The Rhone and Septimania — Water and Spirit

The Rhone is one of the oldest rivers in Europe. It flows from the Swiss Alps through the heart of ancient Gaul, past Lyon — the Roman city of Lugdunum — and down through Provence to the Mediterranean. The Romans built their empire along it. The Celts held their rituals on its banks. Centuries of sacred history run with its water.

After Rennes, Merona's path takes her east to the Rhone — the fourth point of the pentagram, the place where Water waits.

Water, in the sacred tradition, is the element of memory. Of depth. Of what flows beneath the surface of things. It is no coincidence that the river Merona must master is the one that has carried the memory of Gaul for millennia.

Water mastery on the Rhone

Merona stands at the river's edge as its surface begins to churn — responding to Armaeus, responding to her need, responding to something older than either of them.

She speaks the spell:

"Casaim an solas go ti na stor, an tamarac; Aiseiriníonn se no i fein, athchoiriíonn se an saol."

Light to the stars, I turn from darkness; the soul rises, life returns.

The Rhone stills. Armaeus retreats. Merona stands on the bank and feels the river's memory flow through her — every battle, every ritual, every life lived on its shores.

Home: Septimania

The fifth point of the pentagram is not a destination on Merona's journey. It is where she began.

Septimania — the Latin name for the region now called Languedoc — is Merona's home. The village where Mairead found her on Samhain night. The labyrinth where she first awoke to power. The sacred grove where the coven gathers.

In the elemental tradition, the fifth element is not a physical element at all. It is Spirit. The force that animates the other four. The center that holds the pentagram together.

I placed Septimania at the fifth point because that is exactly what home is. It is not one of the four forces. It is what makes the four forces mean something.

Merona leaves Septimania with nothing but questions. She returns from her journey across the pentagram with the power of wind, earth, fire, and water. She carries all of them back to the place where Spirit has always lived.

And then she goes to Paris. To meet the king.

In the next post, I'll tell you who that king was to me — and why his blood is the reason this series exists.

— Michaela