Who: Izzy, Magnus and Celaena When: Early April Where: The Institute What: Covering up some scars Rating/Warnings: Low/None Status: Complete
Magnus had been busy as per usual. Not only had he had a new shoot that he’d needed to get ready for, but he’d taken it upon himself to assist Danny in planning, what had turned out to be a black light rave. After all, Magnus Bane could never resist planning a party. The party had been a success and he’d enjoyed having all of his friends there as well as getting the chance to paint over each of Alec’s Runes that adorned the Shadowhunter’s arms, chest, stomach and back. In the end, Magnus had thought his fiance had looked stunning. Not that he didn’t always think that of course, but seeing Alec’s Runes glowing the way that they had had been mesmerizing and Magnus had hardly been able to take his eyes off of him the entire evening.
Now that both the shoot and party were done, Magnus was following up on Isabelle’s request that he try to make a glamour for a friend of hers. He’d asked Isabelle to arrange a time for for him to meet Celaena, which was why he was on his way to the Institute. Since Alec had moved in with him six months earlier, Magnus had not actually been back to the Institute except in his dreams, but he had thought that Celaena might be more comfortable at Izzy’s than at Magnus’ so the Institute seemed like the most logical place. Unable to portal into the Institute, even in the waking world, Magnus had decided to drive over and went straight for the door upon arriving and rang the bell.
Izzy had loved the party Magnus had arranged, it had been an incredibly fun evening, She’d had a wonderful time and it had been what a lot of people needed it had seemed. Now though it was a much different day, Izzy had been so glad when Magnus had told her that he might be able to help Celaena.
THE Institute was a good place to meet since her best friend knew it well and Magnus obviously did, even if he didn’t visit as often as Izzy would like. It was harder now Alec wasn’t there. Heading to the door she flung it open and grinned before hugging Magnus, “Hey, come on in. Cel should be here any minute”
Celaena wasn't far behind Magnus. She saw the door starting to close behind the warlock and called out to stop them closing it. “Hey, wait for me!” she jogged up the path to the Institute, holding onto the strap of her bag as she did.
Magnus had just stepped into the Institute when he heard a voice behind him so he held the door open for the blond, assuming that she was Celaena, because the only way she’d be able to see the Institute was if she’d been there before and the only way she would have been there before was if Isabelle had invited her before. “Celaena, I presume?” He asked as he moved aside to allow her inside while still holding the door.
“Great timing Cel” Izzy said before introducing them both, “Magnus this is Celaena, Cel this is Magnus” she grinned letting them shake hands or whatever while she closed the institute door. “So drinks?” she offered.
Celaena opted for shaking Magnus’ hand when Isabelle introduced them. “Hi there,” she smiled at the man. He was very pretty and his yellow, cat-like eyes were fascinating. Celaena remembered Izzy saying that he was a Warlock, so maybe this was how you identified one, she thought to herself. “So uh, Izzy says you can do all kinds of magic, is that true?” she asked him as they followed Izzy further into the Institute. “I’d love an orange juice or something if you’ve got some?” she asked Iz.
“It’s a pleasure to meet you, Celaena.” Magnus smiled and shook the blond’s hand. When Magnus was around his friends or other dreamers, he didn’t bother glamouring his eyes and every now and then he didn’t do it even when he was around non-dreamers, because most people just thought they were contacts anyway. “She’s correct. In our dream world I’m currently the High Warlock of Brooklyn. I can do quite a lot of things.” As Celaena asked Izzy for an orange juice, Magnus waved his fingers, blue sparks emanating from his fingers as a bottle of orange juice appeared in his other hand, “Hope you don’t mind no pulp.”
Izzy kind of loved Magnus’ natural eyes, they were amazing and reminded her of how incredible he was. Laughing when he made the drink appear she grinned at Cel, “He’s handy to have at parties too” she teased nudging Magnus with her arm and sharing a smile with him. “Best brother in law ever”
“That...is really cool!” Celaena grinned up at him in amazement from the bottle that appeared in her hand. “My mom and dad would love to have you around for their parties,” she commented glibly. “So how does it work? It just comes out of nowhere?” she asked curiously, opening up the bottle and taking a drink from the bottle.
“I don’t exactly do tricks at parties. Unless they’re my own parties,” Magnus smirked as a he watched Celaena’s reaction to the orange juice, “Not exactly. It has to come from somewhere else. That bottle would have come from the store at the corner.” In order for Magnus to summon things he had to know where they were coming from. Much the same way portals worked where he had to know where it was going in order to open one to that place.
“I’ve always found it best to just see it as magic and move on” Izzy said with a bright smile for both of them. She never thought about it much beyond Magnus being very cool. “Magnus’ parties are the best ever, you’ll have to come along to the next one and see. The last one he had was a glitter party”
“Oh! Glitter? But I love glitter,” Celaena whined quietly, disappointed she’d missed out on such fun. To be fair though, she’d been dealing with a couple of other problems lately. “So uh, Magnus...what else can you do? Apart from invite me to your parties in the future,” she asked hopefully then added on cheekily.
Magnus smirked, “It was a black light paint and glitter party. I helped a new friend set it up. It was his idea actually.” When Magnus had seen Danny’s post about wanting to put together a party, Magnus hadn’t been able to resist, “I had made a post about it, but the next time I have a party, I’ll be sure to tell Izzy to invite you. I know that not everyone sees every single post on Valar net.” Sometimes posts moved so quickly that it was easy to miss them. “I do a lot of things actually. I can use my magic to fight, redecorate, make portals.” He thought for a moment, “I can briefly control people. I have been known to summon demons, in the dreams and I can make potions.” He didn’t add in glamours, because she would already know that since that was the whole reason they had gotten together today.
It was definitely easy to miss posts on the net, Izzy had done so a couple of times and she’d be sure to invite Cel to the next party. She wasn’t even sure why she hadn’t already. “Magnus has a whole box of awesome tricks he can do, but the most important one for you is helping you with cover ups”
Celaena smiled at that, ducking her chin in embarassment of having to ask such a favour. “Thank you. For doing this for me,” she quickly glanced at the two others. “Both of you,” she said quietly. “I know it probably sounds like a spoiled little brat who wants things to be perfect in her life...and I guess I kind of am, but this is really important to me,” she tried to explain, probably sounding a little lame.
“I completely understand.” In the dreams, Magnus made potions and glamours and other things for Downworlders and Shadowhunters and sometimes Mundanes, but always for a price with the exception of Alec and his friends. In the waking world, he hadn’t yet needed to charge people, because no one had really asked him for much and since Celaena was Isabelle’s friend, he wasn’t about to start asking for payment. “I have to use glamours on myself at times too.” His eyes were the most noticeable of his two Warlock Marks; the other being the lack of a belly button, which when he had a shoot where he needed to take off his shirt he needed to glamour one otherwise people would ask too many questions.
“It isn’t spoilt at all. You need to be able to continue dancing and doing what you love and Magnus can help you with that” Izzy said, she hadn’t really done much beyond bringing the two together and she had known Magnus would help. He really was the best brother in law someone could ask for, magic or not.
“What do you need to use glamours for? You don’t need them,” Celaena told him without thinking. The man was gorgeous after all. “So you can make this little thing into something that will cover my scars?” she asked, holding out a small tanzanite necklace to him. She’d been given it as a birthday present and it was small enough that she could more than likely get away with wearing it on stage. “Will it...hurt or something?” she asked,frowning as she did.
“It isn’t so much what I need to cover up, but what I have to make appear.” Lifting up his shirt, Magnus showed off his well defined abs, but also the lack of a bellybutton, “Like my eyes, it’s one of my Warlock Marks.” It had been quite a shock when he’d realized that his belly button was gone, that was for sure.
Dropping his shirt back into place, Magnus shook his head, “No, it won’t hurt. I do need to see exactly what is going to be glamour ex though. To know how much magic I’ll need to use.”
“Weird right?” Izzy said winking at Magnus before reaching over to squeeze Cel’s arm, “Show him so he can help you” she nodded with confidence, hoping to put Celaena at ease.
Celaena looked down when Magnus suggested she show him the marks. She still wasn’t comfortable with the idea of them, unlike her Dream counterpart. In her Dreams, she was stubborn and arrogant because of her skills, but here, her skills depended on her image, something she’d cultivated for years. Looking up at Iz when her friend touched her arm, she took a deep breath and handed her bottle of juice to the other girl. Turning her back to Magnus, she crossed her arms in front of herself and lifted the back of her shirt to show the 3 vicious scars across her back.
Magnus couldn’t help but wince slightly as Celaena showed him the scars on her back, “That’s from your dreams? I hope whoever did that to you got what they deserved.” Magnus didn’t like to think of people being hurt like that, “Alright. Let me have the necklace.” He knew the spell he’d be using quite well considering he’d done glamours for other people in his dreams as well so it was just one of those that stuck in his mind now so he wouldn’t have to make Celaena wait any longer than she already had.
“Me too” Izzy said, her sadness and pain for her friend had been overrun by anger when Cel had told her what had happened in the dreams. If the man who had done this ever turned up Izzy would beat the crap out of him and feel no remorse whatsoever. She helped her hold her shirt up letting her hand rest over her friends in reassurance until Magnus spoke and the shirt could fall down again.
Celaena smiled ruefully as she dropped her shirt and turned back to Magnus. She reached into her jacket pocket and pulled out the necklace, reaching out to hand it over to the Warlock. “I uh...I haven’t Dreamt of any...comeuppance yet. I was in a salt mine where prisoners were used as slave labour. It was punishment. For trying to escape,” she swallowed thickly. “I almost touched the outer wall, it was the closest anyone had ever come,” she gave a hint of a smirk at that. She didn’t mention the twenty four guards her Dream-self killed in the process. She figured telling someone she was an assassin on the first meeting probably wasn’t social protocol.
“That’s pretty impressive that you almost escaped. Hopefully you succeed next time.” Magnus smirked as he took the necklace from her and placed it in the palm of his hand then raised the other hand over that one. Focusing on the necklace and the spell, Magnus began reciting, blue sparks emanating from his black nailed fingers. The spell was different than the one he used on his eyes, because that was usually temporary and he could turn it on and off in an instant. This one needed to be more permanent.
After a few minutes, Magnus finished the spell and held the necklace out to Celaena, “Put it on.” If it worked then whenever she wore the necklace the scars, while still there, wouldn't be seen by anyone who didn’t have the sight.
Izzy was proud of her friend for trying to get away even if it hadn’t worked, and she knew the full story about Cel’s career as an assassin which had only served to impress her more. She couldn’t wait until she got more skills, their sparring sessions would be amazing then. She held her breath as she waited for Cel to put on the necklace.
Celaena took a deep breath and reached to take the necklace back. She hesitated briefly and her hand flinched as it hovered over the necklace, a part of her mind expecting it to be hot to the touch. She picked it up and undid the clasp, swallowing thickly and placing it around her neck under her hair. Once it was fastened, she ran her fingers over the pendant and looked up at the two of them. “I don't...I don't feel any different,” she said quietly. She lifted the back of her shirt again to show Izzy. “Is it...is it working?” she asked cautiously, her throat constricting at the prospect.
Having created the glamour, Magnus could see through it, but depending on how strong Isabelle’s Sight was, would determine whether or not she would be able to see through it. Magnus knew that most adult Shadowhunters possessed the Sight and along with their Voyance Runes, could see through most glamours, “Maybe if we got a mirror. Let Celaena see for herself.” He glanced at Izzy.
“I’m no good to ask” Izzy said almost apologetically to her friend, indicating the voyance rune she had on her body. But at Magnus’ suggestion she got a mirror and let Celaena look herself, knowing that she wouldn’t be able to see the scars. Izzy knew it was working because there was a blurry edge to her back.
“Oh yeah, sorry,” Celaena cast her a little smile, as she recalled a vague memory of Izzy telling her that the rune allowed her to see through magic spells. When Izzy returned with the mirror, she thanked her friend and looked over her shoulder for herself. Her back appeared to be perfect again, with no sign of the raised flesh she knew were there. Breathing a shaky sigh of relief, she felt tears pricking at her eyes as she turned to them. “Thank you,” she smiled at them as a tear started to track down her cheek. She wrapped Izzy up in a tight hug, pressing her face against her best friend’s shoulder. She looked up at Magnus with a wide grin and released Izzy to hug the Warlock. “Thank you,” she repeated, giving Magnus a little squeeze before releasing him and stepping back to Izzy’s side. She wiped the tear off her cheek and rested her head on Izzy’s shoulder in relief.
Magnus smiled as Celaena hugged him, “I was happy to help.” Seeing how happy Celaena was all the thanks that Magnus needed. In the dreams he did things like this for money, but in the waking world, he didn’t need the money so he was more than happy to help people simply for reactions like Celaena’s.