marlowemuses | The lonely become either thoughtful or empty

The lonely become either thoughtful or empty

There had bee no other options. Someone had to guard the relics the Angel had given them. The Cup and Sword were too powerful to be left in mortal hands even those that had been blessed by the Angel. That power was too tempting no matter how noble Nephilim might be. There would always be someone, some group of someones, who would be seduced by the possibilities that those gifts represented.

Even centuries after the decision had been made, Alec wasn't sure why he had been chosen for this particular duty. His parabatai had been a better warrior. His sister was far more clever. But the Angel had chosen him. Perhaps because he was better able to accept the isolation of his divine task. His siblings would have been driven mad by loneliness after the first few decades.

There were times when Alec wondered if he would eventually succumb to insanity, but he had the books that he eventually became guardian of and the cats that somehow crept between worlds to keep him company. They weren't exactly cats, of course. They were built more like predators than pets, eyes glowing with flames instead of the usual nocturnal glow. No matter how frightening they looked, they were Alec's friends and they helped Alec protect the items the Angel had left in his care.

It was the cats that warned him that something was wrong at the gates. The largest of them howled a warning, hissing as she faced the gate. The rest of the pride ran to her as Alec sprinted for the gates. Something - Someone - was attacking. He felt the temple shiver its warning through him and he knew that no matter how impossible it seemed, someone had crossed the threshold between worlds.

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

After Adam left, Alec didn't expect him to return right away. He assumed it would be days like it had been before. They might have parted on slightly better terms, but there was no urgent reason for the priestess to return. Adam wouldn't fall for Persephone's dramatics when Alec hadn't been injured before he left.

When he felt someone cross the border between worlds, Alec quickly headed for the gate, scowling when he realized he sensed two people instead of one. One was Adam. The other was someone he didn't recognize. Jogging toward the gate, he conjured a seraph blade, thinking that someone had forced Adam to bring him to the temple. He focused on the temple and the items that he needed to protect. With a thought he set more protections around them and warned the cats to defend that area.

He slowed when he realized that the being with Adam wasn't armed and he was the same age as the priestess. Scowling at them both he dismissed the weapon, cursing their idiocy in a few forgotten languages before he stopped in front of them. Crossing his arms over his chest, he gave the pair the type of look he had used regularly on Jace when his parabatai had done something extremely reckless and dangerous. "Are you two out of your mind? Did you forget that I'm supposed to kill anyone who finds the temple who isn't the priestess?"

Adam winced slightly under the glare, but he was at least glad Alec wasn’t aiming an arrow at Gansey’s heart the way he had upon first meeting Adam. “He didn’t find it. I brought him. Like the caterpillar.” Taking a careful step forward, Adam looked up at Alec. “For you. To give you the answers I can’t. He won’t take a step past the threshold, ever, without your permission.”

Alec’s glare made him nervous that he’d messed up, but Adam still felt certain that this was right. “He can’t pass over without me. This is my role. I’m the bridge. I brought him for you to talk with.”

Hand shaking, Adam rested his fingers lightly on Alec’s arm, the silent plea that his pride couldn’t quite put into words.

"That's a loophole and you know it." He continued glowering at them, telling himself that he should handle this like a mistake his siblings had made instead of as the Guardian of the temple. "Adam, I'm not just guarding books. There are things here that could cause the apocalypse if the wrong person found them. The more people who know the temple exists, the more likely that becomes." Adam would probably say that there wasn't a danger or if he was the bridge then the temple was safe, but Alec knew that there was no guarantee that was true.

He was about to argue that Gansey shouldn't dragged into the middle of their duties and arguments when Adam put his hand on his arm. Most of his anger drained out of him when he noticed that Adam's hand had been shaking. How could he stay angry when Adam was afraid that he'd hurt him? "Next time, ask first? I know you're trying to help me, but this is still my home."

Placing his hand over Adam's he turned toward Gansey. "Hello. Did Adam tell you about the temple and about me?" If he didn't, they may have to spend the visit explaining those topics instead of Gansey trying to help him.

"He's my king," Adam said, softly. "And chosen by the ley line. I won't bring anyone else."

Gansey stared, mouth open, at where Adam was touching the guardian, and how the guardian put his hand over Adam's without Adam taking any kind of offense at being touched. His chin lifted in surprise at what Adam said, because Gansey hadn't known that Adam saw him like that.

"He told me that the ley line was allied with a temple that belonged to an angel," Gansey said, trying not to mentally count the seconds that Adam was in physical contact with another person of his own volition. "That he had been chosen as its 'priestess', and that the guardian had been alone for centuries. He said it might be relevant to my search, though you probably wouldn't let me past the threshold, and that he wanted me to tell you about him. And Aglionby. And Virginia." Gansey understood a little of what it had cost Adam to ask this favor. Tell him about me. The things I... can't.

Even if Shadowhunters didn't have kings, he understood loyalty. Jace might have that role in Alec's life even if he'd never thought of it in those terms. "I know you won't intentionally." Before he might not have been sure, but if Adam promised only one person, he would accept that he meant it. "But if someone forced you..." They might be able to get to the gate, but the cats would probably destroy anyone who tried to harm Adam before the being even crossed the threshold.

Making a thoughtful sound, he loosened his hold on Adam's hand so that the priestess could decide if he wanted to stay close to Alec or step away. If Adam was still wary of him, Alec didn't want him to think he was forcing him to be near him. "I think entering the temple would depend on some factors that both Adam and I would have to consider." What was he doing? He wasn't supposed to let someone in, but Adam was trying to help him... "But even if you did have access to the library, I don't know if it'd help. You can't read about the future."

Looking down at Adam, he wasn't quite sure what to say. Adam was offering him something he'd wished for, but it might hurt him if Alec learned about his life. "Are you sure you want this? I can research Virginia and Aglionby." But not Adam. He doubted the library would allow him to see anything about the priestess. "I don't want to ask questions unless you both want me to know the answers."

"I want this," Adam insisted. He took a step to the side away from both of them, and then sat down, crossing his legs and settling in here. Gansey wasn't yet allowed to leave the gate, and Adam didn't want to leave them alone together until he was sure how this was going to go. "I wouldn't have brought him here if I didn't want you to know."

Gansey watched the two of them, still perplexed by the way Adam reacted to the guardian. There was an intimacy to it, far more so than when Adam had been with Blue. Adam seemed to trust him. Adam seemed... infatuated with him. Gansey wouldn't have believed it, but he didn't know how else to explain what he was seeing.

"Please call me Gansey," he said, and held out his hand to the guardian in greeting. "I sincerely apologize for being an imposition."

He almost teased Adam that Gansey was part of the decision too, but Adam would probably think he was criticizing him. If Gansey didn't want to be part of this, he wouldn't have agreed to visit the temple. Although if he thought there might be information here about the Welsh king, that might have been enough to get him to agree.

As Adam sat down near the gate, he arched an eyebrow at the priestess. If the caterpillar wasn't harmed, he doubted that Gansey would be unless he did something that proved he was a danger to the temple.

Shaking Gansey's hand, he tried to think of how to be polite when he shouldn't show too much of the temple to an outsider and Adam had chosen a spot to watch them. Taking a step back so that Gansey could step farther onto the grounds, he hoped he wouldn't offend Adam's friend. "I'm Alec. You're not an imposition. I was surprised. I'm not used to people or the rules of this place changing."

"I suppose you wouldn't be," Gansey agreed, studying Alec with open interest. Being Gansey, he made it into the sort of regard as if Alec was the most fascinating person he'd met in his life, which in some aspects might have been true, rather than being fascinated at Alec for his position. "Adam said hundreds of years. Where are you from originally, if I may ask? When are you from?"

Adam smiled a tiny bit, amused at Gansey's inability to stay on the requested task while there was the hope of new wonders in front of him. As long as Alec didn't mind, Adam supposed he didn't either.

Glancing over at Adam for some sort of cue that would help him with the situation, he struggled to understand why Gansey seemed so interested in him. The temple and the knowledge it held should be what Gansey focused on, not Alec. He wasn't interesting and his importance was based on the task he'd been given, not his immortality.

Rubbing the back of his neck, Alec thought of the old Laws that had bound him in the past, and then realized that it'd be impossible for Gansey to use the information in dangerous ways. "My kin are from a country called Idris. It's in Europe, but it's magically protected so only certain people can enter." Pausing, Alec tried to remember the exact year that he'd agreed to become the temple's guarding. "Around the thirteen hundreds."

"What were the criteria for entry?" Gansey asked, fascinated. "Did you trade with neighboring European countries?"

"Gansey," Adam scolded, softly.

Gansey looked sheepish but still fascinated, attention riveted upon Alec. He was bursting with questions and wonder, and it was difficult to remember why he was here. "Sorry. What questions can I answer for you?"

"Having angel blood." He wasn't sure how Gansey would react to that, but if he could accept that an Angel had made Alec a guardian than Nephilim shouldn't be too much of a shock. "We were mostly self-sufficient. I haven't researched Idris in centuries." After his siblings and their children were gone, there was no reason to. Everyone who might know of him was gone.

Fighting back a smile at Adam's attempt to keep the conversation on track, Alec tried to think of what questions he should ask. After keeping so many to himself, he'd assumed that few of them would ever be answered. "Adam told me about a school and the ley line." But not about himself, which seemed like a topic that should be avoided when Adam was nearby, listening to their discussion.

At the invitation, Gansey launched into an explanation about the ley line. He did his best to keep it simple and straightforward, with a minimum of passionate tangents, but it was difficult for him to condense his massive expertise and enthusiasm on the topic into a brief overview.

Then he went into a much more abbreviated explanation of Aglionby. The sons of the rich and powerful, mostly American but plenty of international students, and Adam. "He's a genius," Gansey said, earnest. "He deserves to be there more than anyone else. Everyone else is there because of privilege and money. Adam earned it."

Adam ducked his head shyly at that, cheeks red, but he didn't argue the point.

When Adam had mentioned the quest for a Welsh king, Alec hadn't really expected Gansey to be so knowledgeable... or enthusiastic. It took a few seconds to get used to having someone other than Adam speaking to him, but he slowly began to relax. If they were't supposed to be discussing Aglionby and Adam's life there, Alec would have asked in-depth questions.

Adam probably wouldn't approve of that...

"I knew he was clever," Alec admitted, pretending not to notice that Adam was blushing. "Since he keeps figuring out loopholes to bypass the temple's rules, but I didn't know he was a genius."

Adam shot him a hurt, defensive look at that, sour with temper and ready to start a fight over it.

"He's good at that," Gansey said, as if it was an asset rather than a flaw, and Adam's head whipped back to him, surprised. "Any unsolvable problem, Adam will find a way around. He sees paths forward where anyone else would only ever see walls."

Gansey glanced over at Adam with a smile, proud of him, before returning his attention to Alec. "Adam said you have a library here. Are all the books from Idris?"

At the mention of walls, Alec looked over at the gate, not quite able to hide his wistfulness. He accepted his duty and he was grateful that he had been chosen instead of Izzy and Jace, but sometimes he was curious about the mortal world. Sometimes the grounds closed in on him if he wasn't careful. "Even if Adam's a genius, there's some walls that don't have paths through or around them."

Shaking off his darker thoughts, he looked over at Adam and flushed slightly. "Either he finds a way around problems or charms his way past them. The cats adore him.

"The books aren't from Idris. I think they're something more than just books. They weren't part of my original duties, so the Angel didn't explain them." Pausing, he tried to explain it in terms that didn't sound like avoidance or minimize their importance. Or set either one of them digging through the library and trying to investigate things they shouldn't. The library would keep them from finding anything too dangerous, but even a little danger might harm them. "I think they hold the knowledge of the world, but I don't know how I'd ever test that theory."

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

The lonely become either thoughtful or empty

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject