Welsh people have a phrase for the bitter wind that comes down from the east in winter: gwynt traed y meirw, the wind from the feet of the dead.

The revelation at the end of the sixth day had unsettled the order they believed they understood, and even the quiet routines of the vineyard showed the break in their thoughts. Eden had been kept from them until its purpose stood beyond question, and the knowledge had struck deeply.

The day opened upon a land that bore fresh scars. The great beasts raised on the fifth day lay broken across valley and plain. Traditions keep reports of stone falling from the heights, of earth riven, of seas lifting walls against the shore.

I set it here in the Secret Annex because the marvel of its construction deserves witness, though the Church would rightly question why a monk concerns himself with fortifications.

Each December, when the sun falls to its lowest point and the full moon climbs higher than any other moon of the year, I watch.

The fifth day marks the first quiet turning in the labour of creation. Scripture speaks of the waters bringing forth living creatures and of birds rising in the firmament.

The merchants who walk between the Mediterranean and the Atlantic carry stories stranger than Scripture records. They speak of beasts that moved upon creation before man was made, yet were not made during those six days.

When the east wind howls, bank your fire low,
Keep the door shut tight, let no stranger through,
Hold your children close and the cattle near,
The black tongue moves when the sky runs clear.

The spring emerged at a point where the land changed character. South of the water lay red sandstone country, the soil heavy with iron. North of the spring stretched limestone uplands, white stone country where sheep found good grazing.

Gorse is a thorned shrub cultivated for hedging since the Early Iron Age, developed in Llwyn Madoc following Beulah's fall. The practice spread throughout Welsh territories, requiring three years to establish and providing livestock containment, predator protection, and fuel sources when properly maintained.

Caer Fawr and Caer Einion were twin settlements raised by the Cymroth people in the high country of what would become middle Wales, serving as capital for nearly three thousand years.

Blacksmith and inventor who created the wheel c. 4000 BC, built the twin forts of the Cymroth, and later produced the first steel in the forge of Annwn. His brilliance was matched by the darkness that eventually led him to attempt poisoning the sacred springs around 600 BC.

The Cymroth were a unified people who settled the high ridges of middle Wales c. 3800 BC, building resonance forts and maintaining harmony through song for nearly three millennia before fracturing into the Silures and Ordovices around 950 BC.

The Dragon Tongue, taught to refugees fleeing Shinar during their westward migration c. 4000 BC. This language restored speech to those struck silent by terror and became the foundation of Welsh, carrying harmonics that could make stone itself respond when properly spoken.

Refugees fleeing Babel's fallen towers migrated westward for generations. A mysterious stranger guided them toward an island in the western ocean, promising virgin hills where stone could sing. These peoples reached Wales near 4000 BC, named themselves Cymroth.

Brother Wyn wrestles with irreconcilable chronologies: merchants date events to 4000 BC while Scripture places them at 2200 BC. A merchant explains through the potter's wheel analogy that time spun faster after Creation, gradually slowing until reaching present measure around King David's era.

The towers at Babel were real, built under Zeus's instruction to force all voices into one note. When struck with lightning, the Song shattered instead of unifying, tongues divided, and refugees fled westward.

Cwmni'r Llwybrau operated as a merchant guild for six thousand years. They dealt in tin, amber, bronze goods, salt, and textiles across routes connecting the eastern Mediterranean to Atlantic coasts.

Y rhew was a maintained peace arrangement between the Ordovices of Powys and the Silures of Brycheiniog during the Early Iron Age. The term translates as "the frost."

Afan was a warrior of Caer y Bathau who served as guardian of the sacred springs in the high valleys, c. 587 BC. Grey in his beard, he bore the scars of a man who had seen considerable combat.