#audacatrix

        ❝ if you’ve come to talk me into being a shadowhunter...save your breath. i’m not jocelyn. until a week ago, angels and demons were stories i was told IN SUNDAY SCHOOL to keep me on my best behavior. i believe in protecting people, but this ? i don’t know jocelyn. just because you’re FRIENDS WITH HER doesn’t mean i’ll do whatever you say. ❞

She hadn’t seemed to notice him upon his entrance, but then again, the knock on the library’s doors had seemed one more borne of quiet routine courtesy instead of any forewarning, if even that; for its volume had sorely lacked on all counts. And so she hadn’t looked up, even when he’d left the entryway behind him— a detail that would seem perhaps trivial to many, but its reality was found to be the next cause to propel that hollowed feeling back within his chest yet again. The light radiating from the tall windows illuminated her, surrounded her as if to amplify the already intense presence of her and dimming all other existence in the Institute: the only mother he’d ever known. And yet something differed from all other instances, something was absent entirely, something that’d somehow set the tone of the conversation before it’d ever started; the space within these walls felt tense, cold— a reality that crushed without relent.

institutes had always been safe havens for shadowhunters passing through on business - besides training and handling the hunting requirements of an area, that was one of an institute’s purposes; a place in the mundane world where a shadowhunter could find refuge, food, lodgings ... he hoped that hadn’t changed in the aftermath of the uprising.

or in the aftermath of what had happened to the previous family who had headed the new york institute.

stephen made a mental note to find the kid he’d snapped at and apologise later - he’d asked to speak to whoever was in charge of the institute, and the lad had just rambled on about something to do with them both not being here ... he didn’t care. one person would do.

turning on the spot, arms hugged tight across his chest as the click-clack of heels on the stone floors echoed off the walls, stephen stopped dead in his tracks when he looked up to the woman - whatever excuse or story he’d worked out to offer in his head was gone ... he hadn’t banked on the family running the institute to be one he’d know.

       ❝ please. we’re two of the best shadowhunters the clave has right now. they’d be STUPID if they didn’t give us something with at least the chance of a fight. better us than the boys, anyway. ❞ she grins, almost FERAL in her giddiness, over at maryse. her body is humming with the excitement of the hunt. for a moment, it’s clear to see why some suspect TRACES OF FAERIE in her family’s bloodline. no angel could be that mischievous. ❝ nice job, by the way, with the tournament. A WELL EARNED VICTORY, i’d say. you certainly shut robert lightwood up, that’s for sure. ❞

        ANNA HATES BEING HERE. she knows she’s just rubbing salt in an already fresh wound. and if it were anyone else, she wouldn’t bother. she’d just lay low until the storm had passed. but this is her son. her son. she’ll do ANYTHING for him. even this. ❝ maryse.... i’m...i’m sorry to just drop by like this, especially right now, but... ❞ she lets out a soft breath. ❝ GOD, i just...i need to...i was hoping i could take a look around robert’s office. i have...there’s something i need to find. something important. ❞

       of all the people she’s EXPECTING to get a fire message from, maryse lightwood is just about the last one on the list. she goes though, goes because she knows that IT MUST BE IMPORTANT. besides, the way anna figures it, she owes maryse. she can’t regret what she and robert have done, not completely, but she DOES feel responsible for any pain maryse has come to bear. 

       she’s done her best to cover as many of her runes as she can. the last thing she wants is to RUB IT IN. when she spots her, she gives her a soft smile and a wave. ❝ maryse... it’s good to see you. ❞ and it is, DESPITE EVERYTHING. ❝ are you...is everything alright ? your message sounded urgent. ❞

       ❝ he made a crack i didn’t appreciate. SO I CRACKED BACK. ❞ of course, said crack had been under his breath, and really not as offensive as jocelyn took it. but she’s on a hair trigger when it comes to those she cares about, and whatever HISTORY the lightwoods and the fairchilds have, jocelyns loyalties lie much further towards the TRUEBLOOD side of this fight. ❝ he seemed to think i’d gotten rusty in my time in the mundane world. i decided to SET HIM STRAIGHT. ❞