Chronos waited patiently for Claudina as he held Esme in his arms.
"...um Sir…"she carefully begun.
"Yes?"
"Are we really going home now?"
"That's correct. The Saintess is saying goodbye to her friends now. She will be here soon."
"...oh…"
"Something on your mind, lass?"
"It's nothing, sir…"
"I believe Claudina taught to speak your mind. Not doing as you are taught will be seen as looking down on your teacher."
Esme's head shot up. "I dare not look down!"
"Then speak. What has made you so bothered?"
"Er, if the Saint-tess wants to stay we can stay. I don't mind…"
"Trust me when I say this Esme, but more than you Claudina's the one who wants to leave more."
"...Does the Saintess not have any friends?"
A deadpan expression crossed Chronos' face. "Esme, if you value your life, you will not utter such words in front of her. No matter how true those words are or how much you are tempted, it's not worth it."
Esme slapped her hands over her mouth and nodded vigorously.
"What are you talking about?"
Chronos lifted his eyes up. "Took you long enough."
Claudina shrugged. "What can I say? I am a busy woman."
"A busybody you mean."
"So sue me, " she smirked. "Whenever you are ready Chronos." She stood beside him.
Placing Esme into her arms he took out a long golden chain with both ends attached to an hourglass. The left hourglass already had sand fallen down at the bottom while the right one had sand suspended. He placed both hourglasses on the ground with the chain forming a semi circle around them.
He put his hand out front for Claudina to grab. Grasping firmly, the infinity symbol on Chronos' head began to shine brightly.
The chain let beams of starlight. Esme pressed her face into Claudina's chest to shield her eyes.
Colors blurred into white. Gusts of wind flung open the closed shutters. The windchimes strung outside crashed into the ground. Trees were nearly stripped off the ground. Howls of the gods' beasts echoed through the five kingdoms. Chronos' eyes glowed the same starlight gold. The infinity symbol changed from bright yellow to gold to white…
…and then silence.
All was calm again.
Chronos let go of Claudina's hand and stepped outside the semi circle.
"...We arrived in our timeline."
Claudina looked around. Everything was the same. The same mantlepiece, the same boring books and the same glass door connecting to Chronos' private gardens at the back of the temple.
"Are you sure?" She put down Esme and she wandered around.
Chronos scoffed. "I am the God of time. Of course I am sure."
"Okay but you sent me back in time so I don't know…" she said with mocking unease.
"Claudina you are THIS close to getting slapped for your utter disrespect to your god."
"Your fingers are touching."
"Exactly!"
Claudina giggled. Chronos signed and pinched the bridge of his nose.
"A week."
"Pardon?"
"I am giving you a week's worth of time to figure out whatever history has changed due to your pranks in the past."
Claudina stomped her foot indignantly. "I just arrived! Shouldn't I get to rest?! I haven't been to the dukedom either!"
"Alright, fine! Two weeks! Now shoo!"
True to her word, Claudina knocked on his door 2 weeks later.
She flung down the stack of papers on top of his table. Scowling, she flopped down in front of him.
Already used to her volatile emotions he drew the first stack of papers towards him. "...and what has gotten you so uptight today?"
Claudina loudly clicked her tongue.
"...Hmm, the reports are…seemingly normal. At least as normal as it can get after such…Mmmh let's see here…'the Holy Swords of the ancient times have long since been lost in history'…understandable, '...in their desperate need the Celestial Heavens sent down a divine core to forge weapons…'how far fetched since you are the furthest thing from a Saintess…" he lowered the paper. "I would say it's a relatively easy to handle revision of the past events…but tell me Claudina what has made you so upset? You have no more work. I am the one who has to properly fix the revisions."
Claudina signed and bounced her legs. "My home dynamic has become strange."
"Prey tell." he grimly thought, 'Though it has always been strange in my opinion…'
"You know that the tramp of Crowley lived in the eastern empire a few years before she got married to father , right?"
"Yes, what about her?" To call her own mother a woman of loose morals, he wondered if Ivan made a mistake in her upbringing.
She gritted her teeth. "When I returned home I saw an older half brother lounging in the living room."
Chronos lifted his brow in surprise. "Variables come into existence when the timeline is changed but to think an entire whole person would be created…Claudina you are an only child aren't you?"
"Of course I am!" she snapped. "Father would never bring in a mistress's child in the house because he knows I would kill it."
He tried not to think too much about how she considers her half siblings something inhuman. "...Claudina does this…variable looks like the late emperor Ezra?"
"The resemblance is uncanny!"
"That explains it."
"What?!" she growled.
"...Are you aware of the Temporal Time Paradox?"
"Huh? Temporal Time?...Ah, I remember. It's when the actions of one timeline causes another timeline to change to resemble the first timeline."
"In simpler terms, yes. Fundamentally, when the main catalyst that causes a major event that moves the future forward is moved, changed or destroyed, then all the other timelines that were previously branched off it are given a correction. A forceful one."
Claudina raised her hand.
"Yes?"
"What do you mean 'branched off'? Are you saying there are more timelines than two?"
"Claudina in all my life, I have reversed and forwarded time multiple times. Due to that the main timeline-let's call it 'A'- branched off like a river. These timelines are all different but they all have the same result."
Claudina frowned. "Because of the catalyst."
"Correct. We can assume that the catalyst in this timeline was Ezra. And you killed him."
"Wow...was he that important? You sure didn't seem to mind it much when the proposition to kill him came up."
"Because different people have different catalyst."
"Pardon?"
"Just like how timelines require catalyst to move forward, humans also require those catalyst to move. When you killed him the Time Paradox created something similar to act as Ezra."
She looked around before turning to him. "Does this mean we are in a different timeline?"
"A timeline where Ezra died but you now have a half brother due to his death? I would say, yes. This is a different timeline. When we came back to the present a brand new timeline had branched off from the main timeline already. And for the new timeline to be formed in the first place, there was a correction. A new catalyst in the form of your half-brother. We are already in a future where Ezra died twenty years ago."
"Sounds complicated."
"Time is complicated."
"So…what if I kill him?"
"...I will talk to your Duke Ivan and even the king if it pleases you to make sure you stay as the only heir."
She had a sly grin when she said her next words. "Hypothetically speaking, what would happen if I tried to kill him?"
"Hypothetically speaking, you will die. Not by the Universe. But by me."