Submission for Iron Age Media's Prompt: The Tempest.
Deleterious matter was always the talk of the Diadochi states. Rivalry and other fixtures of diplomatic contests reigned supreme. In recent times, facilities were built to mask some of the spots, and dissect them for what they were.
Two rooms were connected to each other, both containing tightly bound filaments of steel cables prepared to spring forth from each corner, and as a result vaporize the contents within.
In the first room, lay a semi-magnetic, transparent block of unknown material that held within vapors of an azure hue. Sometimes, faces could be seen within the hue.
The only relevant recorded instance of this gas being unbound was in the city of Babylon, 323 BC on the eve of the death of Alexander the Great. The predilection of Alexander’s generals for power and all that it could offer, seemed to form the backbone for what created the blue gas, and by unknown means, its continued production until the fall of the Yavana Kingdom in 10 AD. It was thought to be lost until rediscovery in Ankara, Turkey in 1946.
In the second room was what can only be described as the counterpart to the blue gas, a massive jar of oil bearing red-figure designs depicting the rise and fall of at first inscrutable Empires.
Multiple testimony on the visual appearance of this oil unwaveringly states that the oil is an indescribable “new color” that cannot be described using current scientific understanding of the electro-magnetic spectrum.
At night, they say the oil speaks, most often in ancient Macedonian, Attic Greek, or even old Persian.
In the daylight, the oil is under constant watch due to repeat attempts at using high room temperatures to transmogrify its own shape, repeat sightings of solid yet also ghastly humanoid shapes follow days of temperatures above 80°F/26°C.
We know that both the calm azure gas, and the stubborn oil of an alien color each had a role to play in the ambitions of the forgotten generals.