock out of here'. Alec sent Max away as Izzy came and joined them. Alec's face had fallen again.
"Chris, I think you better go. If we need your help, we'll-" but Chris cut the overly hot Shadowhunter off.
"Alec, the only reason I'm here is for the jacket I gave Izzy. After I get it back, i'll be out of your hair, Lightwood. Trust me." Alec didn't seem particularly pleased to be getting rid of Chris so quickly, and a part of Chris was begging to Alec to let him stay. But he knew the Shadowhunter would never, so he waited by the entrance with Alec as Izzy ran off to collect the black pea coat that Chris had given her the night before, after their eventful night at the police station.
"Did you hear about Simon?" Alec asked Chris, as they both waited by the front doors of the Institute. Alec rested against the wall beside Chris, his arms crossed over his chest and his head bowed down to the ground. Chris however stood straight, looking more confident than Alec ever did. Alec always walked slouched. Catarina had never let Chris slouch.
"Who?"
"The mundane."
"Oh, carrot top's cute boy toy. Nah, thought he was just left in the dust to be honest." Alec snorted, and shook his head at Chris, looking up at him with amused eyes The only time that Chris was every going to taller than Alec was when the Shadowhunter was slouching.
"The vampires got him, you know Camille, the head of the New York clan?" Chris shrugged. He had heard of a vampire called Camille before, but he didn't personally know her. Magnus might, he could always ask him. "Yeah well she bit him, he's downstairs right now." Chris' eyebrows rose at Alec, who shrugged with a half smile.
"We didn't have anywhere else to put him."
"You'll have to bury him, right?" Alec nodded, out of the corner of his eye, he could see Izzy rushing over as fast as her heels would allow her. "That should be fun, I would love to actually see that. Invite me, will you?" Alec smiled, a soft smile, and nodded at Chris as Izzy reached them.
"You'll be the first on the list." Chris grinned in return and thanked Izzy for the return of his jacket. He sent Alec one last, long look before he portalled himself out of the Institute and back into Magnus' apartment.
The older warlock didn't even look up when Chris' knees buckled and he had to grab hold of the couch closest to him. The worst part of portalling, in Chris' opinion, was the impact at the end, when your feet hit the ground and you thought you had shattered every single bone in your legs. When the impact vibrated through your veins and you felt like letting out a scream of anguish. But you grit your teeth and bottled it up while your head stopped spinning. Even though Chris had been portalling for decades, he had never quite perfected the art of landing.
"How was Alexander, dearest?" asked Magnus. Chris threw his jacket onto the chair and made his way over to the drinks cabinet. The clock struck one in the afternoon.
"Alec was, well, Alec," Magnus snorted and watched as Chris poured himself a rather large glass of bourbon. Allowing the amber liquid to bathe in the sunlight that filtered through the large, open windows.
"Isn't it a little early to be drinking, Chris?"
"Someone has driven me to drink," Chris told Magnus. He sounded as if he was joking. But it was obvious that he wasn't.
"Nobody can really drive you to drink."
"You obviously haven't met Lydia Branwell."