Why Lucie and Cordelia Are Unsuited to Become Parabatai

By: Catnip (edited by Maya)

Throughout the Shadowhunter Chronicles, we have been introduced to a plethora of parabatai pairs. There have been some, like Will and Jem, who with their unconditional love and loyalty for each other have reduced us to tears. We have also witnessed the hilarity yet gentleness with which Jace and Alec treat each other, reducing us to tears in an entirely different way. We have new parabatais, like Simon and Clary, pairs with bonds broken, like Jules and Emma, and pairs who separated for matters of the heart, like Robert and Michael. In Cassandra Clare’s new novel, Chain of Gold, we are introduced to another budding pair - Cordelia Carstairs and Lucie Herondale.

Cordelia and Lucie have been friends since childhood and through their teens, keeping in touch despite Cordelia’s travelling life through constant letters. Lucie is an aspiring author, who, to relieve Cordelia from the boredom associated with a lack of friends, pens the novel - ‘The Beautiful Cordelia’. She regularly sends her dear friend updates on the book, no matter which part of the world the latter is in.

When we are introduced to Lucie in Chain of Gold, she is bouncing on her toes in excitement to finally be bound to Cordelia. The young Carstairs, however, is more interested in finding herself a husband - somewhat pushed along by Sona - in dwelling in romantic thoughts for Lucie’s brother James, and in righting the unreasonable - in her unlearnt opinion - arrest placed on her father, Elias. All thoughts of them being Parabatai are pushed out of her mind. One memorable sitting is brought to mind here, when Lucie reads out an excerpt from the ‘Beautiful Cordelia’, and her friend falls asleep.

Lucie too is wrong in her own right. She is highly flighty, concerned about uncovering the secrets of an enigmatic young ghost who saved her from a fairy trap some years ago. When Cordelia is in danger, as in the greenhouse of Chiswick manor, her first thought is not towards her, as Parabatai should be. She forgets to heal her, which is not fitting with the norm of parabatai, i.e. to have each other’s backs in battle. Lucie, though excited that Cordelia will officially be a part of her family, is fixated on just that point, rather than the semantics behind it. She is blissfully unaware of the true feelings Cordelia houses for her faux fiance.

All this being said, I can now state that their becoming parabatai seems to be more of an obligation than something they truly desire. When you look at James and Matthew, they both care for each other deeply. They are also coordinated in battle, and have had each other’s backs through the awkward adolescent stages of any young person. The obligation to undertake such a sacred ceremony could be coming from Will, Lucie’s father with a rather loving and crazed affinity to the Carstairs family, which is understandable coming from his history with them, (cough Jem cough), or could be the pressure of being a rare duo of females, who even more so in the traditional mindsets of the Shadowhunters are considered fragile, being parabatai. Another reason I feel so is that they hide plentiful secrets from one another. Lucie going about in her wayward manners, trying to raise the dead. Cordelia and her mysterious oath to an omnipotent power; these could be hindrances that could break what was a rather precarious relationship in the first place.

This brings me to my final point, that Lucie and Cordelia may not even become parabatai. While training, we are brought to the attention of them having injured themselves, proving their lack of a similar mindset. There was also the worry that James and Matthew had during their own ceremony, that something would interfere and prevent them from going through with it. This could be some form of foreshadowing, something Cassie is known to do. Coming back to the Lucie and Cordelia, their ceremony could be postponed till Chain of Thorns, or they decide not to undergo it after all.

Whether this might happen or not, we shall have to see. I rather hope that they will part gracefully as friends, rather than soul-bonded for eternity. The true spirit of parabatai - “Entreat me not to leave thee,” is not properly captured. I, as a reader, was not instantly enraptured as I was with the enthralling mystique and devotion that Will and Jem had reserved for each other. I was not convinced, and I really hope that Cassie has some other plans reserved for them, and gives them their happy ending in another fashion.