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sandersgrey · 2 years

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A Study in Greys

Eventual Kit/Ty Endgame, Angst with a Happy Ending, Hurt/Comfort, Emotional Manipulation, Psychological Trauma, Kit Herondale Has ADHD.

First. 3. Next. 5. Sixth. Seventh. Fic also available on ao3.

Wordcount: 4k.

A/N: Thanks again to Jynx (@jynxlovesluck), as without their beta work and constant, unwavering support, this would be a much poorer story.

Another huge thanks to Fae (@thechangeling) as well, who has tolerated my various rants about this fic and also generously allowed me to borrow their OC Alyssa.

Hope you guys like her! Trigger warnings for this chapter: Implied emotional manipulation. Open prejudice. Ty punches a wall, but not with the intent to hurt himself.

Second Chapter: Waters Run Deep

It starts so gradually that even Ty doesn’t quite notice it at first.

They pair him off with Anush for all of the three days it takes for the higher ups to realize that they’re actual friends, and then no longer allow them to do joint assignments together- not by outright forbidding them, which would have been too obvious, but by always, always pairing them with others in missions.

It’s only then that Ty realizes they were meant to hate each other. No one, it seems, had paid any attention to their student days. There isn’t even any shortage of new centurions who do hate either or both of them.

None of them ever come out and say it, of course— Ty would have respected it more if they had— but it’s become obvious with time.

Ragnor never tells him about the complaints made when he was allowed to wear his headphones in class. He didn’t need to. Despite popular belief, Ty could still hear them just fine.

He’d made sure to strike harder the louder they got.

It had worked, at first. Ty wasn’t the strongest in their year, but he had quickly become the fastest, rising through with sheer single-minded commitment to his skills. He’s good at what he does. Early on, before he knows anything else, he knows this: that they can’t afford to lose him.

Maybe that’s why they go for Anush, then.

Anush, because he — even though they’d never say that’s the reason — he, unlike Ty, doesn’t know the Consul. Because no one important would notice if he wasn’t there.

Ty has noticed. But Ty himself isn’t anyone important, is he?

“Don’t get in trouble while I’m out”, Anush says. “It’s not worth it.”

Mayhew laughs shrilly behind them, bragging to Jones about always being able to snatch a promise of vacation during the worst patrol time, Ashworth’s vocal disapproval of their excitement not enough to make them shut the fuck up.

She’d grinned while giving Anush the assignment. Ty visualizes wrapping his hands around her neck and squeezing.

“Be careful.”

“It’s not exile. I’m just-”

“They’re just sending you off on an international mission for six months.”

Anush sighs, hikes his bag’s strap higher on his shoulder. “Listen. You can’t be caught complaining.”

I could just go home. Ty knows he won’t- doesn’t want to see the expression on Julian’s face, doesn’t want people to laugh because he couldn’t make it, to prove them right . Some days, though. Some days.

“Write to me while you’re there.”

“They said no contact.”

“I know”, Ty says. “Write to me anyway.”

That gets a smile out of Anush, but he doesn’t say anything, just shakes his head. As he watches his friend disappear into the Portal, Ty lets himself pretend that’s a yes.

He does go home. A week’s break, to see Helen and Tavy back in LA- his requests, he’s noticed, always take much longer to process than most of his fellow centurions’, Mayhew’s most of all. They still eventually come. He tells himself that’s good enough.

It only takes one look at him for Helen to frown. “Are they treating you alright back there?”

No. “I’m jet lagged”, he says, because it’s true.

She lets it go.

His room is the exact same as he left it. The only difference is the sky, with the sunlight coming through a window at a slightly different position from break. Ty draws the curtains shut and pretends that the dark doesn’t bother him. It’s where he can see Livy the best, after all.

She stands on top of his dresser, hands on her hips, like an explorer viewing familiar territory after a long decade at work. There’s a saber mounted on the wall that he’s never even touched.

“Helen and Aline are talking in the kitchen”, Livy tells him. “I think they’re worried about you — you should tell them.”

“They have enough to deal with”, Ty says.

Livy shakes her head, but floats back down without another word.

In the end, he’s not sure what it is that convinces Helen and Aline not to push it. Maybe the fact that they get it. Maybe it’s the way he keeps muttering battle plans under his breath and losing himself in some of the reference books that can only be found in their Institute.

Or maybe some part of them can feel Livy, phantasmal and resplandescent, every inch as furious as he is.

In the middle of the night, Ty wakes up to her staring out of the window with the strangest expression on her face.

“Is everything alright?”

Livy doesn’t turn to look at him. “I’m not sure.”

(Oliver Konman, they learn when they get back to the castle, is dead. One of the castle’s ghosts is simply — gone. And no one has a clear explanation as to why.)

This is the worst possible time for Kit to be added to the equation.

So of course he’s here.

Even with Livy’s whispered warning, his hands are still slick with sweat and slippery around the doorknob. Fuck. Of course he doesn’t get to hide in his dorm room. Of course Zacharias has to intercept him. There’s a brief moment in which the itch to pulls his headphones over his ears and pretend he didn’t see them is almost feasible, but-

“Blackthorn.” There isn’t a single hint of respect in Zach’s voice. That’s alright. Ty is used to this. “Look what I just brought back from the London Institute.”

What he isn’t used to is this: Kit at the Scholomance, framed by the grey walls that have become Ty’s own chrysalis.

“Devon, actually.”

Zacharias has a proprietary arm around his shoulders, keeping him tucked into his side with a grin Ty cannot help but interpret as smug. He knows what he’s doing. He must know. Despite all of Ty’s best efforts, or perhaps because of them, the rumors about the Herondale necklace hanging over his heart is mostly common knowledge. He knows.

Fuck. Kit looks so small next to him.

Hands tucked in the pockets of a well worn denim jacket, the slightest movement under the fabric that suggests his fingers are inquiet, shoulders hunched under the weight of what passes for Zach’s affection. (Petty.) A Fortitude rune peeks out from under Kit’s collar, drawn in the shaky hand of someone who’s not used to wearing angel marks.

Still. Under all of that, Ty can tell he’s taller. Broader at the shoulders. The constellations of his freckles have all changed over the expanses of paler skin than he remembers, stretched over muscles he doesn’t think Kit used to have, hadn’t realized he could have gained. even though maybe he should have.

The cold light paints grey what little of Kit isn’t hidden in Zach’s shadow. (Don’t think about it.) His lips are reddened and swollen. (Don’t think about it.)

(Don’t think about it.)

“Oh, sweetheart. You know that place barely counts.”

Kit presses his lips together, but doesn’t say anything. The fabric of his pockets bunch like he’s holding his hands into fists. Ty remembers- figure it out, then- Ty remembers a Kit that looked less cowed with a dagger to his throat.

There are four throwing knives on Ty’s belt. One regular dagger. His staff is tucked between the crook of his elbow and his body. Stele in his jacket’s left pocket. There are exactly zero witnesses in this room, besides Kit, who at his worst has never been a snitch-

Someone clears their throat.

“Centurion Zacharias”, Ty greets him, belatedly. Zach’s smile stretches wider:

“I’m sure you know my boyfriend, Kit?”

Ty tucks his hands in the pockets of his hoodie- doesn’t want Zach to see them shake. Doesn’t want to be tempted to grab the dagger. Seven of the nine doors in this hallway are locked, anyway. The three left are just abandoned classrooms.

Nods at them. “Hi.”

Zach just- stands there, smiling smugly down at Ty, who allows himself to stare blankly at the wall. The stone has been there for centuries. It will be there for as long as Ty lives. There are seventeen horizontal lines, nine horizontal ones. The rock Ty is staring at has twelve dark spots.

Zach still doesn’t say anything. The smile just keeps getting wider.

Finally, Kit sets his jaw.

“Hey.” Tugging on Zach’s sleeve, he smiles up at his- his- boyfriend? Fuck. “We should probably finish that tour you promised me before the rest of the classes are out, yeah? I don’t think a walk through the crowded hallways is quite what you had in mind for that.”

There is this to be said in Zach’s favor, as much as Ty hates it: he fully turns his attention to Kit as soon as he starts speaking, like a flower to the sun.

It’s awful. Kit keeps smiling sweetly, the way he never, not once, smiled when he was actually happy back in LA, and- Zach just softens, like there’s nothing wrong with the way it looks so picture-perfect it has to be practiced.

Maybe there isn’t. Maybe Ty is overreacting again. Wouldn’t be the first time he’s been told so.

“Alright, sweetheart”, Zach acquiesces easily. “I’ll even show you my room if you like.”

Ty breathes in. Doesn’t breathe out.

The hand slides from Zach’s sleeve down to his hand, squeezing it. “See? More interesting things to do”, Kit says to nobody in particular, although Ty can’t help but feel like that’s a jab at him.

It should be funny, to see Zach being towed out of the room by someone who’s a whole foot shorter and barely exerting any effort. Allowing himself to be moved by someone who would have no chance of moving him otherwise.

It should be, Ty is sure. Maybe it’ll come to him later.

(It won’t.)

Pressing his back to the wall, he lets himself slide down into a crouch. Lets his forehead rest on his knees, just for a moment, just so he can feel himself breathe.

Ty hits the wall behind him with the bottom of his fist- once, twice in quick procession, not hard enough to hurt himself but hard enough to feel it ringing through his bones. Fuck. A part of him almost wishes he’d let himself punch the wall hard enough it breaks.

For once, the temperature drop goes unnoticed. Until it doesn’t.

“Well,” Livy says. “This went… alright.”

“It didn’t.”

She floats down, down, until she’s crouching close enough to him that Ty can feel his own body temperature drop. Her white dress goes through the ground, a glitch in the universe, until she gathers its skirt around herself and tucks it under her thighs.

Ty doesn’t realize how tense his shoulders were until they drop back down, leaning towards her.

“Are you okay?”

He turns his hand so she can see the damage done. It’s red, that’s all. He’s been careful not to break anything.

“That’s not what I meant.” Livy peers down at it anyway. “How are you feeling?”

It’s at times like this that Ty wishes he were better with words. He used to have other people for this, to make up for where he lacks, but- no one else can see Livy anymore, and no one else knows him as well as she does. No one else can help. At least, no one he’d trust.

Except for. Except. Except,

“I don’t know.”

The way down the mountain is made shorter by a Portal. Ty is pretty sure Ragnor has a bit of a soft spot for him; enough, at least, that he’ll help him visit his best friend.

“Fucking finally! I thought you’d just forgotten about me.”

“Sorry. Just busy.” Shedding his coat at the door, Ty lets himself get dragged down to the couch. Alyssa’s hand on his shoulder is a familiar weight he only accepts because he knows he’s allowed not to. “I’ve got a lot to tell you this time.”

“Well, go ahead, then.”

He does.

Alyssa does not like it.

“I’ll kill them for you”, she promptly offers. “ Please let me kill them for you.”

Ty ducks his head, lets a little bit of a smile escape through his lips. He’s always hated being coddled, but this isn’t that- never has been, with Ali, in a way he doesn’t quite know how to express. The words aren’t there. They don’t need to be.

Still-

“Please don’t”, because it still feels like it needs saying, even though Ty is pretty sure she’s not being serious.

Ali aggressively pouts at this, which Ty didn’t even know was a thing before they met. She sticks out her leg to poke his thigh with her sneaker, makes sure he’s properly warned before dropping both legs on his lap, a slightly smug expression on her face.

He curls a hand around her ankle. Allows himself to tap a slightly manic rhythm on the bone. They’re not at the Scholomance- she’s safe in this worn living room, and her parents are out anyway. He doesn’t have to pretend to be normal here. Not with her.

“You can be mad at him, too, you know?”

At this, Ty shrugs.

His best friend tilts her head, stares at him with what he’s learned to interpret as a concerned expression when it’s on her face. The same frown in other people tends to mean anger. Usually. People’s individual expressions vary more than they’d let you know; Ty has long given up on most of those intricacies. He can grasp the basics. More than that is a fool’s errand.

Then again, maybe he is a fool.

“He’s fucked you up before”, Ali points out, “and now he shows up to your space, of all things, when things are weirder than ever? He knew you were gonna be here. He did this on purpose. We should beat him up. It could be, like, a thing.”

“He can go wherever he wants”, Ty says. It doesn’t feel good.

(Because Ali is right, and this is Ty’s territory. No one else should be in it. It’s one thing to share it with colleagues and guests, which has already been growing harder the more they shove him out, but-)

“You still can be upset about it! You should be!”

“If I keep being upset”, Ty says, “I don’t know if I’ll be able to stop.”

The room goes silent. This, she understands.

(Four throwing knives. One dagger. One stele. His staff was left behind, but he’s still dangerous without it. Zach never quite managed to win in any of their drawn-out spars. His only hope was to overpower Ty quickly, and-)

(And none of this matters, because this isn’t a battle Ty is allowed to fight.)

“Still. Let me know.”

Despite everything, Ty finds it in himself to affectionately bump his knuckles against the side of her leg. “I will.”

They are everywhere now .

Which makes sense. The Scholomance is big, but not that big. Ty is pretty sure Zach is deliberately trying to show off his new arm candy anyway.

Anush had made a comment, a few weeks before he went on that mission, that Kit is… actually, kind of a sought-after status symbol, nowadays. When he can be found, which doesn’t seem to be all that often. Ty wishes he’d paid more attention back then.

“He’s the only Herondale that isn’t already publicly taken”, Anush had told him, “and Jace was already kind of spoken for when his identity got revealed, so it wasn’t like this. People assumed it was a lost cause. This time no one is aware of any ties beyond, like… you know, and you’ve already said it’s not like that. There’s a lot of people who’d love to be dating a Herondale. Now they think they might have a chance to.”

Ty had already hated it back then- the idea of people seeking out Kit because of his last name, as though the first didn’t matter. Herondale as more of a title than a surname. Kit as more of a trophy than a boyfriend.

He hated, above all, that he could kind of see the logic in it: their world is ruled by nepotism, and a name can open many doors that’d previously been walls.

It had still felt awful.

This is worse.

“Give it back”, Zach says, almost pleasantly.

Ty doesn’t look up from the old tome sprawled on the table. For a moment, he considers putting his headphones on and pretending this isn’t happening- quite honestly, he doesn’t have the time for this. It’s a brief daydream.

He sighs. “Give what back?”

“The necklace, of course.”

His body freezes; the stillness after a mistake, when the shards of glass are on the floor and time cannot be rewound. The heron pendant feels warm on the skin over his heart. Ty, he realizes, will fight for this.

“Has Kit asked for it back?” Ty manages to say, after a too-long pause.

He lets his expression go blank, and prays that the fear strangling his lungs doesn’t show. Zach scoffs:

“Does he need to?”

“That’s not an answer. Has he asked?”

Zach shifts on his feet, hands clenching and unclenching.

“Does he even know you’re asking?”, Ty says, suddenly curious.

“You’re not a Herondale”, Zach spits out. “And you’re not dating one, so why should you have it?”

Carefully gathering his things, Ty gets up.

A smile stretches the skin of his face in unfamiliar ways. His lips are dry enough to split and bleed if he’s not careful, but it’s worth it, Zach almost vibrating with anger at the sight of Ty’s expression.

“Maybe because Kit actually wants me to wear it.”

Zach lurches forward-

“ There you are, Zach! I’ve been looking for you- oh, hello, there, who are you?”

“Oh, you’re so pretty”, Mayhew coos, and Ty finds himself looking up one more unadvised time as Zach’s head snaps up. “Look at your eyes!”

As a matter of fact, I usually don’t. Their little streak of mutual avoidance has gone unbroken.

Kit — because of course it’s Kit, who else could it be? — blushes prettily under the attention. From this far, the pink hides the smaller freckles on his face. It’s really fucking annoying. A few years ago, Ty had known them well enough that it wouldn’t have mattered.

“Thanks, they’re all natural.” His gaze still finds Ty and Zach despite the distraction, honing in on the proximity, and Kit frowns. “Darling, I thought you’d said you’d introduce us?”

The disappointment in his voice cuts deep as a knife. Ty winces.

Having seemingly forgotten all about him, Zach makes his way over to them. He tucks Kit under his arm and drops a kiss on top of his head, which Kit huffs at, lips twitching, but allows. Ty looks away.

“Sorry, babe, this is Mayhew. That’s Kit- Isn’t he just a beauty?” he brags, as though speaking of a pureblood horse or a particularly well trained hound.

Jones raises an eyebrow: ”Where have you been hiding a Herondale , Zach?”

Devon, snarks the little Kit in his mind.

The real Kit shifts under the possessive hold Zach has on his waist and smiles. It’s that same smile as before, the one that just feels off. It makes Ty chew on the inside of his cheek, nervous, as though something bad is about to happen. It isn’t. E̶v̶e̶r̶y̶t̶h̶i̶n̶g̶ ̶i̶s̶ ̶f̶i̶n̶e̶.̶ ̶E̶v̶e̶r̶y̶o̶n̶e̶ ̶i̶s̶ ̶a̶l̶r̶i̶g̶h̶t̶.̶ Everybody is safe.

“He was languishing in a small, downworlder-infested city. How could I not rescue him?”

From here, Ty can see Kit take a deep breath. “I wouldn’t say rescue-”

“Did you really bring your boy toyto tbe castle?” says Ashworth, her tone reproving. “This isn’t a vacation destiny, it’s an institution of learning.”

Kit bats his eyelashes at her. “Yes, and I’m learning a lot,” he says, sickly sweet. Her upper lip curls.

“Aw, Heather, don’t be so hard on the boy. He’s at the very least easy on the eyes.”

“Aww, thank you. That’s all I’ve ever wanted.”

It’s not that funny. Mayhew laughs:

“Not like our Zach here, huh?” She teases, squeezing the bicep of Zach’s free arm. He flexes indulgently. “These aren’t for nothing- a lot of effort must go into this!”

That or steroids, Ty thinks, but it’s an unkind thought. The kind of joke Kit would have made Before.

This new, strange Kit just laughs along with Zach’s self satisfied chuckle, like she just told a joke. “Well, I sure as hell can’t complain about the results”, and tilts his head so that the kiss Zach bestows on him finds its mark.

Ty walks out.

Mayhem smiled as she sent Anush away, he imagines himself telling Kit. It doesn’t feel right. Mayhem’s uncle humiliated Helen in front of the Academy. His niece is just like him. Why would you…

Freeman Mayhem. Have you heard of him? But why would he have?

Kit has spent the last three years running from everything that might brand him as a shadowhunter. (Including Ty.) Why would he know anything about them? He doesn’t care. He never has.

(Except.)

Kit has spent the last three years running. He has spent the last three years running- then why is he here?

What are his motivations? Ty doesn’t know— it aches not to know, when once he’d thought he knew him well. His mental map of Kit has been stretched out and skewed over time, like tectonic plates, and he itches to correct it.

(Of course, flat maps are never fully accurate unless they apply to a flat surface.)

(Not even the Earth is inherently positioned the way people envision her to be in their mapa mundis. In space there is no up and down.)

(Even a compass user has to account for the space between the magnetic pole and its geographic neighbor. Magnetic fields shift over time. The Earth spins on an angle. Things are never as simple as ink and paper make them out to be.)

(God, Ty wishes they were.)

Still. Here are the facts.

Backlash against downworlders and downworlder-affiliated shadowhunters has been steadily rising in centurion ranks over the past year.

Oliver Konman died just three weeks ago under unexplained circumstances around the same time ghost activity rose in England. Also: at the same time Livy had felt something , all the way to LA.

His family, as far as Ty knows, never came to recover his belongings.

The last Scholomance ghost has grown increasingly more inquiet, as Livy reports. Like rats in a boat as they feel the storm approaching.

Kit has arrived.

(Kit can see ghosts.)

“To be fair”, Livy says, “how would he know ? I sure as hell didn’t tell him about it.”

Ty has no answer for her, so he doesn’t say anything. Allows the sound of his impatient tapping of fingers on the cold stone floor. and just… keeps staring down at the myriad of documents on his lap, most of which he’s managed to sneak out of the classified part of the archives. The evidence he needs must be here somewhere.

Livy is a good spy, a great one, even, but- she can’t be a witness for anyone but him. So he has to find physical proof.

It’s already bad enough that no one is willing to talk about Oliver’s death. It was already bad enough when Livy burst into Ty’s room, ranting about what the other centurions had been whispering, again, like no one fucking learned from the last war, and even Helen being safely back in LA and Mark, by Kieran’s side, didn’t stop the fear from clutching Ty’s heart in a freezing fist.

Now Kit is here, too, one more person Ty has to protect while somehow avoiding. One more person he has no idea whether to trust. It’s not fair. Kit was the one who left.

( So did Watson, a part of Ty says, and there’s very little Ty can do to stop it. But he still came back.)

( Kit didn’t come back for me , he argues back.)

( Don’t think about it.)

“Stop moping”, Livy tells him, “let me take a look at that. I think I recognize that dagger.”

Ty raises the paper for her. “It was Oliver’s, his main weapon besides the mace. Weird choices. I remember he never went anywhere without at least one of them.”

“Not even the showers?”

Ty glares. She giggles, a sound completely out of place in the stony dorm room, and squints at the pixelated image. Somehow, despite all of their supposed competency, very few of the centurions know how to navigate mundane technology.

(If Kit were here, he’d say: almost like the higher you climb, the more they isolate you from the rest. But Kit isn’t here. It goes unremarked upon.)

“Yeah, that looks familiar. Do we know where it went?”

He shakes his head, shuffling the papers in place. “No. I’m sure the documentation for where it was moved is somewhere, but it’s like they’re making it harder to find on purpose.”

“They probably are”, Livy points out.

Ty scrunches his nose. “That would mean someone high up. I really don’t want to think about that.”

“Tough luck. The whole point of this investigation is that there’s something off.”

She’s right. Ty hates it, but the world doesn’t seem to care much either way. “I don’t have enough time to look through everywhere there could possibly be the evidence for this.”

“You know, I bet Anush could help-”

“He’s on his mission right now. I can’t distract him.”

“I bet he’d be happy to help, anyway.” Livy argues. “And you know we need it. Alyssa doesn’t have the authorizations and I can only do so much.”

“I’ll figure it out.”

It’s enough that Ty got him assigned to that mission. Anush doesn’t need to be involved with this. And — Ty doesn’t want to think this, because Anush is his friend, but — this might be a little too personal for him to risk relying on somebody else.

Anush used to be in the Cohort. Best case scenario, even if he’s willing to help, it might be too personal for him. It’s an awful thing to think, but Ty really doesn’t want to have to be doing damage control the entire time. Anush is different from Alyssa, anyway. They don’t just click. Ty’s efforts might be entirely wasted.

“Kit, then?” Livy tries, because she’s been on the side of attempting contact for the past three years. “He’s already here. You even think he’s aware of it!”

“I suspect he does. All the evidence is circumstantial. If I’m wrong… “

( If I’m wrong, he might leave again.)

“It’s just easier to do this alone”, Ty says.

Livy bumps her shoulder through his, a shiver wracking through his frame, and leans over to double check the calculations on one of the closest documents. He’s never quite gotten the hang of math the way she does. It’s nice to have her sharp eyes as backup.

“Well”, she reminds him gently. “Not completely alone.”

#alex wont shut up #kit herondale #tda #kit x ty #ty blackthorn #sobh #twp #livy blackthorn #Zach AU #alex's arty: writing

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originalwinnercheesecake · 3 years

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Chain of Iron theories: Who wrote that Phrase

Okay so as we know after TDA’s Ty goes to the Scholomance Academy to train. While he is there Livy notices a phrase carved into his headboard with no name but the year 1904 underneath it. She reads the phrase out to Ty “I did not chose this life”. Chain of Iron is set to began in late 1903 early 1904 so we may see the character go away in CHOI. But here’s the thing, the Scholomance Academy was closed down at that time. So that residencey had to have been used for something else. It is a remote and private castle located in the heart of an steep mountain enclouser, Yes? It was most definitely not a mall or a theme park. Now as always I have theories as to who the person is, but this time it is a little different. See many of my other theory posts have had a common reason or “why” as to “why” I theorized this character. But since we do not know what the Academy is being used for, I have a different “Why” for every theorized “Who”

Theory 1.) The “Who” is James. The “Why” is his little secret.

So James story line in CHOI (besides he love triangle) is that he is starting to develop new powers, is having nightmares, and he fears he my be the killer. You know the killer who is set to kill 5 other Shadowhunters. What if one of them is someone James loves? The guilt of that could drive him to turn himself in. He is sentenced and sent to the old Academy for imprisonment (he did not go to silent city because no one believed Brother Zachariah would allow his own nephew to be locked up). When the real killer resurfaced again The Merry Thieves realize it wasn’t James and go on a quest to find him and break him out.

Theory 2.) The “Who” is Matthew. The “Why” is his addiction.

Let’s say for a moment that Matthew does not get turned into a downworlder, and lets say he also does not get his marks stripped. Well there is still the issue of his alcoholism and how things are set to get “worse before they get better” for him. We know he buys a car and starts driving it around with Cordelia in his passenger seat. Alcohol plus driving equals a very very large, giant. NO-NO. let’s say they are in a crash and Cordelia get hurt. Cordelia who is the little sister of the man who’s cruel taunts caused Matthew to doubt his mothers loyalty to the family, which led to his “sin”. Cordelia who is Matthew’s very close friend and whom he would never want to hurt. Matthew drinks so much because he believes it will make him to tired to “sin” again. IF he hurts someone (Cordelia) while drunk.... well it would be a poetically tragic way to send Matthew to Rock bottom. And once you’re at rock bottom you can either stay or try and climb out.

Theory 3.) The “Who” is Thomas. The “Why” is that he has been classified as “at risk” and sent away for “his protection”

Okay so we have all read “A Lightwood Christmas Carol”. It is the short Nova where Gideon, trying to find a way to help Thomas, also thinks of Jesse’s health troubles and wonders if they could of inherited any kind of ailment generically from Benedict. Benedict’s journals reveal nothing and Will tells Gideon that Thomas will get better in times and to drop his paranoia. But this whole nova submitted the idea in peoples minds that Jesse and Thomas’s conditions are linked. Now we know that Jesse is a piece of Belial’s plans; he is Belial’s “anchor”. This, along with the killer, is suspicious because shadowhunters are supposed to be impervious to demonic influences due to protection rituals put on them at birth. Now I am no doctor, but don’t people who have bigger health issues real young sometimes need to get modified versions of vaccines/medical work done, or need to wait a bit longer to have it done. Little kids get sick a lot and the silent brothers cannot fix everything. This could have potentially happened to several shadowhunters. What if something happens to make the clave wary of / turn on them. Thomas is not the killer, but what if the killer is another Shadowhunter who was sick as a kid and had to have the protection ritual done a bit differently. What if the clave blame that for how Belial was able to take control. Then the Clave (in all their cruelty and “wisdom”) decided that it is a “necessary precaution” to round up everybody else who needed this done and send them to the old Scholomance Academy until Belial is defeated. We know Thomas will do “something dangerous” in CHOI. He wold never want to leave his friends during such a dangerous time, especially not after what happened to Barbara. Maybe its putting together a break out team in effort to get back t London?

Theory 4.) The “Who” is Alastair. The “Why” is a bunch of reason.

The Carstairs sure picked a great time to move to London, Huh? What with their family situation, the pregnancy, the plague, Cordelia and Alastair’s complicated love lives, and now an impending Serial Killer. This is another it will only get worse situation. Most people theorize that at least one (and a few theorize both) Carstair’s parents will die in CHOI, and which ever one it is, it will make the situation much worse. This family is going to fall apart as a unit. How are Cordelia and Alastair both fairing in London? Cordelia loves it, Before she was a lonely girl who talked to her reflection so that she wouldn’t be complete alone. She wanted move to London to be with James and Lucie and make a bunch of new friends, and that is exactly what she got. True Her relationship with James is imperfect (stupid Gracelet, Stupid Belial) but she still has a lot going for her in London and is unlikely to leave. Alastair wanted to move to London because he wanted to be with Charles in person again. That did not go so well and now they are broken up. With that over Alastair would really like to have a relationship with Thomas. But at the end of Chain of Gold Alastair’s past cruelties were brought back to light, Thomas said he was done with Alastair, and all evidence states that Thomas will be mad for a long time. Alastair has already thought about leaving London before during the plague. IF things worsen, and then he learns the truth about Cordelia and James Marriage, he could easily decide the best thing for him and Cordelia is to cut their losses and forget about London and the people in it, IF this happens then he is in for one more bad shock, because no matter what happens between her and James I cannot imagine Cordelia agreeing. IF Alastair leaves he will leave alone.

Maybe he joins whatever is at at the Shcolomance Academy as a way to further avoid building any more personal relationships.While all of this sounds like a choice, and the writer clearly claims that they were there not by their choice, lets remember that one of the flaws Alastair needs to get over is that he doesn’t take responsibility for his own choice. Always blaming the world for his own behavior. He won’t stay forever. He will eventually hear something about London that will push him to go back, and push him to try and genuinely make up for what he has said and done. If Matthew is someone who is still sliding down to rock bottom, Alastair is someone who hit rock bottom long ago and now is begging to climb out. y

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