Journal Entry 1 of Sion Christoph Alexandar de la Mortuise, The Betrayer of Atlas:
“I met with father tonight before I left Atlas forever. I’ll never be able to return home but I feel this is for the best. There is a world outside these massive walls and I mean to help with whatever I can…”
A haggard man sat on the edge of an immaculate bed that was poised on a raised dais in the midst of an equally immaculate bedroom. His gaunt face stared across a void toward a large mirror with half of a frown. The hands were folded across the lap and a nose of an opening door came from behind though the man didn’t move, his eyes were unwavering as if they were staring into the mirror but not.
“Father?” The voice was younger and came from a brighter, yet equally haggard face.
“You are leaving tonight aren’t you? I’ve seen it.” The old gentleman’s eyes blinked and a tear rushed down a single cheek. His body turned slightly to the younger male and a single hand patted the bedside in a beckoning manner to which the son bowed his head and moved to, sitting and generating an equally large line of tears. “You know you can’t leave Atlas. The second you step outside with the family secret you will be hunted until your death. Not only us but that accursed Magic Society as well.”
There was a sigh from the younger and then the young man wrapped his hands around his father’s, “I know but I’ll manage. Anything is better then this open prison. I need to see a world worth saving. Worth helping and living in.”
“You will never find it.”
“Perhaps not father but do you think that will stop me?” They were light-hearted words, injected with some tact and a chuckle.
“No I suppose not,” the older gentleman said as his grim mood lightened. He folded the closest arm around his son and pulled him as close as he could in an embrace that meant goodbye. “Your mother, bless her, made me promise not to stop you and I shall honor that. You can have my ring but only with a promise that you will never use our secret outside these walls. It is capable of great good but equally immense atrocities. Mortiuse ne Vita must never be witnessed by man.”
“Yes father.” With that, the son stood and slid across the floor. When the sound of the door passed into hearing the old man doubled over a wept.
“…and if I can’t I shall make my mark on history so that no one will forget me.”