Change [Book 1 of The Elemental Marks]

Chapter 19

Lina woke up the next morning having only gotten a few hours sleep but feeling alright. She glanced around her room, seeing her tossed off cardigan on the desk and Charlie's books on the floor.

Once she had the books in sight, it was the only thing on her mind--next to the lingering thoughts of last night's kiss. She contemplated going downstairs, seeing her friends as Wyatt ate breakfast and the rest sat around and chatted.

There's always tomorrow morning, she thought. Today, Lina intended to get to know Charlie. The next book she decided to explore was Charlie's standard Shadowhunter Codex. This book was usually intended for new Ascendees and children to gain a basic understanding of what the Nephilim duties consisted of.

In her Codex, Charlie wrote so much that it only made sense to read the entire thing through. There were notes filling most of the margins, some insightful, others entertaining. Lina was starting to hear Charlie's voice in them. The content of the Codex was predictable, even if it wasn't necessarily warm.

Lina continued reading like this for a while, until she caught something odd. In a sidebar about the invention of the Sensor, Charlie's mark was in blue ink, the first in any book not to be written in black. Lina assumed it was made after the originals, but she couldn't help but wonder, Why here? Flipping ahead a few pages, there were no other blue marks to be found. Just the one note, then.

The comment was circled. (See the Grimiore, Chapter 6). Lina's next move was obvious.

She flipped through the book until she made it to the introduction of Chapter 6. It started off with a note on magic, a dull description that, summed up, read "Nephilim don't do magic."

What made this copy of the text interesting was the return of Charlie's blue ink. Here, it felt much clearer that the blue had been an afterthought. Black marks made up an extensive piece of the page, but the blue plainly stood overtop of it, ignoring all previous adages.

Lina thought Charlie would lead her to another section of the Codex as a part of a treasure hunt. Instead, these looked like routine notes. Until Lina read them...

We cannot make new marks, she circled in blue. We can experiment with their use. "Experiment" only circled.

...perhaps new Marks could be created. These projects have inevitably led to failure, all underlined. An arrow followed the end of the sentence, leading to a blue note in Charlie's handwriting. Benders are not the exception.

This line made Lina stop dead. Slowly, she reread the underlined line, and then Charlie's words. Benders are not the exception to what, though? Failures of the Clave? Was all of this about the Institute for Benders? It was just, what, a failed experiment?

Daring herself to go on, though fearing she would soon dislike what she discovered, she jumped to the next marking. What keeps us going is our determination, our oath, our adherence to the Law. This line was totally desecrated. Adherence to had a line drawn through it and was replaced in blue ink with breaking of. Our breaking of the Law keeps us going, apparently.

Knowing this was only bound to continue, Lina decided to reserve all further judgments until she found all of Charlie's notes.

The next markings were pages ahead. Below the heading ANGELIC MAGIC, Charlie wrote Not us.

More pages of nothing. Then, on the bottom of the table of selected Marks, Charlie drew in the four Elemental Marks, but instead of their ordinary titles, it read SIGHT, FLYING, INVINCIBILITY, HEALING below the earth, air, fire and water. Important was also noted, though Lina wished there was a better reason why.