Hello everyone! I'm only a couple days late this time, and that's because for some reason I thought it would be a good idea to schedule my update for when I'd be on vacation? Anyway, now that I'm back in town I realized I had this chapter finished and ready to go, so here you go! Hope you enjoy it!
Once again, the amazing and talented @sereneur created the graphic below. They deserve all the credit in the world for taking my vague ideas and creating such a beautiful work of art every single time. Thank you!
The only sound that could be heard in the room was the clicking of Celeste's heels as she approached the throne the Inquisitor sat on at the front of the room.
When she finally came to a stop, she stood with her hands on her hips and her feet shoulder width apart as she lifted her chin and gazed defiantly toward the Inquisitor.
The Inquisitor's eyes narrowed as she recovered from her shock. "How do we know you're truly an angel? The Clave has seen impostors before."
Celeste raised an eyebrow. "Have you ever seen a Shadowhunter without runes?"
"They could be covered with makeup." The Inquisitor shot back immediately.
She wasn't ready to give up, and remembered the odd things she and Izzy had figured out in the lab. She reached over to one of her wings and yanked out a feather, flinching at the pain of it. She held it just high enough to let everyone behind her see it as well over her large wings.
The Inquisitor's eyes widened almost imperceptibly as everyone saw the feather slowly change colors to a midnight black, just as it had that day in the lab.
Still, she was not impressed. "An enchantment by a Warlock." She reasoned, sending an obvious glance toward Magnus.
Celeste sighed and dropped the feather to the floor. She'd have to try Plan C.
She looked over to Lydia and got an idea.
"Lydia, could I borrow your earring for a moment?" She asked politely.
Despite her confusion, she nodded and handed it over.
She stepped back up to the Inquisitor, but this time stood to the side so that everyone could see what she was about to do. "Watch closely." She grinned, anticipating the reaction.
She took the backing off of the earring and held it tightly in her right hand as she extended her pointer finger on her left. Without warning, she stabbed the earring into her finger, and clenched her teeth together from the pain.
Many people gasped at her actions, but she paid them no mind.
She continued with her plan, pulling the earring out again and watching the golden blood bubble to the surface. To add to the dramatic effect, she used the pointer finger and thumb of her right hand to pinch the bleeding finger to cause it to bleed more and tilted it upside down so that drops fell to the white tile flooring.
When she was satisfied with the number of drops on the floor, she flipped it back upright. She closed her eyes, and imagined the iratze rune in her mind. She imagined what it would look like to watch the small puncture wound on her finger heal itself until there was no evidence it was ever even there in the first place.
As she felt a warm feeling flow down her left arm and into her finger, she knew it was working. With a grin, she opened her eyes and looked down to see that she was right. All that remained was a bit of golden blood that was drying.
She stepped up onto the platform the Inquisitor sat on and held her finger out for her to inspect.
The Inquisitor's eyes narrowed as she snatched the hand that was outstretched toward her. When she realized that it was in fact healed, she could hardly believe it.
Her mind was racing, trying to figure out explanations for everything she'd seen. While she wasn't fully convinced that the girl was actually an angel, there was no denying that she was different.
The Clave wasn't necessarily a fan of "different," but in this case she felt they might be able to make an exception. The girl obviously had power, and she couldn't help but wonder what else she could do. If she had other abilities, she could quite possibly be what they needed to take down Valentine.
With a deep breath, the Inquisitor stood to address everyone with her decision.
"I find Isabelle Lightwood guilty of the charge of treason, and she is hereby sentenced to be stripped of her runes and exiled from the society of the Shadowhunters forever." She announced to the entire room.
Celeste's heart squeezed painfully in her chest. Her jaw clenched and her eyes shut in an attempt to hold back the tears she knew would be coming. She'd done everything she could and it still wasn't enough.
Lydia's head dropped forward, as she knew this was wrong. She knew that she needed to follow the law, and she truly felt there wasn't anything she could do. But seeing Izzy's siblings both doing everything in their power to save her was so touching, she found herself hoping that Izzy would be found innocent.
Izzy leaned against her brother, needing his support. The reality of the situation was sinking in quickly, as she realized she would likely die.
But a single word brought back everyone's attention.
"However."
Celeste's eyes snapped open as they found the Inquisitor gazing straight at her.
"I am willing to overlook her crimes if Celeste Lightwood agrees to come to Idris indefinitely as we investigate her claims of angelic heritage." She finished.
Without a second thought, Celeste nodded. "I accept."
"Celeste!" Her siblings exclaimed in shock.
Neither of them wanted their sister to be sent to Idris. They had no idea what they would do to her there, and they didn't want to find out.
Celeste held her hand out toward them, to keep them from continuing.
"I said, I accept." She gave them a hard look, almost daring them to disagree with her again.
The inquisitor nodded. "Then it is decided. Pack your bags and say your goodbyes Miss Lightwood. We leave for Idris tomorrow morning at nine o'clock." She slammed her gavel on the arm rest twice, signaling that there would be no more discussion on the topic.
"How could you possibly think giving yourself up to the Clave would be a good idea?" Izzy asked, throwing her hands in the air.
The two Lightwood siblings were supposed to be packing Celeste's belongings in preparation for her move to Idris, but Izzy wasn't much help as she was spending more time pacing the floor and ranting than she was packing.
"I didn't have a choice. This was the only way. They were going to convict you and strip you of your runes."
Izzy shook her head. "You don't know that. Magnus could have--"
"I do know that Belle!" Celeste cut her sister off as she slammed a drawer closed after emptying the contents.
Izzy's eyes widened at Celeste's sudden exclamation.
She sighed. "I'm sorry." She muttered. "But you don't understand. I did know that for sure. You know those nightmares I've been having? They keep coming true. Not exactly in the same way I dreamed them, but they keep happening. I think they're another one of my angelic abilities." Celeste plopped down on the end of her bed, playing with her fingers
"What do you mean?" Izzy asked, taking a seat beside her.
"I mean that I predicted Al would turn against us. I predicted that something was wrong at the institute and that's how I knew to come here. And I predicted that you would be found guilty in a trial."
"How could you possibly have predicted those things?"
"I told you, my dreams tell me. They don't really make sense at the time, because they're symbolic, but in the end I usually figure out what they were supposed to tell me."
"Like what? Give me an example."
Celeste shrugged. "So far I've had three of them come true. The first one, I dreamed Al and I were in the training room and all of a sudden he walked away to join a group of soldiers. No matter how many times I called his name, he wouldn't respond. The important part of this one was him literally turning his back on me. Then the one about you that came true was where I found you hanging above a bunch of spinning metal wheels. And then this giant figure slammed a gavel on the desk three times and you dropped to your death. I'm pretty sure that was supposed to represent you being convicted and dying in the mundane world without your runes. And the one I had last night was that the institute was on fire. Obviously it was meant more figuratively, but it was telling me that the place was 'going up in flames.'" She sighed and flopped onto her back. "They never make sense until I'm experiencing what they're supposed to represent."
Izzy took Celeste's hand and rubbed her thumb along the back of it.
"Thank you." She whispered, thinking about how close she really was to being convicted. Deep down she'd known this of course, but at the time she didn't really consider that it was possible. The worst case scenario never seems plausible until it's staring you in the face.
Celeste propped herself up on one elbow and gave her sister a real smile. "We may not be related by blood, but you're still my sister. I'd do anything for you."
"Even go to Idris with the Clave."
It wasn't a question, but Celeste acted as though it was and nodded.
"Even that."
Izzy groaned and dropped Celeste's hand as she stood to begin pacing again.
"I still can't believe you gave yourself up though. We could have found another way, I'm sure Magnus had a plan."
Celeste rolled her eyes as she realized they were right back where they started. She stood and walked over to her dresser to empty another drawer.
"Belle, we didn't have time to find another way. Besides, the Clave was set on convicting you the second that trial started. There was going to be no changing Inquisitor Herondale's mind." She glanced over her shoulder and sighed at her sister. "Are you going to help me pack, or are you just going to keep burning a hole in the carpet with all that pacing?"
Izzy narrowed her eyes and put her hands on her hips, but before she could get a word out of her mouth, the door flung open and a frantic Alec came running through the door.
"Clary and Jace are back. They gave the Cup to Lydia, so you can stay."
Both of the girls' eyes widened.
"What?" Their response couldn't have been more in sync if they planned it.
Alec nodded. "When I told them about the situation, Jace and I came up with the idea to trade the Cup for your freedom. Clary agreed, and when we took our proposal to the Inquisitor, she accepted. You get to stay Celeste. You get to stay with us."
Alec had the widest smile on his face. It was the most genuine smile he'd had since Clary had arrived. Izzy was just as happy, but her expression also had shock mixed in.
Celeste's relieved smile only lasted about five seconds before realization took over.
"Wait, if Clary gave the Clave the Cup, then that means their mission must have been successful, right? They must have found Valentine, brought him to the Clave to be tried for his crimes, and gotten Clary's mom back, right?"
Alec frowned and didn't make eye contact. "Not exactly."
Both of his siblings were confused now, and they shared that confusion in sync.
"What?"
"Not exactly?"
"Well... They did find Jocelyn, but she's under a warlock spell. We can't wake her up. She's in the infirmary now until we can find a way to reverse the spell. As for Valentine... You might want to ask them about that."
That was all the explanation she needed to hear from her brother. Without any more questions, she hurried from the room and off to the infirmary. With Jocelyn being kept there, she knew that was where she'd find at least one of the two Shadowhunters she was looking for.
Celeste frowned as she stood in the doorway of the infirmary. Inside the room she saw Jocelyn floating in midair. For a moment, she thought that the glowing green surrounding her was another one of the odd colors, but it was much too big and the color was rippling around her in waves. As she walked closer she realized that there was a thin aqua color surrounding her, which made her realize the green must have been the spell keeping her unconcious.
She stopped next to Clary and simply waited until the redheaded girl was ready to talk. She knew that her head must be in chaos and didn't want to rush her.
"Do you think she can hear us?" Clary finally asked after the two of them had been standing in silence for several minutes. "Where is she? Is she trapped in there? Is she somewhere else?" She finally peeled her eyes away to look at Celeste. "I mean, I... I look at her, and I see my mother, but..." She trailed off unsure of how to continue.
Celeste's frown deepened, seeing the internal battle the redhead was having. "I don't know." She answered truthfully.
When Clary's shoulders dropped with defeat, Celeste reached out to give her hand a gentle squeeze. "We'll figure something out Rissa, I promise."
"Rissa?" Clary asked, glancing over in surprise.
Celeste gave a sheepish smile. "Rissa. As in, short for Clarissa. It's okay if you don't like it, I just thought--"
Clary shook her head, cutting her off. "No, I like it. No one's ever called me that before. It's unique."
It hadn't taken long for Clary to notice that Celeste often gave nicknames to those she loved, and she was honored to be given one of her own. She was finally starting to feel like she belonged here in the institute. She even realized that perhaps her family consisted of more than just herself and her mother now.
Despite everything bad that had happened in the last few hours, Clary felt warmth spread through her heart as she gave Celeste's hand a squeeze in return.
Aw, Clary finally got a nickname! 😄 I thought that was a good note to end on. A nice feel good moment before I create chaos in the next chapter. 😈 I'll let you all try to figure out what that means on your own. You'll be getting no hints from me.
Anyway, my question of the chapter once again has nothing to do with the story, and instead is about my life. As I told you at the beginning of the chapter, I was just on vacation, and I happened to be at Disney World! So my question is related to that:
What Disney character are you most like? Or if picking one is two hard, you can choose two. Why that/those character(s)?
I hope you guys liked this chapter! Please feel free to always leave me feedback either in the comments or in a message. And I always welcome ideas for the story, but I request that you send those through messages in case I do end up using them. 😄
Next Planned Update: Friday, March 27th, 2020