Scars of her Blood • Shadowhunters

Chapter 5: Worlds collide

Celia and Jace circled around each other slowly. After they had both recovered from the latest events and Izzy had filled Celia in on last nights – certainly intriguing – events, they had decided to train a little. Now Jace was grinning sarcastically:

"What is it, Celia? Have you lost your edge during your time in Mexico?"

Celia scoffed and stepped forward, letting her sword move through the air towards him. They were both holding only one blade, but Celia had to be careful anyway when she was training with anyone in the Institute. The training in the SRU was way rougher than here. Nobody really cared if the other person got hurt, since they could always heal up again relatively effortlessly. It was sometimes even encouraged to injure the opponent for practice reasons. Álvaro had broken Celia's jaw at least four times in a row to show her that her defense was lacking. And Salomé had spent two days in the infirmary after her trainer had stabbed her through the chest for the same reason.

But here at the Institute, Celia could not go full out with her powers. Purposefully injuring someone during practice was punishable – even if it had educational value.

Jace started an attack of his own and Celia focused back on him. But she was able to block his hit easily.

"Come on, Wayland... Put at least a bit of effort in."

Her relationship with Jace had always been more of a rivalry than anything else. Celia saw him, Alec and Izzy as little siblings, since she was two years older than Alec. But with Jace, the competition had been on from day one.

Jace smiled again and moved towards Celia with enhanced speed, twirling the blade. I didn't even realize he had that rune activated... Celia stepped back and turned sideways a little, making herself a smaller target.

As Jace went past her and she landed a hit on his back, Celia could feel the presence of other people in the room, but she did not concentrate on who it was. Jace's next hit would have been a cut straight through her torso. Celia rolled to escape the hit. She turned in the same second as Jace and realized he was going for a jump. She moved into it, meeting him halfway in the air, escaping the blade and ruining his landing. Jace ended up lying on the floor, with her blade pointing at his neck:

"So who lost their edge now, hm?", Celia grinned and put the blade away.

Jace got up and brushed dust off his clothing:

"Oh come on, you were mainly defensive..."

"And you weren't thinking through your moves. As always."

Only now, Celia realized who had entered the room. So she is home again... I wonder who died.

"Maryse, nice to see you!"

Maryse's gaze was disapproving when she looked Celia up and down:

"I told you so many times not to train with real blades. Jace could get hurt."

Setting the same priorities as always, I see.

Jace put his sword away and came towards her:

"It's okay Maryse, I know what I am doing.", they hugged each other, "how is everything going in Idris? Where is Max?"

"She didn't bring him, came alone to scold us.", Izzy and Clary were approaching behind Maryse. Alec entered the room at the same time, hugging Maryse:

"I didn't expect you."

"You should be prepared, whether you expect me or not... But we will talk about the Institute later. Celia, I have a question before we discuss anything else: Do you happen to know what was going on two weeks ago, when Emiliano Manzanares was killed in Mexico City?"