Since Esmera was abandoned on a stranger's doorstep as a baby, the only person who has looked out for her is herself.
Until a lark starts visiting her, leaving behind exotic flowers and iridescent pebbles that the internet doesn't recognise.
Esmera...
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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.
