Trapped in History

12

Magnus watched the black haired newcomer. He had not seen many Shadowhunters before, and they had never really cared to ask for his help, before Will, that is. It was...a strange scene. He knew that Will and Jem were parabatai, and it would seem as though...these two were as well, but he did not really know. They did not look like siblings, but then again, siblings did not always look the same. Perhaps they had grown together and considered themselves siblings. Who knew? Though one thing was singularly obvious. Alec, the new black haired boy, was very protective of the blonde. It reminded him of something...but it was not capable of being placed, something which rather aggravated him.

He set the two up in the living room. Alec, not trusting him still, it would seem, snatched the blanket from his hands with narrowed eyes, before inspecting it and carefully laying it over the boy. It happened all of the time, but he still couldn't stop the punch to the heart at such a thing. 

"Thank you," Came a soft voice. Magnus paused at the soft voice, unable to help himself. He glanced back at the Shadowhunter. "For, well, all of this. I know it is...inconvenient for you. At best, and at worse it could cause you trouble. So...thank you." Magnus wanted to say that he remained calm and collected, but that would be a sheer lie, instead he had openly stared at the dark haired Shadowhunter. 

That was...well, unexpected, at the very least. Magnus would not show how much such a simple thank you meant to him however, he was bigger than that, but he did have to admit it was very good to hear someone that actually appreciated all that he had to go through to help these Shadowhunters. It was...strange though. No Shadowhunter that he had ever come across, little as they were, had ever bothered to think of his position. More or less they just demanded he aid them. It was strange to find a Shadowhunter that not only acknowledged that, but also seemed to know what it was that was going to happen in a way to thank him for it. He hummed and gave a soft 'you're welcome' in response. The Shadowhunter turned back to the other boy. 

Magnus sighed heavily, before going to confront William and Jem. They had brought some pretty traumatized Shadowhunter kids into his house and he wanted to know what was going on with them. Why they were here he understood, but it was the principle of the thing. Who was this Valentine? Why did they want to kill him? Most importantly both boys had battle marks. In his defense, he had not intended to read Alec via magic, but it was quite tempting to do so. The last he had checked, Shadowhunters did not employ those under the age of eighteen, and these two were. Furthermore the battle marks were years old. So they must have been fighting for a while. 

He shook his head attempting to clear it from the chaos that it was driven into. The children were...He breathed a sigh and groaned. He supposed they were not necessarily children but even still. 

He opened the door to the adjoined room, where the two other shadowhunters were sitting anxiously. He sighed. He knew that they were worried, he supposed it would be best to wait for his interrogation until after he had assured them that the boys were okay. It would not be too bad. 

"The boys are both fine. Alec is watching over the other one, and as for his friend..." Magnus hesitated, should he answer this? Was it not a severe breach of privacy? He did not hesitate a moment more, continuing forwards despite his slight reservations. "He should be asleep for a good two days at least. I told the other boy it was a few hours to a few days, as I did not want to worry him but..." He sighed heavily. "To be honest I would be surprised if he wakes up at all." The two stared at him with twin looks of horror. 

"Why is that?" Jem asked first. He had recovered faster than Will, who looked pale with shock. 

"The boy has already sustained several injuries. Not to mention he is underweight, and this was seemingly not the first time the rune was used. The rune is dangerous enough when used on a Shadowhunter once and especially one so young, or at least one so seemingly young. To be perfectly honest, I am surprised he survived the first time. More than that? It becomes more tricky as it continues." Magnus paused, he was nice enough to allow them time to digest this information before deciding to ask. "I...Did an examination, you know, and I could not help but notice that both boys have...battle wounds. From demons. Well, scars of them, and they are very slight, near unnoticeable, of course, my magic does reveal much more than the naked eye." He paused, watching them carefully. "The boys are sixteen and seventeen, I was not aware that the Shadowhunters had changed the age of battle to so young." He inhaled slightly. "They were also newer ones, and ones from at least a few years ago." 

The two boys looked horribly confused, Magnus would give them that, but he was not willing to hold out too much hope. Nor was he going to let them off lightly, at least, not just yet. He could not be so easily convinced after all.

"The age of battle still has not changed." Will said quietly. He glanced at Jem. "If what you are saying is true, than that means that not only have these boys been fighting battles before the age of battle, where it is acceptable for them to do so, but also someone has been knowingly breaking the law." Will looked at Jem. "We need to figure out what is going on." 

Jem nodded his head solemnly, and Magnus was relieved that they would at least do something about this. Or try to do something. He was not entirely sure how much they would be capable of managing, but it was good enough for him. Those boys were far too young to see enough battles to actively have a collection. Even more so dangerous enough battles to be injured as such. 

"I don't think they will tell us though," Jem said, looking at Will with a deadpan look. "They almost refused to even tell us their names." Will groaned. He did not really relish attempting to pry information from them. Jem was right. It was nearly impossible. To even try would just be a waste of time. 

The two were horribly tight lipped, that Magnus would be able to deduce from how stubborn the dark haired one seemed to have been.  Furthermore, Will did not hold out a lot of hope. They had been trying to glean information on them and come up disturbingly empty. They knew their names, and that they needed asylum because someone was after them. They had been close mouthed the entire time that they had been with them. Granted it had only been about two days, but that was entirely besides the point. If it had only been two days and they were still uncomfortable enough that they only shared anything when it was strictly necessary, they doubted that the boys would be willing to tell them something of such a nature as their fights. 

"Well," Will paused, he was at a loss. "We are just going to have to get them to trust us. It is not gonna be easy, but at this point, I doubt they will tell us about themselves, especially if the person who is after them is from the Clave." 

Silence descended on the group of three as they were all simultaneously come with a singular realization. If it was the clave that was after them, or a member of the Clave, they could be in some serious trouble. However, the mere thought that someone could be using their authority from the Clave to force young Shadowhunters to fight made them sick.

They could not simply stand by and do nothing. Even if it was dangerous...After all. The Law is the Law.