Tainted Soul • Lightwood. [ON HOLD]

E I G H T E E N

Justin reentered the loft after deciding it was better for him if he just took a breather. "Tell us what? What's so important that Luke risked his life?"

"Everything Jocelyn hope to hide from you two," Magnus answered as he took a drink. The warlock made a sketch book and chalk appear in front of Clary, making the redhead look at it.

"Why?"

Both heads turned to Justin, startled by his voice. "When she was younger, I'd watch her sketch. It was her bliss. While you just like to listen and read. She's gonna need some bliss now."

"Back then, there wasn't a day I didn't draw. It was like breathing. Now, I look at this blank page and I barely even know what to do," Clary said.

"Sometime I feel like my art, my memories... My life, it... it all vanished with that Memory Demon." Justin looked down at his feet, remembering the incident with the Greater Demon.

"Your art, everything you are... they're still here. You're the woman your mother always knew you could be," Magnus reassured.

"But they tried to keep me from being her," Clary said, shooting a small dirty look to her brother. Justin rolled his eyes in annoyance, having heard that one hundred times already.

"That's why you need to know how you got here. Both of you."

"Will it help find my mother?" Clary asked. "That's the only reason I can think of why Luke would be so adamant."

"I'm ready. Bring it, warlock."

The two Fray were sitting on the living room, Clary sketching while Justin just sat there listening to the story.

"When I first heard about your father, around the time he and Jocelyn first got together, long before the Uprising and the Circle, Valentine elevated the Morgenstern name to be synonymous with virtue. And your mother was at his side. But by the time my people came to know him, barely two years later... his name had become synonymous with devastation. Your mother told me it was then she first saw the signs. They never found all the bodies. We'd all stood with the Clave for centuries."

"How could that not matter to him?" Clary interrupted. "He was obsessed with ensuring purity of blood. Convinced that the impurities were a threat to peace," Magnus explained.

"He was the threat to peace," Justin commented. "Mad men rarely make sense. Mostly, they just hate. And he hated the Downworlders, for the gusts that we possess that he could not have. He hated us enough to kill us all."

"Ever since my mother was kidnapped and the Shadow World invaded my life, so many Downworlders have helped me, not even thinking about what it might cost them. How could Valentine not see good in any of them?" Clary questioned.

"He was blinded by his ambition," Magnus said. "Why didn't the Clave stop him?"

"He was clever. He and his followers, the managed to convince the Clave that the Downworlders they killed on their special missions has violated the Accord in some way. Complete fabrications."

"This Clave continues getting more and more stupid. How could they not see?" Justin said. "Shadowhunters believe in the Law as absolute. They could never conceive of one of their own going astray," Magnus told him.