The Comfort of Broken Glass

The Quick Hands of a Thief

Jimmy's view was suddenly filled to the brim with deep oranges and forest greens. A very familiar view of Mezalea.

Ah, so the shake was the mirror being taken out of Joel's inventory.

There were two Cod in front of the Mezalean King, Jimmy resigned them to be Oswald and Clementine, that was one thing Jimmy loved about his empire. He could really get to know all of them, unlike the other rulers Jimmy could easily name all of his citizens as well as some other simple things like, who they got along with and what they liked and disliked.

Jimmy was ecstatic! There were survivors! Jimmy had started to fear the worst after all he was trapped in his own mind for a few days. Seeing the Cod put his mind at ease.

"Do you know anything about this?" Joel said getting straight to the point. Pulling up the mirror so the Cod could take a closer look. Huh, that was weird. Usually Joel would ease into trade deals,  buttering you up before closing the deal. Something he had definitely picked up from Lizzie.

"Hmmm, it definitely looks like it came from the Cod Lands. But I haven't the faintest idea who owned it. What do you think Clementine?" Oswald said slowly, clearly a little deep in thought.

"I agree, it definitely seems to be from the Cod Lands just from its design alone. It was probably one of the older Cods mirrors. It seems like something Sally would have." Clementine spoke very bluntly, doing nothing to hide how annoyed she was.

"Why haven't you given this to Lizzie. It seems like she would need this mirror much more than you, or us." Clementine snapped.

"Clementine! Don't say that he was probably trying to help us!" Oswald quickly replied, trying to keep the conversation civil. Jimmy couldn't see Joel's face at all so he couldn't tell how the king had taken the comment.

"Oswald don't you see? Joel is quite literally married to the Ocean Queen. He has much more of a reason to give it to her than to us! The only reason he would do this is if he was getting something out of it!"

Clementine was always the more explosive one out of the two. She was braver and much more reckless than Oswald. Both of the Cod had been friends since Childhood. Oswald was pretty laid back and clumsy. Clementine always would jump into conversations to defend Oswald. He guessed that's what was happening now.

Joel stayed uncharacteristically silent. Usually when Joel was under fire he would yell about how he wasn't short or poor or whatever the person was making fun of him for. He was never silent, never. That's what was worrying Jimmy the most.

"I- Lizzie is on the verge of declaring war on every Empire. There's already some ruler's that say that Jimmy's dead and there's so point in looking for him. I… I fear that if I were to give her this mirror that she would think that's what I thought too. And..  I just want to do the right thing…" Joel said slowly fear seeping into his words it was pretty clear this had been keeping him up at night.

This was torture! Watching his friends and family slowly succumb to sorrow and grief. Jimmy hated every moment of this. He needed to get out of here! But that's where the stump came in. This mirror was a prison. There was nothing that Jimmy could use to his advantage. Well there was one thing: the water. You see, being a Cod as well as one of the heir's of the ocean had some perks. One being that Jimmy could control water like Scott could ice. But Jimmy was pretty rusty. Lizzie was the only one out of the two that was seen as fit to rule. And as such Jimmy didn't get to work with water as much as her. But that doesn't mean that he can't control the tides, in fact what was the saying? 'There's no time like the present'.

Jimmy stood back tall putting his arms in front of him like he had seen Lizzie do many times before and slowly closed his eyes trying to connect to the ocean's flow. He needed to clear his mind completely, thinking only about water. How it stretches and Flows Into the deepest caves, streams and lakes.

Water changes like the wind, rough and unforgiving one moment and the next soft and calm forever overlapping like a hug.

Even with all of Jimmy's might his mind still wanted. He tried his best to cover it up but that only made his mind wander more in this blunder.

A giant shake once again rattled through the mirror. Throwing Jimmy out of his mind and on to the still water below him. There was a splash as his water tower fell.

'What happened?' Jimmy stood on shaky legs struggling to get onto its feet after being knocked down so harshly.

"Tata! I shall be off now Joel! Thanks for this wonderful gift!" a voice mocked

Was that… Joey?

JOEY!

WHAT WAS HAPPENING? Has Xornoth found him again? And just got Joey to bring him back?!

Jimmy could barely see any action from where Joey was holding the mirror. Jimmy was really starting to worry he hadn't seen Joel yet. Was he hurt? Or has he just given up on the mirror? To Joel the mirror probably had no more use, so why would he bother going after it?

"Joey! Give that back!"

Joel! So he was going after the Mirror! The mirror's sight was still terrible. Being shaken around as the two other rulers were locked in a high speed chase. Fireworks being let off in quick succession, and yells from both sides as they sped through the sky. The Cod had to his ears to get the gist on what was happening.

But it was all for nort.

A few minutes of intense flying later Joel and Joey were still neck and neck. But as time went by and the biomes changed the surroundings started to really play into Joey's favour.  Jimmy watched Joel slammed face first into a jungle tree. It was a sorry sight watching as the Mezalean King slowly slid down the tree trunk dazed from the head-on collision. As Joey finally made his proper getaway. Laughing at the loser of this fight as he sped off into the sunset.