In the past was a time when sin went unpunished and humankind lived freely, with no burden laid upon their souls in return for transgression. And there lived a father with two daughters, Divinity and Regret, both as lovely as the iridescent rays of sunlight which shone softly upon the valley of the Lord.
    In peace and tranquillity they lived until the day a man, an innocent man free from sin, came to their valley and lost his heart to the beautiful Divinity, for under her charms even the strongest succumbed to flaming desire. And he said,
“That we be bound by marriage
Shall be, undoubtedly, all that I seek.
Will you not acquiesce,
So that my heart will become whole?”
And she bowed her head and replied, “Kind sir, I would be honored.”
    So from there preparations for a grand ceremony were ordered and all rejoiced in the valley of the Lord, yet Regret was dissatisfied, for she had hoped to claim the young man as her own. And the love he had for her sister incensed her still further, until, in a rage, she cried,
“That which thrives in abundance
in the kingdom of God, heed my call
and eradicate this forbidden love
in which I have no part!”
And all the good and beauty in the world came at her call, for it was what was most abundant in the land of the Lord God’s creation. It came and fell upon the man and his love with barely restrained zeal, wanting only to please its master and satisfy its command.
    And the man saw this, and was frightened, for he was unprotected and exposed. But his betrothed came to him then and reached down his throat, and drew from his depths a gleaming silver sword, sharp enough to tear and ravage a soul. And the man said, “Alas! If the Devil did indeed have a form, then I hold him now in my hand!”
    Yet he held the sword aloft and attacked the good of the world with a fierce ardor which bordered on insanity. He defiled the valley of the Lord with the blood of his victims, and as it soaked the ground, their dying shrieks rose in an unearthly wail that pounded against his ears. But his heart was a barren plain; he felt nothing, and found instead that he could not restrain his power. And he stepped up to his betrothed, his lovely Divinity, and he drove the sword down through her heart, tearing it to pieces.
    Now, his love lay broken upon the ground and her breaths shook in her breast like the death-call of the rattlesnake. And she said to him,
“I have only myself to blame
for opening your eyes to the sin inside you.
‘Twas I who handed you the sword
and ‘twas the sword that desecrated your purity.
With your blade, you annihilated the good
and lost yourself in the throes of power.
‘Twas not the Devil you held in your hands—
‘twas your own potential sin, which I had awoken.
Cursed now I must be, as the cause of this crime.
I shall call myself Sin, for with it, the world was torn.
And because of it, I die.”
    With her final breath, these words were uttered, and she died. But the Lord God saw all, and he was angered that the man showed no feeling for what he had done. And as the Lord God beheld the blood-stained ground and the last wisps of the spirits that now floated like ghostly fog up to the heavens, he pointed accusingly at the man and said,
“Cursed are you now for all you have done!
Dead is the good which once thrived on the Earth,
and the bond of sisterhood, you have destroyed.
Because you have taken Divinity’s life,
so the soul of Sin is now yours.
Alas, the sisters’ love remains strong;
Regret must follow Sin
all the days of her life.
While you live, Regret shall bloom.
As your heart is empty of love,
now let it be filled with sorrow.”
    And it was as the Lord God decreed: Regret followed the man to the last days of his life, and the man was plagued with inexpressible sorrow at every waking moment. And over time the Lord God’s curse spread across the earth, and he knew that humans everywhere would one day feel the pang of regret to accompany their wrongdoings.