Era of Ezri

Brok the thief?

"They're Collectors who instead of losing their powers, their abilities mutated. They gained the power to make things rot and decay as well as many other 'enhancements' that people were terrified of despite that Hybrids are incapable of harming other beings. Even so, they were heavily shunned by everyone."

I nodded in understanding as Jordan continued.

"Now, Gloria Bridge had always been a prosperous and thriving community and the faction sat above the rest when it came to wealth and development and the Commander, Vernil Yatet was a kind man.

At first, when Gloria started to dull and its people began to lose their abilities, every faction's Commander denied stealing energy from them. Vernil, naively, chose to trust the men as there was no bad blood between them and he saw them each as brothers rather than competitors.

But that had been Vernil's greatest mistake, only a couple of these factions were trustworthy and the rest wanted nothing more than to see Gloria crumble, and one Commander wanted Vernil's head.

Ultimately, Vernil decided that something must have been wrong with Gloria's own Mirror and that somehow it'd fallen ill, rather than investigating his original suspicion he set his mind on trying to repair the crystal.

Over the following weeks, the faction began to dim and Gloria Bridge was no longer what it was.

Back then, the majority of people had special skills or abilities and were called Collectors, and many still use this title today but due to the diminishing energy levels, Gloria's population became weaker and their abilities began to vanish.

Plus, everyone was becoming fatigued, not working as much as they used to and losing morale, the change was visible as soon as you walked through the gates of the faction.

Gloria's weakness was on display for all to see and everyone but Vernil knew it was only a matter of time before someone took what was his.

And with the word from Commander Mathias Eden of Offrost (Zorias' father), one of Gloria's neighbours, the faction was demolished as they rained down hell upon the civilians and did unspeakable things to those who were a part of Gloria's council and government.

During the invasion and amongst the madness, Gloria's Mirror was snatched, weakening Gloria's people further.

For a year Gloria Bridge suffered at the hands of Offrost and although they had allies, problems had started to arise in other factions. What had happened to Gloria had begun to occur everywhere else.

Every Collector's abilities began to diminish and each Faction's crystals began to dull, affecting each differently.

Rosehill, the twelfth faction, their fauna started to wither and their Collectors could no longer draw energy from nature which was their main source of power. And for some reason, even the sun didn't seem to shine as bright over the faction, which was detrimental to a community that thrived on solar power.

And you can only guess what happened next to Rosehill?"

"Their mirror was stolen too?" I answered.

"Exactly. Rosehill were furious and attacked other factions at random in hopes that someone would come forward and admit that they took their crystal, but it only made matters worse and added more fuel to the raging fire.

And this was how the first war between factions began, most call it the War Between Brothers, even though the Commanders could never be seen as such after it ended.

Each faction turned against the other, suspecting that anyone could be an enemy and would come for their crystal next.

So, whilst war waged and friend killed friend, each and every crystal was stolen causing an icy coldness to spread throughout the country, still to this day no one knows the whereabouts of the crystals....apart from my sisters and me."

"What! You two stole the Mirrors?" I gasped.

"I didn't realise that me and Cynthia looked that old," Jordan chuckled, "I can assure you that I was nothing but a mindless toddler when the Mirrors were stolen and my sisters were both newborns."

"Okay then... but how does any of this relate to me?" I questioned, puzzled.

Jordan sighed before placing both of his hands gently on top of mine.

"You are the mirrors." He spoke softly.

"Explain?"

"I'm not sure how or why but my uncle possessed all of the crystals when we found you ten years ago, however, they weren't in the same form that they'd always been in. They were no longer individual Mirrors but one larger one, somehow my uncle had found a way to fuse them."

"And now that's inside of me," I spoke confidently and as my eyes met with Jordans, he didn't have to admit it for me to know I was right, but then concern sunk in.

"So what does this mean? Are people coming for me, are they gonna-?"

"Don't worry, nobody knows and nobody ever will," Jordan assured me.

"How do you know that? People saw me at the Grand Square, what if they could tell?"

Jordan shook his head, laughing at my fear. "They can't just tell, they'd have to cut you open to find out what's inside."

I tensed at Jordan's words and he noticed immediately.

"Nobody will be cutting anyone open, I promise you-"

"But what about my blood, it's gold and people keep calling me a Creator." I interrupted.

"Well if your blood's gold, I guess you are a Creator, which simply means that all people will think is that despite the Mirrors going missing you've still retained your capabilities. That's all.

Even before the disappearance of the Mirrors, Creators had more power than any Collector and although their abilities are lesser now, they still hold a high rank.

But nobody will suspect you of anything, as long as you keep that glow in your chest hidden and act like a snob if you run into anyone besides me and my sisters."

I nodded, unsure if I'd be able to act anything but respectful but happy that I'd be safe here.

"Now, I think we're done for the day. Let's go see what my sisters are up to and we'll finish this history session later."

As we stood up Jordan gestured for me to walk in front of him but before I could reach the door I felt a thin chain being placed around my neck.

"This would be yours," Jordan said from behind me as I felt him seal the clasp.

My hand reached up to touch the delicate metal locket that rested on my sternum, it was complex in its design with curves and patterns covering all sides of it.

"You were wearing this when we found you," Jordan said.

The silver locket wasn't familiar to me at all, but my eyes were drawn to it as though it held all the secrets in the world.

"Thank you." I smiled gratefully, being able to find some comfort in knowing that a piece of myself had been restored.

"You're very welcome, now let's get out of here." Jordan took my hand in his as he led me out of the door.

On our way down the corridor, Jordan paused and turned to look at me.

"One more thing, there are dangers outside this estate beyond what you can see in front of you. Never leave this house alone unless absolutely necessary." The command sent a wave of concern through my body, as though I was already aware of the dangers that Jordan spoke of and I could tell that his warning was not to be taken lightly.

"Okay," I replied, as we started moving again on our journey to go and find the twins in this maze of a house.

Author's note

Sort of happy with this chapter, exhausted from editing it ☺️, but what do we think of Jordan so far?

Votes and/ or comments are loved and appreciated.

-Y