Of Cat Eyes And Roses

I - The Return

I – The Return

Please check the end of the story for some brief definitions of special words and references.

The thing about this city was that it didn't really matter what season or time of the year you found yourself in – it was simply and utterly cold.

And sometimes wet, and miserable and all of those other things that made you wish you were born literally somewhere else on the globe. It didn't help that Rose had already completed her traveling year* at the Institute* of Barcelona (of all places), so coming back home to temperatures under what was considered optimal for human survival was a tiny bit of a bother.

A year away had been more than enough for her to know that even though she didn't have much control over her life or location (the Clave* was obviously responsible for every single one of their movements, like some kind of abusive family that knew no boundaries and had attachment issues), Alaska was definitely not where she would spend the rest of her life. Rose would make it out there somehow.

However, as contradicting as it sounded, a year away had also left her homesick. Rose had missed her parents, her siblings, and the snowfights. The frozen steps of the Institute she called home, that made grown-ass Nephilim* warriors trip and fall down pathetically just like any other mundane*

And also...Rose had desperately missed her oldest friend.

She had tried to convince him about fire messages*, the most common way of communication between Shadowhunters* but, he had warned her that those would probably be repelled by the wards surrounding his apartment so, after a few tries and a bunch of crispy paper thrown back at her, Rose has just given up. It was in this kind of moments that she envied mundanes with a passion, they could just use their fancy shiny cellphones and call whoever they wanted, whenever they wanted. She had entertained the idea of bringing one of those contraptions with her to Spain but when she had tried shoving one into her friend's hands, he had thrown it away in a panic.

Apparently, cell phones had some weird mundane* technology that allowed you to track them if hacked, just like tracking runes. Weird.

It was barely 3 o'clock and the sky was already turning into an ominous grey. Same old, same old. Trying to run down the main avenue without bumping into unsuspecting mundanes (she might be glamoured*, but people didn't really like bumping into invisible things as a principle), she made her way into the decrepit-looking building that still scared most of the population on a daily basis but that nobody got around to demolish since it was some kind of landmark once upon a time.

It looked like a dump really, three seconds from falling over or just imploding.

The interior, however, told a different story to anyone with the Sight* that dared to go in on a whim or to seek the High Warlock residing inside for a favor, Rose was there due to a mix of both. Even with her endurance runes*, climbing the damn stairs up to the very last floor still left her winded, and just out of spite, Rose ditched the usual courtesy of knocking and kicked the front doors of the loft. Just like old times.

As the doors flew open, it triggered the usual blue fire orbs that were supposed to scare possible intruders but that only flew right through her, leaving Rose instantly warmed up.

So, the wards still remained the same. Not working as they should.

Most people would wait at the foyer or ring the bell before entering a High Warlock's residence but, Rose just yelled at the top of her lungs, definitely hoping the warlock would drop from one of his bookcase stairs of something.

"Yuzuru Hanyu, where the fuck are you!"

-

Special notes:

*Travelling year – Shadowhunters are required to live abroad for one year or more and visit another Institute. Most of them choose to travel while young and explore the world.

*Institute – There should be an Institute per each city all over the world, a safe place for all the Shadowhunters to take refuge in and some kind of headquarters in a sense. It is usually run by an appointed family, and they will live there. Rose's parents are the heads of the Fairbanks Institute in Alaska.

*Clave – Basically it's the collective name for the political body made up of all active Shadowhunters. The Clave keeps and interprets the Law, and makes decisions about the guidance of the Nephilim through history as it unfolds. The Clave is also responsible for allocating Shadowhunters wherever they are needed across the globe.

*Nephilim – Shadowhunters are Nephilim, meaning that they are all part Human part Angel.

*Fire messages – Shadowhunters use fire messages to communicate with each other, since cellphones don't work inside Institutes due to interference with their Angelic magic.

*Shadowhunters – They were created by the Angel Raziel thousands of years ago so that they could fight demons that tried to hurt normal humans or entering earth somehow.

*Mundane – What Shadowhunters call normal Humans.

*Glamoured – Shadowhunters look different due to the Runes that look like tattoos on their bodies and they carry weapons like shining blades with them so, they use Runes that conceal them and make them invisible to most humans without the gift to see beyond.

*The Sight – The ability to see the Shadow World, aka Shadowhunters, demons, warlocks, vampires etc.

*Runes – Kinda like sigils given to Shaodwhunters to use on themselves in order to increase their natural abilities like endurance, sight and others. They are imprinted on their skin with a special stencil called Stele.