Bryce's view

When my wife came in, I was looking after my youngest child, a lively 1-year-old son with blonde hair.

"Honey," she said, "Can you read this?" and handed me a note.

"Maybe," I responded, "If it is in English, you know I can't read Chinese."

"Well, honey, it certainly is not Chinese," my wife said dryly.

I let go of the game with my son, stood up, and took the note; glancing at it; I saw it was in English.

"Oh, it is in English," I said, and I began to read the note.

The note said, "Brother Bryce, Mum was kidnapped yesterday. Can you please keep an eye out for her? Her abductor was Prince Dudo. Regards, Fergus."

"What! Mum is abducted? What sort of sick joke is this?" I exclaimed in English.

"What is it, honey?" my wife asked, seeing my distress.

"Fergus wrote to say Mama was abducted," I said using the Chinese way of addressing one's mother, "He wants me to look out for her."

"You should you know," my wife said, "She is your mother, and you should be looking after her and not my mother."

I nodded, reluctant to leave. My wife was the one who had brought me happiness, not my mother. My mother made me feel inferior and was the source of my anxiety and depression growing up. If it had not been for the time rip, I would have still been in my room playing games and only going out when my friends shouted me.

"I don't really want to look for her," I said to my wife, "I know she is my mother, but not once has she contacted me here since she left."

"I am surprised you expect her to, considering my mother poisoned her," my wife pointed out, "and you look after my mother. If it were my mother kidnapped would you look?"

I nodded.

"Then go look for yours, she is a far better person than my mother, and you won't even acknowledge it. I forbid you from coming back here until she is found. I will give you travelling expenses and goods, go find her. If not for yourself, for my brother. My brother would be beside himself right now, losing his wife."

"He would? But why?" I asked. I never really got how my wife knew what was going on with her brother when the rest of the family did not.

"He loves your mother. Did you know she saved him three times now? Not only that, she gave him twin babies three years ago."

"Wait, you are telling me I have twin siblings? Why are you telling me this now? Why did you not say anything to me?" I demanded, "Surely that piece of news you could have told me?"

"But you were... oh, never mind, you know now. So will you look for her?"

"Yes," I grumbled. I could not let the twin grow up without a mother despite how I felt towards her, "I will go look in the morning."

I left the next day, following my gut as to where to go. It wasn't exceptionally reliable. One day I went one direction, and the next another, but I followed it.

Maelgwyn's view

A hawk flew into my camp, and an aide came to me with the message which was on its leg.

"Sir, I hope you can understand this message as none of the messengers can. We are only bringing it to you unscreened as you came from the future. Perhaps it is from someone there," the man bowed, holding out the small scrap of paper.

"Ok, Thanks, you may go," I said, dismissing the person before pocketing the paper and heading back to the war table where several other generals were meeting concerning the war.

"Shouldn't you read that?" one of the generals asked.

"I will read it after we have sorted out the tactics we will employ," I declared. I wish I had listened and read it straight away, but I was known to deal with one situation at a time and coldly calculating at that.

"Ok," he said, and we returned to the meeting. 

The meeting took the rest of the day and half the night. I was so tired I fell asleep as soon as I got to my tent, waking when the cock crowed the next day with a fright as I remembered I still had not looked at the message to see what it meant.

The note said, "Brother Maelgwyn, Mum was kidnapped yesterday. Can you please keep an eye out for her? Her abductor was Prince Dudo. Regards, Fergus."

I felt a deep rage overtake me. "Why can't these princes leave mum alone? Why are they so attracted to her? I thought Prince Dudo was better than this," as I was stuck on the battlefield, I sent a bird off to Emperor Taiji requesting time off to look for my mother.

I was granted permission half a day later on the condition I head to the capital to see Emperor Taiji first. So, I headed to the capital, wondering why I had to see the Emperor first.

Emperor Taiji

I received a message from Bao Li, the ex-head of the assassins guild, "Dear Emperor Taiji, I am writing to inform you that your favored General Xin's wife was abducted yesterday. I apologise for my failure to protect her. However, I believe you need to be aware that it was your brother Prince Dudo who kidnapped her along with three other guards. I trust you will know what to do. In your service Bao Li."

A wave of deep anger rose up in me, "How dare my brother take what was my generals! I wanted her for myself too, but it is not right to steal another man's wife!" not long after, I received a request from General Maelgwyn to go after his mother and look for her.

I agreed, and as I had been thinking about the situation, I decided I wanted to give him a decree for my brother, so such things would not happen again. It was only fitting that she got to stay with General Xin for the remainder of her days. They did could not hope for long with her health. I was amazed when I had received word that General Xin had twins with her and that they survived in the 100-day period where most children would die. I heard their surrogate mother was not so lucky. She lost her baby. 

Maelgwyn arrived, and I gave him the decree, "Prince Dudo, Relinquish the lady Fang Xinye to her family and pay them reparation for the damages caused by you abducting her Ladyship. If you do not, I will strip you of both your rank and properties and give them to her son General Maelgwyn in recognition of his war efforts. General Maelgwyn will be the one to carry out my orders should you ignore this decree. Your Emperor and brother, Taiji." The decree held my seal.

"I am sorry, Maelgwyn, I can not spare you, troops, to help, but I can give you this," I said sadly to him.

"Thank you my Emperor," he bowed his head and waited in that position, "May I ask why you are doing this?"

"You may, but I am not answering completely. My reasons are my own, and General Xin is a dear friend," and that was as much as I said before leaving the room. Sure, Maelgwyn should have been the one leaving, but I could not face him honestly. I was attracted to Xin's wife too, and I was angry at my brother for doing the one thing I did not think of doing, and now it was too late. I saw how much those two loved each other, and I could not bring myself to ruin a friendship that had spanned decades over a woman. 

I muttered under my breath, "But if you die, Xin, that is a different story. I will make her my concubine regardless of what anyone else says." I went then to Harjol and told her the situation, and we comforted each other. It was the first time that she had shown me any affection since she had come here after leaving Xinye 4 years ago.

"At least something good has come of this situation," I thought to myself, enjoying my wife's company.

Zhang Wei's view

I was going about my day when a Pidgeon flew in my window and hit me in the face. I knew it who the message was from because of that bird. It was the bird Bao had trained to find me and treat me that way, so I knew to keep the message secret if I was meeting someone when it came.

Thankfully no one was around. So, I opened the canister on the side of its leg.

"Prince Dudo has kidnaped the Lady of Light." was all that was written. 

I knew then that my lover was in trouble and needed my help. Our guild was made aware of the true nature of Xinye and was forbidden from ever accepting any jobs to assassinate her. But this did not mean they could not find her, I thought.

"Don't worry, Bao," I wrote back, "I will send out the assassin guild to find and rescue her. If Prince Dudo is found, he will die for his transgressions."

That very hour I summoned the entire guild still working in the city, put all their current jobs on hold, and sent them out to find and save her from wherever she was. They were made aware that Prince Dudo was the prime suspect in the case. I also sent out birds to the other assassins outside the city, telling them the same thing.

For those on jobs, I sent summons from their families that their employers could not ignore in order to allow them time to look. They were all given a month to search after that. There would be little hope of locating her.

Fang Xin's view

I had just left to take our goods to market with three of our most trusted men and friends. The journey itself was expected to take a week to take it to the distributor I trusted to give us a fair price. We had loaded up the wagon carefully. The produce in boxes and covered by thick blankets to keep them as fresh as possible. A white wagon canopy covers all of this as well. 

I had just settled into the second day of my journey when the bird arrived from Bao, telling me of my wife's abduction. I froze, and my horse stopped walking. 

"What's wrong, General?" our friends from town asked, "It's not like you to stop suddenly."

The message fell from my hand and fluttered to the ground. 

"Oh, it's a message," the only other literate person said as he jumped down off his horse and picked it up. "Let's see, what does this say?" and read it, "Oh." he said, "General, you should go. Don't worry about this. I will make sure you get a good deal. Go find your wife."

I sat a few more seconds, still stunned that someone would dare take her - and that someone being Prince Dudo... How dare he!

"Helloo!! Xin!" my friend waved his hand with the note in it in front of me.

"What?" I snapped at him unreasonably.

"GO! Go find your wife. I will handle this, ok?"

I nodded and galloped out of there, following my heart's direction as to where to go. 

"STOP! Turn here!" A voice thundered in my head, one I had not heard before, but I recognised it as Xinye's God's voice. 

"Ok," I said to the voice, "You direct me then."

Fergus's view

I headed out the next day after sending off multiple pidgeons. I hoped they would reach their targets and act upon it—the more people looking, the better our chances at finding Mama. 

I had grown more than attached to my adoptive mother since coming back in time. She had always been good to me, and I felt like a boy when I was with her, and now she had been treating me like a young man. I felt myself growing into the role. 

I was sad for her, though, as she never heard from her own children who returned in time with her. One could not care less about her, and the other was too busy surviving and directing a war. I knew she missed them, but I felt there was little I could do. It was up to her sons to make that effort, and she would respond with all the motherly love she had for them. She knew it too, so she waited each day for a word from them, but it never came.

Maelgwyn sometimes visited, so he knew he had a new brother and sister, but he never stayed long as his breaks were never long. His visits were more to see Baba than Mama.

I had planned to go the main route to the capital where I knew Prince Dudo's manor was and ask along it, but when I had hit about halfway, a voice in my head said, "Stop. Go right!" and it was insistent. I knew it was not my head voice as my thoughts were more chatty and less authoritative.

Eventually, I gave in and followed it, "Good!" it said and was silent until the next time I needed to change directions. 

To my amazement,  after about three weeks on the road, I was guided to a Palace on the river, and I blinked as Baba, Maelgwyn, Bryce, Bao, and Wei came toward me from all different directions.

🍀A/N If you enjoyed this chapter, please take the time to vote by pressing the star. Please let me know if you see any errors, as this is unedited.