Alex processed the implications. "But no one had deployed weapons yet."

"Exactly," Catherine confirmed. "Whatever had happened in Aethros Valley, humanity hadn't caused it. The fog hadn't caused it. Something else had occurred during those two weeks... something that left destruction on a scale that made military planners deeply uncomfortable."

She paused, her expression darkening.

"The reconnaissance footage showed more. Trenches carved through solid rock in perfect mathematical spirals... not random destruction, but controlled, intentional force. Areas where ground had been flash-frozen and superheated simultaneously, creating impossible geological layering."

Her fingers traced patterns against his chest.

"And in the center, where the fog had been densest, there was a sphere of absence. Two hundred meters in diameter. Not a crater. Not empty space. Absence... as if reality itself had been removed. Satellites couldn't get clear readings. Drones experienced complete instrument failure approaching it."

Alex's strategic mind calculated the implications. "What did the scientists conclude?"

Catherine's smile was bitter.

"They had no framework to understand it. Geiger counters detected no conventional radiation, but electromagnetic equipment malfunctioned in specific patterns. "

"The official report called it 'unprecedented geological event of unknown origin.' Classified all footage at the highest security levels. Told the public it was earthquake aftermath combined with atmospheric phenomena."

Her voice carried dark amusement.

"But privately, the world leaders understood they'd encountered something that made nuclear weapons irrelevant. Whatever had fought in that valley wielded forces that made humanity's most powerful arsenals look like children's toys."

Catherine met his eyes directly.

"The Security Council went into emergency session... not to debate nuclear deployment anymore, but to figure out how to even approach what they'd found."

She shifted position slightly.

"This time, there was no hesitation. No three-day debate. They assembled the strongest investigation team in history within forty-eight hours. Every major nation contributed specialists... atmospheric physicists, geologists, military engineers, medical researchers, linguists, archaeologists. The best equipment. The most advanced protective gear. Complete authorization to investigate regardless of cost."

Her voice carried dark irony.

"Because now they weren't just afraid of the fog. They were afraid of whatever had created that destruction. And they needed to understand it before it happened again."

Catherine met his eyes directly.

"The team entered the valley three days after the fog cleared. What they found in the epicenter changed everything."

She paused, gathering the details from memory.

"At the absolute center of the devastation... where the absence sphere had been most concentrated... they discovered a structure. Not a building. Not architecture in any conventional sense. Just... a platform. Perfectly circular, approximately fifty meters in diameter, made from the same impossible material as everything else they couldn't identify."

Her voice dropped.

"And on that platform were two things: ancient writings carved into the surface itself."

Alex's attention sharpened completely.

"Writings?"

"In a script no one recognized," Catherine confirmed. "Not Sanskrit. Not any known ancient language. The characters were geometric, almost mathematical, but they conveyed... weight. Significance. The linguists who first examined them reported feeling like the symbols were important even before understanding what they meant."

She paused, her expression thoughtful.

"The writing covered the entire platform surface... thousands of characters arranged in concentric circles radiating from the center. Precise. Deliberate. As if whoever carved them wanted to ensure the message would endure."

Her voice dropped slightly.

"And beside those inscriptions, seven crystalline containers. Each filled with luminescent golden liquid."

Catherine's fingers tightened against his chest.

"The same golden liquid whose traces they'd found scattered across the entire valley. The dried stains marking impact craters. The residue on pulverized stone. But here, in these containers, it was preserved. Fresh. Still glowing with that impossible inner light."

She continued, choosing words carefully.

"The containers were works of art. Each one unique in design but unified in purpose. Crafted from materials that didn't match any element on the periodic table... crystalline structures that responded to instruments like matter but behaved like condensed energy. And inside each container, that golden liquid."

Catherine's expression turned serious.

"They secured everything immediately. Containers, platform fragments, detailed recordings of every inscription. Transported it all under maximum security to research facilities across multiple continents... no single nation trusted to hold everything."

She smiled without humor.

"And then the debates began. What were they? Where did they come from? Were they weapons? Were they dangerous? The golden liquid defied analysis... it was organic but not biological, energetic but not radioactive, alive in ways that made no scientific sense."

Her voice carried frustration.

"Months passed. The world's best linguists worked on translating the inscriptions. Cryptographers. AI language models. Ancient text specialists. Every approach failed. The symbols remained stubbornly opaque... recognizable as language but refusing to yield meaning through conventional analysis."

She paused, letting tension build.

"Six months after the discovery, a breakthrough came from an unexpected source. A comparative mythology researcher noticed structural similarities between the unknown script and symbolic systems used across multiple ancient cultures... not the symbols themselves, but the pattern of how meaning was encoded."

Catherine's next words carried weight.

"Using that framework, combined with quantum computing analysis of symbol relationships, they finally deciphered the text."

She met his eyes directly.

"It was a prophecy."

Alex waited, recognizing the significance.

"The translation was... difficult," Catherine continued. "The language didn't map cleanly to modern concepts. But the core message was clear enough to send shockwaves through every government that received the classified report."

She quoted from memory, voice taking on formal cadence:

"Seven who held the mantle have fallen in defense of the realm. Their essence preserved. Their power offered. For the one who will rise when darkness returns. For the inheritors who must stand against what we could not destroy. This is our gift. This is our warning. This is our hope."

Silence settled over them as the words registered.

"That's what the inscriptions said," Catherine explained. "Seven entities... the text called them gods, had fought something. Something catastrophic enough that even beings of cosmic power couldn't fully defeat it. They'd sacrificed themselves. And their blood, their essence, their power... they'd left it behind deliberately."

Her voice carried the confusion of those early researchers.

"But no one understood what it meant. What gods? What enemy? How could liquid in containers be a 'gift' for humanity? The fog had killed everyone it touched... was this the same substance? Was it poison? Was it power? Was it both?"

She shook her head slightly.

"The debate raged for months. Religious leaders claimed divine revelation. Scientists demanded more testing. Military strategists wanted to weaponize it. Governments argued over who had rights to the containers. And through it all, the golden liquid just... waited. Inert in its crystalline prisons. Singing its impossible harmonics. Refusing to provide answers."

Catherine's expression darkened.

"The inscriptions spoke of 'when darkness returns.' Not if. When. As if whatever had caused that devastation in Aethros Valley wasn't finished. As if humanity had been given power not as a blessing, but as desperate preparation for a war we didn't even know was coming."

She paused, letting that sink in.

"And the worst part? The gift was useless. The golden liquid in those containers was impossibly valuable... concentrated divine essence, power beyond human comprehension... but no one knew how to use it. Touching it directly caused the same catastrophic systemic failure as fog exposure. Every attempt to harness or weaponize or understand the power failed."

Her voice carried bitter irony.

"Seven gods had died to give humanity the means to defend itself. And humanity couldn't figure out how to accept the gift without dying in the process."

Catherine met Alex's eyes directly.

"That stalemate lasted for weeks. The containers remained sealed. The liquid remained untouched. And the world's leaders remained paralyzed by fear and confusion."

She paused for emphasis.

"Then, thirty-seven days after the containers were discovered, something changed."

"Dr. Elias Varen," Catherine said. "Lead researcher on the divine blood project. Brilliant atmospheric physicist with degrees in comparative mythology and ancient languages. His colleagues called him eccentric. His critics called him obsessed. My ancestor's notes call him 'dangerously brilliant.'"

Her fingers traced patterns against his chest.

"Varen had been working with the golden liquid since day one. Running tests. Analyzing composition. Attempting synthesis. While everyone else debated ownership and weaponization, He was trying to understand the mechanism."

She paused.

"Thirty-seven days after discovery, Varen called an emergency meeting. Classified. Only top-level personnel. Military brass. Government officials. Scientific leadership."

Her voice dropped.

"Varen walked into that conference room looking... different. Healthier. Younger somehow. But no one noticed immediately because they were focused on the data he was presenting."

Catherine met his eyes directly.

"Then, mid-presentation, Varen stopped talking. Walked to the reinforced concrete wall... the kind designed to withstand explosive decompression. And punched it."

Alex's eyebrows rose slightly.

"Not a tap," Catherine clarified. "A full-force strike. His fist went through six inches of reinforced concrete like it was cardboard. Punched a hole clean through to the corridor beyond."

She smiled without humor.

"The room erupted. Uproar. Confusion. Security reaching for weapons. Because their best trained special forces couldn't punch through that wall. Combat athletes couldn't punch through that wall. And here was a sixty-two-year-old scientist with arthritis in his hands putting his fist through reinforced concrete like it didn't exist."

Her next words carried weight.

"Varen pulled his hand back. Not a scratch. Not a bruise. Just... intact. Then he turned to face the room with a smile that my ancestor described as 'triumph mixed with madness.'"

Catherine quoted from memory, capturing Varen's voice:

"'You're wondering how I did that. How a man my age just punched through six inches of military-grade concrete without breaking every bone in my hand. The answer is standing in seven crystalline containers in our research facility.'"

She paused.

"He walked back to the podium. Held up a sealed vial containing liquid so diluted it was barely visible. And said the words that changed everything:"

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