Four years had passed since I was sent to the Prison World.
I decided to make some changes to my storage cores; I created smaller cores inside the larger one.
These new storage cores are portable, about the size of a small apple.
With them, magic was now stored in layers. When one chamber reached its limit, the excess was transferred to the next one. If one failed, the others remained intact.
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I had already obtained the blood before I was imprisoned.
A few months before 1994, I funded an expedition to the remote island where Silas's tomb was located. I didn't go alone; I paid for guides, rented equipment, and came up with a plausible archaeological justification.
The hard part wasn't getting there; it was retrieving the material without destroying the tomb.
Qetsiyah's blood was calcified and incorporated into the magical structure associated with Silas. It wasn't liquid blood inside a bottle. It was an ancient relic, preserved by magic for centuries. The tomb itself was linked to the history of the Cure for Immortality.
I managed to obtain a small amount—more than enough.
I divided the blood into separate containers and left everything in my apartment. The Cure remained there as well.
I had no intention of drinking it, since I'm not immortal. And even if I were, the idea wouldn't even cross my mind. The Cure could be used as a bargaining chip in the future—a weapon, a way to control someone.
The blood, on the other hand, had immediate utility. Its magical signature was immense. It didn't just function as a component of the escape ritual; it could enhance other rituals.
To me, Qetsiyah's calcified blood was a celestial event stored in matter. I compare its scale to that of an eclipse or a full moon—capable of amplifying circles, breaking seals, and stabilizing spells that would normally require dozens of witches or an entire coven.
I left everything in a safe hidden in my apartment. The hiding place was behind a secret passage in my bedroom closet. The door looked like part of the wall and only revealed itself when three runes were activated in sequence.
Behind it was a narrow compartment. The safe had ordinary padlocks, because magic shouldn't be the only protection.
It also had: mechanical locks; sealing runes; a barrier against detection; an illusion that altered the appearance of the interior; a return spell that restored the safe to its original state if anyone tried to break into it; and an alert signal linked to my listening devices.
If Joshua found the apartment, he would see an ordinary wardrobe; if he found the passageway, he would see a blank wall; if he passed through the illusion, he would find a worthless safe.
The true blood was stored in smaller compartments, each wrapped in preservative material. The Cure was kept separate, inside a reinforced glass capsule.
I had left the items there because I didn't need them before my imprisonment, and because I knew the Prison World would copy the apartment, the safe, the wardrobe, and everything inside them at the moment of anchoring.
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In the meantime, I began dismantling the Ascendant.
I was planning to create my own Ascendant—independent of the Gemini Coven. With it, I could create new Prison Worlds and enter existing ones.
Furthermore, I could choose the anchoring date, select the space to be copied, determine the cycle's duration, control who could enter, and control who could leave.
I studied the Ascendant, so to rebuild it, I used steel, copper, metal alloys, motors, etc