City of Clockwork Soldiers

Our Past Changes Now

Clary knew she would never get used to the sensation of travelling through a portal.

It was as if time had held, and everything had ceased to exist, except for Jace's comforting hand in hers, warm and real. She tried to look to the side to attempt to see him in the overwhelming darkness, but however much her nerves willed her head to pivot, it stayed where it was.

Then they were spat out, unceremoniously, onto a cool, solid surface, and everything came flooding back into existence. As for Jace's hand, she'd torn it out of her own as a reflex to catch herself before she fell face first into the floor.

Dizzily, she looked around. The only other time she'd really made use of a portal was when he and Luke had travelled to Idris, and they'd been dropped in a poison lake - what some people referred to as the Mortal Mirror, but what Clary referred to as the bane of her life. Not like the actual Bane of her life, because that title belonged to Magnus...

But, anyway, this time she felt grateful to have landed on solid ground, even if it had knocked the wind out of her lungs.

Within moments, strong arms were around her waist, hoisting her up onto her feet. She glanced around. Not surprisingly, she was the only one who had fallen when the portal had regurgitated them. Three faces were looking at her with amused grins spread across their faces. With a sheepish smile in return, her eyes left her companions and landed on the scenery surrounding them. They had been spat out from the portal into a slightly overgrown plot of grass, with the occasional park bench stationed around the edges. There was a large fountain in the centre of the park, which spewed water from the stone lips of an elegant woman. All around the square grassy plot, roads snaked to and fro, disappearing out of Clary's sight behind various tall buildings. A steady stream of cars followed one another, the shriek of individual horns crying out above the constant thrum of engines. The sky above them was ashen, smothered in the greyness of clouds. A small patch of sky was illuminated more brightly than the rest of it; Clary guessed that was where the sun's light was attempting to push through the thickness of the clouds.

Clary knew she was in London, because Tessa had informed them that that was where they were going. However, she knew nothing of where in London she was. She'd always wanted to go to England - she remembered when she had thought Jace to be her brother, and when forced to kiss him by the Seelie Queen, he told her to think of England. Yet her idea of England had always been much less dreary. People had told her how glorious the rolling hills of England were, but she wasn't expecting London to be so much like New York in an underwhelming, unsatisfying way. She set herself a new wish: not to go to England specifically, but maybe to a more rural or suburban area, or maybe an entirely different country in the United Kingdom.

She had no idea how to navigate herself through the streets of London, yet her destination was almost immediately clear to her. A great, grand church was set into one of the streets, the cars and pedestrians passing it by without any consideration for its unusualness. However, when Clary stared at the old, decrepit looking building, the plain exterior seemed to strip away like wallpaper, revealing the building underneath which had been covered by a glamour. It appeared hardly anything like the church it had been before Clary had broken through the glamour: the brickwork was even and strong; spires rose high into the sky, their points reaching to split the clouds and break through to Heaven; the building had almost doubled in size, the land which had surrounded the church gone to allow room for the Institute; and great domes of glass and tall roofs materialised out of the foggy air.

"The Institute," Clary announced, holding her hand towards the beautiful building.

The other three nodded in almost perfect unison. "Let's get going, then," Jace said, though he didn't sound the least bit interested in completing - or even starting - the mission they'd been sent to undertake.