A/N: This fic has been sitting unfinished in my pen drive for forever and a day. I can't believe I finally got around to finishing it, I'm so happy! I hope you all love this Fairy! AU as much as I do!

I also published this fic on AO3 (username: MidnightHalo27)

Disclaimer: The Magisterium book series belongs to Cassandra Clare and Holly Black, not me.

I hope you like it! Reviews, kudos, etc are awesome! Constructive criticism is very welcome, but flames will be used to roast marshmallows.

The Bent Over Tree

by: GakuenAlicefan27

When Aaron entered the Magisterium, his knowledge on Fairies was sorely lacking.

Up until then, he'd only heard fairytales; stories of beauty and grace meant for little children to fawn over - bedtime rhymes, gleeful songs, child's play.

The mages had taught him that the Fey were not to be played with, and if you tried, you'd end up being played instead. From day one, they repeated the same things over and over again till Aaron could recite them in his sleep:

Don't accept any gift a Fairy offers. Don't eat or drink anything a Fairy gives you. Don't go anywhere a Fairy wants to take you. Don't enter a Fairy Circle. Don't follow a Fairy to a revel. Don't follow a Fairy anywhere they are going. Don't ever strike a bargain with a Fairy. Don't ever cross a border to Faerie. Don't go anywhere near the borders to Faerie. Don't irritate a Fairy. Don't offend a Fairy. Don't bore a Fairy.

The Fair Folk are beautiful. The Fair Folk are powerful. The Fair Folk are treacherous. The Fair Folk just might end you, and then proceed to laugh joyfully about it.

He received plenty warnings. He thought he was prepared in case he ever ran into a Fae.

He wasn't.

~x~

"Do we have enough herbs already?" Aaron asked, peeking inside the bag Alex had slung over his shoulder. He had asked this question approximately twenty times in the past hour, but he couldn't help it; the forest was dark and eerily quiet, and he had a bad feeling in his gut that just wouldn't go away.

"I think so." Alex replied. "I gotta say this was quicker than I expected; it hasn't even been two hours since we left.

"We shouldn't have left at all." Tamara said. "We should have postponed this until Call was feeling better."

Aaron glanced at Call, who was reclining against a tree trunk. He didn't look too ill, but he had started feeling sick while they were packing for the mission, stocking up on protection charms against any fairy that they might encounter. Alex had asked them if they wanted to postpone it, but Call had insisted that he was fine.

"How are you feeling, Call?" He asked.

Call shrugged. "I'm okay. I was just feeling a little under the weather."

"Well, we can go back now." Alex said. "But keep alert. Just because we didn't encounter any fairy until now doesn't mean we won't bump into them on our way back."

Aaron nodded, unconsciously gripping the iron necklace he was wearing. He also had red berries and oatmeal in his pockets, just in case the iron wasn't enough to keep the fairies at bay.

He felt a hand touch his shoulder and startled, but it was just Tamara.

"Sorry." He said. "I'm a little jumpy tonight."

"We all are." Tamara said, and he noticed that her hands were trembling slightly. "It's all the fairy magic in the air. There's probably a revel going on in the woods."

Aaron's stomach sank. Fairy magic was not like a magician's; it was raw and wild, intense to the point of prickling at a mage's nerves. He had never encountered a member of the Fair Folk before, but he recognized the signs of fairy magic from what he'd learned in his lessons; the air was charged with a buzzing energy that filled him with restlessness.

Constantine Madden had been half-fairy; that was what had made him so formidable a foe during the war. Rumor had it that he could trick you into doing anything he wanted, strike bargains so brilliantly wicked that you didn't know what hit you till it was too late, and that his magic had been as ruthless and beautiful as a tropical storm. They said he had retreated to Faerie after The Cold Massacre, and that he had remained there ever since, recovering, gathering allies and bidding his time till it was the right moment to strike.

Aaron didn't know how people expected him to fight Constantine and win, just because he was a Makar. His nerves were already frayed just from being in a place where fairy magic was strong, how was he supposed to actually confront one?

He swallowed hard. In his paranoid state, he could have sworn that the trees were closing in on them ever so slowly, and that some of them were glowing lightly, and that Call's jet-black hair was made of raven feathers instead of actual hair.

Aaron shook his head, trying to will these thoughts away. He made to leave, but ended up bumping into Alex, who was looking at the tree line with a confused expression on his face.

"What's wrong?" He asked.

"Uh…was that tree already there when we passed?"

Aaron followed his gaze and immediately knew what tree he was talking about. It was bent over and huge, standing out from all the others around it. It didn't exactly look magical; it wasn't shimmering or glowing or anything, but it filled him with a deep sense of foreboding.

And it definitely hadn't been there before.

Tamara clutched at the bouquet of Saint John's Wort she had been keeping in her bag. "It's a border to Faerie." She said, huddling closer to Aaron and Alex. "Call! You're standing too far apart from us! Come here and grab whatever protection charm you brought!"

Call reluctantly walked two steps closer to them, then stopped. "It's okay." He said. "I'm wearing my socks inside out."

Aaron frowned, trying to remember when Call had taken his shoes off to do that, but concluded that it must have been before he left his bedroom.

Suddenly, he heard laughter, low and melodious, coming from somewhere deeper into the woods, over the border. It was so pure and full of joy that Aaron couldn't help but smile in response.

"What are you smiling about?" Tamara asked, raising an eyebrow.

"Didn't you hear it?"

"Hear what?"

"Come with us, little Makar." A voice said, it's sound rushing over Aaron like silk. He started walking towards where it had come from, but then took a step back as his mind vaguely registered that he shouldn't do that, for whatever reason he couldn't remember in the moment.

"Come with us and away from this war."

Aaron smiled again. He didn't know who the voices belonged to, but they were so beautiful he was sure he'd love to go wherever they were. He took a step forward.

"Come and you won't have to worry about fighting anymore."

Another step forward. The closer he got, the clearer the voices were. He could hear their songs beckoning him to them.

"No Enemy to defeat. No weight on your shoulders."

It would be a good place; they'd take care of him.

"All of it will just go away."

He'd be okay. Everything would be okay.

"Aaron!" Call said, and he snapped back to reality.

He blinked rapidly; feeling like someone had just thrown a bucket of cold water at him. Call was standing in front of him, blocking his way. He tried to rub his eyes, only to realize that both his arms were being held back - the right one, by Tamara; the left one, by Alex.

"…What happened?"

~x~

Tamara sighed in relief as Aaron drank some water Alex had offered him. He was still a bit unsettled, but his awareness had returned. She didn't know what they'd have done if he had gone beyond the tree and they had lost him to The Folk.

"Sorry, guys." Aaron said. "I wasn't thinking straight."

Tamara shook her head, trying to hide how much her hands were shaking. "It's okay, Aaron. You had never encountered fairies before."

"But I was warned."

"It's different." Alex said, anxiously holding on to his four-leaf clovers for good measure. "Everyone thinks they are prepared to meet a fairy until they actually meet a fairy."

"Call seems fine." Aaron said, and Tamara frowned, following Aaron's stare to where Call was standing a few feet away, way closer to the border than he probably should.

For a moment, she panicked, thinking that Call had gotten caught in the allure as well, but then she realized that Aaron was right. He looked the calmest out of all of them, even though he was probably still sick. The only sign that the magic in the air was affecting him at all was the way his gaze was strangely fixated on the tree.

"Call?" She asked, testing the waters to make sure he was still aware of his surroundings.

He looked at her, and for a moment she thought his eyes looked like liquid silver rather than gray. "Can we go now?"

Alex nodded. "I think we can all agree that it's been adventure enough for a night. Let's get away from here."

~x~

As they left, Call did his best not to look back, ignoring the voices calling out to him from beyond the border.

"Come back to us, little changeling. Come back home."

A/N: Thank you very much for reading!

You can find me on tumblr as agarotado27dejunho