Leanna
The doors would only open for a shadowhunter. A Nephilim. Which, of course, is what Leanna was now, though she still couldn't believe it. Less than a week ago she had drank from the Mortal Cup, changing her from a human into, well, something of a superhero. A shadowhunter. And she couldn't look back. Mostly because she was alone in front of the looming Boston Institute without money or any sense of direction, but there was still some deeper meaning to it. It made her feel less lost, at best.
Although she was glamoured, a phenomenon Leanna still wasn't used to, she was beginning to feel rather uncomfortable standing all alone. So, with a deep, awfully shaky breath, she pushed open the heavy oak doors of her new home.
The entry hall was lavish, like a castle from a child's fantasy book. Tapestries covered the marble walls, picturing faceless warriors battling demons of all sorts, each more twisted and vile than the one before. She knew the stories by heart, though not by choice. She had been a mundane at the time of the Dark War, clueless to the destruction that was happening in her very city. It was all her classmates talked about, or so it had seemed. Jace Herondale, Clary Fairchild, and their gang of heroes. Saviors, she supposed. They weren't saviors to her. She merely hoped the people here weren't like that.
"Can you close that?" A voice echoed through the hall. "We do still have to pay for air conditioning."
Leanna snapped her head up and turned, but not before closing the door. The voice belonged to a rather short girl with a mess of unruly curls framing her face like a smudged halo, and a rather intimidating scowl. She was too far away for Leanna to make out more, but she wasn't sure she wanted to get too close to the girl anyways.
"Sorry," she muttered, but the girl did not seem to either hear nor care.
"I cannot believe they dropped you off early! Nothing is ready, and Raziel knows I haven't cleaned a damn thing. Does the Clave know anything about being punctual?" She said, seemingly to herself, as she waved Leanna over. Apparently shadowhunters couldn't possibly be bothered to properly greet their guests.
"Let me show you to your room so you can put your bags away. Don't mind the mess, I'll take care of it later, if I remember" the girl added, looking Leanna up and down, as if seeing her for the first time. Up close, she was quite pretty, annoyingly. Her dark eyes rang with mischief, though the dark circles under them let slip a different story, one Leanna did not intend to learn. Like most shadowhunters, she was muscular, as if they all just lived in the gym. Leanna was never like that, no matter how much the Academy forced her to train. Stick thin and awkwardly tall, she looked more like a newborn giraffe than a half angel warrior. It was admittedly funny to watch the girl look up and furrow her eyebrows, as if wondering whether it was worth it to go grab a footstool. As she looked up a bit longer, her eyebrows rose quickly, apparently noticing her lack of luggage. If she was curious, she did not say.
"Maybe I could just meet everyone?" Leanna eventually said. Anyone could be more pleasant than whoever this girl was.
"Not a completely terrible idea, I'm impressed," she said, breaking into a relaxed, albeit small, smile. "I'm Marlow, in case you were wondering. Which you were."
"Marlow Carthallow?"
"Yeah? Am I some sort of secret celebrity at the Academy?" She laughed, confusion tingling the edges of her grin.
"No, most people there actually thought you were a complete bitch."
Marlow's grin almost seemed to widen.
"Good to know I've made lasting impressions," she said, brushing her hair out of her face with a chuckle. "I think you're going to fit in just fine."
