The redhead couldn't help but chuckle at Jude's look of minor confusion. No one really knew exactly what abilities Asteria possessed, and for quite a few reasons. First, she didn't like to show her whole hand. Second, for some reason, people could never accurately diagnose her abilities. Even she couldn't using the Oculus, as it would just give inane readings before giving up entirely.
"I'll explain more about my abilities after I conclude the story. Sparrow killed me, stabbed me straight through the heart with some kind of energy ray. I awoke about two minutes later with Sparrow's back to me and focused on some kind of ritual spell. My guess was the start of the invocation to cause the cataclysm, but I couldn't be sure. With the one opportunity to end the fight, I did something that most spellcasters would find insane: I shattered three of the last ancient artifacts I had in a gamble to seal Sparrow and the entity away."
Asteria frowned, taking a few deep breaths. "It almost didn't work. They resisted, a clash of literal will of suppression versus inevitability. I was losing. Again. The world was going to end and I was going to have to watch Armageddon go down in front of my very eyes. So I shattered a fourth artifact; one of two that I had left. And I used a curse. A disgusting, vile, and destructive hex on them."
She paused at this point, looking down the hallway towards where she knew the door was. The door to Ezra's bedroom. The home she had offered them after they had 'lost' their family. It was a weird concept to think about, knowing she was their savior yet the cause of their damnation.
"In somewhat crass terms, I scrambled the shit out their brains. All of those thread lines, all of the information collected, everything the monster had learned in its many years of being alive, now nothing more than shredded strings holding nothing. I basically turned a prodigal genius into someone with the intelligence of a three year old in one brief moment. I made them forget almost everything. Changed their history, their memories, everything they knew. I tried to keep as much of Sparrow's uniqueness as possible, hence Ezra's insatiable curiosity and their awkward staring."
"None of the other Sho'lai could stop what happened. Most had been killed in the crossfire between myself and Sparrow, and the ones who could have survived likely fled out of the portal into the Siberian wilderness. I have no clue whether they lived or not, and I'm doing my best to locate them. But as it stands, my actions caused the deaths of most, if not all, of the Sho'lai." Asteria's face turned dark, as if a bitter taste lingered in her mouth. "Their culture is likely lost unless another Sho'lai is found alive. Thousands of years of knowledge now gone in a memory destroying hex. Twelve ancient artifacts shattered, most unlikely ever to be replicated again."
"All that in exchange for one Ezra Taliesin Vrall."
