What A Cliche!

Prologue

C L A R Y ' S P O I N T O F V I E W

"Do you understand your mission, Clarissa?"

Is what my father, Valentine said to me as I sat across from him, a large oak wood desk in between us. We sat in his dimly lit office at The Circle's secret headquarters in Shanghai, Asia. The main source of light that was gracing this room were the faint glow of stars peering through the large window and the full moon beaming into our presence. Hanging above my fathers head hung a self portrait of my dead mother, Jocelyn Fairchild and my father's one true love. I might mention that I was the one who painted the picture at fathers request. Scattered across his desk were papers, pens, files, all sorts of things. Against the wall stood a giant wooden book shelf that was just completely filled to the brim with books that seemed to be ancient, new, magical, mundane, some of them were grimoires, one of them was The Odyssey. Whatever kind of genre of book you could think of, I bet it was there.

I sat about a metre away from my father in a deceivingly comfortable velvet looking chair as I conversed with my father, my master.

"I do, father"

I told him, reassuring his often paranoid mindset. I kept my face a special slate of stone, ensuring I show him zero emotion whatsoever, even while I was staring at a picture of my now dead mother.

"Explain your task to me so that I know you are ready"

I looked at him, nodding to show him I understood what he was asking of me. I simply took a deep breathe and started...

"You want me to infiltrate the New York institute, posing as one Clary Fray. Miss Fray lost her entire family in The Circle Uprising, little does anybody know there... My family is the uprising.
Once I am settled into the institute, you need for me to befriend a boy there. He goes by the name Jace Herondale. I must be nice to him, show him kindness, try to get as close as I can and then find out everything I can about him and what he knows about what you did. Once thats done? I simply kill him. See? All remembered, easy peasy!"

I plastered a smile onto my face and then watched as my father just stood up from his chair. He walked slowly and briskly around his desk and over to where I was sitting.

"You will report back to me everything you find out, every Sunday night"

I fell confused as to what my father was saying so I spoke up...

"Every Sunday night? I figured I would only be there for about a week at most"

My father simply looked at me with beguiling eyes and said...

"You assumed falsely my dear. You see? You are to stay at the Institute of New York for a minimum of a year"

"A year? What the hell. Why doesn't somebody else go? I dont want to be gone for an entire year! Are you out of your mind"

I said to my father, not noticing the rising tone of anger in my voice as I stood up from my chair and looked at him...

"Now now Clarissa. You be careful how you talk to me, you see, Im not one of your little subjects who you can boss around and talk to however you want. I am Valentine Morgenstern, Leader of the Circle but I am also your father, your master and you will make sure to watch your tone around me. Understood?"

I took a deep breathe, closed my eyes and found my inner tranquility, something I had practiced having to do, for as long as I can remember. Having been injected by my fathers hand with angel and demon blood, I am extremely powerful but also terrifyingly dangerous and tend to get angry very quickly. My father may be the leader of the Circle, however I am in every way possible, his ultimate superior, and he knows this too. For that reason he has put me in charge of pretty much everything 'Circle' wise. By this, I mean that he allows me to train all of the followers, he lets me sanction missions, he lets me go out into the field, he basically has made me the Circle's poster child. He does this so that I dont get bored and mad, because him and everybody that is aware of my existence knows that I am able to kill them with the blink of an eye. I still make sure to respect him as every daughter should respect their father.