The lighter is the entire world, glittering and sparkling like a malevolent jewel. 

But it's the smell--foul, acrid, and yet somehow also sweet--that chases lightning down her hindbrain, flushes the thoughts out like ice cold adrenaline chases out tiredness.

You know that smell is one of the oldest senses? Before mammals, before Azura, before biomancy or anything, when life was nothing more than bacteria in an ocean, smell defined chemicals, smell was food, smell was life.

The smoke fills her nostrils, lays heavy on her tongue.

Aphrodite was in the vault.

The thought lands in her head with the certainty and finality of a thunderbolt.

Zeus was pissed. Why was she pissed? 

Because the father she'd put so much effort to imprison had been released. 

Had been reborn. Gods get reborn. Dead relics to twin gods Athena and Mars, trapped in a submerged and temple, needing to be purged and rededicated to the proper gods of war. 

Chronos, the titan. Aphrodite, the titan. The desire that destroys.

How do you change the results? You can't target the gods. You have to target the seats, you have to target the laws, you have to change the constants and she can feel the thoughts whirl, see the lighter, see it click see it change see it mold and break and reform and--

And disappear. 

She has to know. She has to understand and she can see the world in shades of lavender and she has to know and this is the [i]one chance[/i] to meaningfully change the world and make something different, something better and--

She [i]has[/i] to come back when Mosaic isn't there to stop her. Has to know. Has to hear Vesper speak. 

She has to know.