  A growing population of metal absorbers are observed at z>5, many showing
strong evolution in incidence approaching the epoch of hydrogen reionization.
Follow-up surveys examining fields around these metals have resulted in galaxy
detections but the direct physical relationship between the detected galaxies
and absorbers is unclear. Upcoming observations will illuminate this
galaxy-absorber relationship, but the theoretical framework for interpreting
these observations is lacking. To inform future z>5 studies, we define the
expected relationship between metals and galaxies using the Technicolor Dawn
simulation to model metal absorption from z=5-7, encompassing the end of
reionization. We find that metal absorber types and strengths are slightly
better associated with their environment than with the traits of their host
galaxies, as absorption system strengths are more strongly correlated with the
local galaxy overdensity than the stellar mass of their host galaxy. For
redshifts prior to the end of the epoch of reionization, strong high ionization
transitions like C IV are more spatially correlated with brighter galaxies on
scales of a few hundred proper kpc than are low ionization systems, due to the
former's preference for environments with higher UVB amplitudes and those ions'
relative rarity at z>6. Post-reionization, the galaxy counts near these
high-ionization ions are reduced, and increase surrounding certain
low-ionization ions due to a combination of their relative abundances and
preferred denser gas phase. We conclude that galaxy-absorber relationships are
expected to evolve rapidly such that high-ionization absorbers are better
tracers of galaxies pre-reionization while low-ionization absorbers are better
post-reionization.
