Chapter 2

Sev 10, The year of Sambol 81, Third large mark

I found this in the Kings Archive. It is the most complete rendering of our Creation. There is no date and the dialect is unfamiliar. I cannot even guess the year it was written due to it. Here it is in it’s entirety.

The Creation myth of Vysst

The world has always been. There was never a time when Vertulnus was not. It was empty with only land and forests and water. There were no people. It was cold, colder than the worst winter and then it began to get warm. The Spring came and then Summer. One day, a flint rock fell and sparked against another creating a great fire. The death screams of the trees awoke Cardeua, the water mother, she quenched the fire and comforted and healed the tree children.

Cardeua was pregnant when she awoke and the work of healing the tree children caused her to go into labor and she gave birth to a son. She named him Nara Teh after the children she had saved from the fire. After a time, Cardeua grew despondent because there was no one to touch her so she took her child Nara Teh as her husband and bred with him. They had many sons and daughter’s.

Cardeua’s favorite child was her son Deagolt. He was a mischief maker and his plots and intrigues with his siblings made her laugh at his wittiness. She was open in her preference for him and her other children were jealous of him. They tried to show their mother that Deagolt was a troublemaker, but he always turned their plots back upon them. His mother would get angry and call them names while she showered Deagolt with praise. His father, Nara Teh became infuriated at Cardeua because she allowed Deagolt to mount her at will because it pleased him. Cardeua raged at Nara Teh because he would deny her perfect child his pleasure. Their anger was so fierce that Vertulnus shook.

When Cardeua was found to be with Deagolt’s child, Nara Teh beat and cursed his son and forced him out of their home and into the rocks where no trees grew. Cardeua gave birth to Deagolt’s children. They were the first animals. They fled from their Grandfather and brothers and sisters in fear because of the wrath they held for their father.

Cardeua longed for her son’s touch and would sneak away to him. One day, her son Rekash followed her and saw her join with Deagolt. He was going to tell his father Nara Teh, but one of Deagolt’s children Wren saw him and warned the couple. Cardeua chased Rekash and snapped his neck in fear of her husband. Cardeua panicked when she realized what she had done. Deagolt calmed her. He said, “There’s no need to be afraid. We will take Rekash’s body and throw it off a high hill and say he fell to his death” and so they did. Nara Teh was filled with grief and Cardeua comforted him.

One day, Seilu the youngest of Nara Teh’s children with Cardeua was bored because none of her siblings who were all already grown would play with her. They had made families with each other and had no time. Their children didn’t like her so she played alone. One day she asked a bear to play with her and he ate her. Nara Teh almost went insane with grief and he tore his grandchild bear in two in his torment.

Cardeua saw two glass rocks in the bear’s torn belly. Since she could no longer have children. She took them and made them into the first man and woman. Nara Teh was comforted. Cardeua watched over them to keep them safe and they had children of their own. This is how the tribes of man were made.

That completes the text.

Laura, Royal scribe and teacher to his Majesty Sambol IV