told that devil to take you back

“Neither do mine, but I like to live in this world and the mundane world and these eyes don’t quite fit in. Habit makes me put a glamour up, I’ve lived too long for it not to be a habit.” Clarissa didn’t particularly care if people did or didn’t see her warlock mark, it was something that over the years she had been cherished or punished for, having a glamour was a survival instinct. Shaking her head at the young girl, she had to bite back her laughter at the snap. “You are trying too hard, it should feel natural. Like it’s a part of you, keep for focus on one specific thing.”

Kendall could understand where the woman was coming from, but she had no desire to hide anytime soon. “Well it doesn’t feel natural, that’s the problem! I’ve tried everything I could think of. And whenever I have tried to ask anyone they’ve just brushed me off!”

‘‘For a second there, I thought It’d gone over your head.’‘ Alice couldn’t help but sputter out a small laugh. At least that was a relief, she knew how exhausting it could be to constantly explain what she’d gone on about. ‘‘Got it, thank you for letting me know, I’ve noticed some here are a bit touchy feely when it gets to asking questions, especially when it’s about their own species.’‘ She admitted, appreciating she hadn’t been as wary just because she was a mundane. ‘‘Yes, that.’’ When Alice wasn’t suspicious or on edge because of the knowing about the whole new species thing, she actually found it kind of fascinating, it intrigued her, up to a point. ‘‘Really? That’s amazing.’‘ 

“I think it comes with being old as dirt, I think.” Kendall shrugged. She could understand where they were coming from, to an extent. The longer you had been alive the more people tried to kill you, the more jaded that you got. It would be nice if someone would help her, though. “They spread as I grew.” Kendall hopped off the counter, shedding her flannel as she got closer to Alice, so that she was only in her tank top, revealing the scales that went from the back of her hands up her arms, covering her shoulders, spreading out to her collar bones. On her back they didn’t meet up, stopping a few inches apart from each other on her shoulder blades.

A small smile graced her lips and she simply shrugged her shoulders, her hands smoothing the front of her clothes delicately. “There are some warlocks who really aren’t too bothered by their marks, you could have easily been one of them. I do mine out of habit more than anything, history hasn’t been kind to witches.” Closing her eyes with a small sigh, she dropped her glamour and opened her eyes revealing her natural blue-green snake eyes to the girl with a smile. “I would suggest on starting smaller, you’ll invoke fewer accidents – focus on one thing at a time, glamours are a good place to start.”

“They don’t bother me. They’re a part of me.” After being forced to hide them for so long Kendall took pride in being able to have her marks proudly on display. “Those are pretty cool, you should show them off more often. When you feel comfortable.” Kendall was the last person to dictate what a person do with their appearance. “To do that you have to know what the fuck you’re doing. I can’t even consistently make sparks. I wasn’t trying anything aside from summoning my magic.”

Alice couldn’t help but let out a small laugh at that one. ‘’It was meant to be sarcastic..’’ She couldn’t help but sound a little annoyed though. Not having  laughed in a while, she’d normally find answers like that annoying, but to her it seemed like Kendall had only been honestly answering her question. ‘’Still, that doesn’t really answer my question. I thought warlocks didn’t have to stay at the shadowhunter institutes? Aren’t you free to live anywhere you want to?’’ She questioned, confused for a second, looking at her horns for a little while, getting used to it now but still finding it rather strange. One thing was for sure, she wasn’t planning on explaining why she was here, at least not yet, she couldn’t. Alice caught the glint and couldn’t help but ask. ‘’What’s that?’’ 

“Oh, I was aware.” Kendall was very familiar with sarcasm. She could go toe to toe with the best of them when she felt like it. “Warlocks don’t have to stay here no. But those warlocks are old as dirt and have their shit figured out.” She shrugged. She wasn’t going to come right out and say that she was inexperienced and didn’t know anything, but it wouldn’t be that hard to figure out. Kendall noticed the woman staring and raised her brow. “What, this?” She waved her hand about. “They’re scales. They go all the way up.”

Having just checked the time Kendall sighed, locking her phone and putting it back in her pocket. She had been waiting for what feels like forever but in reality hadn’t been that long. It’s just that this was not how she had envisioned spending her time today. Yes, technically it’s what she had signed up for when she had shown up at the Institute but it was still annoying. She had a right to be annoyed. Finally she heard footsteps and pushed herself off the wall, turning towards Caroline. “Hey. Ready to get this over with?”

“I would hope not, this is the first we’ve met.” Dimitri grinned, no matter how sociable he was Dimitri wasn’t everyone’s cup of tea but he’d yet to irritate someone before meeting them. “Don’t worry. I’ve been using one of these since I was… oh three. But I can go somewhere else if you want the room to yourself?”

“I don’t mind if you stay or go, as long as you don’t make me leave. It’s up to you. I suppose you might get some agility training in or something.” Kendall decided to ignore his remark about having used the bow since he was three. Not everyone had that same kind of luxury.

Caius sensed the ball of sparks moving in his direction instantly, making it disintegrate without even looking up. “Unless your goal with this exercise was to strike unsuspecting passersby or singe the Institute walls,” he said, with a tone of mild irritation. “I must inform you that you’re wasting your time.”

“My goal was to make my magic do anything so I’d call it a rousing success.” What did he expect from her? She had no training, and it seemed like no other warlock around here had any interest in teaching her, yet they had the nerve to be annoyed that she had no idea what she was doing.

The warlock was just intending on passing through the training room, out of all the rooms in the damned building it was the one that she avoided at all costs. Opening the door, Clarissa did not need to look up or listen to the shouted warning to know what was coming towards her. She could feel it in the room, crackle of energy that was completely recognizable to her by this point. Her hand stretched out and stopped the ball of energy dead in its tracks before finally snapping her fingers to make the ball fizzle out before her. Her now unglamoured snake eyes, moved to look at the young girl stood across from her. 

“You know, if it weren’t for your lack of control I would truly be praising your raw talent. You are really more green than I thought you were, you truly know nothing about your powers.” 

Kendall couldn’t help but bristle a little when the other warlock walked into the room, still in a bit of a mood from their disagreement the other day. “What, did you think I was exaggerating or something? That I walk around like this for shits and giggles?” Truthfully even if Kendall had mastered glamours she would still go around with her horns and scales proudly on display, but she hated being looked down on.

Dimitri adjusted his quiver so it sat more comfortably on his back, he was feeling excited having not practised in a while he was eager to get into the training room and shoot some arrows. He opened the door only to hear the yell to which the Shadowhunter instinctively ducked only to see magic whizzed past his head and hit the wall behind him. Standing again Dimitri looked towards the warlock “I come in peace.” He joked walking into the room. 

“Wasn’t personal or intentional. Wrong place, wrong time.” Kendall said, turning so that she was fully facing the Shadowhunter who had just entered the room. “I’m gonna assume that you’ve got decent control with that thing?” As she spoke she pointed towards the quiver on his shoulder. She didn’t feel like getting impaled today, thanks. And she had no intention of cutting her training short, either.

“You don’t know?” Freya asked the words flying out her mouth before she had had a proper chance to think them through. If that were her she would have ripped open the files the second they were in her hands; she wished she could have raw information like that for herself. 

“Not one hundred percent. Some of them are clearly about me, but there’s lists and things that are written in code. And there’s some that I just haven’t been able to bring myself to read.” There was one set of folders, specifically, that she had opened and quickly shut again. “There’s a few pages that I’m pretty sure is a payment ledger of some kind.”

‘’I wouldn’t necessarily call it cool…more like, tragic?’’ She awkwardly replied, trying to find the right word for it. Normally she’d hate someone prying into her personal life, but for some reason it didn’t annoy her as much this time, maybe because it sounded as if she was just asking about the weather. ‘’Do you want to start braiding each others hair as well?’’ Alice responded sarcastically, as a way to defend herself, however she couldn’t help but smile lightly at her childish behaviour.‘’You know, if you really want to know, what brought you here?’’

Tragedy, that was something Kendall knew a thing or two about. “I mean, you can give it your best shot, but I really don’t have that much.” After having spent her entire childhood with long hair and intricate braids to try to hide her horns she had cut her hair, an act of teenage rebellion not long before she had run away, and wasn’t in any rush to grow it out. “I thought that would be pretty obvious, what with this and this.” As she spoke she tipped her head forwards, tapping on her horns. As she did so the scales on the back of her hand caught the light. 

‘‘You know, that table is an antique.’‘ He pointed out, out of boredom, but truthfully he was only trying to poke fun, the amusement in his voice leaking through. Alex couldn’t help but chuckle,‘‘Yeah, I know I do, I’m very proud of myself.’‘

“This whole building is an antique, along with half the people who live here. And those who aren’t are warriors. I’m almost positive this table has seen worse than my boots.” Honestly, Kendall wasn’t sure what, exactly their goal was with filling this place with so many antiques. They were just begging for an accident to happen. “Well as long as you’re self aware...”

“Watch out!” She called out, holding her hand out in an attempt to try to stop the wayward magic.

The noise she was making opening the chips didn’t bother her, it actually made her smile, remembering how her best friend used to do the exact same thing whenever he opened anything, ever. ‘’What am I?’’ Confused for a second, Alice remembered the very thing she’d been trying to get used to. ‘’A mundane. To make the world a better place…? It’s either that or revenge.’’ She shrugged, a bit unsure if she even knew the answer to that herself.

“Cool, cool. Revenge? There’s gotta be a cool story there.” Kendall said, hopping up onto the empty counter, continuing to much on her chips. “I mean, it’s gotta be some deep shit to bring someone like you here.” She hummed in thought, swinging her booted feet back and forth, bumping into the cabinets occasionally. “So what is it? Werewolf? Vampires?”

For a second, Alice couldn’t help but stare at her, as the girl who’d just entered the kitchen appeared to be an example of the exact thing she had been trying to get used to, her small horns catching her attention. However, realizing she was being rather rude and disrespectful, especially since she hadn’t been here that long and the girl didn’t appear to be any immediate threat, her attention went to the knife in her hands as the girl’s words finally reached her. ‘’Right…sorry.’’ Alice put the knife down, slightly embarrassed that she was acting the way she was. What was there really to be so scared about? ‘’Of course, again, didn’t mean to do that.’’  She nodded, Attempting a weak smile. ‘’I’m Alice, I’m new here.’’

Kendall noticed the woman staring at her horns, a smirk coming to her face. Her guardian had made her feel so ashamed of them when she was growing up and now she was able to be proud of them. “Kendall.” She finished opening the chips, purposely making it as noisy and possible. “So, what are you, exactly? What brings you to this... fine institution?” She punctuates her sentence by eating a handful of chips from the bag.