Fires from heaven

The Angel on Earth

                        ________________________________________

                                   For every death and for every pain

                            For every hatred and for every soul slain

                           There was no end to that burden we carry

                        Unless it is the direction of love that we hurry.

                                         What's the point of living

                                         without us trying to love?

                    ________________________________________

The encounter with Samuel was the talk of the day. The Shadowhunters and the warlocks who had spent days trying to find the rogue warlock was ablaze with excitement as the work that they had been doing was finally going somewhere. Alec and Jace attended the formal briefing with the Clave, explaining the portal, the creature, and the demons that Samuel controlled in a lengthy manner. They explained the terror of the creature and how powerful Samuel's magic was. They outlined their conjecture that the next time Samuel would be more prepared and would be protected with more demons; now that he knew the Virtutis pair was onto him. They cautioned the Clave to take this matter urgently and the wound that Jace inflicted on Samuel would only grant them a very brief respite.

The Clave listened to them in an attentive manner before abruptly said that they would get back to Alec for further instruction.

As soon as Alec finished the briefing, he wandered out to look for Clary. Something was bothering him. He saw Clary at the mission room and quickly touched the redhead's elbow. Clary turned and smiled at Alec. The smile quickly dimmed when Alec said, "Clary, can I have a word? I need to ask for your opinion."

"Sure," Clary said, looking concerned.

"Let's talk in my room."

As soon as Alec closed his office door behind him, he gestured for Clary to sit down, and yet, he began to pace back and forth in indecisiveness. Clary allowed a few moments, recalling how Magnus allowed Alec to burn out his worry for some time. It marveled at Clary just how much in tune Magnus was with Alec's behavior.

"Alec...?" Well, she was not Magnus and patience had never been her forte.

Alec breathed out and stood stiffly in front of Clary. "When Jace and I used our Virtutis rune, I was reluctant to take Magnus's lifespan. I could see the soul thread that connected between Magnus and me, and I can control how much I take at the expense of my own life. It means, if I take less of Magnus's, I am sacrificing my own."

"But you won't do that, right? Because that is why the Anima rune was there in the first place. It's to help you using the Virtutis rune better," Clary frowned.

"Yes, I know, and I've promised Magnus that I will use the Anima rune," Alec said.

"Where are you going with this?"

"I just thought that maybe you could create a rune that, I don't know... acts as some sort of failsafe switch that can cause me to automatically stop taking Magnus's lifespan it endangers his immortality."

"What?!"

"The portal was draining the Virtutis power and it was a small one. Samuel was distracted and he didn't pour much of his magic and it took my whole strength to bear Jace's angelic power. I have this feeling that the real portal is much more... demanding... In other words, the next time I use Anima rune, I'm going to strip Magnus of his immortality if I don't find some way to stop me from taking too much of Magnus's soul energy."