Hello

From The Other Side

"This is getting ridiculous, Chris. Honestly, Alec loves me and the kids. Stop thinking he's going to hurt us," Christopher Shadowwood said to the fey girl who was the mother of his children. She merely rolled her eyes at the foolish mortal boy—man now, she supposed—who had much too much faith in something that was based on lies of omission.

"Really, Christopher. Alexander Lightwood is a man of much gossip among the Downworlder and Shadowhunter communities alike. He dated a warlock. A very powerful warlock, at that," she said, still thinking that Chris was an idiot.

"I know that, Chrisalai. Just because you don't like him doesn't mean he's a bad person," he said, getting tired of the age-old argument. He sat down on the grass like he used to do when he and her were still hopelessly in love.

"I didn't say that he was a bad person. He's just someone I don't want around my children," she pouted at him. It was his turn to roll his eyes.

"Well, it's a little late for that, as I married him. A decade ago, actually. I know that time means nothing to you, but to Ash, well, she doesn't know anything else. Rory trains with Alec's parabatai. Alec is a part of their lives," he said as she scrunched up her nose in a disappointed fashion.

"Married? Now, why would you do that?" She asked. Chris sighed. This, too, was an argument that Chris did not feel like having again.

"Because I love him and he loves me. It's really not complicated," he told her as he unpacked the picnic basket full of food from Taki's.

"Right, because someone who kissed a warlock in front of the Clave was suddenly in love with you a year later," she said, her voice full of sarcasm, "and Taki's, really?" Chris shrugged, unfazed by her snobbish look towards the food.

"Hey, don't complain. If you would have called ahead and let me know that you were back, I would have gone shopping. Deal with it. And he does love me," he said, half kidding. The banter between the two was always easy, and that didn't change when she decided to leave him.

"All I'm saying is that he hasn't told you who he was with. I'm fey, Christopher. I know how to deceive with omission and I can recognize it from a mile away," she said picking at a piece of...something.

"I never asked. He was at the center of two wars. He was trying to leave it behind him," he told her. Once again, she just rolled her eyes.

"Okay. Now tell me, how are our children?" Chrisalai was many things, but a bad mother, Chris thought, was not among them.

She did leave when they were little, and Ashleigh may not remember her, but she did not leave them alone. She arranged to have them protected by all the fey who lived in the parks, and the mermaids in the rivers. She had made it clear that they may be Shadowhunters, but they were also fey, and therefore granted safety in Faerieland if the need arose. Though it took forever to convince Alec of it, Chrisalai had not abandoned her children.

"I did follow your wish of having Ash trained away from everyone else. According to Alec, she's going to be quite the archer. Rory helps train at the Institute," he told her grinning. He didn't really like to brag, but he was quite proud of his kids. Chrisalai smiled. She was proud, too. Maybe that Shadowhunter was worth something after all.

"According to a few of my friends, Ashleigh spends a lot of time in the parks around the city," Chrisalai said to him. He nodded.

"She's a bit out of her element when it comes to people. She feels more comfortable in the parks. Alec's taken to training her there instead of at the Institute or at our house. She's talented but as no one to test her," he told her back, clearly concerned about his daughter's shyness.