The City Of Deadly Passions (TMI)

Inside Out, Outside In

The doors of the Institute opened with a hiss of air and a very dishevelled and anxious looking Magnus Bane rushed into the main hallway. His black leather trench coat flapped corybantically in the mad gales and his spiked hair whipped around his face, obscuring his pupils which had now became glowing cat eyes. Clary appeared from the opposite end of the institute and raced towards Magnus, frantically waving her arms and yelling loudly to draw his attention.

"Magnus, over here!" screamed Clary as she drew Magnus's attention to herself. "Alec's in the infirmary." They met in the middle and they rushed towards the infirmary doors, not wanting to waste any time that they might possibly have. "He was attacked by someone outside of the institute earlier. They kidnapped Jace and beat Alec half to death. We healed him and he seemed fine but something went wrong. His iratze rune flashed a purple colour and the skin with the rune on it  literally melted off of his neck. He collapsed and he's not doing so well."

They opened the infirmary doors and stood over the cot where Alec lay. Saying he looked bad was an understatement.

His normally healthy skin was now a pallid and sickly white, a stark contrast to the ebony hair that was plastered on his forehead. His skin was cool and clammy to the touch but sweat dripped down from his forehead in fat, salty drops. His lips were slowly turning blue like the purple mashed flesh of blueberries and his teeth chattered, grinding against each other in a cacophonous symphony of sliding and gnashing enamel. Black veins spidered their way across any amount of exposed skin and they could see black fluid sluggishly chugging along inside of him. Magnus lifted one of Alec's eyelids expecting to find a dull eye but that isn't what he found. What Magnus found was an eye completely encompassed in black. There was no iris and it seemed that the pupil had covered even the whites of the eyes. Magnus dropped the eyelid and worry crossed his face.

"Did he say who attacked him? I don't know if I can help him but if I know who attacked him then maybe, just maybe I might be able to."

"He said it was someone who called themselves Lust. We're assuming he was talking about one of the seven deadly sins but we don't know for sure. Magnus do you know what's wrong with him?" Answered and asked Izzy as she placed a damp cloth on Alec's forehead.

"I haven't seen it for centuries and it isn't good. Did he ever mention Lust getting its blood on him or his blood in or on it?"

"I don't remember him saying anything like that but it could have happened. He was bloody when we found him." Clary interjected. Magnus shifted around Alec and showers of angry red sparks flew from his fingertips and landed delicately onto Alec's pale face.

"The sins need vessels to escape the cage and roam free and they need seven of them to be free. Judging by the way Jace was taken and Alec was hurt I would say that they are both vessels for the sins. What sin in particular I do not know but they are definitely vessels."

Alec jerked suddenly and the group jumped back in horror. He quickly fell back into the pillow, moaning and whimpering in fear and pain as he thrashed around. It was only when he began to mutter that fear was visible on everyone's faces. Magnus was the first to react.

"Quickly, I need you to get powdered wormwood, dried nightshade, the claw of a cockatrice and the tongue of a toad. They should be in the library but I need you to hurry. Alec won't last long unless we give him that and a couple other ingredients. You two go and I'll stay here and make sure he doesn't injure himself. Go now!"

Clary and Isabelle nodded and they rushed out of the infirmary. Simon stood on the opposite side of Magnus and watched with a worried expression as Alec moaned and jerked around. Simon became much more attentive when Alec began to mutter words and phrases in a  foreign language. Magnus grabbed a notepad and began to scrawl down what Alec was fervently muttering.