CHAPTER FIVE
TESSA GRAY

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     "Maybe Magnus knows who Tessa Gray is," Jace said a few days later, strolling beside Adrian and Alec as the three of them walked to Magnus's apartment. He had sent a fire-message to all of them that morning, telling them that he had a new idea for finding Adrian's parents. Adrian hadn't been able to talk to Magnus about what Brother Zachariah had said, so he was glad to have been called. After going to the Shadow Market, Adrian had wanted to play it safe, so the last few days had been spent training with Isabelle and going on missions and patrols. They hadn't been tested, as far as they knew, but that didn't matter. Going to see Magnus wasn't illegal, and by that point, the Clave knew he was their friend. Besides, when Magnus Bane called, Adrian found it was best to not ignore him. The last time he had, his bedroom had been flooded with fire-messages, to the point that he hadn't been able to see his floor. He'd carried around the odor of Magnus's magic—a mix of burnt sugar and roses—for the rest of the week.

"Why?" Alec asked, frowning at his parabatai, having to lean forward to look around Adrian. Adrian was between both of them, his hand in Alec's and his arm linked with Jace's. "Just because they're both warlocks?"

"Well, yeah? If she's powerful enough to hide an exiled Shadowhunter for over a decade, I'm pretty sure Magnus knows about her," Jace pointed out, and while it was a valid point to make, Adrian couldn't help but snort.

"Still, I doubt there's some sort of warlock book club, Jace," Adrian said. Jace shot him a look, a grin tugging at the corners of his mouth. Adrian rolled his eyes and nudged his shoulder with his own, sending him stumbling a few steps sideways. Jace righted himself easily and raised his chin, like Adrian hadn't almost pushed him out into traffic. Either way, the shove worked. Jace didn't make a joke about what type of book warlocks would read if they were to form a club, and they could enjoy the rest of their walk in peace. When they arrived at Magnus's loft, they were greeted with Clary, who was curled up on the steps. A sketchpad was in her lap, and pencil smudges were staining the tips of her fingers.

"Clary!" Adrian greeted brightly, letting go of Alec's hand to sweep her up into a hug. She let out a small shriek when he did, her feet not touching the ground. He twirled her once, just because he could, and heard Jace and Alec cry out when he nearly hit them when he did. Clary broke out into happy laughter, her arms locking around his neck to hug him back. When he set her back down, she was grinning widely, and her face was flushed. He tugged at her hair playfully as he grinned back. "How have you been? We haven't talked in a while."

"Oh, you know, training, training, and...more training," she said with a small grimace. Adrian laughed and threw his arm over her shoulder, pulling her into his side as they turned to climb the steps.

"You'll be grateful for the training when you inevitably find a demon and you're alone," he said sweetly, though once he voiced the thought, he found himself slightly worried. Most demons tended to avoid Shadowhunters unless they were cornered, but some were simple too stupid to hide and wait. Some demons saw a Shadowhunter and immediately started a fight, because they thought they could take out a demon hunter on their own. Sometimes, with untrained or ill-prepared Shadowhunters, they were right. Adrian had no doubt in his mind that Clary would be able to get away from a demon, but he doubted she'd win in a real fight—and Clary was the type to try and fight instead of choosing to run. He frowned, slightly troubled, and glanced down at her. "You know what to do if that happens, right?"

"Everyone says I should run," she sighed, rolling her eyes to show him just what she thought of that. Adrian frowned even harder.

"And they're right," he pointed out. Clary paused, glancing up at him in surprise. Adrian didn't have time to elaborate. The door in front of them was swinging open, and Magnus was there, in nothing but tight leather pants and a loose glittery robe thrown over his shoulders. He motioned them inside, hands blurring in the air with the fast movement. Clary and Adrian had no choice but to rush inside to follow him. Behind them, Jace mumbled something to Alec, too low for Adrian to hear, but it made Alec laugh softly so Adrian figured it couldn't have been bad.

Oliver wasn't there when they made it to Magnus's living room, which wasn't all that surprising. Adrian was sure news about Oliver going to the Shadow Market had gotten back to Luke by that point. Oliver would be under strict orders until further notice, though Adrian doubted he got into any real trouble. He was probably just ordered to stay away from Shadowhunters for a little while. Still, Adrian felt bad about it, so he slumped down onto Magnus's velvet couch with a small frown. Clary was still under his arm, so she ended up falling down onto the couch with him.

"Finally!" a voice exclaimed, breaking through the brief silence. Clary and Adrian both jumped, and neither could prepare themselves fast enough for when Isabelle appeared in a nearby doorway and proceeded to pounce onto both of them. Adrian groaned in pain when her knee landed on his thigh, and Clary shrieked when Isabelle's upper half landed fully on top of her. Isabelle didn't seem bothered by either sound. She just twisted until she was lying across both of their laps and sighed. "I've been waiting for all of you to get here for half an hour. Magnus has told me his plan twice, and it was just as horrible each time. Tell him that it's horrible, Dri."

"It is not horrible!" Magnus argued, pointing a finger at Isabelle in a way that suggested it was a threat. Adrian glanced between the two of them, raising his eyebrows in surprise. "Take that back, Isabelle Lightwood."

"Make me, Magnus Bane," Isabelle dared. Magnus hesitated, like he almost took her up on that, before he dropped his hand and shook his head. Isabelle grinned, then tilted her head back to stare up at Clary. "Hi, Clary. How's training going?" Clary only responded with a grimace. Isabelle laughed. "It'll get better. And you." Isabelle sat up in one smooth motion then, pointing a finger accusingly at Adrian's face. He blinked rapidly and leaned back to avoid getting poked. "I have a bone to pick with you. How dare you go to the Shadow Market without me?" Adrian's eye widened.

"I can explain!" he immediately said, reaching for her hand.

"Oh, you better—"

"Hey!" Magnus all but shouted, clapping his hands together. When his palms made contact, a bit of thunder cracked through the room, making Adrian and Isabelle fall into startled silence. "We don't have a lot of time! I have a date in an hour. Izzy, get over it. Dri, stop going to Shadow Markets, that's extremely dangerous and stupid." Adrian scowled at him. Magnus ignored him. "Anyway, I'm just going to get straight to the point. I propose that we fake an exile."

"It's a stupid idea," Isabelle muttered.

"It is not!" Magnus argued.

"It could work," Alec said generously, offering Magnus a small, encouraging smile. Adrian, Jace, and Isabelle all gave him knowing looks. He just shrugged. "What? It could."

"Well, it doesn't need to," Adrian pointed out, though he paused to wince when Isabelle started climbing off of him and Clary. She sat down on the cushion beside him, pulling her knees up to her chest. Adrian bumped his shoulder against hers before he continued. "Oliver and I went to the Shadow Market and ran into Brother Zachariah there. I asked him about my mother and he led me to another warlock who helped her after she had her Marks stripped. Do you know Tessa Gray?" Magnus froze at that, his eyes narrowing as soon as Adrian said her name. He felt a flash of unease, wondering if they disliked each other, and then he relaxed when a small smile formed on his face.

"Leave it to Tessa and Jem to get involved with Rosewells and Herondales," he said fondly, more to himself than to anyone else. Adrian and Jace both leaned forward in alarm, glancing at each other curiously. Magnus shook his head, completely ignored their obvious curiosity, and continued. "I must confess, Adrian, I completely forgot Tessa helped your mother after she was exiled. She's helped so many Rosewells over the years that they kind of blended together. This makes everything else very simple. I know where Tessa's apartment is. I can Portal you and one other person straight there. Choose while I get things ready."

"No need," Isabelle said, shooting Adrian an excited grin. "I'm going."

"What if they're watching—" Adrian started, anxious about their parabatai ceremony. Isabelle snorted and waved her hand in the air.

"Let's cross that bridge when we get to it," she decided. "Right now, we have your mother to find."

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When Isabelle and Adrian stepped through the Portal twenty minutes later, they saw that the sun was going down where they were, and they were standing on wet pavement. It was drizzling a little, so Adrian tugged his hood up over his hair as Isabelle took a look around. They had landed in front of an apartment door, the number on the front indicating it was the correct one. Magnus had told them the number before ushering them through. Adrian opened his mouth to tell Isabelle that they should probably knock, but stopped when he noticed the door already opening.

"Oh," the woman said, pausing with one foot over the threshold. She blinked multiple times, just to make sure she was seeing things correctly. Adrian took her in the same way she was taking them in, eyes raking over her. His first instinct was to find her warlock mark, simply out of habit, but he quickly noticed there wasn't one he could see. She had long brown hair and gray eyes, her skin pale. She had a pearl bracelet with a marriage rune in the middle around her right wrist, a jade ring surrounded by tiny pearls on her left ring finger, and a jade necklace hanging from her throat. His eyes were immediately drawn to the jewelry, just because the designs seemed a little outdated, like they were antiques. He pulled his gaze away from them just as she seemed to be done analyzing them both. "Can I help you? I don't have long, I'm afraid."

"Um," Adrian said rather dumbly. Now that he was in front of her, he didn't quite know what to say to Tessa Gray. He swallowed the lump in his throat, drew comfort from Isabelle, who he could feel close to his side now, and took a deep breath. "Are you Tessa Gray?" Tessa blinked slowly, growing a little wary, as any warlock would if two Shadowhunters showed up at their doorstep.

"I am," she confirmed after a brief moment of silence. She reached up to play with the jade necklace as she took them both in with newly suspicious eyes. "I have not broken any laws."

"Magnus sent us, no worries," Isabelle jumped in, probably sensing that Adrian was ill-prepared for this encounter. He was relieved when she spoke, relieved when she stepped around him to smile up at Tessa politely. She offered Tessa her hand, and Tessa took it slowly, though Adrian noticed that she had relaxed significantly since Magnus was mentioned. "My name is Isabelle Lightwood. This is my soon-to-be parabatai, Adrian Rosewell. We were hoping you could help us find someone." Tessa had started smiling when Isabelle mentioned being a Lightwood, but when the name Rosewell left her mouth, Tessa's head snapped up, her eyes zeroing in on Adrian immediately. As soon as Isabelle released her hand, Tessa reached for the jade-and-pearl cocktail ring around her finger. She didn't twist it nervously; she just touched it, like it was a reminder.

"You're Alice's son, aren't you?" she whispered, her voice soft. Adrian could only nod. When he did, a bright smile appeared on Tessa's face. "I should have known. You look like her. Come inside, I have something to give you." She turned to walk back into her apartment, her previous errand forgotten. Adrian and Isabelle shared a glance, wondering if it was truly that easy, then shrugged and followed Tessa inside. The apartment was smaller than Adrian would have thought, almost every horizontal surface covered with books both old and new. Adrian and Isabelle stood awkwardly in her small living room as she disappeared into a different one, looking around at all the clutter.

"She is very different from Magnus," Isabelle said quietly. When Adrian didn't respond, she turned toward him with a concerned frown. She reached for his hand, tugging on it gently to get him to focus. "Are you okay, Dri? Are you getting overwhelmed? You can wait outside, if you want. I can handle this." Adrian thought for a moment, then forced himself to smile at her. It did nothing to convince her that he was alright.

"I think I never really let myself hope that this would lead anywhere," he admitted, shrugging his shoulders. "And now we're standing in Tessa Gray's apartment and she has something to give me and—I don't know, it just feels like it's not real. I mean, two weeks ago, we had no leads whatsoever, and now we're at the lead's home. It's all happening very fast, and I don't—I don't think I'm ready, Izzy." Isabelle immediately stepped closer, clasping his hand and squeezing so tight that his bones ached.

"She might give you a way to find your parents, or a letter they left you, but I hope you know that you don't have to do anything until you're ready," Isabelle said sternly, squeezing his hand again. "If it's a letter, you can wait to read it. If it's an address, you can wait to go there. You don't have to do anything with whatever she's going to give you. You can let it rot at the bottom of a dumpster, for all I care. I just want you to have the option. We all do."

"She's right," Tessa said quietly. Neither of them had noticed her come back into the room, not until she spoke. Isabelle glanced over his shoulder, smiling a little, but Adrian jumped, twirling to look at her. Tessa smiled at him. She was rolling something in her hands. "It's not a letter, I'm afraid. Not an address, either. It's just something Alice and Adam had me work my magic on, just in case you happened to find yourself on my doorstep one day. Neither of them were allowed to contact you, afterward, but they wanted to leave you an option, like Isabelle said. It's not much, and I can't promise it will work well after so many years, but..."

She stepped forward, holding the object out for Adrian to take. She didn't step too close, making sure there was plenty of distance between them, as if to emphasize whether he took it from her was his choice. He could easily tell her to keep it and leave, leave all this behind him and continue living his life with the family and love he had built and found on his own. It was a wonderful life, after all. Adrian was content, but he wasn't quite sure he would be if he let this opportunity slip through his fingers. Swallowing the lump in his throat, he stepped forward and let Tessa drop the object into his palm. He was surprised to see that it was an old-fashioned compass. He tilted it back and forth, watching the little arrow flicker back and forth uselessly, before he glanced up at Tessa in confusion. She smiled gently at him.

"It's spelled," she reminded. "If Rosewell blood is spilled onto the compass, the arrow will point you to the Rosewell closest to you. I would wait until you're back in New York to use it. A different branch of Rosewells live in the London Institute. Your cousins and uncle. If this leads to a dead end, take comfort in the fact that you still have family here." Adrian didn't respond. He'd known, since he had met his grandmother, that he had an uncle and two cousins in London. He didn't feel nearly as attached to them as he did to Mary, Alice, or Adam.

"Thank you," he said after a moment, offering Tessa what little smile he could muster. "Not just for this token, but for what you did for my mother. Brother Zachariah told me you helped her after she had her Marks stripped." Tessa's face softened, a smile tugging at her lips.

"You spoke to Jem?" she whispered, a small laugh tumbling out of her. "Oh, of course he said that. It was nothing, really. She just needed a good night's rest. No need to thank me." She hesitated, glancing between the two of them thoughtfully. "Let Magnus know that I miss him, and—and if you happen to see Jem—Brother Zachariah—again, please let him know that I miss him, as well, and that I look forward to Blackfriars Bridge this year." Adrian's eyebrows shot up in surprise, while Isabelle let out a small laugh of her own.

"Will do," she promised. "Thank you for this. Really."

"It's not trouble. Do you two need me to open a Portal?"

"If...you don't mind."

Tessa just laughed.

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Later that night, once Adrian and Isabelle had gotten over their separate nausea from going through a Portal twice in such a short amount of time, they found themselves lounging in Adrian's bed. They'd collapsed there the second they got home, sick to their stomachs and wanting nothing more than to take naps. They'd woken to Maryse bringing them soup and water. She told them that Jace and Alec were out on a small hunt and that they'd taken Clary along with them, as a training exercise, and then she'd left them to lounge for the rest of the day. It was clear to Adrian that Maryse suspected what they'd been up to all day, but she hadn't said a word about it. Now, Adrian was fiddling with the compass, twisting it around and around as Isabelle talked about her latest date with Simon.

"Do you like him?" Adrian cut in eventually, still studying the compass but also paying attention to what Isabelle was saying. As far as she was concerned, she wasn't dating Simon. She was just testing the waters to see whether she actually liked him or not, and while she'd gone on more dates with him than she usually did with other people, she refused to admit whether she had a crush or not. At her sudden silence, Adrian glanced up at her and smiled. She scowled and immediately changed the subject.

"Brother Zachariah seems to be a rule-breaker," she said conversationally, flopping back on the bed and staring up at the ceiling. "Do you think he'd be willing to oversee a shotgun parabatai ceremony?" Adrian snorted in amusement, opening his mouth to say that Brother Zachariah only seemed to break rules when he knew he could get away with it, but stopped when his door creaked open. He saw Jace first, his head poking through, and then he and Alec were tumbling in. Clary wasn't with them. They must have dropped her off at home before coming back to the Institute.

"How did the exercise go?" Isabelle asked, sitting up. They both shrugged, mumbling something about Clary panicking and them needing to drag her along on more missions, before they were both tumbling onto Adrian's bed, exhausted.

"How did the meeting with Tessa Gray go?" Alec asked, leaning against Adrian's side as they all crammed onto his bed. Adrian shrugged and offered Alec the compass, quickly explaining what it did and how to use it. He hadn't spilled his blood on the compass yet, but he wasn't even sure he wanted to. What if he did, and the compass just started spinning and wouldn't stop? What if just pointed to himself because his mother was dead now? He wasn't sure he wanted to know. Alec studied the compass for a moment, then glanced up at Adrian curiously, raising his eyebrows in a silent question.

"I...I don't think I'm ready to meet her—or my dad—yet," he admitted, feeling oddly ashamed of that. "I want to know if they're alive, and I want to know what they look like and what kind of lives they're living, but I don't think I want to...introduce myself as their son. It's like I want to meet them, but I only want to meet them if they don't know who or what I am."

"That's completely understandable," Jace spoke up, reaching over to take the compass from Alec so he could look at it himself. "And if you're that worried about your identity, ask Clary for help. She's been experimenting with rune-making. Maybe she can make one that makes you look a little different, or one where it kinda makes other people not focus on your face? I don't know." Adrian blinked and looked at Jace in curiosity.

"Would she really do that?" he asked, surprised.

"She's Clary," Jace said. "Of course she would. You can ask her tomorrow night. Aren't we all going to that gig Simon's band is doing? Ask her there."

"Right," Adrian said quietly, considering the suggestion as he took the compass back from Jace. The three of them changed the subject then, focusing more on Simon's gig than anything else and discussing whether it'll go badly or not, but Adrian was hardly listening. He just started tilting the compass back and forth some more and wondered, once again, whether activating the compass and finding his parents was really worth it.

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AUTHOR'S NOTE: Unedited. I apologize if this is bad, I'm out of practice with writing in general, but especially for TSC. But in other news, I've decided to write a TID fic! And there's a few hints in this chapter that references my plans for it xx Am I about to write a poly relationship involving four people? Damn right I am. And I adore it already.