Royal Dilemma

Change Enacted

Robert died the same way his little brother had, with a warlock standing uselessly at his side. Only this time that warlock was someone Alec loved, someone he trusted. It was so confusing, so painful. Rationally, he knew Magnus would have helped if he could, but some part of him wanted to yell hatefully at his lover for failing to protect his father.

The moment Robert stopped breathing everyone looked to Alec. Izzy and Jace reported that the warlock had been magically linked with nearly all the people who lived around the Palace and they were sure these people hadn't volunteered to be used as a power source. Magnus had been right that the parents had been involved. Like with Magnus's link, it required a physical connection so once Jace and Izzy had cut free the young warlock's parents and those tied up with them the link had been severed. The rope hanging by the warlock's ankle connecting him to nothing, he'd fallen.

Valentine hadn't waited for an order to kill the warlock. He'd heard the people's cries and acted. Alec didn't have the energy to care about the executed warlock, though a part of him knew how wrong it was. His father's cold bloodless body was all Alec could see.

Alec let his grief have consume him. The grief of losing a parent he loved, the grief of losing the king keeping him from being asked to take the throne. The grief of seeing everyone he loved torn apart. Robert was the center of the kingdom, and without him, they would crumble. Alec knew it was his job to put them back together now.

Alec was fairly sure Magnus had left as he finally stood up and started giving orders. Shadowhunters were no strangers to death and he knew what they had to do next.

Robert would be buried with Stephen, Celine and every generation before them in the tombs under the Palace.

Together they lifted his father's body and carried him to his final resting place. Shadowhunters didn't wait to bury their dead. Funerals, if possible, were held immediately. They were a race of fighters and this was their way.

For a moment Alec imagined a world where every man, woman and child in his kingdom had the blood of the Angels. What if every person citizen had joined the battle today? What if they'd had alliances with more than one warlock? Then surely someone would have had enough magic left to heal his father. If they had places for newly cursed warlocks to go and feel safe that boy wouldn't have been so cruel, so hurt. If the world worked together the royal family wouldn't be forced to watch as their children, parents and siblings died before their eyes. The world was broken and Alec was going to fix it, not in a fifty or a hundred years, but now.

The next morning Alec was crowned King. Shadowhunters were much for ceremony. Everyone assembled in the mission room and spoke the oath while holding their glowing Angel's blades to their chest. As Alec listened to his father's council swear him loyalty he remembered that he men and woman standing before him had rejected ideas for change he'd proposed a mere month ago, yet here they were making him king. It was a testimony to how deeping ingrained tradition was that they'd discard his ideas then give him power without worrying what Alec intended to do with it.

He wasn't sure if it was the grief, the frustration or madness but Alec was done playing nice.

The first thing he did was call for more humans to live in the Palace. He hired cooks and maids, gardeners and sword sharpeners, any excuses to fill the halls with humans. He insisted Lillian and Ed come to live in the Palace and they finally agreed. Ed started training with Lucian and Lillian with Amatis.

Alec spread the word that those of the royal blood might live among the common folk and offered a test for anyone who thought they could be of mixed blood. There were people coming into the Palace everyday to touch a weapon. Within months they'd found three more. Their names were Kathryn, Victor and Natasha and they were all young who joined in the training with Lillian and her son. Sometimes Alec liked to watch them learn, to see the physical proof of the beginning of the world he wanted to build.