Chapter Text
Alec wasn’t exactly sure when he’d fallen asleep, but he’d been woken up by voices – both male and female, inexplicably yelling at each other. After a while, he heard a door, it must have been close to his room, shut with force and he’d heard footsteps followed by another pair quickly. After that, he’d heard other people silently vacating the room one by one and the last one was again, two pairs of footsteps and yet, both of them went in different directions. Hoping everything had settled, Alec sat up in his bed and looked down at the crumpled piece of paper that lay beneath him. It was the note Charlotte had given him, and he had slept on top of it, crumpling the paper and even tearing it in some places. He shrugged, and simply flattened out the note before folding it, and putting it in his jeans pocket, making a mental note to himself to give it to Clary once he gets out – or rather, if he gets out of this century.
Being here was more like being in prison, Alec thought as he got out of bed and walked over to the window. Easing the curtain, he saw the front gate of the Institute and two people – a man with white hair, and the same woman he’d seen a while back, the one he’d presumed was Tessa, walking out of the Institute gate. They looked happy, Alec wondered if the two were dating or having an affair, but then that would mean she wasn’t with Will and that was weird, thought Alec, his hand pressing at his temple. He just shrugged as if he would never be able to figure out how straight couples worked and let the curtain fall back. One glance around his room, and he realised that maybe he should freshen up for supper, straighten his clothes and head out to see what time it was. Maybe even explore the Institute as Charlotte had said. Thinking of doing just that, Alec went to his vanity drawer and sorted through the contents. He wasn’t used to having one and the most he’d even used a vanity drawer was when Isabelle had pleaded to help him with his outfit before Alec’s first date with Magnus.
Somehow everything lead back to Magnus, and honestly, he couldn’t help but feel another pang of guiltiness hit him. He knew that Magnus could be somewhere around, and he knew that if he looked hard enough, he’d be able to find him, but the question lingering on his mind was, Where to start? With a sigh and a hand across his rumpled clothes, he opened the door only to find a lingering Jessamine at his door. As he opened the door, Jessamine gasped and almost fell back, but Alec’s quick reflexes worked in and he held her arm to keep her from falling.
Evidently, that hadn’t been the best thing to do. A red flush took over Jessie’s face and she yanked her hand back from him. “It’s very rude to grab a lady like that, you know,” she said, eyeing him up and down as if he was some alien specimen up for her observation. Alec wasn’t used to being stared at like that, and hence when he said, “It’s very rude to stare.” Jessamine was even more appalled at his rudeness, but apparently, that was it, that was what told her that he might indeed be a Lovelace.
“I see you are a Lovelace, then.” She said, gazing down at the Marks that coated his arms. She seemed a bit disgusted, but still, she was staring at him with some distant fondness. It was so distant that Alec thought he might have imagined it. He silently made a note to hide his parabatai rune at any costs, in case it got him into any trouble.
“In blood and bone, right in front of you, ma’am.” He said, lingering on the ma’am, before stepping out of his room and bringing the door along with him. Jessie looked slightly rumpled as if she’d been asleep, but without asking her about it, he enquired about the commotion before. With a dismissive wave, she said it was nothing important and something about Shadowhunter politics. Alec also noticed a blush against her cheekbones when she’d gazed at the door she was possibly in before, before telling him urgently that she needed to go.
Well, how weird, thought Alec as he watched Jessamine hurry into one of the many rooms of the Institute, and bang the door shut. With a shrug, he descended down the corridor, looking around at the walls of the corridor. It wasn’t similar to the New York institute, it looked more like a castle, but it had similarities in the sense that there were recurring Raziel motifs on scrolls adorned on at almost every two inches full with other fluff such as paintings and vases. A wave of homesickness hit Alec as he walked along the corridors, and he longed to be back in New York, in his home, which was confusing at the moment because Magnus’ home had been his home but after the break-up...
Honestly, was Magnus just as miserable as Alec was or was Alec just over thinking all of this? Could Magnus have replied to any of his texts, of course, he wouldn’t know considering the phones didn’t work in the 19th century and well – He just tried his best to not think about New York, at all. However, once he entered the library, another wave of homesickness hit him, and this one was bigger than the one before. He’d seen the library before, but everything had been such a flux of images and random unknown faces, that he hadn’t exactly soaked in the entire library and its grandeur. Now that he looked closely, the library had what seemed like million shelves, with even a million more books stuck in here and there.
From a faraway look, Alec recognised some books he’d seen in the New York Institute, such as Tale of Two Cities or Vahtek, even in the same copies, might he add. But at a closer look, Alec noticed other books which albeit himself made him snigger a little. Books about Demon Pox lined one line of shelves, and after amusing himself by going over a few of them, he kept them back. He then found himself looking at the maps, and the map of Idris and the globe, and everything and it had almost seemed like hours had gone by, when Sophie found him curled up by one of the chairs with an ancient history book in his lap, talking about mundane technology and mundane wars and mundane everything. He wasn’t really fond of mundanes, but Alec loved history and well, he was in history so he wasn’t going to leave any opportunity unturned to delve into Victorian Era history.
“Master Lovelace?” Sophie asked as she ducked into the library. Alec’s head shot up, and he straightened up right in time. “Supper will be ready in 5 minutes; you might want to accompany me to the dining hall.” She said, but she sounded a little out of breath – maybe she’d been looking for him, Alec thought a little guiltily as he nodded at Sophie with a smile. He kept the book in its place and followed Sophie out of the library.
“You can call me Alexander or Alec – It’s a nickname,” Alec explained sheepishly, scratching at the back of his neck. His aunt was so beautiful, Alec thought as he tried his best to contain his excitement about having actually met his great great great great aunt. “I’m sure we’re the same age.” He explained and Sophie stopped to look back at him.
“Pardon me, but I’m a maid, I can’t call you by your Christian name.” She said, before tilting her head to the side as if she sensed some kind of a longing towards him.
“But you call Will by his name,” He pointed out and for a moment, an expression of fondness went over her as if she recalled an earlier situation of explanation. She resumed walking down the corridor.
“That’s a story for another day.” She said and before he could protest, she opened the door to the dining hall and ushered him in. There weren’t a lot of people sitting at the table, he noticed as soon as he entered. There were Charlotte and Henry and a black-haired man whom he hadn’t been introduced to yet, but he’d seen him before. As Sophie helped him sit down, Charlotte introduced to the stranger man as Will Herondale and he realised that his suspicion was right, indeed. At first glance, he’d figured out that it was a Herondale because of the man’s mannerisms which were so much like Jace’s. They had the same lazy gait and posture and yet they both had the same jaw and eyes and same nose and if both of them hadn’t had the same colour scheme to their hair and eyes, Alec would have mistaken him for Jace. However, at the moment, Will looked like he’d been thrown water at a million times and he looked genuinely tired. He also had that angsty look on his face which meant that he wasn’t going to talk to anyone and was only here for the food.
Will gave him a look of superiority before digging into his food, as Henry and Charlotte did the same. “So, are you the only ones in the Institute?” asked Alec. “You know, except Jessamine.”
Will looked as if he simply didn’t wish to answer that, Henry looked distracted and Charlotte looked like the only one who even noticed their presence. “There are two more: James Carstairs and Tessa Gray,” she said, and then with a second thought, she spoke further. “Currently, Tessa’s brother is also with us in the Institute, getting looked over. I wanted to talk to you after supper. I’ll explain everything, then.” She said, and Alec honestly couldn’t argue much.
He dug into his food which was pleasantly warm and delicious and the one thing that didn’t remind him of home. The food didn’t taste like grease and neither did it taste like Isabelle’s many failed endeavours. He’d almost finished his food when all of them straightened up due to a sharp metal clanging sound which seemed to be coming from outside. Without any further, dialogue all the four Shadowhunters were up on their feet – even Henry and Sophie stood with the door open to the dining hall.
All of them stepped out and grabbed anything and everything that was to be seen. Alec was surprisingly handed a sword by Will who had just assumed that he could fight, and before he could thank him, the main door to the Institute had opened and all of them were spilling out. Alec immediately heard the whirr of automatons and the metal clanging against metal. Charlotte had her discs out, Henry was cutting around with a seraph blade and Will, with a scythe, was violently hacking at the automatons.
Alexander, without any thought, struck into the melee, and brandishing his sword, he tried to follow others’ examples. He was good with the sword, but his preferred weapon being bow and arrow, he missed it, but nonetheless, worked his way among the automatons. It was difficult breaking through them, but after dismantling one or two of the automatons, Alec thought he had a grip. As if on cue, an automaton jumped on him from the behind, and struck at him from the behind. Ducking and swinging himself away from the automaton, he struck his sword into the automaton’s abdomen in time to hear Will calling out to Thomas and Thomas immediately coming out to help the white-haired man he’d seen before. As Will and Thomas carried the man inside, Alec’s gaze fell over the brown haired woman – Tessa, he guessed. He dropped his sword, and helped her up and carrying her inside the Institute. She looked like she was confused as to who he was but she didn’t question it, just went along with it. The automatons were gone, he’d realised suddenly, in the middle of Will yelling and Tessa looking lost, and Henry and Charlotte were at the foot of the steps looking over the automaton bodies. Alec thought Henry almost looked happy, but the thought dissipated as he entered the Institute and Tessa only became weaker and weaker in his arms.
Sympathetically, he stopped and held her letting everything wash over her before she heard Sophie’s voice, and slowly eased Tessa out of Alec’s arms. Tessa only looked grateful to be taken out of a stranger’s arms and Sophie looked at him as if she was thankful.
“Miss Tessa,” Sophie said, “Are you alright?” She asked and Tessa looked up at her dazed.
The two conversed about Henry and Charlotte and Alec let his mind wander a little. He thought about how he’d been so engaged in the battle to not even notice the white-haired main that’d fallen prematurely and he wondered if he was sick, with a sigh. However, he was still buzzed with the feeling of having fought automatons and helped the Institute people defend themselves and possibly saved Jace’s ancestor. If she was his ancestor, anyway, thought remembering the white-haired man, again. Could that have been Jem?
He was snapped out of his reverie as he felt a tiny hand against his elbow. “Alexander.” He recognised Charlotte’s voice and he blinked to find that Sophie and Tessa weren’t standing in front of him anymore – they were gone and had been replaced by Charlotte. Henry was gone, too, Alec thought as he smiled down at Charlotte as if nothing had been wrong a few minutes ago.
“Mrs Bran- Charlotte,” he cut himself off as he remembered her asking him to call her Charlotte. “You were very brave.” She said and Alec blushed, he wasn’t used to being complimented by people. Of course, there had been Magnus... Shutting his thoughts out which even mentioned Magnus, Alec gave a shrug before dismissing her compliment with a shake of his head. “It is my duty, I mean,” He corrected himself. “That’s what I read in my father’s Codex.” He lied.
Charlotte shook her head. “Nonetheless, for a munda – For a person who had lived in the mundane world, you fought very bravely.” She restated.
Alec just dropped a smile and shrugged as if to say It was nothing.
“Let’s go to the library, it’s time I told you about the Institute,” Charlotte said and with a purposeful gait, started towards the library.