𝐂𝐎𝐌𝐏𝐋𝐈𝐂𝐀𝐓𝐄𝐃 - 𝐭𝐡𝐞 𝐦𝐨𝐫𝐭𝐚𝐥 𝐢𝐧𝐬𝐭𝐫𝐮𝐦𝐞𝐧𝐭𝐬

⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀𝒊.𝒗𝒊𝒊. 𝐭𝐡𝐞 𝐦𝐨𝐫𝐭𝐚𝐥 𝐜𝐮𝐩

𝐜𝐡𝐚𝐩𝐭𝐞𝐫 𝐬𝐞𝐯𝐞𝐧
━━ 𝒕𝒉𝒆 𝒎𝒐𝒓𝒕𝒂𝒍 𝒄𝒖𝒑

She went straight to bed, her heart beating fast and praying to the Angel that she would be able to sleep at least for some hours. Her plan, however, was quickly butchered by Jace, who had decided it was a great idea to wake them all up at the crack of dawn. Well, in truth, it was Isabelle and not Jace who had come into Aria's room to wake her up, telling her that the boy had a matter of life or death he wanted to talk about.

Aria, whose brain was barely working at the moment, pleaded for Isabelle to spare her the suffering and to just tell her everything about it later, but the girl was not about to put up with it all herself and literally pushed the girl tot he library, in her pyjamas.

Aria stood at the door for a second, taking everything in. Simon was nowhere in sight, even though he had stayed there the previous night; Isabelle, Clary, Jace and Hodge were dressed but Alec was still wearing his pyjama as well, which made Aria feel a bit better.

"What's this all about?" she asked, walking up to Alec and taking a seat besides him, her head on his shoulder and her eyes closed.

"Clary says she knows where the Mortal Cup is."

"I'm sorry, what?" Suddenly, every ounce of sleep was out of her body and she sat up straight, looking at the redhead. "And why does she know where it is?"

Everybody looked at her, clearly catching the venomous tone, but Jace didn't do so much as acknowledge her presence.

"I don't really see what any of this has to do with us," Alec said, his hair covering half of his face. "I thought the search for the Cup was in the hands of the Clave now."

"It's just better if we do this ourselves." Jace was clearly impatient, which he proved pacing up and down. "Hodge and I already discussed it and that's what we decided."

Isabelle twirled one of her pink ribbons in her hand, "well, I'm game."

"Aren't there operatives of the Clave in this city right now looking for the Cup? Pass the information to them," Aria intervened. Normally, she would be up for an adventure, but this certainly did not concern them and it was completely out of their remit.

Jace gulped before answering, "it's not that simple."

"It is simple." Alec's patience was already thinning. "This has nothing to do with us and everything to do with your— your addiction to danger."

"I don't understand why you're fighting me on this."

"Because it's mad, Jace," Aria concluded. 

Jace's eyes travelled from Alec to her and back to Alec again, but it was impossible to discern what was going on in his mind. After a few seconds, he began to speak again, explaining how, while Dorothea did not trust the Clave, she trusted them (to which Clary added that she was not very sure Dorothea liked him at all). The blond boy continued trying to convince Alec, explaining how much power and glory retrieving the Cup will bring them. Sometimes, it looked as if Jace did not know Alec at all.

"In this case," Hodge spoke for the first time since the conversation had spoken, "Jace is right. If the Clave were to come to the Sanctuary, it would be a disaster. Dorothea would flee with the Cup and would probably never be found. Jocelyn clearly wanted only one person to be able to find the Cup and that Is Clary and Clary alone."

"Then let her go alone," Alec muttered. Isabelle let out a gasp whereas Aria did her best to conceal a laugh. In less than twenty-four hours, Alec had threatened Clary to kill her and had proposed to send her to a sure death. Not in character for him but that didn't mean that Aria didn't like it, mainly because she didn't like Clary.