Serge put down the book and carefully wrapped it in its silken book cloth before putting it back in the fortified glass showcase where it belonged. He locked the case, and took off the white gloves he had been wearing to not stain the yellow paper pages of this ancient relic.
He was in his personal wing of Chateau de Étienne, his family's ancestral home on Planet Lyon. He had just returned days before, after a 2 year stay at École Spéciale Militaire de Paris, one of the most prestigious institutions for officer cadets in all of Gallia. It had long been tradition to recruit the youth of the aristocracy directly into the role of officers of the Royal Navy, as it ensured cultivated and upstanding examples for the common navymen to follow. It ensured loyalty to traditional rule.
He sat back down in his lush red Louis XVI sofa, threw the gloves on the coffee table and took out a small black notebook from his coat pocket and started scribbling.
Mon cher journal, for too long have I abandoned you but I feel drawn to document what is to come. I am changing, turning into the man I am destined to be. I have been reading the book given to me by "le Grand Maître", a tome from ancient Sol written by a visionary named William Blake. His proverbs speak the truth. I am beginning to grasp the figments of an idea that transcends space and time, as old as man himself. An ancient truth forever denied. And yet it is a truth that have always lived in and through me. By the Seven Dark Princes, I feel it bubbling in my veins!
All my life I have dined on the juiciest meats and quenched my thirst in the finest wines, devoted myself to carnal pleasures and all the luxuries Gallia has to offer. I have stood on the shoulders of lesser men and I have excercised my inherited rights of nobility. Yet my hunger can never be satisfied, I want more of everything! When my parents sent me off to the military academy two years ago, they said I needed direction in my young life, something meaningful to devote myself to.
I have indeed found my self at "École Spéciale Militaire". I was chosen by one of the senior instructors, I shall not write his name here. He took me under his wing and gave me a deeper understanding of existence itself. He taught me that life is nothing but the sum of everything I put in that deep dark hole inside me that cannot seem to be filled. To live my life to its fullest, I must surrender myself completely to my darkest desires, let them consume me as I consume them.
It was only after following him for a year he revealed to me his true identity as the Grand Master of a secret society older than Gallia itself, "Le Grand Orient de France". Its members are wealthy business entrepreneurs, distinguished officers, ambitious politicians and influential aristocrats bound together by ancient teachings and powerful rituals. From what little my Master has unveiled I know these men and women have the power to make or break my career. I have been offered the Black Mass, and I am going to take it and join their society as an initiate. From here on there is no turning back.
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