The Iron Crown |Shadowhunters|

12 - Fall and rise

"If you ain't scared... you ain't human." 
-James Dashner

"And here we have the training room, with the armoury right next to it." Lisa opened the double door and walked in. Arthur just wanted to run away from all of this. The tour was taking him too long. Still, he dragged himself along with the rest, walking right behind Jonathan, who had apparently given up on showing them around.

The training room was large, with a high ceiling. It was looked very much like a gym and Arthur was immediately brought back his times at the Academy. The countless hours of sword fighting, running and horseback riding. The hours falling, colliding and obeying an angry trainer.

There was already someone practicing in the training room, even this early in the morning. It was a little red-haired girl, the sister of Jonathan and Anna, who he estimated to be about eight years old. Even though she looked nothing like them at all. It hit him that his own brother didn't look like him as well. Arthur smiled gently, his brother was the only person who he didn't miss at all. The girl seemed very cute, because of her freckles and small posture. But the way she wielded her sword and glanced at him, made her a lot less innocent.

Lisa and Jonathan walked into the room, he and Olivia followed them like a pair of puppies. Targets hung on the walls and mats laid on the floor. Unlike all the other rooms of the Institute, there were no gothic windows here and according to Arthur the room was quite hot for the time of year.

Jonathan was talking to the little girl, moving her sword slowly and precisely. Arthur could curse himself for forgetting her name. He had never been good at remembering names, it began with an L, that much he knew. He was so lost in his thoughts, he didn't notice the others had moved on without him. The starting-with-an-L girl already continued her practice and Arthur was disappointed to realise she was as tall as him.

Arthur looked around and saw that they had walked through an open door on the other side of the room. He ran after them. It was a smaller chamber, stacked with weapons. Jonathan was demonstrating some of them. Olivia took a seraph blade from a rack and spun it in her hand with confidence. Arthur's heart leaped of joy when he saw a crossbow. He thought himself to be pretty handy with it. He reached out for it, just when a throwing star landed in the wall, inches away from his head. He couldn't contain a scream and gave the others a shocked look. They were as aghast as him, Jonathan's had still flowing in the air from throwing the star.

"And you say I'm the clumsy one?" Lisa slapped Jonathan's arm and walked over to Arthur. She yanked the throwing star out of the wall, put it back in its place, and glared at Jonathan, eyes filled with fury. Olivia hung the seraph blade back and seemed to be very amused about Arthur nearly dying. Lisa went outside and Olivia followed her footsteps, Arthur stopped in astonishment.

"Sorry, Archibald," Jonathan said as he passed him.

"My name is Arthur!" he shouted, running after him.

They had returned to the hallway through the training room and turned into another hallway. He recognized this corridor as the path to his room. They climbed the stairs and instead of turning right, where their rooms were, they went the other way.

"Here are Lot's, Max's and my parents' rooms," Jonathan announced. Lotte, Arthur thought, that was her name. He didn't know why he was so relieved to finally remember her name. Lotte's room was next to her parents' and Maxim's was right across it. Jonathan opened Lotte's room door as if it were a secret treasure room.

"You can have a look though." Lisa rolled her eyes again.

Lotte's room was all pink and white. There was a four-poster bed in the centre of the room and pillows everywhere. This was really how Arthur envisioned a girls' room. Jonathan closed the door and walked to the other side of the hall. He opened Maxim's door and he and Olivia peeked inside. This room looked like a replica of his own bedroom. A bed full with Captain America shield pillows with a Marvel bedspread. The floor was covered with comics. The only thing that missed was a computer. On the one hand, he was a little embarrassed that his room looked the same as a 10-year-old's, and on the other hand, he was excited.

At first he thought all shadowhunters would have no idea about how the mundanes lived or what their interests were. At the Academy there had been a boy who called all mundanes "a bunch of ignorant suckers". Arthur would have hit him in his pretty face, if it weren't for his huge muscles.

"And what's up there?" Olivia pointed to a double door at the end of the corridor. Lisa enthusiastically beckoned them.

"This is the library." She opened the door with a wide movement. "Wow," Olivia parroted, looking around with an open mouth. Light shone through the large gothic windows, bookcases lined up against the entire wall. In the centre of the room stood a long wooden table. You could use a stepladder to go to the mezzanine, which was two meters wide and ran around the entire room. Arthur saw that some books were under lock and key.

As everywhere in the Institute, there were statues of the angel, Raziel. In his left hand he held the Mortal cup. Legend has it that Raziel poured his blood into that cup. Jonathan Shadowhunter drank that blood and thus the first shadowhunter was born. Arthur proudly realized he had once held that cup. In his right hand he held the Mortal sword, also known as Maellartach. He cursed himself for remembering that name.

"That's a lot of books," he managed to say, Arthur turned away from the statue. Lisa sat on a bench by the table, Jonathan just placed himself on the table, and Olivia was browsing through a book. Lisa nodded proudly.

"Yes, you can say that." Arthur's attention was drawn to a remarkable book, with a blue satin cover, he also had one of his own; the Codex of the shadowhunters. Several aspects were described in it: various demons, runes and downworlders such as the vampires and werewolves.

"Shall we go on?" Jonathan walked to the door. Arthur followed and wondered when this tour finally would come to an end. They went down to the hall where their rooms were and turned right. Yet another corridor full of rooms awaited him. The Institutes served as a refuge for all shadowhunters, everyone could enter and stay as long as they wished. All the doors were closed, except for one that stood ajar.

"This room is where Lisa dissects mundanes." Arthur cringed and Olivia raised her eyebrows. Once again Lisa elbowed Jonathan's stomach.

"It's kind of a workspace," she explained, "where I repair or build stuff." Olivia and Arthur nodded.

"You can at least call it a lab," Jonathan tried.

"How would you even know?" Lisa snapped back.

"You've never even been inside." Arthur heard her whisper, but Jonathan already walked on.

They had reached a double door at the end of the corridor, Jonathan opened it swiftly. This room was clearly located in the dome, the top of the building, and was two stories high. Arthur threw his head back, he was frightened to see a boy climbing on the ceiling beams. Luckily he still knew the boy was called Maxim, but he was also worried he'd fall.

"Max, what are you doing?" Lisa also anxiously looked up.

"This room is a kind of second training room. It only serves to learn flexibility, climbing and falling, "Jonathan explained. Learning to fall, well that sounded great, he thought by himself.

"Max, aren't you coming down?" Lisa asked again. Instead of answering, he stood straight on a bar and let himself fall forward. Lisa let out a cry and Jonathan stepped forward to catch him, but he was too late.

Max landed on the floor, rolled over and got back up again. Everyone in the room seemed to breathe out their bated breath. Max's face was shocked as well, this to the fact that he had landed graciously.

Arthur remembered jumping from a tree at a distance of ten feet at the Academy. Apparently that was part of the curriculum. He had completely stiffened and someone had to pushed him off the branch. He fell right on his side.

"Hey." Max waved at them with a big smile. He had ginger hair and freckles. Max was, what a surprise, as tall as him. He and Olivia waved back in astonishment.

"That was a great landing, Max." Jonathan patted his shoulder. Max's smile widened and Arthur's stomach began to roll embarrassingly. He was just about to ask when they were finally going to eat when a loud, shrill noise shook the Institute.

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