Parabatai

A **parabatai** is a pair of Nephilim warriors who fight together as lifelong partners, bound together by oath, regardless of their gender. Their bond is not reflected only in their closeness and willingness to lay down their lives for one another, but also in oath.

Not all Shadowhunters are required to have parabatai; it is actually less common to have them. A Shadowhunter has only eighteen years to find and choose a parabatai; once older than that, the ritual is no longer open to the Shadowhunter.

## Ritual

Parabatai usually find each other during their Academy days, if they did not find each other before.

In the formal ceremony held to bind the parabatai, the pair to be bound stand within a ring of fire on the ground. The words of the parabatai oath are spoken, and parabatai runes are placed on their skin.

The first two male Shadowhunters Jonathan and David fought side by side as the first parabatai. Tradition tells that the ritual they performed was somewhat different from the current one: they took each other's blood, spoke the words of the oath, and inscribed the runes of binding upon each other.

## Oath

*Entreat me not to leave thee,*
Or to return from following after thee—

For whither thou goest, I will go,

And where thou lodgest, I will lodge.

Thy people will be my people, and thy God my God.

Where thou diest, will I die, and there will I be buried.

The Angel do so to me, and more also,

If aught but death part thee and me.

## Bond

A Shadowhunter may choose only one parabatai in their lifetime and cannot perform the ritual more than once. Most Shadowhunters never have any parabatai at all; so, being fortunate enough to find someone worthy of becoming ones' parabatai is considered a blessing. This ritual bond enhances the natural feelings of love and friendship that already exist between the pair; however, this does not prevent rivalry or hate from forming between them.

The parabatai runes placed upon them enable them to draw on each other's strength in battle. They also maintain a strong connection between one another and are able to sense each other's life force. They can also choose to "open" or "close" their feelings to one another. In addition, Marks made by one parabatai upon another are stronger than Marks drawn by others, and there are Marks that only parabatai can use, because they draw on the partners' doubled strength.

The rune can also be used to track one another, and doing so will inflict severe pain on both.

## Severance

Traditionally, the parabatai bond is broken only by the death of one of the members of the partnership. When one dies, the rune will fade.

However, the binding can also be cut, or may fade, in some rare circumstances: if one becomes a Downworlder, if one leaves their life as a Shadowhunter to be with a mundane, or if one is stripped of their Marks and becomes a mundane, and if one is exiled, its enchantments and formal ceremony lessening ones' Nephilim magic, gradually weakening the bond.

If two Shadowhunters chose to sever their bond, they must participate in a special ceremony in the Silent City using their blood, an especially forged blade, and the magic of a Silent Brother. The ceremony must occur in the Mortal Chamber, in front of the original rune. The ceremony is so taboo that few are the Nephilim who have heard of it, it is never presented as an option to young Shadowhunters.

When one becomes a Silent Brother or an Iron Sister, the bond dissolves naturally as the Marks of transformation that new oblates take are among the most powerful that exist and overwhelm and dissolve the parabatai Marks of binding just as they overwhelm and dissolve more ordinary warrior's Marks.

## History

The idea of parabatai bonds came from an old tale, particularly the biblical tale of David and Jonathan, warriors who loved each other dearly and whose souls were knit together by Heaven after forming a covenant. Out of that story, Jonathan Shadowhunter and his companion David, who were coincidental namesakes of the biblical characters of the same name, took the idea of parabatai, created the rune and ritual for it, and encoded the ceremony into the Law.

Because Shadowhunters aren't meant to wield magic, and because the rune and ceremony was created by man and not by Heaven, the rune has a dangerous corruption. It also has a weakness: The first parabatai rune ever inscribed by Jonathan and David with their blood on a stone tablet is kept in the room of the Speaking Stars in the Silent City. If it is destroyed with the Mortal Sword, all the parabatai runes and bonds in the world will break.

## Known Parabatai

* Jonathan Shadowhunter and David the Silent (split by David's Silent Brotherhood)
* Will Herondale and Jem Carstairs (split by Jem's Silent Brotherhood)
* Valentine Morgenstern and Lucian Graymark (split by Luke's Turning)
* Isabelle Lightwood and Alec Lightwood