The Shadowhunter's Codex (30 page)

THE PORTAL

New Shadowhunters usually don’t have trouble understanding how a Portal works. It transports you instantly from one place to another by means of your passing through it. It is usually set up by a warlock (see below for the reasons why), and it requires no skill to use. We include it here, however, because the invention of the Portal stands as one of the great moments of collaboration between Downworlders and Shadowhunters in the modern age, a powerful demonstration of the creativity and discovery that the Accords can make possible. This invention also represents one of the rare occasions when the Nephilim have been able to advance the knowledge of magic in the human world, despite our pious devotion to the boundaries marked out by the Gray Book.

Oh no it’s another history lesson secretly

Today Shadowhunters depend heavily on Portals as a means for rapid travel all over the world. It would be easy to conclude from this that the Portal is an old and well-established Nephilim tool, but in truth it is a modern invention, dating back to the period between the First and Second Accords. The first successful Portal was created in 1878, a collaboration between Henry Branwell, then head of the London Institute, and a warlock whose name history, unfortunately, does not record. Branwell was at the time only the most recent in a long string of Shadowhunters (mostly Silent Brothers) and warlocks to seek a reliable, safe means of instantaneous travel. Dimensional magic of course has been in existence for as long as there has been magic in our world; the means by which demons are able to slip from their own world to ours is itself magic in the same family as the Portal. There were two major requirements in creating a workable Portal for Shadowhunter use—keeping it stable and safely open for the necessary amount of time and safely closed when no longer needed, and accurately controlling the destination that a Portal would open onto.

Working on his own, Branwell had designed a Portal that had solved the first of these problems; it could be opened and closed, but he could find no way to direct its destination, and so it could not be tested. A Portal opened to an arbitrary location could send a hapless Shadowhunter to any location in our world, to a different world entirely, even to the Void.

The difficulty here turns out to lie in our restriction to Gray Book Marks. We cannot arbitrarily describe a destination using the runic language we are permitted to use. The solution was discovered by Branwell and his anonymous warlock collaborator, and it is an ingenious merging of two runic systems and the magic inherent in the mind of the one traveling through the Portal. First, a “frame” of Marks (which have analogues in both seraphic and demonic runic systems) is created, and inscribed within and around this frame is a set of demonic runes that are drawn in an unstable, unfinished state.

These runes, however, only specify the destination in vague terms. To “tune” the Portal to the exact location desired, the user of the Portal must picture clearly in their mind the destination they are traveling to. The Portal detects these details and modifies the demonic destination runes on the fly, to exactly describe the far end of the Portal.

This kind of runic manipulation isn’t available to Shadowhunters, and so to this day Portals must be created by warlocks. To get around this, a large number of permanent Portals have been established to transport Nephilim to and from Idris, for instance, without having to hire warlocks for every trip. Even so, today Portal construction makes up the vast majority of jobs for warlocks hired by Shadowhunters.

Originally Portals had to be closed manually by their creator once they were no longer needed, but in recent years warlocks have been able to create Portals that close automatically after a certain amount of time has passed. This kind of Portal is what is usually used today, for purposes of safety.

But none of this is relevant to you because you can make new runes, so you can make Portals yourself. Without bothering a warlock.

I know how much those warlocks hate to be bothered.

Did you know you’re related to Henry Branwell, at least by marriage?

He was married to a Fairchild.

I did not know that. It is sort of weird that you do know that.

I had to memorize a lot of Shadowhunter genealogies at one point.

I can’t believe Simon hasn’t said anything terrible here yet.

His absence is almost eerie.

DISCUSSION QUESTIONS AND THINGS TO TRY

1. Learn a new rune you haven’t ever used before. Practice it here on the page and try applying it in the field.

I draw enough runes, thanks. Here is a drawing of Chairman Meow instead.

1a. Who is a woobums? Is it Chairman Meow? Is it?
Yes it is!
That is correct!

2. If possible, witness some (safe and legal!) demonic magic being performed near your home Institute. Discuss with your fellow local Shadowhunters. What magic is taking place in your part of the world?

It’s New York, so . . . all magic? Is there anything we don’t have? I’m pretty sure we’ve got all of it.

3. It can be very useful to learn to make your own magical wards. Find instructions and place a ward on something small, like a jewelry box. Practice removing and resetting the ward, then move on to something a little more complex. And so on.

Do not do this. Seriously, wards are a big pain. And you almost never have to make your own unless you’re replacing a broken one. No one reading the Codex as a new Shadowhunter should jump into making wards. They’ll end up warding their own foot or something.

Note to self: Do not ward own foot. Check.

“THE LAW IS HARD,

BUT IT IS THE LAW.”

You have been immersed, quickly, in a whole world that is still beyond your reckoning. You’ve learned not just that there are intelligent magical creatures on Earth who are not purely human, but that there are many of them, and many who wear a human face. These people wield powerful magic and engage in powerful, sometimes violent feuds. You know of the Shadow World and what you will find there. Now we take up the question of how you should act there.
In the most pompous way possible.

We Nephilim are, primarily in the Shadow World, the keepers of peace, and thus the keepers of the Law. The Law—our Covenant with Raziel—tells us what does and does not fall under our jurisdiction, how we may punish violations of the Law, and what rules we ourselves must obey in our interactions with mundanes, with Downworlders, and with one another.

The Law of the Nephilim is not a full code of conduct for Shadowhunters in all realms of their lives. First and foremost comes the injunction attributed to Jonathan Shadowhunter himself: “You are Man; serve Man; live among Man.” Though Idris may come with its own body of general laws, the Shadowhunters assigned all over the world are expected to live among the basic moral codes of their civilization. Our own Law is foremost in importance, but mundane law must be observed as well.
Really? The Covenant says that? Note: Ask Jace.

Yes we are supposed to follow mundane laws.

. . . Really?

Some of us are more careful than others.

HOW THE LAW AFFECTS: YOU

• You must investigate
any known instances
of Covenant Law being
violated
. In fact, you are required to consider even
rumors
,
urban legends
, and
folktales
, to assess their credibility.

• You
cannot reveal the Shadow World
to mundanes. In fact, Raziel’s guidance is that as we protect and save mundanes they must not know they are being saved.

What about mundane governments?

Mundanes who already know are ok

but . . . ?

• Whenever possible, you must
obey the mundane laws
in the place where you live.
“Whenever possible,” nudge nudge.

• You must
never commit a crime against another Shadowhunter
. These violations are punished much more harshly by the Clave than crimes against mundanes or Downworlders. This is not because of moral superiority, or because a Shadowhunter is a more valuable person than a non-Shadowhunter, but rather because we Nephilim are few and our lives short. To cause another Shadowhunter to come to harm is to benefit the demons who seek to destroy us.