The Next Queen

The room was more crowded than I imagined. A small crowd of young men - and some older men - lined the chairs and steps to hear what I had to say. As I walk confidently to the front of the room, each of those male faces turns to look at me. The murmurs stop.

Far be it from me to think that this silence comes with respect - here, I am just a rare specimen to be analyzed.

I face the room back, without offering a smile, with the neutral face that I have trained my entire life. To my surprise, I see five female faces smiling in my direction, lost in that sea of men. I let my eyes rest on each one of them, telling them what I can't express with my mouth: how much I admire their courage in facing the sexist academy in Europe. Warriors, every one of them.

Without wanting to dwell too long in the silence, I begin my presentation.

• Good morning - I give a small smile - My name is Ailenna Maytha. It's a pleasure to see the room so full.

A small chorus of “good morning” greets me back. I follow the class.

• Well, as you all probably know, this class is about my home country, Luavyn. Our lands have become increasingly known for their success in the fight against inequalities and, of course, for our King's decision not to take sides in the last wars of this century - I lean on the table, becoming more and more comfortable in that place - The dean's request was for me to contextualize my country for you, bringing facts to the table. However, to know and understand Luavyn, you must first know its mythological story of creation. And that's what I'm going to tell you about now.

I take a sip of water before starting to tell the story that I memorized in my early years. The story that helped define not only who I am, but also built the identity of every Luavynian I know.

*Many years ago, before time was time, the First Gods lived in peace and harmony. Their small disputes were always resolved with the help of the Goddess of Dialogue, without a drop of blood being shed. However, after the creation of human beings, everything began to change. The gods began to copy what they saw in humans: envy, jealousy, lies. As a result, the children of the gods were born poisoned - the Goddess of Dialogue gave birth to the twin gods of lies, the Goddess of Forests gave birth to the god of envy, and then, the Kingdom of the Gods was dominated by the worst of evil. Humanity.

The constant conflicts took on increasingly violent tones. The new gods, born from poison, created discord at all times. The older gods gathered together and forbade all the gods from having children.

However, Luavyn, the Goddess of family and fertility, was pregnant. The gods then decreed the death of their unborn children. Gaian, God of Construction, refused to kill the fruit of his love with Luavyn and sent the pregnant goddess to the home of humans. He built her a boat where she would always sail the seas, so that no god would find her.

Gaian and Luavyn's rebelion was the last straw in the collapse of the gods. A war broke out: those who defended Luavyn and those who wanted death, not only for the unborn gods, but also for their rebellious parents.

It is not known who was the first god to kill, nor even the first to die. What is known is that they all died. Gaian, with his clever mind and strong builder's body survived every fight he faced. He killed every god and goddess who dared say anything about his wife or children.

He killed so much that he lost himself in the slaughter, gaining a taste for war.

In the end, Gaian only needed to kill the twin gods of lies to make sure his wife and children were safe. What he did not foresee was the cunning of both gods who, already knowing of their certain death, decided to destroy Gaian with their own means. The Two Liars spread a rumor to the winds: that the war of the gods had come to an end and that Gaian was the last god to succumb to death.

Luavyn, in her boat, listened to the message of the winds. Desperate and blinded by pain, she threw herself into the sea and asked the waters to kill her. She didn't want to live in a world where her beloved wasn't there. As she drowned, the goddess' body began to fall apart. Her giant body turned into dirt piled up in the sea.

When Gaian arrived at the boat to look for his beloved, he did not find her. He saw a mountain of land in the middle of the sea and went there: the closer he got, the louder he heard the desperate cries of babies. He dug the mountain until he found his five children weakened in the middle of the earth, which was once his wife's body.

He gave each of his sons a sip of the Drink of the Gods. It is she who frees and reveals the power of each god and goddess. The first baby to receive the divine liquid was Verne, the goddess of plants and harvest. The little girl hugged the earth and plants grew from there and the mountain of earth became bigger and bigger, with the vegetation taking over the sea.*

*The second baby made strange, animalistic sounds. When drinking the liquid, his body began to metamorphose into the most different animals. It was she, Fennin, who gave birth to every species on that land.The third baby was silent, but she watched everything with attentive eyes. That's why she was named Conna, the caring one. Her powers, however, only became known over the years, when the goddess grew up and showed her brothers her Knowledge and mastery of the Arts - thus being the goddess of Knowledge and the Arts.

The fourth baby was May. Gaian almost lost his daughter to the sea, which seemed to seek out the child who clapped its hands with each choppy wave. May, after drinking the liquid of the Gods, began to control Water and Healing.

The fifth baby, and also the last, screamed more than all his sisters. He scratched his father and refused to drink the liquid that would keep him alive. With a lot of effort, Gaian managed to give his son a drink. However, the baby only became more and more angry, furious. Gaian saw in his son's eyes what he saw in his own reflection - desire for war. He named him Fury, the god of War...*