it is time
Your balance is stored as time and normally ticks down.
forbidden power, explained... finally
Forbidden Power is a time balance that unlocks a handful of special Tower actions. (Your balance normally decays over time.)
tutorial videos on this site are of an older version of the ponderer,Your balance is stored as time and normally ticks down.
Some active subscription/freeze states stop the decay.
See your current balance, decay/freeze state and booster progress.
the good stuff
swipe, use the arrows, or press ← / →
feed the meter
one last thing
Most features only check that your balance is currently alive. The big exceptions are things that explicitly consume days, such as creating a title, paying a bounty reward, or funding the Orb.
use /fpb in the Tower to check your balance