As their unseen company drew closer, Esmera realised she was actually hearing five pairs of footsteps and one set of legs being dragged across the tiles. A tight ball of something fearsome and sickening rose into her throat, but she forced it down.

Whatever followed, it would just be another painful sight for her to endure so that she could make this venture into the past worth it. Her family was dead, their agony of the past, but beyond this deserted estate were countless lives Esmera could still save. It was the thought of them, all the faceless, chattering figures, that Esmera clung onto.

Ruagu's grin widened. The footsteps were near enough for him to hear them too, to know what they meant. "You may hold onto your precious daughter for now." He held baby Esmera out to Lady Yandriya, who took her child with grasping hands.

The baby let out a whimper as her mother held her close, bundling the neckline of Yandriya's dress into her little fist. The sound turned into a contented coo as Yandriya crooned comforting lies that the approaching footsteps were now near enough to drown out.

Baby Esmera hadn't comprehended her family's dire circumstances at that moment, but adult Esmera understood all too well the trouble they were in.

It turned her blood cold, sent terror prickling at her composure. If only she was able to enter their timeline to make the difference her parents and her brothers had needed her to.

The polished double doors leading into the vault creaked open. A yao's deceptively humanoid hand dropped a man on the tiles in front of them. He groaned as he hit the floor face-first.

Beside him, a grey cat mewled, pressing a paw over her eye socket. Even half blind, she stumbled to the man's side, licking his cheek as if her ferocity could pull him back to his feet. Blood leaked down the cat's face like red tears, matting her beautiful, lustrous fur.

Hira's coat had been less faded back then, her frame leaner, and her eye injury fresher than when Esmera had met her, but there was no mistaking her.

Which meant that the man clutching at his ribs and choking back pain beside her had to be Lord Hudion.

A soft warmth spread through Esmera at the thought of finally seeing the father she never knew. She should've been raised by him, played games with him and laughed at his stupid jokes over dinner if things hadn't happened as they had. She would never meet him, but this was the closest she'd get to seeing him in the flesh.

Before Esmera could get a good look at Hudion, another movement summoned her attention elsewhere.

Three boys were shoved into the room after Hudion. The door closed behind them with a finality that felt fatal because it sealed them inside a vault with the wickedest man in the land.

"Hudion?" Yandriya's words were soft, disbelieving until the man pulled himself into a sitting position, his hazel eyes—Esmera's eyes—searching for the source of Yandriya's voice. "Hudion!" Her scream echoed through the chamber.

Esmera flinched. The sound was loud enough to send her ears ringing, possibly even to wake the dead, but the lines of terracotta soldiers remained stubbornly still, almost mockingly so with their readiness for battle while the Finnaaz family was all but unarmed.

Yandriya rushed towards her husband, her loose-fitting pants billowing about her ankles and her baby clutched close to her chest, but Ruagu held up a pale hand, his voice low and deadly.

"Stay where you are."

And Yandriya froze where she stood because now she didn't only have one child Ruagu could use against her but four. Her eyes stayed fixed on her husband where he lay on the floor.

Hudion's eyes seemed to embrace her in the way his hands were forbidden to. "Yandriya, are you okay?"

She nodded, tears forming in her eyes, their answer anything but "yes" even as her mouth lied, "I am."

There was nothing else she could've said, not when her young sons clustered together in fear, not when her husband was in pain that rendered him powerless to free her from hers.

Hudion nodded as he accepted the lie, wincing as he cradled his ribs. "And Esmera?"

Yandriya's eyes flashed down to the bundled blankets nestled against her chest before she spoke. "She's fine."

As if to confirm that, the baby let out a wail that died as soon as Yandriya rocked her against her, murmuring false reassurances. She slipped her finger into Esmera's searching hand, and her tiny fingers closed around it.

"For now." Ruagu looked around at the Finnaaz family, who he had successfully cornered in one room. So self-congratulatory was that look on his face that Esmera wanted to enter this memory just to punch him, just so that he could feel a fraction of the agony he had inflicted on the people around him.

The tallest boy took Hudion by the arms and helped him to his feet, his tawny cat snarling at his ankles as her lithe, black-striped legs prepared to pounce.

"Peace, Faheena," murmured the boy, his eyes settling on Ruagu. Hazel like Hudion's, like Esmera's, they betrayed no feeling, no fear. "It is not yet time to fight."

It was Hira who hissed a reply at Lord Hudion's feet, not taking her eyes off the black-cloaked villain as Ruagu simply smirked.

Now standing, albeit unsteadily, Hudion squeezed his oldest son's shoulder. "Thank you, Givan."

Beside him, his familiar quivered. Every hair on her body stood on end, turning her into a grey ball of fury that Esmera would've fled from but Ruagu only chuckled at.

With trembling legs and quivering fingers, Hudion knelt to stroke Hira's head even as his eyes passed from his wife to the sorcerer who separated him from her. Hira hissed, settling behind Hudion's leg to contain herself.

She was a fighter, Esmera did not doubt it. It was the only way she could've lost an eye on the way here while every other familiar in sight appeared unscathed.

The two younger boys huddled together, their dark eyes flitting between their mother and Ruagu in terror. The younger one held a gold-brown millipede that had curled into a fearful circle on his chubby palm, while his brother's red panda hid behind their legs. All that could be seen of him from where Esmera stood was his black paws, white muzzle, and a small section of his red-furred head.

Leaning on his oldest son, Lord Hudion swiped away the blood dribbling out of his nostril, shook out his dark, ruffled curls, and straightened his tunic with his free hand. Like those of his servants, his clothing was that specific shade of maroon that would hide any bloodstains.

His nose might've been straight once, but it was now crooked. Even so, Esmera saw as much of herself in him as she had in Yandriya. It mesmerised her to the point that she couldn't look away.

If only her visual memory was as powerful as her auditory memory. She had their voices stored inside her mind, but she couldn't retain the images of their faces in the same way.

Hudion tilted his chin upwards. If it wasn't for the bruise where a fist had struck his jaw, he would've looked like the haughty lord he might've been before he was an evil sorcerer's hostage. "What do you want?"

"It's simple." Ruagu crossed the room, his deadly hands tucked into his pockets where they couldn't harm anyone, but not for long, Esmera knew. "I want you to destroy this." The sorcerer gestured at the earthen army standing behind him, still like the statues they were.

Esmera studied them. They were moments away from attacking if only they could be activated, but how did one do that? Was a specific ritual or merely a certain incantation needed?

That was the question she was hoping to have answered in this foray into the past, but as of then, she still had no clue.

Hudion's eyes widened. He shook his head. "This army was a gift to my family from the god Nuredir. You can't expect me to annihilate it."

Ruagu had by then slithered across the room with his viper keeping pace by him. He was now face to face with Hudion, and even as he leaned closer, Esmera's father's expression didn't falter, didn't show any fear. Givan's mouth quivered for just a moment before he steadied it again.

Esmera wished she could've been as brave as them. She had never been able to hide her fear as they could, and it was part of the reason why Stephan had found it so easy to hurt her.

Ruagu's lips quirked with amusement at the bravery that awed Esmera. "Don't forget, I have your whole family in this room, and I can kill them with a single touch." He raised a threatening hand.

It was stained with blood nobody could see because he had always been good at covering his tracks. Even so, it looked like the hand of a murderer with its talons for nails, with the tight, shrivelled skin that wore Ruagu's age even though his face hadn't changed in the twenty-three years since Esmera had last seen him.

The words took a moment to sink in. Hudion sent an alarmed look at Yandriya.

She gave him a small nod to say that yes, something so dreadful was possible. After all, she had seen it for herself.

Ruagu took another step towards Hudion. The two younger boys flinched where they stood, but Givan's face didn't change even though he was the closest of his brothers to the man who was going to murder them all.

"Just destroy your army, and you have my word that I will let you and your family live in peace. You will no longer be a threat to me."

Maybe Hudion knew not to trust the villain's silky words because he saw the glance Ruagu threw at the baby in Yandriya's arms. Maybe it was because he was the military leader Tauram claimed he was and issued orders more often than he took them. Maybe it was the gaze he and his wife exchanged and her subtle nod that told him she supported whatever decision he would make.

Either way, Esmera knew from the way Hudion's eyes narrowed that he wasn't going to sacrifice the Finnaaz army without a fight.

Still clutching his oldest son for support, Hudion opened his mouth. "Avenge—"

And then Ruagu was clamping his hand over Hudion's lips and smiling as his infectious decay spread over Esmera's father's face, eating into his skin, corroding the arteries running down his neck.

"Baba!" Givan's composed façade fractured. He lunged after Hudion as he fell, but it was too late.

He was dead, just like everyone else Ruagu had touched with his rotten malice.

Esmera's chest clenched so tightly that she couldn't breathe. She should look away, but she couldn't. She clung so tightly to any glimpse or mention of her family that she couldn't even turn away from their deaths.

"Baba." Givan's voice broke as he shook his father. Hudion made no response.

His familiar hazel eyes gazed glassily up at the ceiling, and Esmera would've kept staring at him if tears didn't rise into hers, blurring her vision.

Givan looked up at Yandriya with the most frightened eyes Esmera had ever seen. She stared back, begging him with her gaze to tell her that what she believed to be true wasn't so, but he only shook his head.

Yandriya's scream was unearthly. Nothing, not ten yaoguai, not Ruagu's warning glance, could've stopped her from dashing across the vault with her butterfly familiar fluttering after her. Still with her baby in one arm, she reached for Hudion's still hand with the other, sobbing garbled syllables that might've been an attempt at his name. Hira squashed against Hudion's side, licking her sorcerer's hand to rouse him, but he would never awake again.

The decay stopped just short of where Yandriya rested her head on Hudion's chest, squeezing her eyes closed with incomprehensible pain.

Esmera imagined that when her mother closed her eyes, she might have been able to convince herself that Hudion was alive and whole, that nothing was different from how it had been mere seconds ago, but that would only be a lie no less cruel than the truth.

Ruagu simply smiled down at Yandriya with eyes that revelled in ruin, that delighted in the destruction he could bring about with a single touch.

Baby Esmera realised that something was wrong. She let out a high-pitched squeal, and this time, Yandriya was too consumed by grief to notice, let alone console her, and her squalls rose until they competed with her mother's sobs.

It was for the best that Yandriya kept her face buried in her husband's tunic because Ruagu's hands were warmed up and searching for their next unfortunate victims.

He turned to the two younger boys, who only huddled closer together when his attention and his wicked smile landed on them and held their familiars close to them.

They were only children, so helpless, so terrified after they had just seen one of the strongest men they knew die and the woman they loved most falling to pieces by his side.

Esmera tugged at Lady Varali's wrist. She was going to stand between them and Ruagu. She couldn't protect them then, but she'd protect them now.

Lady Varali shook her head, holding Esmera at her side firmly but gently. "Memory walkers have the gift to explore this timeline but not to alter it."

Lady Varali had said that before. Esmera knew she was right. Ruagu and his yaoguai would've killed her just for being a Finnaaz, but they ignored her because they couldn't see her. After all, she was in the future where they couldn't reach her from the past, and she couldn't touch them either.

Esmera could only watch with deepening horror as Ruagu put one hand on each of their heads, sending them the same death he had given their father only moments before.

Her heart broke as the millipede rolled into a ball on the youngest brother's palm, while the red panda nestled itself between the older boy's side and his splayed around.

Givan turned in time to see his brothers' bodies fall but not to protect them. His eyes bulged as he shook his head in disbelief.

Yandriya raised her head to reveal her tear-stained cheeks, releasing another wail at the new sight that greeted her. Baby Esmera's cries rose with hers.

Givan looked up at Ruagu with terrified eyes, aware that he was the last son alive in a line of corpses while his brothers' murderer stood over him.

"Son, I think you're cleverer than your father was." Ruagu's eyes crinkled as he smiled.

Esmera wanted to punch him, break his nose as he had broken her father's. He had no right to refer to Givan as "son", no right to speak to him at all after everything he had done.

Oblivious to the disdain the howling baby would have for him in the future, Ruagu continued, still grinning like a comedian who was leading his audience to his punchline. "Half of your family is dead." Ruagu gestured to the corpses. "Half still lives. If you do what I have asked, I will let three of you go free. Is that a deal?"

Givan simply stared up at Ruagu, either too shocked to reply or refusing to say a word to this man who'd dared to come into his home and kill his family. Tears gleamed in his eyes, but he blinked them away, holding Ruagu's gaze in a way that would've made Hudion proud of him.

Ruagu must've been desperate to destroy the weapon because, even as his jaw tensed with suppressed annoyance, he said, "I will give you until sunset to decide."

He made it sound like a dinner invitation, but nobody in the room was fooled. They had all seen who he truly was, what he was capable of.

"My lady." Ruagu turned to Yandriya, but she only tightened her grasp on her husband's tunic where she sobbed on the floor beside him.

His mouth flattening into a hard, impatient line, Ruagu left Givan standing alone while he stormed towards Yandriya.

She clung to her husband, shaking her head in refusal to Ruagu's commands. It was only when he lost patience, gripping Yandriya by her hair and yanking her to her feet, that she stood, still sobbing words Esmera couldn't understand.

With his other hand, Ruagu grabbed Givan by the arm and dragged the boy and his mother towards the exit to the vault.

They stopped in front of the doors. Their glossy beauty couldn't be more different from the horrors they had witnessed.

"Open the doors." Although cool, Ruagu's voice retained some of its affability, but it was just a mask to manipulate Givan.

Esmera couldn't think of anything more disgusting than murdering a child's family in front of him and then threatening him, yet Ruagu had the gall to do so with such ease.

"Release us from your confines." Givan's voice quivered, only to be drowned out by the heavy doors swinging open at his command.

Ruagu strode between them, pulling Givan and Yandriya, who was still sobbing, out of the vault. Faheena, his golden cat, sprinted after him, and Yandriya's enchanting butterfly never hovered more than an inch away from her.

Baby Esmera's shrieks reverberated across the high-ceilinged room, but Ruagu continued his path, and Esmera and Lady Varali started after him.

Ruagu shoved Givan and Yandriya up the stairs. Esmera followed, feeling like a ghost, like a memory of someone long dead.

If the deaths she had witnessed stuck with her twenty-three years after they had happened, she could only imagine how fresh the hurt must've been for Yandriya and Givan, how cutting their painful grief.

That must be why Yandriya sobbed all the way up to the first floor while Givan's shell-shocked stare stayed ahead of him. They came to a single door. Four yaoguai stood outside of it, their hands on the spears strapped to their torsos in case they should need them.

Ruagu released Yandriya and Givan. One yao grabbed the widowed lady while the other caught hold of her son and forced them into the room while the two remaining yaoguai stood guard at the door.

Esmera was rooted to the spot by fear, by horror. She would've stayed where she was if Lady Varali didn't pull her into the room as Yandriya fell onto the sofa and drew Givan close to her.

The boy watched the yaoguai who had escorted them inside close the door behind them, sealing themselves in with them. They turned back to face him with blank expressions that somehow felt menacing.

Yandriya buried her face in Givan's curly hair as she still held a wailing Esmera. Givan huddled close to her even as he never took his eyes off the yaoguai.

They were all that remained of the family that had once filled this house with love, with joy, with life.