Epilogue

I´d like to welcome all of the readers to the fine work of doctor Katiuscia Branston-Smith!
I used to be one of her colleagues and I have had had the pleasure of finishing this book of hers about the supposedly “Free City of Jubylon”. A very simple task, which mostly consisted of cleaning up a few things, taking input from proofreaders and indexing the book. My old friend was talented and driven, and it showed.

I suppose I should begin this introduction by to addressing the elephant in the room: Why and did dr. Branston-Smith disappear?

I cannot explain the sudden absence of the book’s author, but I will do what I can. Dr. Katiuscia Branston-Smith seems to have been prepared, as was her spouse, Mr. Wyatt Branston-Smith when they left Sydney on the 18th of April last year along with Dr Branston-Smith’s research assistants. Apparently, they all boarded a plane for Cape Town at 5.43 AM, where they took a taxi to the harbour and boarded a ship registered in Santiago, the Alert Emma.

Dr Branston-Smith had arranged for a moving company to pick up all of her books from her office in the weekend before she left and put them into storage, where she paid online in advance for forty years. She had also taken two medium sized boxes to her bank, where she deposited the unknown items within to the vault. I obviously have not been able to find out what those contained. The contents of Dr. and Mr. Branston-Smith's house seems to have been sold online or given to charity beforehand over a period of roughly four weeks.

Her research assistants seems to have not been told about her plans beforehand. At least it would appear that way, as most of them seems to have gone away overnight with their flats and houses left behind. The only change for most of them seems to be that the dishes were done and the fridge was empty and disconnected.
All in all, six people disappeared after engaging in the research of the supposed Free City of Jubylon or being married to the chief researcher. They left close to no traces behind.

The only traces found were one of Dr. Branston-Smith’s laptops, which was found wiped clean of all data in an old room in the university. In the nearby fireplace, remains of various notes and original documents were found. The notes were clearly written by Dr. Branston-Smith, but everything that remained was illegible apart from a single document with a headline simply saying “Visions: the Crimson Veil”.

I can't attest to what happened here, but the Doctor clearly went away and planned it well in advance. That and burning what is presumably historical documents is nearly unknown of (and taboo!) for a historian. Her husband were brought into whatever she was planing as well well in advance, her research assistants only shortly she left. I only found one clue, which I have not been able to follow any further (not was I entirely willing to for that matter). I will include it for the sake of completion and as a celebration of a talented scholar, a welcoming and critical teacher and a friendly and helpful coworker to fellow scholars and faculty staff. And a personal friend of mine. I can´t say what happened, only that she seems even more engaged in her research than usual, perhaps to the point of being obsessed.

I found an envelope along with a short letter in a drawer at her office. It was stamped as being forwarded from Phoenix, Arizona, USA.
It simply read (my own translation from Spanish):

"Dear Dr. Katiuscia Branston-Smith,

Thank you for accepting our invitation! We will look forward to seeing you, your husband and your research assistants on the 23rd of April.

Sincerely yours,
Samuel H.-Z.”

I have nothing further to add to this. Except maybe caution when examining certain aspects of history and that I am very sorry to have lost a personal friend of mine, even though she seems to have been fully determined to go away to whatever her destination turned out to be. I prefer not to think about where that could be.

Phillip Owen,
Lecturer in History at the University of Sidney.
Sidney, July 2024