Chapter 25 Julian
JULIAN
Hi, Magnus, it’s Julian Blackthorn. (I know, you told me just “Julian” is fine, but habits are hard to break.) You had said you wanted updates on what was happening with Blackthorn Hall, so here are some of those. More than you probably expected.
First off, Hypatia Vex says hello. So that probably tells you from the start how things are going. She also says you should contact her regarding some money you owe her, but I told her I didn’t want to be in the middle of any of that and only said I would mention it So there, I have mentioned it.
But that’s not a long-term solution, so we took it to the Shadow Market to find someone to disenchant the thing.
Hypatia has an outpost of her magic shop she sets up in the Market, and we were relieved to find someone we knew.
I wasn’t eager to hand over an ensorcelled Shadowhunter item to just anyone.
As you’d probably guess, she was not happy to see us, but that’s kind of Hypatia’s thing.
And no one is ever happy to see Shadowhunters at a Shadow Market, of course.
We tried to look as casual as possible but it’s not like we can tell everyone, “Don’t worry!
We’re not here to raid the place!” We did see a few stands suddenly close for the day as we approached, including one selling a potion guaranteed to “put werewolf hair on your chest.” I had to wonder, is that actual werewolf hair shaved off an actual werewolf, or is it supposed to just make you look hairy like a werewolf?
I couldn’t ask because the stall was closed. You know how it is.
Anyway, for all her grousing about Shadowhunters only turning up when they needed something and so on, Hypatia was helpful enough once we explained what was going on.
I think she couldn’t resist the puzzle of it.
She took the diary in the back and, I guess, did some disenchanting.
When she returned, she had good news and bad news.
Good news: The diary was no longer enchanted.
Bad news: Being disenchanted triggered a failsafe spell that caused all the text to degenerate into Purgatic script.
Someone really didn’t want that diary read.
Hypatia agreed to translate the diary, albeit for a significant fee, though it is a drop in the bucket compared to all the other costs of fixing the house.
She said it would be “slow work.” Apparently the act of translating from demon scripts saps the translator’s energy and they can only do so much before they have to rest. I did not know that!
(And if it turns out it’s not true, and Hypatia is only messing with us, please let me know.)
So, provided Hypatia keeps her end of the deal, we should know more about the diary soon.
It feels like we have all these puzzle pieces but no idea how to fit them together, or if we’re missing pieces, or if they’re even from the same puzzle.
Is Tatiana’s diary related to the ghost?
Are either of them related to the curse?
Or is this house just bursting at its seams with bad magic?
Then on our way out of the Shadow Market there was another surprise: the Ghost Sensor started going crazy.
We thought it must be something in the Market and went back in, but no, the signal stopped.
We followed it out and it took us to Southwark Cathedral, which is just down the road from the Market.
It still had a whole bunch of tourists visiting, so we got to do the classic Shadowhunter thing: glamour up and sneak in.
The Sensor took us to the Nephilim weapons cache (in a niche under an alabaster statue of somebody or other) where we found…
a weapon. I know, amazing, right? A weapon in the weapons cache.
But this was obviously not a generic weapon like the others; it was beautiful and elaborate and looked like it could be worn ceremonially.
It’s a curved dagger, Middle Eastern in origin (I am no expert on weapons from the region, unfortunately, and will have to check some references to find the specific name for it), and there’s beautiful calligraphy all along the blade in Arabic script.
Of course, there are many common languages using Arabic script. No idea which one this is.
I took some photos and am going to write to Ty to see what he can find out about the dagger.
It doesn’t seem like it goes with the flask at all, and I have no idea why it would have been left in the cathedral.
The mysteries continue. This house is, uh, more of a fixer-upper than we originally thought.
Emma sends her love, and please give our love to Alec and the kiddos. Let me know if you have any thoughts. I hope you’re finally getting a chance to relax a bit.
Julian