𝕤𝕖𝕒𝕤𝕠𝕟: 𝕥𝕨𝕠
𝕖𝕡𝕚𝕤𝕠𝕕𝕖: 𝕤𝕚𝕩𝕥𝕖𝕖𝕟 - 𝕤𝕖𝕧𝕖𝕟𝕥𝕖𝕖𝕟

ʙʀʏɴɴᴇ [ʙ-ʀ-ɪʜ-ɴ] / ʀʏɴ [ᴘʀᴏɴᴏᴜɴᴄᴇᴅ: ʀ-ɪʜ-ɴ ᴏʀ ʀᴇɪɢɴ]

With Valentine free, the Downworld Cabinet has been holding secluded meetings at the Seelie Court. Things being so secure and secluded Brynne opted to follow along with Magnus, after all, if the Queen can have her soldiers around why couldn't another Downworlder join.

In having joined Magnus Brynne missed out on going to the Lewis household for Yom Kippur, and the Daylighter allowed Maia to go with him who introduced herself to his family as his girlfriend.

Then there was Clary and Jace going on an adventure where Clary had created a portal to Lake Lynn. Luckily Izzy was able to get to Jace and Clary before Clare lost her mind from drinking the water of Lake Lynn. The three shadowhunters weren't able to find Valentine but they were able to find some of his journals in a cabin Jace recognized. The journals were able to give Clary the knowledge that her brother, her real brother Jonathan, was still alive.

Having a standing date with Alec, made Brynne spend overtly a long time waiting for him to show up and after a certain hour passing, she makes her way to the Institute. Alec's office door was wide open, and he sat at his desk looking down at some documents saved on a tablet. He has the cutest focusing face making her smile and asks, "Lost track of time?"

Alec looks up from his desk and sits back on the chair while Brynne walked over to his side of the desk making him sigh at the time, "I missed dinner, didn't I?"

"Just by a few hours," Brynne shrugs her shoulders sitting on the desk while Alec stands up

"I'm, I'm so sorry, really," Alec apologizes going to plant a quick kiss on Brynne's lips "It's just... it's been so crazy here..."

"Mon ange..." Brynne interrupts him with a kiss "I get it"

"I-i can't believe I forgot," Alec sighs mentally scolding himself

"It's okay Alec. Especially when..." Brynne trails off turning her body to face the rest of his office and snaps her fingers making a table with food appear at the center "We can eat anywhere we want"

Brynne stands up from sitting on the edge of the desk and takes hold of Alec's hand making him follow her to the table where two glasses of beer were waiting for them. Brynne lets go of Alec's hand so they can pick up their glasses making Brynne raise hers slightly higher in the air, "Lets toast to a successful Downworld meeting"

"Hmm," Alec hums taking a sip of the beer - one that she'd made sure he liked as she had a mental list of which type of alcohol he did and didn't like - in his hand before asking "It went well?"

"Relatively," Brynne shrugs walking over to the table to sit "The Seelie Queen went on and on about the Clave being nothing but a bunch of liars, made me want to disappear"

"That's harsh," Alec chimes in looking down at the food spread on the table which Brynne was more familiar with meaning she had kept her promise in making Alec try something new as all the food was fried but none looked the same

"Don't worry there was this really great trio" Brynne suggestively says making sure there was no room for error when interpreting that she was a part of that trio "who assured everyone that now you are the Head of this Institute and implementing a policy of complete transparency, so change is on its way"

Brynne noticing Alec's confused look while viewing the food makes her pick up her fork and pick up a buffalo cauliflower bite just as Alec says, "That's good to hear"

Brynne extends her hand for Alec to take her fork, he raises his eyebrows making her nod her head with a smile, "Blessed be the head of this institute"

◇─◇──◇─────◇──◇─◇

When at one of the Downworld Cabinet meetings Brynne had realized her katana wasn't as sharp as it should be. So after her date with Alec, she returned to her apartment for her two favorite single-edged swords and then went to Magnus'. Because of her magical outburst, Brynne had to get rid of lots of things but one she had yet to replace was her sword sharpening tools.

Per Magnus' request to not make a mess Brynne sat on the balcony when the doors quickly open and close catching the warlock's attention. Stopping her actions Brynne places her sword back in its case and walks into the living room where Magnus faced Luke who had his back to Brynne

"So you're telling me your sister's still alive?" Magnus asks the alpha catching Brynne's attention and curiosity, "I don't understand what this has to do with the Downworld"

Brynne coughs making Luke turn to the raven-haired girl and acknowledges her, "Brynne"

"Luke, what's going on?" Brynne questions knowing when his sister would appear nothing good ever came from it

"Cleophas sent me this fire message," Luke states holding up a piece of folded parchment and in breaking the news he looks at the warlock who was in charge of all warlock's safety, "It appears that Valentine is holding her captive. Magnus, she said he still has the Soul-Sword"

"That's impossible," Brynne stresses both warlocks being taken back by the news

"Look, I thought the same thing," Luke states making Brynne take the fire message out of Magnus' hold "but the Clave lied"

Reading the words Cleopus had sent Luke made everything real, they weren't safe. Brynne turns ready to leave the apartment, "I have to tell Alec"

"Wait," Luke stops Brynne by taking a hold of her arm, "Alec is Head of the Institute. He might already know"

"No, no i-I just saw him" Brynne shakes her head looking at Luke and then Magnus who both believed the theory that Alec lied making her doubt herself, "H-he would've told me, he would never keep something this important from me"

Doubt filling her every thought Brynne didn't immediately head over to the institute, she stopped at her apartment. The one thing she picked up before portaling outside the institute was her oldest katana, it was the one thing in her whole living room that didn't move or break from the wall after her emotional outbreak.

◇─◇──◇─────◇──◇─◇

Alec sat in his office with the door open but rather than sitting at his desk looking at documents he sat on a chair near the center of the room. Brynne soaked up the few seconds, just looking at him leaning his head against his hand concentrating so hard on the words before him. With those seconds of peace coming to an end Brynne knocks on the wooden panel catching Alec's attention.

Alec smiles at the sight of Brynne but quickly feels guilty thinking he forgot another one of their dates by losing track of time, "Please don't say you've been waiting for me all this time."

"No mon ange," Brynne shakes her head still standing at the room entrance "I just- I wanted to see you"

"Is everything okay?" Alec asks noticing the sword Brynne wore on her back, the sword he had examined after learning the emotional value of it

"I- I'm not so sure," Brynne replies looking down at the carpet taking a step into the room and towards the man she loves

"What's going on?" Alec asks taking hold of the tablet on his lap and leaning in suddenly worried

"You tell me, Alec," Brynne saying his first name meant business and he knew that "From day one I could count on your honesty... absolute, total honesty"

Alec places the tablet on the coffee table knowing what she was hinting at before standing up and saying, "I can explain"

Brynne shakes her head letting out a soft scoff, "That you knew about the Sword?"

"I just found out, I swear," Alec explains but it wasn't enough to get rid of Brynne's doubt because they were engulfing her all at once

"Swear it on this," Brynne says unstrapping the katana from her back and extending out for Alec to take

"Is that...?"

"My family heirloom? The one thing I still have that is a reminder of my family's love?" Brynne rhetorically asks her eyes watering up being able to see the hesitation written all over his face, "Yeah, so swear that you did not know about the Sword when I talked about trust tonight"

"I can't," Alec states not being able to look Brynne in the eyes

"Okay," Brynne whispers staring down at the table as a tear falls down her cheek but she doesn't bother to wipe it away

"Look, I was worried that if the Downworld found out, there'd be widespread panic. It could've led to a rebellion," Alec explains trying to get Brynne to look at him and when she does he can see how truly he hurt her

With each blink, Alec's face started to get clear meaning more tears fell down her face, "Did you not think I could keep this secret? That you couldn't trust me?"

"I didn't say that." Alec states still needing to explain himself and defend his actions "I didn't wanna ask you to have to keep a secret from your own people. That wouldn't be fair to you"

"God, you're just like the Clave! Making promises you never intend to keep. Transparency?" Brynne laughs cleaning her fallen tears with the sleeve of her long-sleeved shirt before bitterly stating "What a joke"

"Ryn... Brynne, let's not make this personal," Alec tries to defuse the situation not wanting to fight with her

"How can I not make it personal?!" Brynne shouts making Alec raise a finger over his lips signaling for her to be quiet as the door was still open and people outside could hear but Brynne didn't care, "Valentine wants me dead! He wants all of us dead!"

"I know," Alec mutters but none of his words were enough

Brynne feeling betrayed keeps speaking, "And after telling you things I've kept close to my heart and soul. Things I'd never spoken to with anyone, y-you just looked me in my eyes and lied"

"Brynne, I didn't..." Alec whispers trying to come up with something to make the tears stop falling down her pale complexion and when he tries to wipe them away with his fingers she takes a step away from him

"Don't!" Brynne strongly states needing space to breathe making her hold her sword handle tightly before turning around "Just don't"

"Brynne!" Alec shouts but doesn't go after her

◇─◇──◇─────◇──◇─◇

Luke and Magnus were relatively still in the same place Brynne had seen when she stormed out of Magnus' apartment. Only storming back into the room she was more

"Brynne, calm down" Luke tries to relax the warlock that was pacing the living room while Magnus was making her a drink

"Calm down?" Brynne shouts throwing her katana on Magnus' sofa that she paced "The person I'm in love with lied to me about the one thing that can still kill me being out there in the world probably in the hands of the man that wants us all dead. I mean... was he ever going to tell me?"

Luke believing Brynne was actually looking for an answer to her question says, "I don't know. Look, he didn't tell you–"

"I trusted him, Luke!" Brynne exclaims her hurt being replaced with anger not wanting to hear advice but rather just wanting to vent, "More than anyone alive, and now this happens?"

Magnus places down the drinks he was making and slowly makes his way over to Brynne as if she was a wild animal. In a way, Brynne's orange aura spreading out without her control was something he had experience with. So he quickly goes to wrap his arms behind Brynne making her squirm to get out of his hold but Magnus only continues his hold on her

"You have to settle down," Magnus whispers in Brynne's ear while Luke keeps his distance

"Okay," Brynne mumbles taking a deep breath and it wasn't a few seconds until Magnus let go of her at the sight of the orange whisps no longer leaving her body

While Brynne slowly walks over to the closest seat Luke speaks up, "Alec is trying. Trust me, he's on our side. He would never do anything to hurt you"

"If that's true then why am I hurting?" Brynne whispers not once blinking as she stares at the carpet before her and in blinking decides to change to the topic at hand away from her relationship, "The uh Seelie Queen was right. We can't trust the Clave, once again they deceived us. Only now, Valentine is free and Sword's missing, and the survival of the entire Downworld's at stake. She needs to be informed"

"I don't trust her. I never have," Luke states not liking that the conversation moved towards someone that has none of his trust

"Any sane person wouldn't trust her," Brynne replies looking over at Magnus this being her sign that she was all in "but she's the most powerful person in the Downworld. If we wanna stop Valentine, we're going to need the Queen's help"

With a nod of his head, Magnus states, "I'll going to arrange a trip to the Court"

A/N: sad but I think the next chapter which will contain 'flashbacks' will be even more sad

Edit: since i havent written the next chapter, any type of memory yall wanna see or something you wanna see explored?