"Nobody can give you wiser advice than yourself: if you heed yourself, you'll never go wrong." 

-Marcus Tullius Cicero

Olivia pressed her hands against her ears.

"What is that hellish sound?" she cried, trying to drown out the clutter.

"It's the doorbell," Jonathan and Lisa simultaneously spoke, they ran out of the room. Max got already back to climbing and didn't seem to care about the noise. Finally some action, Olivia thought by herself. She and Arthur exchanged a glance.

"Saved by the bell," she said before abruptly running after them.
They quickly caught up with Lisa and Jonathan, who had already slowed their pace down.

"Were we expecting someone?" Lisa glared at Jonathan. He shook his head.

"Not that I know of." 

They arrived at the large doors in the church section of the Institute, only to see Anna had already opened the door. There stood an eighteen-year-old girl beside her. She wore a long purple dress and had shoulder long white-blond hair. Lisa and Jonathan walked over to her and embraced the girl shortly. A wide smile brightened up her face, revealing her shining white teeth.

"Are these the new shadowhunters?" She curiously looked at Olivia, who uncomfortably shifted her weight. The girl moved her gaze to Arthur, he was staring with an half-open mouth at her. Olivia poked him in his side.

"You're staring."

"Not true!" he exclaimed, though he obsessively started staring at his feet.

Jonathan nodded, allowing the girl to happily walk towards them.

"Hi, I'm Moira." She reached out to shake Olivia's hand.

"You're a what?" Arthur interrupted her.

"Moj-rah," she slowly pronounced. Arthur seemed to realise it was a name and took a step backward. Olivia shook her hand, noticing her long nails matched the colour of her dress. There was something charming about the girl, her gaze running over her hand to her pale face. Her eyes were very pale blue with a little purple in it, even lighter than hers and with less green. 

Olivia muttered a greeting. No one ever managed to intimidate her, yet there was something in the attitude and appearance of the girl that made her feel very small. Even though they both had the same seize.

"I'm Olivia," she mumbled. Moira nodded and turned to Arthur, who also shook her hand.

Only now Olivia noticed – whether it was because of the long dress or because of a glamour – the girl had a tail. A tail. It looked like one of a  lion that peeked from underneath her dress. Olivia made a choked sound.

During the lessons in the Academy, she had studied warlocks and even met one, but they all looked so different. They knew countless magic spells and all had one or multiple warlock marks. Such as wings, claws, cat eyes, other skin tones. Olivia mentally added tails to her list.

"You are a warlock," she stammered. Moira turned around, still smiling.

"Indeed, I am."

"Are you the High Warlock of Antwerp?" Arthur asked wide-eyed, causing Moira to sigh.

"No, I'm not." Olivia frowned deeply, before she could say another word, Jonathan interrupted them.

"Moira has helped our family for years with shadowhunters business. Such as detecting demons, creating wards around the Institute and making food for us." He patted her on the shoulder, which she didn't seem to appreciate.

"But isn't that exactly the task of the High Warlock?" Olivia pondered.

"The actual High Warlock of Antwerp has...a little thing against us," Jonathan said hesitatingly.

"He doesn't like us. At all." Lisa completed. "None of the shadowhunters in particular," she said when she saw Olivia's questioning look.

"He's a very old warlock, from the time before the shadowhunters even existed," Anna clarified. Oliva did the math, he had to be over eight hundred years old.

"And how old are you?" Arthur looked at Moira with his big puppylike eyes.

"You don't ask a lady after her age, Archie." Jonathan looked at Arthur as if he was deeply disappointed in him. Arthur gave him another perplexed look.

"Jonathan!" Moira struck him on his head, he dodged her hand with his hands still in his pockets. She sighed.

"I'm about two hundred years old, happy now?" Moira asked with a frustrated tone to her voice. Arthur swallowed and quickly nodded. Even though Olivia knew that warlocks didn't age, she was shocked by the young look of Moira.

"Why did you come here in the first place, Moira?" Lisa asked kindly.

"I came to get acquainted with these two." She becked her hand to Olivia and Arthur. "And to ask whether you want to grab some food in Ambis?"

"Of course!" Anna said enthusiastically, clapping her hands while looking at her and Arthur.  "Are you guys coming too?" Arthur glanced at his watch, it was a bit past eleven.

"I'd love to." Olivia didn't care what time it was, she hadn't had a good meal in two years. With a queasy feeling she thought back at the chef's speciality in the Academy: burnt pizza dough with spaghetti. Arthur nodded as well.

"I'm coming too."

"Great." Moira snipped her fingers – purple and blue fire sparked off her fingertips, not even a second later she was wearing a shimmering pair of sunglasses. Olivia didn't know why she would need sunglasses, the weather was cloudy and nothing near sunny. Still, Arthur looked at Moira with great admiration, Olivia rolled her eyes.

*

After a five minute walk they arrived in the Blindestraat, where they stopped. At first sight there was nothing special to see apart some buildings, including the University of Antwerp. Olivia was reminded about the time she wanted to study there, when she still had dreams about her future.

She could feel how her attention was drawn to a bicycle shed across the road, there had probably been a house in the past. The three surrounding walls were covered in graffiti. She felt the Voyance rune on her hand burning, that rune allowed her to see through the enchantments. It used to ask a lot of effort from her, but now she only had to squint and the spell fell away. Instead of the graffiti-clad bicycle shed, she now saw a large white building with ornate golden letters "Ambrosia" on the façade. They followed Moira inside.

There were round stone tables, with chairs and benches around them and green curtains in front of the windows. They all took a seat at a table, Olivia sat down next to Arthur and Moira on the green bench. At the table next to them, a group of werewolves was awaiting their order. Olivia shuffled a little uncomfortably on the couch. Learning about werewolves, warlocks and vampires, was still something different than meeting them in the living flesh – or dead flesh, in the case of the vampires. She wondered how much she had to pester the werewolves to make them turn into their wolf shape.

She once had to catch a werewolf at the Academy – together with Arthur and her brother – who had to change for the first time. She was told that this was a painful process, not that they'd completely go rogue and didn't have any control over themselves. They had expected to find a man, who had to undergo a painful transformation. What they found was a feral wolf attacking them at first sight. That was the first time they had to fight for their lives. Everything passed in a haze before her eyes, the slime of the werewolf that dripped on her face, his bare teeth, how everything seemed to move in slow motion. Olivia, who reached for her sword. Her brother plunging his seraph blade in the back of the werewolf, at the exact moment when he put his claws in Olivia's arm. She still had a scar on her forearm, which she touched gently.

Olivia was drawn back from her memories by the chills that ran down her spine. She realised she was still staring at the werewolves. One of them gave her an angry look in return and Olivia turned her head. Arthur and Anna were holding a menu card and she took the last one. After the miserable food at the Academy, she was longing for normal, not moldy food. Her eyes ran down the menu, slightly panicking. Raw steak, sheep's head, chicken liver pâté...

"Oh Gods," she whispered quietly. Jonathan was staring at her, with a wide grin on his face.

"What's so funny?" she asked bitterly.

"You're looking at the menus for werewolves and vampires," he spluttered, Anna gave her brother an irritated look. Nevertheless, he was right, after all the meat dishes she found mainly dishes made of blood. "Bloody Mary's: With real blood!" was written in block letters. Olivia turned the card around and found at all sorts of fruit dishes, probably for the elves, underneath those, she finally found the sandwiches and other normal dishes.

A waitress appeared in front of them, Olivia looked up, startled. She hadn't been able to pick anything and on top of that, the girl had dark green hair. She slowly realised the woman probably had to be some sort of elf, a pixie most likely. Her eyebrows had the same greenish colour and her eyes were completely yellow, without a pupil or sclera. She was wearing an almost transparent yellow dress and her long sharp nails were also painted green. She greeted Olivia with a big smile, exposing her razor-sharp teeth. Olivia gave her an uncomfortable smile back.

She heard her teacher's voice from the Academy in the back of her head. Ten years ago, the elves betrayed us by conspiring with our greatest enemy: Sebastian Morgenstern in the Dark War. After this, the Cold Peace was declared, and no fey could be trusted. If you see them walking around with weapons, you immediately have to arrest them.

Olivia cleared her mind, in her life she had learned not to condemn anyone because of their origins. The others had already passed their order, so she quickly chose something from the card.

"Coming right up." The green-haired girl winked at Jonathan before she walked off, swaying her hips. He didn't seem to notice it.

"That's Nyssa, she's a waitress here," Moira said, in response to a question Arthur apparently had posed. He nodded, giving the warlcok an idolising look.

"Is the Fair Folk still allowed to work here?" Olivia asked out loud.

"Of course, why wouldn't they be?" Lisa said, she had been silent since their arrival and had sometimes whispered something to Anna, but now she suspiciously glanced at Olivia.

"You know," she said hesitatingly, "after the Dark War and everything..."

"You can't talk about that here," Anna said sharply, she looked around. Olivia apologised to her and looked around as if she was bored to death.

This is your home now, your family, said a voice inside her head.

But not for long, she added to that thought.

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