Distractions

Fifteen: Everest Wants a Cat

Man oh man this is a good chapter. Really long (nearly 9K words) but good. Also, thank you to @ink_and_fables_4_u for booting my ego and making my day yesterday. They're the reason why this chapter was posted today because I was going to wait until Friday so I could sleep in late today, but my ego has been boosted so here you go. Enjoy!

Everest stared at Meliorn with wide eyes. "The fucker shit?"

That had been twenty minutes ago, when the four had still been in the alleyway behind the Hotel Dumort. Now they were walking through a forest that was very familiar to Everest, one connected to the clearing where Everest and her friends met when they were having a bad day.

"Toto, we're not in Kansas anymore," Clary breathed out as she took in the fantastical sight.

Everest had always compared the forest to one from a tale about the Fey Folk, and now she knew why Gino had always snickered when she said that. It was quite literally what she had always compared it to.

"Shove it Dorothy," Everest muttered halfheartedly.

"What are you, British?"

"Maybe I am," Everest shot back at Jace.

"Welcome to the Seelie Glade, Clary Fairchild. The remotest edges of it." Meliorn smirked at the wondrous look on the older girl's face. "I'd say welcome, Everest, but I believe you've already been here before."

Jace gave her an incredulous look. "What is he talking about?"

Everest smiled sheepishly at her sister when she too gave her an incredulous look. "So my friend Gino is a Seelie and we and Roslyn hang out in the clearing just outside the Seelie Glade. Sometimes Gino will bring us past the tree line and we'll explore." She held her hands up in surrender when Clary raised her eyebrows. "Hey! In my defense I didn't know I was running around the Seelie Glade!"

Jace facepalmed.

"How did we get here?" Clary asked Meliorn, who had been watching the interaction with an amused smirk.

"There are entrances all through the mundane world," Jace answered.

"You just have to know where to look," the Seelie added.

"Why did we have to come here to find our father?" Clary asked. Everest blinked. She had forgotten that's what they were doing. She blamed her lack of meds.

"Because of your necklace. It's a Portal shard." Meliorn spoke as if he were in a nature documentary.

"You're talking like you're on a documentary," she told the man. Jace facepalmed again and Clary sighed. Meliorn smirked again.

"Tell us something we don't know," Jace muttered, referring to what Meliorn had said.

"How does it work again?" Everest asked. "The necklace Portal thing, I mean."

"When I touch the crystal and I think of someone, I can see where they are."

"I'm curious, Shadowhunter, who knows so much about Portals, did you ever wonder why this Portal shard doesn't behave the way normal Portals do?" Meliorn's words were mocking Clary. Jace snorted and shook his head in disbelief.

"Translation please?" Everest asked the boy.

"Normal Portals can only take you places you've been. I guess I never really thought about it," Jace explained.

"I see Isabelle is the smart one in the family." Clary and Everest laughed. "Your Portal shard works the way it does because it's a piece of a Portal from another dimension."