"Ashera isn't as strong as she was in her prime," the Primogenitor suddenly decided to say some things that she had kept hidden for a while.
"How so?" Pathfinder asked. As Phenoms they didn't grow weaker as they aged, only stronger. So the 1st Ancestor had to explain what exactly she meant.
"When she was sealed in the Tower of the Hundred, she wasn't sealed as the Blood Witch." The Primogenitor started.
"The Tower of the Hundred isn't an ordinary cursing artefact. It has the ability to seal a person's strength as well. But since it wasn't evoked in her curse, it isn't part of the bargain. That's where her actual curse comes into play."
"The reason she is able to leave the tower every now and then is because of the sealing power of the tower."
"What do you mean?" Pathfinder furrowed his brows. The 1st Ancestor was surely taking her sweet time to get to the point. But he knew better than to rush her.
"Since the curse didn't involve losing her power, that function of the tower was left to sleep. However, as the decades went by and she craved her freedom more than anything else, Ashera began to study the tower. She understood a few things and came to realise that this curse tool was much more complicated than she thought. Not only was the method to breaking her curse contained within the tower and the trials thereof, the method to go around her curse was there also."
"Water, little Magma," the 1st primogenitor turned and said to Magma who had been quiet this entire time and was only listening. Magma smiled wryly when she heard her address him as little Magma, but she was probably one of the few in the entire Intersection with the power to address him as such.
"Yes Primogenitor," Magma hastily got up and walked over to the end of the room to do just what he had been asked to do. It didn't take him long to return with a serving tray carrying two cups of water.
"Thank you," the Primogenitor smiled and picked up a cup. The tray was placed on the table, next to the chessboard. As for the other cup of water, it was meant for Pathfinder. Though he made no such requests, Magma didn't see any problem with providing it just in case.
"Good thinking. Thank you." Pathfinder nodded his head at Magma and said. Although he didn't reach for the cup, he did acknowledge Magma's thought. For it was when one put down his/her status that one was able to grow mentally.
"That was refreshing," the Primogenitor sighed pleasurably after downing a huge gulp of water. "Where was I?" she asked.
"You said the method to go around the curse was also contained within the tower," Pathfinder answered. Magma didn't reply because it wasn't in his position to.
"Ah yes! Indeed, the loophole in the curse was also contained within the tower. You see, although her freedom had been robbed, there was a way to still have some level of freedom – not much, but good enough. And Ashera found out what it was. The tower would give her freedom based on how much strength she was willing to seal away."
The 1st Ancestor's words stunned Magma greatly. From the story so far, Ashera had several enemies. Some of these enemies were Barbarians of immense power like the 1st Ancestor, whilst others were of the Ancient race and were close to the Primogenitor in strength. The main issue was, all of her enemies were powerful, and she needed to be strong enough to confront them.
However, in order to receive some freedom from the Tower of the Hundred, she had to be willing to give up part of her strength. It sounded simple, but it was far from that. Even losing a small fraction of her strength would cause Ashera to be below the likes of the Primogenitor and other powerful Ancestors in power. And this would mean that even if she had her freedom, it wouldn't last for long before she was sought and killed. But since her regeneration was endless, it was more likely that she would be tortured for eternity than killed. Either way, none of these options were pleasurable ones.
Pathfinder furrowed his brows in thought. Although it was new information to him, his steely mind wasn't going to be moved that greatly by it. His main concern was what this kind of information did for them.
"How do you know this?" Pathfinder asked. The 1st wasn't exactly the brightest, and she wasn't a curious one either. Research wasn't her forte and intelligence reports were according to her, "the most boring notes on the planet." So the real issue was the source of her information.
"When the Ancient Matriarch and I were on good terms all those years ago, she allowed me to learn about the Tower of the Hundred. She told me a lot about the tower." The Primogenitor's reply was satisfactory to Pathfinder who only nodded his head to acknowledge that he got it.
Since the Ancients had lost the tower in sealing Ashera, there was no point in hiding its functions from the Barbarians. After all, Ashera had most likely shared all she knew about the tower with her race since she needed them to find a way out for her.
"So, how much of her strength did she sacrifice in exchange for some bit of freedom?" Pathfinder wondered. Magma was also wondering the same thing. It was the most important detail of the story. It was this information that was going to determine if they could capture Ashera or not.
"Well, the tower allows you to leave its confines when you sacrifice 10% of your strength. And if you want to bring people in, you must sacrifice 2% more for each person recruited. And based on her appearances over the past few decades, I would say that she has given away about 20% of her strength."
"20%?" even Pathfinder was stunned by what he was hearing. 20% was no meagre sum. For warriors, strength was wealth. Asking a warrior to seal 20% of his/her strength was akin to asking a rich man to give away 20% of his possessions. It was highly difficult. Even 10% was immense, let alone 20!
"That means that she isn't your match at all now," Pathfinder added.
"No she isn't," the 1st Ancestor smiled.
"But can you breach the tower?" Pathfinder asked, although he already had a good guess as to what the answer to that question was. Ashera had made a lot of enemies. It was to the extent that Barbarians and Ancients who didn't see eye to eye shared intelligence concerning her. Yet no one had tried to break into the Tower of the Hundred to apprehend her.
"No one can. That tower is an instrument of the old times. It was made with the strongest of materials and the strangest of powers. Even if all the Phenoms in the world come together, we wouldn't be able to dent its walls." The 1st Ancestor had a wry smile on her face as she spoke.
Her words shook Magma to the core. Phenoms were existences that were way beyond the current him. Yet the most powerful Phenom he knew was saying that even if all the Phenoms came together, they wouldn't be capable of leaving a mark on a tower!
"Besides, the tower doesn't have just one location. It disappears and reappears from time to time. No one can find it unless she actually reveals herself to the world." She added.
"So what you're basically saying is that there is no way anything can be done to her," Pathfinder smiled and said. He started to wonder why the Primogenitor was so eager to attack Ashera when there was nothing she could actually do to her.
"Not entirely," the 1st Ancestor shook her head and said.
"Why?"
"Now that she has shown herself all we have to do is monitor her tower. It wouldn't move for a while now because of the boy. It would take about 2 years for her to be able to use its teleportation function. So as long as we wait patiently…"
"We would be able to capture her," Pathfinder finished his ancestor's statement.
"Exactly. She loves her freedom. She would definitely leave at a point. That's when we get her."
"I see."
"As for the boy, once the Master of the Tower is gone, it would be a simple feat for me to retrieve him from the tower," the Primogenitor stated, much to Magma's relief. For he thought that they had actually forgotten about his sister's murderer.
The eyes of the 1st flashed ominously as she declared confidently, "The day that witch leaves her tower will be the day I get my revenge!"