Kathoc Bose - Final Entry

"The Old Era ended with the Year of Fire," Fahlo said. " Nearly everything ended with the Year of Fire."

Sharron Bassano

Aug 12, 2023

Previous episodes are here: • Part 1 • Part 2 • Part 3 • Part 4 • Part 5

“Look, Paah! A fish! I caught a fish!”

“Oh, and it’s an excellent fish, my son,” said Kathoc Bose.

“Maah, look! It’s a troht fish, a big one.”

“Iz-lâ, I think Brylogh is the cleverest son we’ve ever had, don’t you?”

“Kathoc Bose, Brylogh is the only son we’ve ever had.”

“Oh, yes. You are right,” he smiled.

Brylogh had run to them from the river bank. His maah put down her basket to gather him in and admire his catch on this brilliant autumn morning. She handed him the small knife telling him she’d cook his fish, as soon as he had cleaned it and removed the scales. Pale October sunlight, the color of honey, warmed their faces as Brylogh sat, bending to his task, carefully handling the knife the way his father had taught him. Kathoc, himself, was building again, setting yet more stones, hoping to have another small room added to his house before the arrival of winter at Rivercross.

Notes from the Log of Kathoc Bose

Day 207. Year 8. ”Nearly eight years have passed since the night I was cast up by the sea onto the shore of Veylas and rescued by Fahlo and Brahn in the moonlight. I’ve remained all this time with this Gather and I’ve become a brother to them all. My son, Brylogh is already six, a beautiful boy, and strong. He’ll grow tall and have his natural place among the men of the Veylasím. He lives, still, in the Place of Women with Iz-lâ, but when he is seven he’ll come to live with me and the brothers here by the sea, where he’ll learn the ways of men.”

“Iz-lâ and I continue to follow the old customs of the Veylasím – women staying and working with women, men with men — with one exception: We are together as a family of three at the end of nearly every day in our room at Rivercross. The initial misgivings and fears that the Veylasím had about our unnatural choice to live as a couple have faded with the passage of time.”

“Brahn and Liagh, now, too, have chosen to build rooms at the crossing and are together with their wives — yet, not wives! There is no equivalent for the word or concept of wife or husband here. Still, the larger community is now tolerant of our unusual practice of monogamy. Happily, it has not caused the major social upheaval or conflict originally predicted by some. Most of the Gather, which has grown now to forty members, still prefer the Velasím way of fluid, unbound relationships between men and men, women and women, and men and women, but they have come to accept our personal choice. Society here is adapting and changing — as any society anywhere must. I believe it has been for the good of all.”

Day 232. Year 8. ”It is a raining day again, and dark, all of the men are indoors, engaged in the quiet pursuits of reading, writing, the making of bread, the crafting of small tools or playthings for the children. Most of us are drinking, perhaps, a little too much yarl, but that’s not unusual on a raining day. I have taken out my old journals, and am reading pages written during my early days on Veylas, remembering now when Iz-lâ first took me to the Place of the Books, nearly seven years ago.”

“I had stayed all afternoon in that ancient library in absolute wonder and brought several of the books to my house. The stunning thing, the most remarkable thing to me, was that the text was in English. I remain confounded by it to this day! Exactly how they came to be there in that building, in that place, I don’t know, even now. I’ve found no explanation as to who made these records or why.”

“The books encompass arts and sciences, history, civilizations, industry, government, mechanics, literature – everything one would hope to find. Most of the members of our Gather, over these last few years, have chosen to learn English from Fahlo and me so they can read the books themselves. Their interest lies mostly in the literature.”

“On that long-ago day of my first visit to the Place of the Books, my conversation with Fahlo was memorable and marked a transition in my life on Veylas. Turning back to the page, my entry for that day was this.”

Day 137. ”Iz-la took me to the Place of the Books today. It is a large stone building, very old and sadly in disrepair, but a few of the glass windows remain intact still. This library contains hundreds of cylindrical metal books, each with text in English, which mystifies me, and holographic images of things that I recognize. I asked Fahlo to tell me what he knew about them.”

“They are books that our ancestors discovered, maybe seven generations ago,” he told me. “We don’t know who made them, but they were found, secure, in that same building – a building that somehow survived from the Old Era. Our history directed us to care for them until a time came that we were able to read them.”

“Old Era?” I asked.

“The Old Era ended with the Year of Fire, Kathoc. Nearly everything ended with the Year of Fire. That was over 150 years ago. Our year now, our year of the new calendar is 156, counting forward from the Year of Fire.”

“Tell me of the Fire.”

“At that time, a great raging fire destroyed most of the land of Veylas. Very few people survived it and those who did, suffered for many years until our world became green again. Most all was lost, but we have had much time to heal now, to find others who survived, and to form small communities.”

“There are other Gathers?”

“Oh, yes, there are no doubt many. We have not seen them, but there are sometimes travelers who come to us and stay a while and tell us tales of what they have seen.”

“But the books,” Fahlo. “They are in English. How can that be?”

“I am sorry, I don’t know. But, because of you, Kathoc Bose, we can now teach our Gather the language so that they can finally read the books and learn from them.”

“I can’t say I understand it, many mysteries yet remain. How did the books come to be here? How did I get here? I have long imagined that I didn’t journey away from Earth as I had planned. I believe I didn’t travel through space at all, but rather, somehow, I traveled through time. Have I come 150 years into the future? Is it possible that others like me arrived here too? Is it possible that Veylas is Earth, the New Earth, after the Time of Fire?

I am no longer concerned. I have accepted that not every question in this life has an answer. And I have learned that home is not where you are from. Home is where you find the light when you are the most lost.

This place is my place now. Iz-lâ and Brylogh are my home. This time is my time. I need nothing more.”

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