Stories Of Zoltah

Pandora

Now, of all the Olympians, none was as gifted... or questioning, as Pandora, who was renowned not only for her beauty rivalled only by Aphrodite, but because of her majestic works that spanned across nearly all the magical disciplines. Indeed, be it herbs, the constellations across the night skies or the creation of matter itself, Pandora's knowledge knew no bounds. Born to a lowly Olympian smith and his baker wife, Pandora was one of their only two daughters, and the youngest. The oldest, Persephone, spent most of her time vainly attempting to enhance her beauty using magic and wasting the days that followed, treating her injuries from the eventual side effects. (For true beauty after all, is to be found within the heart). As the years drew by, Pandora however, finally succeeded in creating a crown, capable of discerning one's true thoughts. Her invention drew the attention of celestials from both far and near, reaching up to Asgard and even Heliopolis. But since the Asgardians and the Olympians had been enemies from the onset of the ages, only processions of Heliopolitans came in search of the famed inventor. With them, they brought chests of jewels, piles of gold, and barrels of precious trinkets and artefacts, marching them across the lands of Zoltah and sailing over the seas, before finally reaching the borders of Olympia. There, they were allowed passage within by the army stationed at the walls, led by their famed commander who personally brought them to Zeus. Ra, the king of Heliopolis, along with his entire court, were greeted with much joy and hospitality while they waited for Pandora to be fetched and brought to Mount Olympus. Quickly riding from the mountain, Hermes who had been sent to find the young creator, instead found her sister, sitting out in the sun with her face morphed and contorted with boils. He reluctantly informed her that he was searching for Pandora, and Persephone, simmering with rage and green with envy, enquired what the messenger of the royals could possibly want with a lowly girl such as she. Pressed for time, Hermes promptly explained that word of her invention had spread across Zoltah, drawing in even King Ra, who awaited with gifts to bestow upon her.

Knowing fully well that Pandora was out scavenging for herbs, Persephone lied and claimed that she was indeed her sister, and that an experiment gone awry had badly bruised her swollen face. And thinking nothing of it, Hermes obliged and rode with Persephone back to Mount Olympus, were all stood and gazed in awe as she entered. The gifts, the trinkets and the devotion, proved so intoxicating to Persephone, that when Hades, eager to make a wife of such a brilliant mind, emerged out from the throng and asked for her hand in marriage, all she could do was stumble further into her own deceit.

After the days turned to weeks, word of Persephone's marriage to an Olympian royal finally reached her home and weary parents, who along with Pandora, travelled to Mount Olympus to learn if the news was indeed true. There, they were met by Zeus and his court, who out of curiosity, enquired as to who the other girl was.

But at that moment, suffering from a heavy heart poisoned with anger wrought by Persephone's lies and deceit, Pandora marchedout from the castle and fled back to their home, where she would spend the next few years before the Uplifting, crafting a chest that held all her anger,resentment and frustration towards her sister. Before she shut the bronze-cast box, a single tear flowed out from her eyes and dropped into its swirly mist,sealing a fickle concoction of both despair and hope inside