Priya unsurprisingly wanted to question everything. But Zarek was pretty much ready for it. He had been through this more than once. Even in the life where he initially wanted to tell her nothing, things ended up spinning back to the very situation they had here eventually.
In truth, this time around, Zarek told her even more than normal. That was because he knew in the back of his head that if he died this time, there was no going back.
If he ended up dying before her… he wanted to give her the best chance she could to survive.
Priya: _Then this Godsfall Tear, there's something important you need here?_
Zarek sighed. He didn't want to make that clear and give her unnecessary worries, so he just gave her a perfunctory answer.
Zarek: _It's a decent starting position. I've learned over the years that not everything can be perfect, so we just have to try our best to make it. Let the other chips fall where they may. Never get too high or too low. Failure is inevitable._
Priya seemed to take his words at face value, but that was because he knew her so well that it was easy to frame his words in just the right way.
But even then… she was sharp. Eventually, she would figure it out.
Zarek's determination solidified.
He would succeed no matter what.
If his plans went as he wanted, even if he ran into a Rebirther, he would have the confidence to look down on them.
The problem was that he was in it for the long haul. How long that would take was up in the air. After all… this was just step one.
If he wanted to overturn three other failures, he was going to have to go big.
Zarek distracted Priya with a few more flirtatious remarks before she hit him with a question she knew she was eventually going to ask.
Priya: _Then what are we doing now? Why are we just sitting here?_
This time Zarek just chuckled and answered out loud.
"Laying bait."
Priya blinked, not quite understanding, but still feeling like there was something particularly cold about Zarek's current demeanor that wasn't usually there.
Maybe she should have felt unsafe… this wasn't the man that she thought she knew.
But for some reason, she actually felt the exact opposite.
"… Will my parents be okay, Zarek?"
"I cannot promise that."
The words were firm and they made Priya's shoulders tremble. But in the end, she softly sunk into Zarek's chest, trying to block out the negative emotions.
In truth, most of the time, Priya's parents survived the first wave. Her father was the mayor of their city and thus an important official in the government. They lived in the Mayor's Mansion and were quite well protected.
But in the grand scheme, a country like theirs had thousands of mayors, and with the coming unrest, many, even within the government, would take the opportunity to grasp at power of their own.
The odds that Priya's father would get caught in the crossfire were high, and going there to protect him for Priya's sake would end up chaining down Zarek too much.
If he came under her father's wing, he would be forced to act within government regulations, and he would certainly lose the right to dictate everything about Priya's future.
That was unacceptable to him, and Priya was more than smart enough to deduce all of that on her own.
That said… her silence on the matter was her own form of an answer.
She chose Zarek.
That wasn't entirely because she was infatuated by teenage love. After all, Zarek might have had four lifetimes with her, but she only knew one. It would be hard to expect her to pick a boyfriend over her father, no matter how strict he was.
It was instead because she was rational.
She understood what Zarek did. Her father, and mother by extension, would be among the two most protected people in the city.
They already had the best chance to survive. What else could she ask for?
Plus, if she went back to her family now, she would be leaving Zarek alone. After all… he didn't have one of his own.
Zarek called the kid back to stop him from standing around all day, and the trio eventually fell into their own silence.
After Priya regained her bearings, she began to make some small talk with the freshman, trying to get him to relax a bit.
She was still on guard against Temeron, but she knew that this tense situation wasn't helping any of them. After questioning Zarek about why he was with them, she felt some sympathy for the boy as well.
Whatever Zarek's overarching goals were, it would probably require more people than just the two of them, so it wouldn't be bad if they ingratiated themselves more.
As the time ticked by, though, Temeron began to get antsy.
He had originally joined Zarek thinking he had a forward-thinking plan that was much better than the one Victor was working on, but now it seemed that Zarek was much the same as everyone else.
The freshman thought of leaving several times, but he was hesitant. It didn't make sense for Zarek to suddenly change his approach for no reason… maybe he was just resting, or maybe he had a plan…
Zarek, though, seemed unaffected by the freshman hanging on his every action.
The kid had made the right choice, but that was only the first step. And ultimately, all he had done was find the right person to freeload off of.
Zarek had no intention of comforting him. So he let the day tick by, and when the time came, he shared food and water with Priya.
'It should be about now…' Zarek thought, sensing the shifts in the air.
It was the penultimate moment.
Temeron was sitting on a hot frying pan by now, but Zarek wasn't speaking about him at all. Instead, he meant that it seemed Victor was poised to strike.