Was now a consuming thirst.

Secret Bunker Beneath the Swiss Alps - 

The interrogation room in the Thirteen Families' bunker remained in tense silence. Isabel and Ricardo, the mages from the White Brotherhood of Querétaro, had listened with a mixture of defiance and a growing understanding to the barely disguised desperation in the questions of their powerful captors. They knew they held knowledge that these masters of the world now desired more than any treasure or earthly power: the understanding of ancestral cosmic forces and the prophecies that seemed to be unfolding with terrifying accuracy.

"We understand your... urgency," Isabel finally said, her voice calm but with a steel edge. She and Ricardo had exchanged a quick, meaningful glance as The Director and the other Council members pressed them. They had reached a silent agreement. Despite having the information the thirteen needed, they decided to be exceedingly careful in playing their cards.

"The magnitude of what Earth faces is... enormous," Ricardo continued, his gaze sweeping across the holographic faces of the world leaders, figures who would normally inspire fear but who now showed cracks of uncertainty. "And the knowledge to navigate this storm is not given lightly, especially to those who have proven to be... untrustworthy with the power they already wield."

Lord Ashworth frowned, a gesture of impatience. "Are you in a position to negotiate, mages?"

"We are always in a position to choose the path of wisdom, Lord Ashworth," Isabel replied with a calmness that unsettled him. "And wisdom tells us that true knowledge must be shared with those who demonstrate a genuine commitment to survival, not just their own, but that of the planet and all its inhabitants." She paused, letting her words sink in. "We will tell you what is truly happening, what ancestral forces are truly at play, what our deepest prophecies say about this cycle of chaos and transformation. But we have one condition."

The Council members on the screen exchanged tense glances, some of incredulity, others of cold assessment. "Speak," ordered The Director's metallic voice, breaking the silence.

"You will release all our brothers and sisters of the White Brotherhood whom you still hold prisoner in these... facilities, or in any other secret jail you operate," Ricardo said firmly, his voice gaining strength. "And, more importantly for the balance of energies needed at this time, you will release and deliver to us, under our custody and care, the Elder of Light, the ancient and wise Witch Eleonora."

A murmur of surprise and deliberation ran through the holographic connections. Eleonora's name, a legendary figure in certain occult circles for her pure magic and connection with Gaia, was known to the Council Elders as an "asset" of immense potential, a guardian of lineages and secrets they had tried to exploit or, failing that, suppress for decades.

"We know you have her prisoner," Isabel affirmed, her voice without a tremor. "We know she has languished in your dungeons for almost twenty years, since she was... 'removed' from her sanctuary in the Primavera Forest. And we know, from the echoes we perceive in the Lattice of Life, that her light is dimming. She can no longer continue to live in the inhuman conditions to which you have subjected her, not for another day. Her wisdom, her profound connection with the spirit of this planet, is crucial now, more than ever in the history of the world."

There was a long, tense silence. The Thirteen Families weighed the demand with the coldness of cosmic chess players. Releasing a group of powerful mages from the White Brotherhood, and especially such a legendary and potentially influential figure as Eleonora, was a monumental risk. But the information these two prisoners offered, the possible key to understanding and surviving the madness of Cthulhu and the Netlin, was perhaps invaluable.

Finally, The Director's voice cut through the tension. "The situation is... extraordinary. Your audacity is as well. After much thought, and considering the extreme gravity of the planetary crisis we all face, we accept your condition. Arrangements will be made for the release of the Elder Eleonora and for an expedited review of the cases of other prisoners affiliated with your... 'Brotherhood'... in exchange, of course, for your full, truthful, and immediate cooperation. But do not play games with us, mages. Our patience is now non-existent, and our resources for extracting the truth by other methods, as you well know, are limitless and extremely... unpleasant."

Isabel and Ricardo nodded, a faint relief mixed with the gravity of the situation reflecting on their faces. The first and most difficult step had been taken.

"Very well," said Ricardo, his voice now resonating with the authority of a bearer of ancient and forgotten knowledge. "For you to understand the true nature of the war being waged, and the fundamental role that humanity, and Terra itself, plays in it, you must go back much further in time than your history books or even the fragmented Anunnaki annals dare to record."

Isabel continued, her violet eyes shining with a distant light, as if contemplating lost eras. "You must understand the first humans, those who flourished on the sacred continent of Lemuria, in the immensity of the vast Pacific Ocean. It was a much more perfect and harmonious past for humans, an era of direct and conscious connection with Gaia, with the Universal Lattice, with the K'uh that is the breath of all creation. An era of peace and wisdom that your Anunnaki annals, or those of that Enki who now advises you, barely touch upon, because even for them it is almost a myth, a veiled legend."

Baron Von Hess let out an impatient snort from his holographic connection. "Lemuria... tales for children and dreamers. The Thirteen Families have very little verifiable information about such fantasies, beyond the delusions of nineteenth-century drawing-room occultists."

"They are not fantasies, Baron," Ricardo replied with a disarming calm. "But history deliberately erased from the collective memory of your species by those who have always feared your true potential. And to understand the Mayas and Toltecs of this continent, and their profound connection with the 'gods' who now return to torment or reclaim them, you must know that the first sages of those lines, the original bearers of their cosmogony, came from Mu."

"A continent that also sank beneath the waves of the Pacific," Isabel added, her voice taking on an almost mournful tone, "but much older than Atlantis itself, which was only a late and more technologically ambitious, yet spiritually diminished, reflection of the primordial wisdom of Mu. Mu was the cradle of conscious humanity on this planet, before the great stellar wars and genetic interventions that fragmented your original heritage. And its survivors, after the Great Cataclysm that erased it from the face of the Earth, carried the seed of their knowledge and their blood to all corners of the world, including what you today call Mesoamerica, thus laying the foundations for the great cultures that later flourished and, often, fell under the influence of the 'gods' who came from the sky."

A new silence, this time of astonishment and a growing unease, settled in the war room of the Thirteen Families. The story Isabel and Ricardo were beginning to unveil was far older, far stranger, and far more fundamental than they had ever imagined. Lemuria... Mu... lost continents, a primeval humanity of great powers and a lost spiritual connection... The pieces of the cosmic puzzle were more numerous and more interconnected than their minds, trained in earthly power and financial manipulation, could easily process. But the need to know more, to understand the true origin of the crisis that was drowning them, was now a consuming thirst.