014 – Saga I – 1066 – Recorder’s Endnote – Part One Transcript

I let the story sit with me for a few days; not wanting to jump to any conclusions or assumptions. What’s that expression I’ve heard Jake use a few times? It’s best not to assume, because that makes an arse . . . sorry, rather that makes an “ass” out of you and me. First time he told me that it went right over my head like a concord going from London to New York in record time. Then he explained it a few times and it still meant gobbledygook to me. And then he wrote it down and finally the penny dropped.

There’s a lot going on in this Ostium Saga; a bloody lot; on many different levels. What with the person being sent from here through an Ostium door back to the eleventh century. And how it was the time and place they’d dreamed of most of their life and they were finally there. And then to get screwed over by the Ostium Network, which should come as a surprise to no one as they tend to specialize in that; and getting stuck there in that time and place very permanently. And what they did to try and get themselves out. I asked Zhang if they had ever heard or come across any data where a person had tried to contact the Ostium Network from the eleventh century, but they said they had no record of anything like that. 

And then there was the discovery of that slim volume, which is the next Ostium Saga that I’m just aching to read, but I’m making myself not do. Not until we put this first Ostium Saga completely to bed. And then if we take a step back and have a look at the bigger picture which is the Conclave, a secret group that has apparently existed for millennia, and one of their duties, so they decided, is to collect stories of people lost in time who all talk about a place called Ostium. It would all seem barmy if I weren’t currently living in the very place all these people used to call home. The Conclave has no idea what Ostium or the Ostium Network is, other than what they have been able to divine through the Ostium Sagas.

And then lets take one last step back and acknowledge the elephant who seems very partial to all things Ostium in the room with the Ostium door, and talk about why all these unique and incredible documents and chronicles and books keep being discovered in old abandoned, ruined churches? What’s going on there exactly? The mind boggles. Makes me want to start checking every old church I come across and with my trusty spade, start digging lots of holes everywhere, just in case, you know?

Did the Conclave know something about this? Some intrinsic link that we haven’t been made privy to yet, and that’s why the Ostium Sagas book was found buried in a church? Maybe it’s just one of those mysteries we’ll never find an answer to. At least that’s not likely in this book. Which is why these Recorder’s Endnotes are not just going to be me rehashing the amazing things I just read and you just listened to, dear listener. No. I’m going to see what I can find out about everything involved in the first Ostium Saga by doing some deep and heavy research.  

[PAUSE]

Okay, update, it’s been a week of me metaphorically ransacking the internet once more for any snippets or clues or shreds of evidence related to this saga and I’ll be perfectly honest: so far I haven’t found much. I will say I’ve learned a ridiculous amount of history about the Battle of Hastings and just general medieval life in the eleventh century, and I’ve to hand it to this bloke, the fact that he was able to ha an enjoyable and fruitful life; to raise a family with grandchildren, and to seemingly pass away from old age with an apparent smile on this face. Even if he did get the Ostium Network branded vaccine cocktail to protect him from all the illnesses and viruses of the time. I mean, I’m almost jealous of the guy. Considering there was only a very poor excuse for medicine available, and the concept of hygiene and cleanliness hadn’t really been invented yet. Obviously a lot of that is blown out of proportion, especially for the big budget Hollywood films, and there were lots and lots of people who lived to ripe old ages, and they were all called witches and bruins at the stake or tossed into the river . . . nah, only kidding. Nevertheless, as bad as things had gone for him, in the end it all turned out pretty good, as he firmly attests to in his chronicle.

After too many days of mind numbing research, or I suppose “attempted” mind numbing research, as I hadn’t really found anything of substance or what I would deem useful and worthy of being mentioned in this Recorder’s Endnote, and just as I was about to say sod it and call it a day, and move on to the next Ostium Saga, I found something. A little something . . . a digital thread if you will that I could have easily said would turn out to be a big bloody waste of time and not bothered, but I chose to keep going, perhaps because I’d discovered so little, or perhaps because this was something waiting to be found by the likes of me, or perhaps even this was Ostium and the Ostium Network working its influence on me and the reality around me, as it has done to all of us on numerous occasions before. 

And now as I record these notes some weeks later, I am starting to wonder if this digital thread I plucked that led to a real person, who has revealed himself to be a curmudgeonly college professor may in fact be, secret, yes, oh so very secretly, an alive and well member of the Conclave.