Thus spake Paragon, Mother of the Gods:
O children, hear what Fate, which rules us all
Has in its awful majesty decreed
A set of twins within my womb now grows
Engendered by the Universe's seed
One will be Elwynn named; as white as snow
Will be her skin; as white as cloud her hair
And from her birth, she shall embody all
That's right and just, and wonderful, and fair.
Ric Lyon, duke of Elwynn, taught:
According to the legends, Elwynn had a twin called Lest. Elwynn was born white, but Lest black as coal. The two children are separated at birth. Lest is taken by this witch called Ilass to some tower somewhere that is owned by the Empress of Eons, but Elwynn is taken by some other god (this one called Utas) to a river fortress on the Benacian continent. (They were all gods and so, they were all brothers and sisters)
Let's just first expand a bit on Utas's life at the moment. It is said that he walked all the way from Tapfer to Alteria (so much for Bill's one-kilometre law). Anyway, the point is, this Utas god travelled around the world a lot, so he knew the world and everything. So we can say he was a bit smart.
One day Utas found the source of the River Elwynn (it wasn't called that then of course) between two hills. He built a fortress tower there. Araxion it was called and was almost a skyscraper in those days' terms.
It was to Araxion that Utas later brought Elwynn (the little baby goddess of ours) and she was brought up there. Lucky little thing. She liked the forests, hills and streams. Apparently there were forests in that time, but no way there could be forests there today due to the permafrost and all. The source is up north of the Arctic Circle. Weather must have been hotter in those days...
A nice little quote on Elwynn's life: "When Elwynn walked the land, the darkest storm would dissipate into a welcome breeze" Aw..
She lived a happy life in Araxion, and when she was seven she was promised trips to meet her parents in Ennabruk, the gods' city.
The gods in Ennabruk had heard a lot about Elwynn and all awaited her with excitement. When she came with her fosterer she was dressed in beautiful clothes. The clothes were so beautifully sewn that even the moon's sculptor acknowledged the clothes to be superior to his art.
It all was so cute and all... Everybody must have nipped her cheeks and that. You know how family reunions are for a seven-year-old kid. But suddenly! Her brother, Lest, came, led by that witch, Ilass. Lest had been raised by Ilass his whole life, but he had somehow always been wicked. Ilass was a good woman once -- highly respected and awed and all that -- but Lest manipulated her to evil. When Lest entered the Chamber of Gods, where all gods were summoned (including Elwynn), he said with a firm voice:
I am the Chosen, the Child of Fate
I am here your dominion to end
With Fire, with Darkness, with Anger and Hate
Your Thrones and your Chamber to rend
I am the Nightfall, and I will prevail
As surely as Dusk follows Day
Surrender! Your might is predestined to fail
If you use it to force me away!
This resulted in a huge fight. After many had died, and many escaped only Lest and Utas were left. They shouted words at each other, both saying "I'll win, you'll lose".
And there ends the first book of Orchids, I will have to find more about our goddess and her twin brother in the next book.
Brilliant thing the Book is. You must read it. And my summary only talks about some few little things.
The Babkhi version of the story as taught by the Ardashir the first:
At the river Elwynn's source did dwell Utas the jinn, whom after many a year of no consequence did receive that girl whose eyes sparkled as gems and whose skin as white as snow and as smooth as silk. The one known as Elwynn, the twin of the devil Lest. All creation paid homage to her beauty and she in turn grew to love the river, and the woods it raised and every day she frolicked in the streams. Such was her beauty that the waters themselves were swoon and jealous nymphs for countless centuries thereafter would adopt her visage to seduce unwary mortal man to a drowning death.
Hands unseen worked their ill magic so that Lest and Elwynn did conceive of the most unnatural and monstrous lust for each other, their foul courtship disturbing the heavens and despoiling this very earth.
It had been that Utas the Jinn first sat upon the throne of Elywnn, and was master of the river. He took up his abode in the mountains, and clad himself and his people in bearskins, and from him sprang all kindly nurture and the arts of clothing, till then unknown. Men and beasts from all parts of the earth came to do him homage and receive laws at his hands, and his glory was like to the sun.
Yet all glory, even when justly earned, is fleeting for Utas was defeated and expelled from the Mortal Realm by Lest.
When Elwynn and Lest the Black did first meet as but children at the feast of doomed Ennabruk, the flames of their lust put to rout the gods and angels who watched over them, conspiring for the sake of creation to keep them apart. When a company of angels did drag Elwynn away Utas lingered to deal the fatal blow to the Deev Lest, but the Deev was mightier than he, and overcame him, and crushed him under his hands.
