Rowan spent thirty-six hours instructing and manipulating the memories of the other "Rowan." During that time Eva had woken up and lost consciousness three more times, each time her screams grew less shrill and she was awake for longer.
If she failed to assimilate the memory for another three more, Rowan would have to remove the rememberings from her head until she became strong enough to handle his vision. He would have to console himself with the fact that soon, no one else would be able to walk the same path as he could, they would all be left behind.
Real power was a lonely thing.
Unlike him, Eva's path to power was a bit upside-down. As far as he could tell, her abilities were rooted in her memories and her past, as she was not growing stronger but instead, she was recovering what she had once lost.
It was similar to the concept of conservation of energy, which could neither be created nor destroyed, only transformed. Eva's powers had been transformed into something else, and slowly she was assimilating it once again.
According to her, she could only begin developing her powers once more when she had returned to her previous peak, before then she could not learn any new abilities.
At her peak, Eva was most likely an Outer-Universal Creature, and she must be an especially powerful one. All these factors made tracking her growth difficult, for she could have sudden spikes of power in a single day that would equal all the growth she had been making all year long.
If Rowan wanted to peg her current Energy Output he would place her at the Minor god level, but with the versatility in her skill set, he could easily place her at the High God level, in addition to that, some of her abilities made her priceless to him.
Rowan had noticed that the powers inside Eva were beginning to churn and dramatically expand every time she woke up and lost consciousness, it would seem the strain of witnessing part of his Primordial Sight was dragging more powers from her memories and forcing Eva to grow stronger to get used to it.
No matter how beneficial this would be to her in the long run, Rowan knew he would not be doing something like this to her again, except she requested it and even then it must be under his supervision.
He wanted her to be powerful, but not at the cost of her psyche. Eva was important to him, and he would not allow his vision to warp her future path, because he needed someone with a fresh eye to see the things he could not, if he overly influenced Eva's growth, she would be nothing but an extension of Rowan's will, invalidating her uniqueness and her freedom from his bloodline.
No matter how powerful he became in the future, there would be times when he could become misguided, he planned for Eva to cover up that lack.
Plus in the event of his death, Eva would be the one who would hold the memory of him. As a Nascent Primordial, there was no one else who he felt was more worthy of witnessing his glory.
Focusing on the project at hand, Rowan continued shaping his Reflection. This part of himself had a unique trait that would define his upcoming agenda better than anything else could—
that his Reflection was free of Intent or Will, in fact, it could not be influenced at all by outside forces.
His Reflection was his image in the mirror, but unlike a mortal, Rowan could access that image and use it for his purpose, a fantastic ability to be sure, but one born from his greatest enemy, his own father's Reflection.
Each of Rowan's consciousness pillars was more powerful and versatile than his Reflection, but unlike his Reflection, they had been deeply corrupted by the Stench of Chaos and two other Primordial forces.
If Rowan wanted to succeed, then he needed an invisible card that he could play with, he was fond of trojan horses, and made his plans to have different layers, each revealing just the portion he wanted to show.
Yet, because of the nature of his Reflection, it could be easily cut down by a greater power if it fell into peril, it was not as robust as his consciousness pillars, and he was counting on that, after all, bait should be attractive in order to draw the gaze of prey.
Rowan would no longer lay down and watch his enemy come for him or let the universe or fate decide which trials he would face, he would do the opposite, he would set the stage, and everyone else would play in his game.
This was the only way he could ever be worthy of his great powers, if he did not learn to use his powers effectively, he could as well become a mortal, as fragile and forgettable as a speck of dust in the wind.
Rowan began to adjust and trim off the parts of the Reflection that were unnecessary for his purpose.
He left his goals and a portion of his pride inside this Reflection, but he took out a greater part of his ambition, against the sort of enemy that could interfere in his Ascension, Rowan expected that scouring through his mind would be among their abilities, and if they could understand a small part of his ambition, they would know that there was no way he would allow himself to die easily.
Then he began to remove every memory of the Reflection, the first was the memory of the Primordial Record and all its functions, his Nascent Primordial Bloodline, his Territory, and the future capabilities it held, he removed everything until the mind of the Reflection was clean.
Leaving the Reflection like this would be suspicious, and he began adding powerful but useless memories, including those of his former lives, he had debated about this but ultimately decided to go along with his plans if he wanted the prey to bite harder, he needed to show a seemingly large area of weakness for them to sink their teeth into.
Rowan's plan went better than he could have expected, and Caine devoured all these 'Surface Thoughts' expecting greater bounties below, but there was nothing beneath that layer, except darkness and Rowan's desire to create his Will.
