Chapter 9

**Clary**


*The wind was whispering passed me, lifting my thick straight white blonde hair off from my back and letting it fall back gently again. I took in a deep breath, feeling the fresh air bless my lungs. The air was a little humid and chilly today, but not unpleasant.*

*I looked out at the rolling hills in front of me, not too far off in the cluster of trees I felt the familiar barrier surrounding the Order in the distance. I smiled to myself as I looked at where I will soon see the Castle. The Order… Home. *

*“You coming Demon Spawn?!” I heard someone yell from the bottom of the hill.*

*I looked down feeling exasperated. Stupid Noch couldn’t keep his pants on for a minute or two? “Hold on to your bloomers you old crone! No one needs to see them dragging behind you!” I yelled back stepping down the steep decline. My leather pants clung to my legs, which made it much easier to move than a dress and my sturdy boots caught on the grass giving me traction even though the grass was so slippery.*

*“I’m not a crone you wretched hag. Now let’s be on our way and I can be back in my much needed bed before the sun sets.” He retorted, starting to walk on again towards the castle.*

*“You are a crone, no, actually you are older than a crone you’re a mummy. Let’s get back so I can stuff you back into your coffin.” I retaliated as I fell into a marching step next to him.*

*He gave me a withering look and I smiled sweetly back at him. “All you want is me dead and in a coffin.”*

*I pretended to think this over for a little bit, then started nodding my head vigorously. “Yep, dead as a doornail. Dead as a rat in the rafters. Dead as a fish on land. Dead as –“ I broke off and ducked as a staff came swinging over my head.*

*“Keep this up child and you would wish that you were the one that was dead!” Noch fumed playfully with a grin across his face.*

*I grinded back at him. “You’ll have to catch me first!” I yelled out and started sprinting. I heard Noch curse and then pick up his pace with a chuckle.*

*I started laughing and ran faster. “You wretched Spawn! Come here so I can whack some manners into you!” He yelled from behind me. I knew he was kidding, he wouldn’t really hurt me without any good reason, the only time I got hurt with him was during our sparring matches.*

*I twisted half way around but never once slowed my pace. “Think of it like this, now you can get to your coffin faster!” *

*He spewed a few more choice insults as he ran to catch up with me, obviously just as eager to see everyone again after a bounty as I was. I couldn’t wait to see Nana Ara again, to see Nelia again and help her out with the new greenhouse. I couldn’t wait to hug Fog again, and strangely enough, to see Thyrion again as well.*

*I laughed with the utter joy of almost being home as I sprinted out in front of Noch. The day couldn’t be more perfect…*


I woke up slowly as I heard movement in the house, the dream was still front and center in my mind, in my eyes, the laughter caught halfway in my throat. It took me a second of wondering where the hills and the castle were before I registered my room around me.

I heard movement through the house again once my muddled mind caught up with reality. It looked like mom was back, as the sounds were coming from the kitchen. The smell wafting up through my door had my stomach rumbling and my mouth watering. She was outdoing herself tonight.

I rolled out of bed and yawned as I started descending the stairs and froze mid stride at the kitchen entrance as I looked at who was in front of the stove. My first reaction was to laugh myself silly, and my second and most urgent reaction was to take him by the elbow and hide him in a closet or something. What if my family saw him?!

“Hezeriel!!!” I whisper hissed and quickly scurried over to his side.

“Oh, my Lady! Looks like you are awake!” he said, smiling ever so sweetly like nothing at all was amiss.

“What on earth are you doing in the kitchen?!” I looked over at the clock on the wall. “At eleven at night!” I froze. “And, is that an apron?”

“I supposed that you would be hungry when you woke, your mother made stew. So bland, stew of all things. Noch’s stew I would consider, but that monstrosity was not worthy of your tongue.”

I gaped at Hezerial as he flipped the pan making sizzling sounds and the SMELL!

Okay back on track. “Hezerial! What if my mother saw you?! Or my brother?!”

He looked at me with a puzzled expression, like he didn’t think that they mattered that much. “There is no need to worry about the mortals, my Lady. They will not be waking up till the sun rises. I put them into a deep sleep so we can speak as much as you wish as you eat something better than that stew.”

I had to admit, I was a little offended. I loved my mom’s stew!

Buuut, I did want to talk to him some more. Aaand, what he was making smelled like food from the heavens. No pun intended. I wavered between protecting my mom’s cooking and sitting down to eat whatever it was that Hezerial was making.

Almost without my noticing, my traitorous feet inched me closer to the bar stool and mini kitchen table. My but was officially planted.

Hezerial smiled and nodded as he continued. He looked so out of place and yet so natural in the kitchen. How was it that I actually had the opportunity to see an angelic in an apron? This was just so weird.

“Hezerial, is cooking for your ward mandatory for guardians, or are you just doing this to be nice?” I asked with a raised eyebrow.

He looked at me with a baffled expression. “The sole role of a guardian is to protect, my Lady.” He shrugged. “Admittedly I do more than any other Guardian would be willing to do for their charges. I do this because I want to, and I enjoy the human process of cooking. You have been sorely missed my Lady, by more than just me alone.” He said giving me a look that told me just how much truth there was in those words.

It made my throat tighten for some reason, I knew him and yet he was a familiar stranger. They all were, everyone from my dreams, everyone whose names I have in my head, yet whom I haven’t met yet. It seemed unfair to have been so loved, only to be lost to them and them lost to me.

“I had another dream.” I said softly, looking down at my hands on the table. My fingers were tracing idle patterns on the table top.

I heard Hezerial’s motions slow, his curious attention turning towards me. He didn’t say anything, but just stayed quiet until I spoke again.

“It was somewhere beautiful. There were so many trees, so many hills and it was so vividly green.” I breathed in a deep breath, hoping to catch the scent of the fresh air again. “I was walking with the guy we talked about before I slept, I think. Nochtandriel… we were walking back to… the Order, I think it was called?” I looked up at Hezerial. He nodded, confirming the name for me.

I smiled and thought back to the dream again. “We were flinging insults at each other. I would never dream of joking like that with anyone here. They would think that I’m a nut job.”

Hezerial smirked. “That’s one of the problems with some mortals, they do not really catch a witch’s humor.”

I chortled. “No kidding.” It felt like another hole was filling up inside my chest. I looked back down at my hands. “When I woke up, I was a little disoriented. Wondering where it all was, the trees, the grass, the castle…” looking back up, I frowned. “I don’t know if this means anything, but my dreams have been getting more and more vivid and I’m starting to have them almost every night.”

Hezerial gave me that worried look again. “By the way Thyrion acted the last time we spoke of this, this might mean that we have less time than we might have thought in the beginning.”

I started to feel real worry creep up my spine, and thought of my mother and brothers. “They’ll miss me when I’m gone.” I mused to myself.

Hezerial didn’t take his eyes off me as he stirred what was in the pan. “You always did have a soft spot for mortals that are close to you. They will be fine my Lady. Your mortal mother has two other children, and the rest of their family. They will be happy again.” He said as he pulled out a plate and started dishing up. He made it sound like he wanted to add something, but also didn’t want to push.

He laid the plate down in front of me with a knife and fork as well as a napkin, he also put down a glass and started pouring wine before I could protest. I lifted my hands as the glass got quarter way full. Hezerial looked at me quizzically.

“I don’t drink wine.” I said in way of an explanation.

Hezerial’s eyes nearly popped out of his skull in disbelief like it was the most unbelievable thing he has ever heard in all the years he had lived. “SINCE WHEN?!” He blurted out unexpectedly.

I gave him a perplexed frown. “Since… I was born? I don’t drink alcohol, period.”

I could swear he nearly flailed onto the floor like I had hit him over the head with a sledgehammer. I just sat there blinking at his silent yet theatrical reactions. Before I knew it he had his hands on his hips and was pacing furiously back and forth.

Then he stopped and clicked his fingers like something just made sense. “In this lifetime your mother is very rigorous in her beliefs right?” I nodded my head.

He relaxed and smiled, and started laughing at himself. “So in this lifetime you have not had any sip of alcohol yet, am I right?”

I nodded again. Still not quite following him, then I stopped and stared at him. “Please don’t tell me I was an alcoholic…” I dreaded his reply.

He barked out a laugh and failed terribly to cover it up. “Alcoholic?! You were renowned for your love of wine and mead!!! Never would there be a day that you went without emptying at least a few bottles at a time! And at parties! Anyone daring to take a barrel away from you would have their hands severed!”

For absolutely no reason whatsoever my face heated up in embarrassment. “B-but,” I eyed the wine sitting on the table. He had to have gone out to get it since there was not a lick of alcohol to be found in this house. And I knew that for a fact.

“You do not have to drink it if you do not wish to my Lady.” He said laughing.

Funny thing was I felt more embarrassed for not drinking the wine that was so red and so enticing in front of me. I have never had a sip of alcohol, but yet I knew that the wine would have a sweet yet slightly bitter taste to it. It would burn a light path down my throat into my stomach. The tangy aftertaste would sit in the back of my throat and its sweetness would stay on my tongue.

What could be the harm? I asked myself and took a hold of the glass. Somehow it felt scarily right in my hand. I looked up and saw Hezerial smile, not pushing me to drink it or trying to take it away from me. It was absolutely my choice.

I smelled the fragrant scent even though it wasn’t underneath my nose yet. I brought the glass to my lips and took the smallest sip of the wine. It was wet, it was sharp, it was warm, it was... SO GOOD! Before I knew it I took a bigger sip and then a gulp like my body had been starved of something it had been refused for years. I stopped when nothing else dripped into my mouth. The glass was completely upturned and only small drops were crawling their way to my lips. My eyes came back down to Hezerial. He was smiling like he was in on a secret. He lifted the bottle of wine in his hand as his other hand settled on his hip. I couldn’t help but smile back. I put the glass back on the table and pushed it to him, wanting to have a full glass this time.

“That’s the Lady that I know so well.” He grinned and filled up my glass as I started chowing down on the glorious food he had made.

“I can see why I like it so much.” I said around a mouth full of stir fry peppers and chicken strips.

He laughed fully. “I doubt there will ever be a lifetime where you do not love wine.”

I smiled at the humor and soon finished the bottle of wine and the food on my plate. I was stuffed. “Now that, was good!” I said as Hezerial stood over the sink washing my plate and the glass.

I looked at where he had put the empty bottle. I wasn’t much of an alcoholic know it all but shouldn’t I be stinking drunk right about now? Or at least a little tipsy? My liver is super clean and this was my first bottle of wine I’ve ever had. Well in this lifetime, I would guess.

“Hezerial? Shouldn’t I be drunk right now?” I asked incredulously

He chuckled and looked back at me as he put the plate and glass on the rack to dry. “No my Lady, not necessarily. I was wondering the same thing because of your present body, but it seems like all is as it should be. Witches naturally have a better resistance against alcohol because of their energies.”

“You mean their ‘power’ or ‘energy’ burns away most of the effects of alcohol?” I asked tentatively.

He just smiled. “Indeed. And at the Order there are very few reasons not to celebrate. I’m sure that once you return they would be throwing the biggest celebration that the halls of the Order had ever seen. And that is when the barrels come out.”

My eyes opened wide in disbelief at the picture the use of the plural painted in my head. “Barrels?!”

He chuckled again. “Yes, barrels and barrels and barrels of wine. And not just any wine. If a mortal were to drink one glass of that wine they might lose their sense of taste on top of being so drunk they wouldn’t be able to stand up, let alone crawl.”

I was looking at Hezerial like that was the most ridiculous thing I had ever heard in my life. Could a wine like that actually exist?!

He saw me looking at him like that and quickly explained. “The wine at the Order is made by witches, my Lady. They infuse energy into it, and sometimes a few choice ingredients.” He murmured the last bit.

“That… sounds… interesting…” I said, completely mind blown by the possibility of a wine that potent.

He smiled softly. “At the Order you always refused to drink mortal wine, the wine at the Order was always your favorite. You said that other than the obvious added kick it had much more depth in flavor.”

I nodded, thinking that that sounded right. That it should have more flavor and more potency even though I had not tasted it yet. “Well then, I imagine that it would be absurdly interesting when I get back there, won’t it?”

Only after I’d said it did I notice that I had said ‘when’ and not ‘if’. Strangely enough, I didn’t feel sorry for what I said, I didn’t feel like I regretted it. In fact, I felt excited, like I couldn’t wait to get back to The Order, be it real or not.

And Hezerial also seemed to have noticed it. He gave a brilliant smile. “Yes my Lady. Interesting is certainly one way to see it.”