West of Words (Alec Lightwood)

🗝 Chapter Thirty-One 🗝

Varian had yet to see the training room, except for the glimpse of it that he had received while portaling in the few times that he had. But it was exactly what he thought it would be.

Large, hollow, and an entire wall of weapons.

He felt impossibly small when he stepped in, the Book of the White  open in his hands. Varian forced a smile as he looked around the room, Clarissa, Luke and Simon all stood side by side a few feet on the other side of the body. Izzy was there beside Clarissa, a comforting arm around her shoulders.

His baba  was there too, the amber surrounding him showing Varian how proud he was that he was performing the spell, but Varian could see the hints of blue sadness decorating the air in between. He was worried he was going to loose his son. Varian reached a hand to his baba, and through that contact he shared how much he loved him.

When Varian dropped his hand, he reopened the Book of the White, and with a wave of his left hand the book started to float in the air on his left. He took a deep breath, looking across the body of Jocelyn Fairchild to lock eyes with Alec.

"You alright?" Alec's voice was soft as he spoke, just barely a whisper, and Varian just nodded.

"I'm going to need your strength." Varian replied, continuing to regulate his breathing as he prepared himself for the strain of the spell. He wanted to explain why, but Alec interrupted. 

"You've got it." Alec smiled in a comforting way.

Varian nodded, turning his face from Alec, he lifted his voice to speak to the small crowd of Shadowhunter's that were in the room. "I recommend stepping back a few feet, this is a powerful spell."

Varian took a deep breath, before lifting his hands over Jocelyn, one over the heart, on over the head.

His magic started to spread over her body, a mixture of emerald and lilac, and Varian's eyes fell shut. This was a different kind of magic, an older ancient kind that very few Warlock's were able to perform successfully, and Varian was glad for Ragnor's magic.

A pulse passed through the room, and Varian started to speak in Chthonian, a language that he does not know when fully himself. The emerald and lilac weaved a beautiful pattern over Jocelyn's body, but Varian couldn't appreciate it. He began to shake, the strain of the magic becoming to much quickly, the combination of the healing emerald and his new found full Warlock magic started to weaken him.

Another pulse came and in less than a second the beautiful emerald and lilac turned black, and Magnus Bane realized what was happening: Varian was loosing control, and this was too powerful a spell to loose control while performing.

Magnus tried to reach for his son, to share some of his wisdom and to hopefully help in Varian gaining some of the control back, but he was thrown away by a flash of accidental magic, the shout of pain he let out distracted Varian.

"Baba." Varian's voice was deeper than normal, and almost hollow sounding. His eyes snapped open, the color unearthly gold and piercing.

"I'm alright Varian." His baba's  voice came without any strain. "Breathe, take control of the spell. You can do this."

That seemed to be exactly what Varian needed to hear, the magic trailing from his fingers turned to a deep lilac and emerald once again, the orb holding Jocelyn Fairchild in the air shuddered.

Varian's eyes stayed wide open as he continued to chant in Chthonian, the words echoed their way through the training room, seeming to break through the barriers of every Shadowhunters mind in the entire Institute.

There was an audible snap, and the magic holding Jocelyn in the air dissipated. Luke stepped forward, gathering Jocelyn in his arms as she slowly started to move.

Alec reached for Varian, his hand hovering inches away, but whatever trance that kept Varian out of it all didn't fade. His eyes still bright and gold, Varian stepped past Alec's arm, reaching a delicate hand up to press to Jocelyn's forehead.

"Ikuru ume."

Jocelyn seemed to gasp for air, and Varian's trance broke at the sound.

Varian stumbled, his knees buckling below him as he started to fall backwards, Alec was there in an instant, wrapping his arms around Varian and holding him tightly.

"Varian-" Alec's voice was distant in Varian's ears.

It took him to long to come back to the land of the living, his head heavy, and his eyes burned. He smiled up at the face above him, a dazed look in his eyes.

"Alec, how'd I do?" Varian's words were slow to come out, but Alec just smiled brightly.

"Perfectly."

That seemed to pull Varian the rest of the way out of his trance, and with Alec's held he stood to his feet, his eyes focusing on Jocelyn Fairchild.

It was the first time he had seen the woman in seventeen years, and she looked right through him.

Not that Varian was necessarily expecting or wanting anything else, but there wasn't even a shimmer of recognition in her eyes.

And it hurt Varian, though he didn't want to admit it, especially after he watched Jocelyn wrap her arms around Clarissa in a loving way.

"I feel like I should go." Varian forced a smile, looking at Alec as he did. "I don't want to interrupt this family moment."

"Stay," Alec's voice was breathy as he looked down at Varian. In a spur of the moment, he pressed a quick kiss to Varian's lips. "I want you too."

Varian nodded, "Let's find Jace."

The sudden realization that Jace was still missing came to as a shock to Alec, and he nodded, swallowing thickly. He muttered about not being able to feel Jace through their Parabatai bond, but Varian reassured him that they would find him.

Varian felt at fault, like he should have spoken up and told everyone that he was Valentine's other son and maybe Jace wouldn't have gone with him.

He opened his mouth to speak to everyone, finally ready to come clean, when the blaring alarms of the Institute echoed through the room.

Varian felt disappointment at being interrupted once again, but let the disappointment wither away as he ran alongside Alec and the others towards the Ops room.

What could be wrong this time?

~~~

Translations:

"Ikuru ume" = Breathe

Hello, all of you should be very happy.

You got nine chapters this week which is very happy.