Scarred

35.In Favour Of Your Opponent

Third person

Her whip got more tired than she ever did. With ever hit the electrum made a clank against the adamas of Jace's blade. Izzy, keen on winning the fight against her brother, hit mercilessly and occasionally made contact with Jace's skin. Jace, even though he had grown up with it and did it all his life, hated the repetitive task of endlessly practising what they were already good at - to him it was wasted energy but he never said a word about it.

The blade was strong and jagged, each of the knives Clary threw at the board were. She seemed tense, even vexed even though each throw hit perfect every time. Jace missed the way her face split into a grin when she would win or do something perfectly (which was most of the time if not all). A part of him wanted to do a flip to where she was standing and just stop what they were doing but the other part of him that had just recieved a hard blow from Izzy's whip was keen to beat her in this round too. Just as the snake whip retracted, Jace aimed his blade towards Izzy's neck meanwhile his other hand twisted her arm just so she would not be able to move.

"That's four out of five times I have beaten you." Jace's voice echoed before he went to take a drink.

"I could have won the last round while you were busy staring at Clary but I am nice and thought it would be an unfair advantage." Izzy replied with smugness.

Jace watched another six inches of cold steel being thrust at the wooden board, nailing the bullseye. She turned her gaze to them, who were staring already but Clary seemed void of any pride. "Anyone up for sparring with me?"

"I am," Alec said after placing down his bow and arrow.

"Hand to hand first and then with weapon? Or how would you like it?"

"Let it be hand to hand first." He responded already acting defensively.

************************************
Alec drew an iratze over his cuts and wounds that were caused by Clary. He did win once but the other times he ultimately failed at beating her because as they knew already she was a highly skilled shadowhunter.

"Do you need anything else?" Clary asked Alec worriedly.

"No you're all good."

"Oh my biscuit, what have you done to my gorgeous boyfriend?" Magnus questioned walking into the training room along with Simon.

"I'm sorry Mags for beating up your boyfriend a few times." Clary smiled innocently.

"We thought you guys were still in the courtyard practising with magic and vampire speed and whatever else you were doing." Izzy said walking over to Simon and giving him a kiss on the cheeks, while Magnus went to embrace Alec.

"We were but we decided to come up here, " Simon responded. His eyes wondered around the room and then he noticed the punching bag had fallen to the ground - punctured and all of it's insides spilling out. "Who did this to the poor punching bag?"

"A mixture of me and Jace." Izzy replied with a guilty laugh.

"I have a question, Clary are you sure you don't want to involve any other downworlders because it's just a matter of minutes and they can help win the war?" Magnus asked.

"I don't want to bring any more downworlders other than the ones that live here because it's not their war and as nephilims we are obliged to protect them because they could be an easy target for Jonathan.

"That's noble of you Fairchild but we live in the same territories so it should be everyone's war." Alec reminded them of the facts.

"It will be enough of a blood shed already, I don't want anymore lives in danger."

"That is in fact true. Let's take a short break: go for a walk just the six of us and calm a bit since training for 4 hours straight is exhausting." Izzy suggested and they all nodded in agreement.

************************************
The sky was like a blue duvet, held the shining sun in place - it seemed like Idris was permanently blue. It was in contrast to the ever so green silky grass.

"It is true what they say about Idris: there's no other place like it. It's an artists dream to have such a scene painted across the canvas." Izzy laughed with ecstasy, kicking off her heels so she could twirl around endlessly.

"You're going to get dizzy."

"Stop being such a buzz kill Alec!" Izzy ordered still spinning until she fell to the ground somehow still graciously.

"Izzy is right, " Clary began to say which received a glare from Magnus. "Not about you being a buzz kill Alec, but about how Idris is enchanting wherever you turn to look. Tomorrow we could lose this land - it could be in ruins but knowing this was our home was ultimately the best dream to ever have.

"Don't say that. This country has lasted through countless wars and like it, so shall we. Six go in and six will come out." Jace said with all of the certainty.

"I will toast to that." Magnus replied with his blue flame, summoning a bottle of expensive looking wine along with six glasses.

"Magnus will you do us the honours of pouring the drink?" Izzy stood up asking. Mirth from the cheers was heard and the clank of the glasses. They spent their whole afternoon looking around at their country's beauty maybe for the last time.