Clary blinked in amazement. The entire room was the most phenomenal sight clary had ever seen, ceilings adorned in meticulously detailed paintings from floor to high, grand ceiling. Bold swirling strokes had been combines to form huge angels, winds spread out and soaring gloriously above her, with an enormous crystal chandelier hanging from the centre, lit with witchlight, sending the familiar pale, ghost like light scattering across the paint, reflecting in a thousand colours all around the room. On the far wall stood a dark mahogany shelf filled with books. Clary wheeled on the spot, her copper hair fanning around her like a halo, eyes wide with amazement, as if trying to take in the sight that lay before her. At the other end of the room, previously hidden by the dark wooden door sat a large, splendidly carved wardrobe, a high poster bed and a large, resplendent grand piano. Clary felt a pang of loss as she remembered Jace with guilt, she had almost forgotten. She turned to face Sebastian, carefully cloaking her clear amazement. She opened her mouth, ready to form a scathing remark, but as she saw her brother, the words withered and died in her throat, leaving her mouth hanging open dumbly, forming an almost comical "o". light was bursting from sebastian's chest, through his pale shirt. He lay, caked in sweat and quite unconscious. Clary saw her opportunity and rushed past his slumped figure, barely stopping to study him. As she passed she noticed where the light appeared to curve and swirl, almost in the shape of a rune. She peered at it. She had seen that shape before, on Jace's chest, a bloodied slash breaking the strong black lines. The bonding rune. If this was healed that meant….Jace. Without looking back, clary began to run.
Jace awoke witha pounding in his head, dumbly aware of hushed voices nearby, buzzing in his ears like swarms of bees clouding his thoughts, disrupting them like rain on the surface of a lake. "Wha- I" He spoke blurrily, and attempted to move his arm to wipe some of the sweat drenching his body, only to find it would not move from his side. He felt his eyelids flicker open and for a moment the room before him swirled before settling into focus. He was in a tall dark room, no, no he was in the institute, where he had been before, when the-
"He's awake." Said a familiar voice, crisp and alert, it brought him back to his own consciousness. and it was his own. Not sebastians. He recalled the familiar sepia tint on his vision and the contained feeling of somebody infiltrating your mind. This was not the same. Something was not right.
"Clary" He said weakly.
An exasperated noise came from above and as his eyes came in to focus, just in time to watch the brilliant shock of green hair swim into focus.
Magnus.
Alec appeared above him, tense but brow furrowed in concern.
"Jace its me, are you-"
"Still me? Yeah, I think so. I'm getting no randomly murderous inclinations so I think its safe to let Izzy off my arms now."
Jace felt the cold hands that had kept him restricted loosen and an embarrassed looking Izzy appeared in his line of sight.
"Sorry, we thought you might be a tad, you know" she made revolving notions around her temple and Alec swatted at her reprovingly. A hand was offered but Jace ignored it, sitting up and steadying himself as his vision began to swim once again.
"what happened?" Jace moved a hand to the centre of the throbbing pain coursing through him.
"We kinda, didnt expect the-the, you know." for the second time in as many minutes Izzy mimed, this time the dramatic process of fainting, swooning and all.
"And none of you thought to catch me, like a damsel on a hot summers day?" Jace gave a half-smile, trying to ignore the aching in him.
"Hey, everyone else in this room likes boys, we're usually the swooners, not swoon-ies" Magnus spoke with a mixture of half hearted humour and concern.
"I myself have never swooned in my life." Izzy replied indignantly
"Oh yeah-" Magnus began, but Alec cut him off with a withering glance.
"It looks like something went wrong, I don't" But Alec's confused tones trailed out as he fixed his eyes on the glowing rune shining through Jace's cotton shirt.
"What's-" Jace looked down and realisation lit his eyes.
There was a long moment of silence in the room as everyone stared at the flickering and yet certain light emanating from Jace. After a while, Izzy's grim tones broke the silence.
"You know what this means" She said. "Sebastian's coming to us."