User:Animus 1.28/Animus 3.0/Codex

I have spent days with the artifact now. Or has it been weeks? Months? I can no longer be certain... The others come from time to time - offering food or distraction. They say I should separate myself from these studies... Malik has even said that I should abandon them entirely. But I am not yet ready to turn away. This Apple of Eden will be understood. It must be... Is it a weapon, is it a catalogue? Is it somehow both? "He who increaseth knowledge, increaseth sorrow..." The philosophy of such a statement I can understand... But for it to be the truth... - literally true? A society that waged wasrs with ideas and information in place of steel and swords... It's function is simple. Elementary, even. Dominion. Control. But the process... the methods and the means it employs... THESE are fascinating. Those subjected to its glow are promised all that they desire. It asks only one thing in return: complete and total obediance. And who can truly refuse? It is temptation incarnate. I remember my own moment of weakness when confronted by Al Mualim, my confidence shaken by his words. He, who had been like a father, was now revealed as my greatest enemy. Just the briefest flicker of doubt was all he needed to creep into my mind. But I vanquished his phantoms - restored my self confidence - and sent him from this world. I freed myself.