BLIND

Chapter 2 Nescience

"The world is full of many magical things patiently waiting for our wits to grow sharper."

-Eden Phillpots

BLIND Chapter 2: Nescience

Magnus figured that it was just the stress getting to Alec. It made sense. After all, Jace was gone, with neither hide nor a single overly-golden hair to be found. Magnus' blue-eyed shadowhunter had already lost one brother to the Morgenstern boy, and the idea of it was probably just sending his head down similar lines, of death and horror and the worst possibilities. Magnus would have been, but he was trying to be a bit more positive about things. There was usually a good side to things.

Especially if he ignored the real issue as tactfully as he was. What could he say; he'd had years of practice.

Oh, he was certainly thinking about the situation, and rather diligently, if he might add. He was simply analyzing it in a very objective way, not letting any silver strings of emotion be pulled in unnecessarily, as much as he could help it, what with his boyfriend being very emotionally invested in all of this. But just because Alec loved Jace very much did not mean that Magnus shared the sentiment. He wasn't getting involved in this utter mess. He'd gotten tangled up in shadowhunter affairs before and that had been a rather draining experience that really hadn't ended very well.

However, his emotional detachment didn't mean he wasn't there when Alec needed him. At the very least, he thought he was, and hell, was he ever. He spent every minute of his spare time trying to decipher a long forgotten language, trying to figure out exactly how Lilith had screwed everything up to the max. Demons, he'd tell you with something akin to an eye roll.

Demons, and their fucky-ass languages, were the not-so-great part of the whole arrangement. There was a bit of sex involved. When Alec wanted it, he would gladly put out (but really, who wouldn't, had they ever seen the teen?), doing all the things Alec liked and listening to requests that made the warlock smile. Lilith's books, sexy Alec time... It was a frustrating, but overall not too bad a time. He'd certainly had worse, though this wasn't the time to bring all of that up. He'd done all in his power to make his dark-haired lover comfortable while remaining a vague figure when it came to all of those icky feelings he could live without. Well, maybe not his feelings for Alec. Because those were kind of awesome.

It wasn't extremely hard, though, moving away from pain and hurt and hate. Alec was doing it, too. Drifting away from the subject, like a toy boat on a strong river current. At least he wasn't getting completely pulled under. But at this point, with all the questions and the surfacing of lies, Magnus could hardly blame Alec for anything, much less for not saying too much about anything. It wasn't, in Magnus's experiences, uncommon for the particularly stoic shadowhunter to become even more silent in times of duress. The day after Jace went missing, and even the night of, he'd been rather blank. He was scared, horrified and angry, at himself and the rest of the fucking world and at fucking Clary, for telling the entire Clave that Jace had died without breathing a word to him first. For the Angel's sake he was one of the most important people in Golden Boy's life. Probably the most important, before she came along. But then it all washed over him and Magnus knew from the sad look that Alec was hardly feeling anything more than hollow, because he said he had felt something when Jace died but he hadn't known. Did he ever know anything? Alec could, grudgingly, admit that telling the Clave about Jace wasn't a good idea. But he should have been told, and then maybe he could have gotten them all out of this shit-wreck, he'd said.

This was Jace, and Jace was Alec's entire world. The only creature inhabiting its lands before Magnus started throwing pebbles. Alec should have known. But he was quiet about it, in the way he held himself, like always, but there were some things Magnus just recognized about his behavior. They were familiar, but a twisted familiar. The largest sign, Magnus noted, was just how haggard the pale skinned young adult was, emotionally and physically, and it took a turn for the worse, that he wished they had had more time to spend on, as the week progressed.