"Mark," a voice called.

"Yes?" He was in a small room that mainly consisted of a couch, a small desk, and big windows with long, sweeping curtains. One bizarre feature was that one of the curtain rods seemed to missing; other than that, the area was very bland.

Then again, since he had returned from Faerie, most everything had seemed bland.

He turned, and gave his sister Helen his full attention. "What is it?"

She pointed over to his 13-year-old sister Drusilla. "Can you go spend some time with Dru? I think she deserves some attention. There's been a lot to process, and she'll probably be a bit overwhelmed."

Mark was surprised. His family had not seen Helen in years, and yet she had naturally taken charge. He slightly envied her for being so good with young children.

"Of course," he said, formally.

"Alec, Aline and I are going to pick the kids up from Maryse's care and bring them back here. I will need to ask you to take charge until we return."

"Of course," he said again, and walked over to join Dru. The room was in various states of distress. Kit was helping Ty, both of them huddled against the wall and talking in low tones. Mark saw that the tension weighing down Ty's features had lessened, considerably. Good.

He walked over to his sister, Drusilla. He still liked calling his siblings by their full names; it was more familiar as the laws of Faerie.

He shuddered, almost reflexively, at thoughts of Faerie. He didn't like to think about the land of the Fae, not after his recent encounter with the Lord of Shadows himself. He remained unsure of what to make from the visit- and right now it wasn't exactly high on his list of priorities.

He shoved all of those thoughts out of his mind and focused on helping his sister, Drusilla.

"Dru?" He said her name softly, almost timidly. No. That wouldn't do. He needed to be strong.

"Dru, are you okay?" He spoke louder this time, and with a strength that said that he could be trusted in.

She looked up from the fleck of dirt on the floor that she had been staring at since he had come in. "Y-yes?" She replied, with a small sniffle, sounding unsure.

Mark knelt beside her, positioning himself so that his body was faced towards the side of hers.

"I figured you'd want company, after everything that's happened. Everyone seems to have their own little support group, Tiberius having Kit, Helen having Aline, Tavvy..." Well, he would worry about his seven-year-old brother later, along with the rest of his many problems.

She looked surprised that somebody had thought of her, and the fact that the surprise was there tugged at Mark's heart. He knew that Julian had done his absolute best, and raised the four children better than anyone could ever have expected... but every parent made mistakes, and here was one of them.

"Yeah, I guess. Thank you." She remained studying him, gauging how he would react.

"Well..." he couldn't help but shift uncomfortably. "Um... could you tell me exactly what happened in the Council Chamber? I wasn't there, and nobody has had enough time to tell me yet, with- with everything."

"I know how that feels," Dru whispered softly. "Okay. I'll tell you."

***

"So, the trial with Annabel seemed to be going... okay. She was nervous, but with Julian in her vision, she was fine."

Mark waited for her to continue.

"But... then the crowd started shouting at her. They yelled at her, and called us all liars."

"All of the Blackthorns?"

"Yes. They said that she should be tried by the sword, and... Jia gave in."

Mark inhaled sharply. Annabel was deathly afraid of the sword, having had it used on her two hundred years before for torturous methods. Jia had known as well, and should never have caved to the audience. She was, after all, the Consul. She bowed to no one.

"Julian tried to make them stop. He tried so hard. But... they wouldn't listen.

"She held up. You could tell that it hurt her, and you could tell that she was scared, so scared. But she kept going, and kept answering the questions. I was hoping that it would end quickly, and she would be able to calm down."

It was horrifying. Mark only hoped that his younger siblings wouldn't plunge into a terrible depression, if they hadn't already.

Dru continued to tell the story of fifteen minutes ago in horrifying detail. By now, Cristina had come to crouch behind him, but neither Mark nor Dru noticed.

"It was almost over... and then..."

"Go on," Cristina said gently, and Dru started when she saw her over Mark's shoulder, but drew comfort from another presence, and continued nonetheless.

"Zara kept yelling, and calling Annabel a monster. And... she couldn't take it anymore. She asked for Julian, but they didn't allow him to go to the stage and help her. Why? Why couldn't they just have let him..."

Her voice faded off again, and this time she took several moments before continuing, during which Cristina came to kneel beside Mark and silently took his hand. He squeezed her hand to communicate his gratefulness that she was there.

"And then something in her eyes, you could see it break. No, not break... they were shattered. And when the Inquisitor Lightwood asked her another question, she turned on him."

Cristina's gaze turned sorrowful, but remained contemplating; ever the warrior her mother had trained her to be, unfazed by the tragedy around her.

Mark had a feeling that the world could burn, with all of humanity and shadowhunters dead, and she would still be looking off into the distance, with that same calculating look in her eyes.

"He's dead." Dru's voice snapped him back to reality. "Alec went to help him, but it was too late. Then Julian went up and tried to tell Annabel to stop, but she was already broken. Emma and Annabel started fighting..."

Dru swallowed. Mark had a feeling that what was coming next was not anything he wanted to hear, but he let her continue anyways.

When she spoke again, her words were rushed. "And then... and then Jules went up to help. And Livvy went and gave him her sabre." She let out a strangled sob.

From the corner of his eye, Mark saw Julian and Emma enter the room, looking grief stricken. Jules looked, for all the world, as if he wished he were dead.

"And Annabel reached past Julian, and stabbed Livia. And then we left," Dru finished quietly, and finally allowed herself to break down in Mark's arms.

A/N: thanks so much to everyone reading! I'm not sure if I mentioned his before, but this happens AFTER Lord of Shadows, not Lady Midnight, so if you've only read Lady Midnight then aw man I am so so so sorry.
Please comment and let me know your opinions, your reactions when you read Lord of Shadows! (I'm not gonna lie, I was glad.) I am a HARDCORE Kit and Ty shipper, so when Livvy kissed Kit I was kinda like well she deserved to die.

But yeah, feel free to comment I'll comment back and we can have a discussion.