Secret Materials

Recently, the New York Times had a piece on terrorists trying to find something called red mercury.

‘In previous generations,

old women wore it in a

necklace to keep the devil’s

eye away,’ one smuggler said.

And in Game of Thrones, we see wildfire, a substance based on Greek fire, a legendary Byzantine weapon.

‘Piss on wildfire and your cock burns off’

All of this is akin to aurum potabile--the never-found philosopher's stone.