Clary would have been bored out of her mind if it wasn't for Simon. They were currently Connect Four on their phones. Before that, they had played Dots and Boxes. And before that Battleship. That's how long this meeting had gone for. 

They had almost gotten caught a few times too. 

Clary knew this was an extremely important meeting. But the way Robert Lightwood was saying the information made her want to kill herself. Thank the Angel for Simon.

Just as Clary was about to kick Simon's butt, her and Jace, as the leaders of the New York Institute, were called to speak. Clary let him take the lead because she had no idea what was going on. 

"Okay," Jace started. "As you all know, The Dark War has greatly decreased the number of Shadowhunters. We already have our Recruiters on double time." At this, Simon nodded. Isabelle huffed, very clearly annoyed. 

"But right now we are at a dangerously low number," Jace continued. Pointedly ignoring his adoptive sister.

Clary looked over the people sitting around the table. There was the usual crowd. Alec, Magnus, Iz, Simon, her and Jace. Robert and Maryse. But Helen and Aline had also come all the way from the L.A Institute to be here. Tessa and Jem were also there. 

And because Jem was there, Lily Chen, leader of the vampire clan of New York, was also there. No one had told her about this meeting, or even that Jem was coming to New York, but Lily was at the Institute anyway. 

"Soooo," Clary said. "Anyone have any ideas on how to get more Shadowhunters without going the whole Valentine route." 

Nobody said anything.

Jace turned to Magnus. "Are there any ancient spells that can help us out?" 

He thought for a minute. Then his eyes widened with realization. He ran his ringed fingers through his hair. 

"On a scale from Jace's special," Magnus put air quotes when he said that word, "shampoo from the Apocalypse, how important is this." 

Alec looked concernedly at his husband. Jace made an indignant hoot. "About a Chairman Meow dying," Clary replied calmly. Magnus nodded gravely. 

"It's an enchantment that can make your weapons 10x stronger than they already are. It won't get more Shadowhunters but it will make it easier to fight demons. It's not a permanent solution but it's something."

Clary felt Jace sigh with relief. "That's great. I'll just-."

Magnus held up his hand in a stop motion. "I can't cast the spell. Only someone with the blood of Loki can cast it." 

"LOKI." They all looked over to see Simon struggling for words. "Loki," he said again. "Loki, as in the MCU Loki. Are you telling me he is real?" Magnus nodded. 

Simon made the sound of a dying velociraptor. 

"WHA-HOW! WH-! WH-! WH-!" That went on for a few minutes.

Isabelle looked at Clary for help. She shrugged. "He'll wear himself out eventually." As an afterthought, she added, "tho it has never been this bad before." 

Finally, Simon calmed down but he was still pretty worked up. "So Loki is real. Is Thor real? Is Iron Man real?" 

Magnus facepalmed. "Thor, yes. Iron Man, no. Only the Norse gods are real." 

"OH!" Simon exclaimed. "IT IS ONLY  THE NORSE GODS. I AM MAKING WAY TO BIG A DEAL OUT OF THIS. IT IS ONLY  THE NORSE GODS." 

Iz put her hand on his shoulder and looked up at Magnus. "You're kidding, right?"

"Unfortunately, I am not." Simon took a long exhale.

 "Back to the Loki thing. You said the blood of Loki, like as in his children." "Yes." 

Simon fell back against his chair. "They didn't show that in the movies."

Magnus waved a hand dismissively. "Because they are just that, movies. In the real world, Loki has been chained up way under the earth for the last hundred centuries. (Magnus does not know about the events of HoT and TSoTD)."

"Hold up," Jace said. Magnus sighed as if tired of being interrupted. "Yes?" 

"If this Low-Key guy is chained to a rock, how does he have kids."

"The gods have their ways," Magnus said darkly. 

"Now back to the spell. There are only two people in the world who know it that also have his blood. One is the god Loki himself and the other is," Magnus scowled. "Fierro."

"Who," everyone said at almost the same time. Everyone except Lily. She looked like she was questioning whether Brother Snack-ariah was worth this excruciating boredom. 

"Fierro is the only living child of Loki who knows the enchantment. She is also a ginormous pain in my a$s."

Clary rolled her eyes. "Can you call her? See if she would be willing to meet up?" 

Magnus reluctantly pulled out his phone. He clicked on a contact, set it in speakerphone, and set it down in the middle of the table. Clary read that the contact's name was the devil in human form. 

Alec looked over at him. "Really?" he asked. "Yes really," Magnus said just as someone answers the phone. 

"Magic Man! I haven't heard from you in a while. I was beginning to hope you were dead!"

Ignoring the stunned faces around the table, Magnus calmly replied, "Oh trust me. The sound of my son throwing a temper-tantrum is much preferred to the sound of your voice. "

"Just say whatever you are going to say and make it quick. I'm going to be late to Mini Golf to the death."

Everyone, including Clary, was getting more confused by the minute. Robert cleared his throat. Magnus shot him a warning look but he continued anyway. 

"Miss Fierro-." He was cut off right away. "Mr. Fierro." 

"I, uh. What?!?!" 

"I am male. At least right now I am." "Uh, right." Robert sent Magnus a confused glance.  

Magnus hit his own forehead with the palm of his hand. "Genderfluid," he muttered to Robert so that Fierro could not hear. "He is Genderfluid." "What the heck does that even mean?"

"It means," Fierro said. "Sometimes I am a boy, sometimes I am a girl. I am currently a boy. Address me as that until I tell you otherwise. It also means that you are not whispering quiet enough. Now please stop wasting my time and cut to the  chase." 

Robert still looked perplexed but continued on. "Yes, well. As you might know, I am the Inquisitor to the Clave-."Fierro cut him off yet again. 

"Inquisitor to the what now?" Everyone, including Lily, was shocked at that. How could Magnus' friend not know who the Clave is, Clary wondered. Magnus just put his face in his hands. "This should be fun," Clary heard him murmur under his breath.  

"Do you know who The Clave is?" Aline asked. 

"Well, I'm 90% sure that a Clave is a special kind of knife the Mallory stabs Halfborn with when he annoys her." 

"Look," Magnus said before anyone could make things worse. "We need your help. Meet me at the New York Institute tomorrow and we'll give you more details."

They could hear him sigh. "Fine."

"And another thing. Don't bring any of your friends."

"Oh for Frigg's sake. Mallory stabbed you in the balls one time." 

"Yeah," Magnus sounded slightly annoyed. "And one time is enough."

You could almost see him roll his eyes through the speaker. "Where even is the Institute?" Clary gave him the address. 

"Ok," Fierro said. "See you there Glitter Boy and Shadow Sh*ts." Then he hung up. 

There was silence for a little then Tessa said, "Well she, no he, sure is something." 

I promise the next update won't take as long. Sorry!!! I think I'll try to publish once a week from now on so stay tuned. Thank you for reading.