Avenge the Shadows (I)

:: 1.19 ::

CATHERINE'S POV

I had been such a coward, but I was trying to change things after the Global Meeting. So, I stretched for half an hour, mostly to gather the courage to actually go out. Most of the residents had their routes and as I stretched, I heard where they were going. Just then, I remembered that I did not know a thing about the streets in London, or anywhere for that matter. As I activated the bravery rune, I also activated the equivalent of a GPS rune, then I pressed the chronometer and started jogging, but as I was so nervous, soon enough I was running and for a minute, I forgot the chronometer and as I had reached one of the farthest points according to the rest, I just returned to the institute. I had hoped to see the rest returning, but no one was around. Just then, I looked at the chronometer and saw that it only took me an hour and a half to do it and as I had time to do it again, I did it. My favorite part was crossing the London bridge, everything looked great from it.

The river seemed so vast and calm that I felt like I could actually relax over there. When I returned for the second time to the institute, I saw the rest coming back and most of them looked awful and really tired. I, on the contrary, did not feel tired or exhausted, but I acted like I was, because they already thought I was strange. We all walked to the training room and shared our ways and when I told them I had gone to the Crystal Palace Park, they congratulated me as apparently that was a hard route as it normally took two hours and a half to get there. I just followed the game and then we started training. By night, I went with some girl on a surveillance mission around, we were not looking for anything in particular, we just needed to keep an eye out there. That had been a bit different from my first mission and I was okay with that. Two days later, I changed my jogging route and ended up in Lavender Hill Cemetery.

I had gotten to the cemetery in an hour and a half, so I had thirty minutes to actually go in and walk around. I gotten back just in time and I lied saying I had gone to the same place as the previous days, they were not ready to hear I had gotten there in half the time a normal Shadowhunter would. As a typical Wednesday, I had remote surveillance. So, as I kept an eye on mundanes, I looked for other routes in the two-hour-jog, so I could sneak out to other places. By Friday, I took a new route. This was way further away than the other routes, so I had to use my time wisely. A normal person would take five hours to get to Hugh Elms Golf Course. For a normal Shadowhunter would take three hours. So, I was really shocked when I reached the course in two hours and I got back along the rest, which was great for me. I felt accomplished by this, but still, I felt like there was something missing. I was anxious and I really did not know why.

After lunch, the institute got ready to receive the new exchange Shadowhunters and by Sunday, they had arrived. All of them were in another room, wearing some long hoods to give a dramatical touch to the presentation. "As you know, it is a tradition to take a year-off from your clan and spend time in residence at an Institute away from your home to allow you to learn about other cultures and eventually grow up." The head of our institute started. "I'll name the hosts and the exchange Shadowhunter, so please be welcoming." Part of being a host, meant to share your room with said exchange soldier and this year, I was a host. It was randomly selected, so we all had to fix our rooms to welcome a possible visitor. And just like a ballroom dance, each one of them were being called on and introduced to the rest. After a while, the head of the institute called out my name and I groaned internally.

"Catherine Ashdown." She called again as I stood up and tried to be relaxed, although I was freaking out. "You're going to be the host and trainer to Charlotte Verlac." I was surprised to see Charlotte walking down the stairs and as soon as she took off the hood, she smiled at everyone in the room. 

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