"So what, that's it ?" She sounded defeated, disappointed even.

"Mmm?" asked one of the two men not interested at all in what she had to say "What's it?"

"So I just go on with my life? I don't do anything else but go on with my life?" She quipped to the two older men.

"Yes, that right. You go on with your life!" Magnus confirmed.

"So then why all this? Why tell us—why tell me all of these things if I'm not going to do anything, just sit around and worry about the weather?" asked a frustrated Clary.

"She told you those things just warn you about what happened in this world and what would happen to you if you tried to interfere." Howard concluded for Magnus.

"So then what do I do now?"

They both sighed. "In five to ten years you will be asked to make a decision: manere nigrum foramen aut non manere nigrum foramen. To stay a—"

"To stay a nigrum foramen or not to stay a nigrum foramen." Jace translated, ungluing himself from the wall, his arms still crossed over his chest.

"Yes exactly." Howard nodded to the younger man.

"What happens if I say yes?" She questioned though they all already knew she was going to decline that proposal.

Jace answered this one, which surprised only Clary "Well then you'll keep these 'powers'" He quoted " for a few decades and you'll become immortal." He paused. " Each passing decade you'll become more powerful and in a few centuries you won't even be able to have a human appearance. You'll end up being a black hole, a real nigrum foramen." He finished dramatically looking directly at her, with a solemn face.

"How…—how do you know all this?" How could he know that? He sounded just—he sounded like them!

It was his turn to look down at her surprised and slightly shaken. "I—I h—"

"You forgot an important detail Jace. She will never be able to have a human appearance only if she isn't paired. If she is however she will take her appearance from her paired one until that one is too weak to be able to be her half."

"I—What?" The two lovers retorted.

Howard heaved a sigh " Oh Magnus, you always had to be the pessimist one between the two of us. Did you have to tell him that? Now they're both going to freak out over a parvenus singulars!"

"A minor detail? This isn't a minor detail, it's the life of a person we're talking about!" He screamed back.

"Magnus calm down," his simply said, not elevating his voice, trying to be the voice of reason " it never really happened Magnus, you know this. She just says it to keep us on our toes." He looked at Magnus, who was pacing the length of the room, reeling down his temper slowly.

"And I don't know why you're worried anyways she loves you, she adores you, she would never do anything like that to your dear Alexander, it would kill you and she knows it. Your death isn't something she can afford right now." He reasoned again to his old friend.

"Can something tell me WHAT THE HELL IS GOING ON HERE? How come Jace knows all of these things? And what you two mumbling about?" Frustrated Clary was gone and angry Clary took her place.

It was Alec who answered this time, making himself finally known. He hadn't said a word since they went into that place. "When you are chosen by her, powers are bestowed upon the chosen. These powers have an expiry date for the two chosen ones, one's just considerably shorter than the others, like Magnus and Howard." he pointed towards them "This is done to prevent either one of the scaphium from going crazy and endangering the people around them, friends or not."

She nodded—she knew all this already couldn't he simply answer, could someone just answer a question without telling her their whole life story?!

" Well one thing that is not told to you by her and the council is that it's not the only thing that is done to control the scaphium. The first vessels were erratic and the powers consumed so much of their spirit that they didn't care about anything anymore, not the humans, not even their own lives. They killed themselves—which isn't supposed to be a bad thing— but the powers didn't have scaphia to hold on to which created a big problem because without scaphia no one could control them. And so th—"

"Grrhmmm" Magnus cut, shaking his head slightly. None of them needed this right now.

Alec bent his head for a second. "Right anyway it took them a while to cage the powers and to put them into new vessels. The second pair was calmer, more earth-centered. One of them was a bit more on edge than the other but that was normal. Fifty years in—for the calmer one— the council was starting to wonder why that scaphium wasn't acting out like the first one —who combusted only after 30 years of keeping it in. To understand why they watched that person. They discovered, in a short amount of time that she—it was woman at the time— had a lover. A lover whom she loved very much and would do anything to protect. Since they were experimenting on their vessels—"

"Still are." Murmured Howard.

"They took her lover away, hid him somewhere where she couldn't locate him. She went crazy in a week, on the verge of destruction after only one months. They gave him back to her shortly after, unharmed and in one piece, and they noticed that she became calmer again, back to her normal self. They finally understood what went wrong with the first two amongst other things. They paired the powerful one with someone from this earth, a mortal. They didn't have to love each other—like pair number three— but it worked best if they did. The magical being is paired either to his lover or to a mortal. That's what I am, that's what Jace will be to you when you choose who you want to be paired to."

Silence.

"I still don't understand how I knew so much!" Jace added, breaking the horrible silence in this suddenly, dark room.

"It's the only thing they thought of to even out the 'playing field' as you say." Howard answered. "We have all the power, you have all the knowledge. That way you don't become useless since you're pumped with useful information that we don't know of." He said blatantly. "Though why they would consider the paired one useless I have no idea since you are pretty essential to our survival." He continued.

A snort. "Thanks for adding the last part, I felt powerless for a while there." Jace, sarcastic as ever, retorted.

"I'm serious Jace, without you to pair us to, this planet would have been human dead a long time ago."

"How so?" Clary quipped, finally speaking after that weird revelation.

"They act as our anchor. They act as our brain when the power becomes too much and they wield our power in their own bodies, only a fraction of it of course— there would be in serious danger if they possessed all of it since they aren't equipped for such a thing. They help us concentrate and they take the blow when needed to. We really can't survive long without them. " Interjected Magnus, getting closer and closer to his paired one as he spoke.

"We're life partners." Whispered Alec to the taller man standing behind him, resting his head on the man's shoulder.

"I'll get to be with Jace forever?" She asked, hope apparent in her voice. She looked up to Jace who gazed back at her with the same gleam in his eyes.

"If you chose him as you paired one then yes you can. You must understand one thing though before you pronounce his name." Magnus warned.

"Wha—"

"You won't be able to kill anyone or anything Jace. For as long as she is in power you won't be able to be a full, demon killer shadowhunter." Alec cut in bluntly. He needed his parabatai to finally understand why he didn't kill demons.

"I—what? I won't be able to kill? Nothing ? No demons? But…..why?" Confusion crossing his voice yet again.

"That's how it's supposed to be."

"Why does my 'paired one' have to suffer because I was chosen?" She interrogated rather angrily, emotions barely controlled.

"We're not allowed to intervene in world. We can't do anything. Sure we can make ourselves rich or kill a whole orphanage as long as it has no long term impacts on the world." Howard replied.

"What does killing demons have to do with what you just said?" Questioned the blond shadowhunter.

"As a paired one —in the eyes of the council—you have to same responsibilities as us, the scaphium. If—for whatever reason— neither one of us could attend a call asked by universe then you would go for us and she would speak to you as if you were a scaphium and not just tied to one. If we were punished because we did something wrong, they could call upon you to take the punishment for us since we would already be rotting away somewhere unfathomable." Magnus explained. He was going to carry on but Jace talked before he could.

"So?"

"So, when you kill a demon you unbalance a part deep in us which means you impact life on the long term. That can be very dangerous if it happens. You are only allowed to kill a demon if you are sure that if you don't you will end up dead which of course impacts us a lot." He concluded, strangely calm for someone who talked about this injustice non-stop ever since he paired himself with Alec.

Jace sunk into a chair, defeated. "So I won't be able to kill?"

"No, you won't."

"You'll be able to track them Jace. You'll be able to fight against them; you just can't deliver the final blow that's all." Alec said, trying to get his parabatai's defeated look off his face, or at least to lessen it.

The blond shadowhunter sighed. "This sucks." Showing in those two simple words his agreement to the pairing process.

Clary, though didn't want Jace to sacrifice what he loved for her. "No. No! If Jace has to give demons up for me then no, no, no! I won't pair myself to him! NO!" She repeated.

"Don't be ridiculous Clary. I'll just have to get used to not killing them that's all.' Jace shrugged, trying to appease her. It wasn't lost on him that it was supposed to work the other way around. She should be appeasing him!

"Jace." Her voice was strained. "I can't do that to you. You love what you do; you've been doing it since you were born; I can't take that away from you. I'll just have to learn how to control these things! I'll just learn how to control myself!" She was so sure that she could do this even though she couldn't .

The two older men both shook their heads, frustration evident on their face.

"You can't control them Clary, no one can; not even the council or her. Why do you we're" he pointed at Howard, her and him " here?"

"How do you know? You never tried before!" She challenged, holding her head up high.

"Have you not been listening to a single word we both said to you today? Did you listen to Alec? To Universe?!" He was now downright outraged.

Silence yet again followed his argument.

"I don't why you're making such a fuss about all of this anyway. It's not like you'll have these powers for long." He said glancing in Magnus' direction. " You won't be able—neither of you two—" Howard added " to kill demons for a few years—ten to be exact if you choose correctly— and then they'll tell you who your successor is—to whom you'll have to explain what we have told you all of this week— and finally when the powers are transferred to the next person you'll be free to live your normal shadowhunter life as if nothing has happened."

"Wait, hold on a second there! I'm not keeping these powers for an eternity?" She asked surprised, hopeful yet again.

"If you choose correctly then no." Was Howard's answer.

"If I choose what correctly?"

The older men both sighed at the same and looked at each other, as if asking who would be the one to deliver this message. God when could they go to their respective homes and just do nothing?!

Since Howard was the one who talked last—which he of course pointed out silently to his friend—Magnus responded to her question.

"Once you have finally accepted the responsibilities that you now have she will come to you and ask you if you want to remain or not a nigrum foramen. Nigria that were 'born' remain holes forever; it is their destiny. When humans—like you—are made into one it is for a purpose, it wasn't the natural way of things; it wasn't part of your destiny. Even she has to respect that so she makes you an offer."

He breathed in before pursuing. "Becoming a nigrum foramen is the only way for mortals to be able to hold the powers forced upon them. If you weren't one, you would be dead right now, powers consuming every little cell in your body. So, she is forced to ask you if you want to remain a nigrum formanen, which would—for you— mean that you would keep these things inside of you for a few decades, the maximum being 80 years." He looked towards Howard.

"If you decline her offer, then she will be forced to make you human again, which —again—means that you won't be able to withhold the powers. She'll have to look for someone else, your descendant. All of this will take place in a few days after we have all" he pointed to his friend, to Alec and himself —Jace being associated with Clary "left you alone."

"How long will I have them for?" Clary asked eagerly; finally seeing a light at the end of the dark, gloomy tunnel.

He turned to his 'enemy', he didn't know the answer to that question.

"Ten years is the maximum time you'll keep them if you choose to stay a mundane."

"But—" He cut in before she could speak. He started pacing around, sign that he had stayed too long in this place.

"You're what? 16?" He turned to her for her response. She simply nodded her reply. "Ten plus sixteen makes twenty six right? So that means that at the latest you'll be 26 years old when you are relinquished of your responsibility. For a young shadowhunter that's quite good since a sixth of your kind die before you've reached 25; it's actually a pretty decent deal. You continue to track demons, you can even torture them if that is your type thing; you just can't kill them. No one outside of this room ever—besides universe and her council of course—" Did he bow his head a bit just after saying that? No he didn't, surely not!

"—has to know that you are one of the most powerful beings on the planet. You get to live your life as you see fit, aside from a few encounters with our friends from upstairs of course." He swiveled around to face his successor.

"So you see—" He said, going back to his original idea. "I don't understand why you are making such a big deal about all of this and I can't comprehend why you are shouting that you can control this on your own. Ten years of your life not killing things isn't the worse thing in this world. So please, for the love of God—or Angel, whichever you prefer— just accept that you have no choice for ten years and live with it. Magnus did, I did and look at how well we are. Magnus is a high warlock, paired to the love of his life for eternity, and I am about to go home to my very large family and eat a nice pot roast before going to bed with my lovely wife after having traveled to south Africa to assist to the marriage of my son." He couldn't wait to be out of here!

"So, if we can move on with our lives even though we're not totally free why can't you two?" He crossed his arms over his chest, daring her to comment.

"You have a family?" She whispered, shocked about this new revelation.

"Yes I do and they all know what I am and they accept it." He replied.

Alec snorted. "How could they not accept? You got married to another nigrum foramen."

"Alec!" Magnus hissed into his ear. It was not a good idea to get an anxious Howard angry. The couple got lucky though, Howard barely scoffed at his statement.

"Wow." Was all Clary said.

Jace, on the other hand, got up from his position, something Howard said sending a spark to Jace's muscles.

"What did you mean by 'Magnus is paired to the love of his life for eternity?' You're never going to die?" Damnit, Jace had to have heard that part?!

Jace sounded hurt. Alec tried to placate him. " Of course I'm going to die Jace I'm not immortal, neither is Magnus. It just means that our time lines are intertwined."

"Intertwined how?" Interrogated his best friend, no emotion showing in his voice.

"When we got paired, she put a sort of spell on us, my life is his life, his life is mine. Basically if I die he dies too and if he dies then I die shortly after. It also means that as long as Magnus is alive I'm alive. So since Magnus will probably be alive for a while then I will be alive for a while as well."

"She put a spell on you? But why would she do that? From what I just saw up there she doesn't seem like the nice type who does favors for you simply because you asked her to." Jace pointed out.

"It takes longer for them to find vessels for the type for powers that Magnus harbors because those powers require a lot of magic. That's also why people like Magnus—who are already born with powerful magic—are always the ones who are first thought of when they have to choose the next of kin. They keep the powers inside of them for a much longer period of time, a few centuries. And Magnus has only had them for fifty years, which signifies that he still has a long road ahead."

"I am the one he chose to be paired to; I help Magnus have a hold on this earth. The problem is that Magnus loves me."

"That's not a problem!" Magnus protested.

"Not for you, but for them it is." Alec insisted. "He loves me and so he'd be devastated if I ever died. So devastated and grief stricken that he could kill himself and by doing so would unleash those powers onto the world without someone to hold them back and create havoc on earth. To prevent that, she came up with the solution: make me live as long as he would. I will live as long he lives and in return I will help him control his envies."

"Why didn't you tell me?" Jace was wounded, how could his best friend, his brother not tell him something as important as the fact that he was immortal?!

"I wasn't permitted to tell you." Alec mumbled, starting to feel bad too.

"To hell with that Alec. I'm your brother, your parabatai! Why didn't you tell me?" He asked again

Alec opened his mouth to speak but before he could pronounce a single syllable Clary clapped her hands together, walking towards her lover and then starting to pull him out of the room. She wanted to ease the tension between the two young men. She also wanted to leave this place and to get started on having the same life her predecessor has.

"Right well now that that's all sorted out we'll be going now. I've been locked up in here for days. I'm tired of this place." I also want to get away from you people she added silently.

The gesture seemed to have woken Howard up, who sprang from his position on the wall opposite the young couple.

"Wait!" He said. "There's one more thing we need to tell you before you go." Howard stepped forward at the same time that Magnus did.

She gyrated, aggravated that both men stopped her from escaping this place. "What now?" she looked to where Howard was standing.

Howard inclined his head to the right, indicating to her silently that Magnus would be the one addressing to her their final words, hopefully.

"While you are a scaphium they," indicating with his index the people them, "will sometimes look into your life."

What the hell does that mean? Confusion must have been apparent on her face because Magnus explained his statement.

"They're going to watch you." He finally said openly. "They wo—"

"They're going to watch me?" She repeated him. "They're going to watch me?" She reiterated. "Are they kidding me? I'm giving up 10 years of my life, 10 years of Jace's shadowhunter life," she gestured to him "to carry a thing inside of me that I never wanted and in exchange I get what? I get to be watched? Are you kidding me?" She shouted to a stoic Magnus which just fueled her anger even more.

"You didn't let me finish." He hissed back. "They won't be watching you when you get chassed around by Jace in nothing but your panties," she blushed a deep red "but they will be observing every time you interact with your opposite, with me. At least the first few years."

"Oh." It's not too bad, she'll just to not be in contact with Magnus for 10 years.

"There's another thing." He added. She just raised her head and stared at him, telling him to continue.

"Whenever they watch us together we'll have to hate each other." What?

"What?" She spoke aloud.

"In their minds, our different powers cannot see the light of day when placed in the same room which translate into the host hating each other as well. We tried once—Howard and I— to show them that we didn't loathe one another when in each other's presence but they took the idea very badly. The first generation couldn't stand one another and they have kept in their heads that ideology for centuries." Such a shame that they were so stubborn!

"So?" What was the problem with them pretending to hate each other.

"What?"

"I don't see a problem here. We'll just look at each other angry or insult each other each time they watch us."

"That's not the only thing we're supposed to do to each other Clary. Our powers supposedly fight for power over the other, show dominance over one another."

"When they were last observing us a few days ago, Howard and I had to fight and I ended up torturing him." He winced, reminded of that time not so long ago.

"I hurt him so bad, I felt horrible about it; still do. The intensity of power I used on him—" He shook his head, trying to clear that horrid thought.

"It was payback for eating up you angel Magnus don't worry, you know it had to happen, they expected something like." Howard soothed him, not scared at all.

Magnus nodded towards his friend but still "Still, I am so so sorry for making you live through that awful pain, so very sorry."

"I know Magnus I know." The tall man said back. They gazed at each other for a minute before Magnus broke the silence, asking a question that he had wanted to ask right after the observing was finished.

"Where is my angel anyways?"

"I sent him to Reunion Island on a vacation; the poor guy was practically dead on his feet. He works way too much Magnus, I'm can't believe you make him work that much!"

"He's the one who offers his help every time I need assistance in something. He volunteers for everything." Magnus replied, taking a slight offense in the implied accusation.

Howard sighed knowingly "Yeah you're right. Castiel is always working his ass off." He grinned. "Good thing I sent him away then." He added proudly.

"Mmmm, maybe Alec and I can go pay him a little visit. What do you think darling?" He turned towards his partner, a new light shining in his eyes. Alec answered him with a similar gleam, a smile softening his features.

"Maybe I'll come too. Long time since Cathy and I have seen the old little angel." Howard joked; he was no older than him.

"Tomorrow then?" Magnus suggested.

"Noon in Saint-Leu?" Howard guessed, they always met up there.

"And then —in the evening — dinner with Castiel in that old restaurant that we all love in l'Étang Salé?"

"Deal." Howard nodded, speaking for his wife and him.

"Deal." Magnus and Alec said in unison.

The two rivals hugged each other, saying their farewells—that they better not forget to feed the cat before they leave for their impromptu destination.

Each prepared to leave but wait, weren't they forgetting something, someone important.

"But Magnus what about out problem? What are we going to do about it?"

"What is there to talk about? We'll insult each other, we'll hurt each other, I might even try to strange you once or twice. And when they're not looking we'll make up and everything will be better in the world." He said in a dismissive tone. He didn't care about that, not when he could have Alec all to himself in nothing but swimming trunks and flip-flops.

"But—"

"Clary, that's all. They'll only watch us a couple of times in a decade, probably like 3 or 4 times. Don't worry about it. If you want we can discuss in detail exactly what we'll do to each other. But not now; some other time, not today or tomorrow or the day after that."

"Do what we do Clarissa; enjoy life." And with those final words, not waiting for an answer, he vanished with his partner, leaving nothing behind them but a speck of glitter that fell from his hair.

Both Jace and Clary stood there, looking shocked about the sudden change in the atmosphere.

"Right well, I need to go. Jace, Clary" he inclined his head "I'll see you too in a few days for the power transfer."

Clary moved fast, gripping his arm in a tight embrace. "Castiel, the angel, he's the one who—"

"Yes he's the one who told you those words; I asked him to. I knew you needed to hear those words to survive; you still do."

"I—thank you." It is true, without him, she would have given up the moment she was taken away.

He bowed his head but before he could get away Clary had another question for him. "What do I, what do we do now?"

"Live your life." He retorted simply.

"Do I have one anymore?" Did she?

"Of course you do Clary. Everyone has a life, some of them are just a bit more complicated than others. I told you Clary, you have a life that is all planned out, you actually got to see some of it."

"But you said that was the life I was destined to have before all of this." She gestured to herself, to the black hole on her arm.

"Yes, for sure fighting with Jace over demon killings won't be possible but the rest will be. What I showed you was your life when you were a 20 years old shadowhunter. You won't be a full shadowhunter at 20 but that doesn't mean that the rest isn't going to happen; might take a bit more time but it will happen eventually. It will." He said with certainty.

"I'm going to have those kids?" She whispered, tears forming in her eyes.

"Well not exactly them them ,not precisely the same attitude but yes, you'll have kids similar to the vision."

She suddenly did something that was unexpected for the both of them; she hugged Howard, the one person she was sure she was going to hate. She put her arms around him and held on tight. He responded with just as much ferocity and after a few seconds gently let go of her.

"See you soon." He said once Clary regained her position next to her soon to be paired one, Jace.

And he vanished.

Leaving a dazed Jace and a crying Clary alone in the room that she didn't know was part of her new apartment, a gift from the two friends.

Jace pulled Clary towards her and kissed the top of her head. She had a lot of explaining to do. She needed to tell him everything, starting by the name of their future kids.

She sighed. He sighed

They were going to be okay.

They were happy.

Saphia is the plural for scaphium: vessels

Nigria: holes ( as in the black holes)

I told all of you that I would finish this before the end of the year. Well here it is.

Thank you so much for the people for read, followed and favorited this story, it means the world to me 3.

I hope you enjoyed the ending; I sure did.

Thank you.