Zarek's eyes practically spit fire, his entire body tensing to the point that he knew he was hurting himself. But he was having a very hard time controlling his temper right now.
Scenes of lifetimes, of moments he wanted to forget, continuously flashed in his head. They were like a cancer latching onto his brain, weeding their way in and circumventing otherwise healthy flesh. It was ghastly, grotesque in a way that tainted the soul and painted one's thoughts black.
It was hard to describe the sort of fury he had in his chest right now. One might as well have been dripping lava right through his heart, searing his lungs and ribs on the way down.
An Energy Fractal. It was an ability that Priya would only be able to awaken much later down the road.
While Priya's abilities were manifesting like energy control right now, that wasn't exactly correct. It had to be remembered that her Talent originated from her albinism, a genetic condition that messed with her body's ability to properly pigment herself. It was the reason she had gray hair and blue eyes.
Obviously, her rare form of albinism didn't manifest the normal way either, and after the Godsfall descended, it mutated in an odd way again.
Rather than controlling energy, it was more accurate to say that Priya was very adept at absorbing energy. Depending on one's skin tone, one could either be better or worse at dealing with the sun's rays. In this case, Priya was the same but with Godsfall instead.
After her Talent evolved, and her other two Awakened, she would gain the ability to externalize this energy.
Of course, Priya could already control energy outside of her body; that was how she coated her bullets with Godsfall before she fired them, something Zarek hadn't been able to do before.
But this ability was on another level. Not only could she externalize the energy, but she could concentrate it into a very readily available form.
By absorbing large quantities of energy of one kind, she could form Droplets, Crystals, and then eventually even beyond to the point of Fractals herself.
More than one of Priya's deaths had been related to this ability being exposed. This was because she was like a cheat code to improvement.
Imagine a Godsfall Crystal… but without any of the downsides.
Priya was able to concentrate energies, getting rid of all the bad side effects of Godsfall, and allowing one to improve practically without bottlenecks.
Because her father worked for the government and was the mayor of their city, he was often the reason these matters ended up getting exposed, something that Zarek hadn't wanted to burden Priya with.
This wasn't to say that Priya's father wanted to use her. He was just a man of duty, and he felt that his daughter would be an invaluable asset to their country as a whole. With her, they would be able to form a clear dividing line between the government and the people once again.
If the government officials could easily improve, while everyone else was stuck trying to siphon Godsfall Droplets and Crystals, constantly worried about becoming one of the Turned, that gap would appear once more.
In Zarek's first life, he realized too late. In his second, Priya had distanced herself from him because he was too eager with exposing the truth to her. By the time she realized he was right, they had long become estranged in ways that couldn't be easily repaired.
Without the chance to build up their relationship properly, even though he was right, it was hard to backtrack and pretend as though nothing had happened… they simply weren't the same Priya and Zarek anymore.
In Zarek's third life, guilt for how he had reacted to that situation bled over. He didn't protect Priya nearly as well as he should have, and he let her have a lot of freedom to make her own decisions.
At least that's what he thought was happening. When in reality, she probably just felt like he didn't care about her anymore.
This was the life he didn't know the end of. He didn't know exactly how she died.
Until now.
An energy fractal of this level… Zarek didn't know how Jiade had figured it out, but it was almost certainly related to Suki.
Suki must have forged a Matrix capable of taking advantage of this energy fractal.
Because the energy fractal was laced with time, Jiade could take it back with himself when he was reborn. It was likely unaffected by the shifts in time.
Then, all he had to do was find Suki again, and using whatever unique method that madman had forged, he was able to use this energy fractal to allow the Heralds to see through timelines much the same way the Rebirthers could.
All of the pieces fell one by one until Zarek reached the last and final question.
Why leave it here?
And that answer was obvious enough. If Jiade carried it around wherever he went, the impact he would have on the timeline would have been too obvious—obvious enough that Zarek wouldn't have to step into the city first to sense him, but would have likely sensed him all the way from the academy.
But more importantly than that…
Jiade didn't mind losing it again.
He didn't need all of his Heralds or even most of them to have their memories back—if anything, that might backfire. He just needed one of them back, the one of them that he trusted the most, the one of them that was his truest right-hand man…
The most dangerous of them all.
Suki.
A Suki with three lifetimes' worth of experience, who could set his optimal path as a Matrix Master right from the start, and with countless Matrix Lineages downloaded into his mind…
That man. That man was a true monster.
Even now, Zarek wasn't entirely sure how Jiade managed to control a man like that.
But not even a single ounce of those thoughts mattered at all.
He was pissed off right now. More furious than he could put into words.
Jiade would be the one looking over his shoulder, not him.