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Though Alec takes a while to warm up to Clary, he eventually finds he actually likes her when she’s not acting as a trouble-magnet. For one thing, she’s less nosy than his siblings. And, more importantly, she shares his disinterest in clubbing. So when Magnus, Jace, and Izzy create their own ‘monthly club night’ at Pandemonium, Alec ends up spending that time with Clary. They start with patrols and dinner, but when Clary learns he can draw, she needles him into doing ‘art nights’.
Alec hadn’t expected to enjoy it as much as he does. He gave up drawing a long time ago when his parents labeled it a worthless distraction, but it’s calming. Sometimes he’s even proud of what he makes and he can show it to Magnus who is the most supportive husband in existence and always lavishes his work with praise.
“Alright, Fray. This month’s challenge is up to you,” Alec says from where he’s sitting in one of Magnus’ plush chairs. Clary sits across from him on the couch, both of them holding sketchbooks.
“I thought it might be fun to draw runes—”
“You want to draw runes?” Alec can’t stop himself from sounding incredulous. He’s studied runes long enough for drawing them to be like writing the alphabet; important, but not fun or creative. It’s kind of the antithesis of everything their art night stands for.
Clary rolls her eyes. “Not like you’re thinking. You know my ability to create new runes? I just wondered what kind of rune you’d create, if you could design one that would do anything you wanted.”
Huh. Okay, so maybe Alec had judged her idea too soon because this actually does sound creative and fun, if not a bit blasphemous. “Alright. Twenty minutes?”
“Twenty minutes.”
Clary sets a timer on her phone and they start drawing. Well, Clary starts drawing. Alec considers his empty page and tries to think of a new rune. Obviously the rune won’t actually work; new runes can’t be created just like that, but he’s not going to half-ass this.
Finally, after a few moments of trying to think outside the box, Alec comes up with something and starts drawing. Sketching is easier than brainstorming. Alec has an extensive knowledge of runes; he knows how and why they work, what every stroke means. It’s simple to follow the theory to make his own rune—a line here, a curve there, a dot. He finishes before the timer goes off so he spends the rest of his time focusing on thickening some of the lines until his drawing resembles real runes found in the Gray Book.
When the time does start beeping, Clary sets down her pen and reaches to shut it off. Her green practically eyes shine with excitement. “What did you draw?”
“You first,” Alec obfuscates, shielding his drawing with his arm.
Clary pouts, but holds up her sketchbook to show off a rune Alec has never seen before. “It’s a birth control rune.”
Alec blinks, his brain trying to process Clary’s words. The Clave will absolutely hate it, but it’s more useful than anything Alec had expected Clary to create. He shouldn’t be surprised, he knows she designed the portal and alliance runes out of necessity, but he’d still expected something more… fanciful.
“Does it work?” He finally manages to ask.
“I think so.” Clary tugs out her stele and copies the rune onto her arm. It glows briefly before darkening to the usual black. She studies it. “Looks like it works, but I’ll ask Izzy to help me figure out if it works properly before I advertise it to anyone.”
“Good call.” Alec doesn’t want to imagine an Institute full of angry, accidentally-pregnant Shadowhunters because Clary hadn’t properly researched her rune.
“So, what did you make? What does it do?”
Alec reluctantly holds his sketchbook up so Clary can see the drawing. “We have a glamour rune that hides us from mundanes, but what about one for demons?”
“You mean it would make us invisibile to demons?”
“Yeah, pretty much.”
“That’s really smart. Can I see it?” She holds out her hand expectantly and Alec hesitantly passes her the sketchbook. Clary studies the rune closer for a moment before picking up her stele again.
“What are you doing?”
“I want to see if it works.”
“It’s not going to work.” Unless her ability means she can use new runes created by other Shadowhunters—something that has yet to be studied.
Clary ignores him, drawing the rune on her forearm. Like the birth control rune, it glows before fading to black. Clary’s lips tick up in the corner. “Feel like hunting?”
“How did that work?” Alec asks, staring at the ichor that drips from their blades onto the blacktop. He and Clary have managed to stay mostly clean because the demon clearly hadn’t seen them coming, despite them making no attempt to hide their approach. It hadn’t had time to properly attack before they killed it.
Clary grins as she sheathes her blade. “Your rune worked.”
“How?”
Alec’s brain is whirling, cycling through everything he knows about runic theory. This shouldn’t be possible. Clary’s abilities extend beyond that of a typical Shadowhunter’s, but this is more than anyone had known her to be capable of.
“I don’t know.” She sounds untroubled, unlike Alec. She’s probably used to not understanding the Shadow World.
“Maybe because you drew it on yourself first?” Alec considers as they head for Magnus’ loft.
“You designed the rune, you drew it on your arm; it seems like you did it yourself. We can experiment if you really want to.”
It takes a long time to come to any sort of conclusion, but after a lot of experimentation, it becomes clear anyone can create runes. Jace, Izzy, and Alec all create their own runes. They decide to keep it under wraps for now, lest the ability be abused. Like a sort of secret family recipe shared between the four of them (and Magnus, obviously), they determine a formula for making runes. It takes intention, carefully-chosen lines, and a certain amount of confidence.
Nearly a year after creating his first rune, Alec sits down and designs a new one with complete confidence in his abilities. He carefully pens every stroke, pouring intention into it until a new rune is born.
It kind of resembles Clary’s alliance rune, with a few new lines, infused with new meaning. Alec sets his pen down beside his new rune. If Magnus agrees, this rune will bind him to his husband for good, immortality and all.