Episode 53: Visions and Answers

We continue our investigation of the King Beyond the Desert. This time we look into a certain artifact left behind in King Olaf's treasure vault, as well as the psychedelic experiments of Dr. Darren that shed some startling light on our examination of Norumbega. Oh, and Tom sits down with Katie Clark and things get...weird.

Content Warning:  swords, axes, battle, death, black magic, curses, infanticide, drowning, Crusades, Christianity, LSD and psychedelic drug use, spirits, physical manifestations, strange sounds

Host: Chris Estes
Writer: Chris Estes & Lucas Knight
Senior Investigator: Lucas Knight
Senior Investigator: Tom Wilson
Special Investigator: Megan Meadows
Special Guest: Katie Clark
Sound Design: Chris Estes
Producer: Megan Meadows

Transcript

Malevolent Maine

Episode 53: Visions & Answers 

Malevolent Maine is a horror podcast, and may contain material not suitable for all audiences. Listener discretion is advised.

INTRO: 

MEGAN: There’s something horribly wrong with one of Maine’s oldest food staples. Some connections and theories into our ongoing investigations. And a menace from beyond the stars. All of this and more coming up the rest of this season.

Hello everyone, it’s me, Megan. Thanks for listening. Here’s your reminder to follow and interact with us on social media if you haven’t already. Please leave a review for the episode wherever you get your podcasts from. And if you’re interested, head over to patreon.com/malevolentmaine and join the Malevolent Mob. In addition to the side stories we’re currently telling, Cardinal Sins and Witch’s Mark, we’re starting a new thing for our patreon supporters. Each episode we’ll release a deleted scene from the episode. This is stuff that just didn’t make the final cut, but we think our listeners will still find interesting. Only on Patreon.com/malevolentmaine. Thanks again and enjoy the episode.

The campfire burns low and the sound of crickets fills the night air. You sit a few feet from the simple tent you set up earlier in the evening, swaying a little as the psychedelic drugs you took earlier begin to open your mind. The night sky is suddenly awash in colors brighter than any aurora borealis and you can feel the night wrapping your body up like a blanket. Suddenly a strange man emerges from the forest, bathed in aquamarine fire. He sees you and slowly sits across the fire from you before he begins to speak.

This is Malevolent Maine.

TITLE SEQUENCE

Bear with me, MMers. I’m dealing with a little bit of a summer cold. As you know we’ve been investigating the being called the King Beyond the Desert. This being, most likely whatever remains of a Viking Seiðmenn or sorcerer named Einar Ragnulf, is an incredibly powerful figure, but one who remained largely a mystery to us. Aside from a few vague mentions in archaic texts and the often irrational ramblings of Katie Clark, who we believe is the most recent victim of the King Beyond the Desert, we didn’t have much to go on.

We had come to suspect that Ragnulf had been exiled from Norway sometime around 1000 AD and left on an island in Penobscot Bay by famed Viking explorer, Leif Erikson. From there, Ragnulf found some way to extend his life beyond normal. He came to reside in the legendary city of Arembec, the capital of Norumbega, a powerful native American kingdom, said to be the home of fantastic mystical powers, in what is now the Bangor area. 

From there, however, we were lost. After David Ingram, Henry Derring, and William Lumbarde returned to England from Norumbega, the kingdom mysteriously vanished, leaving nearly no trace of its fabled existence. However, Henry Derring, who had fallen in love with a Norumbegan woman, claimed she had told him Ragnful was taking Norumbega “beyond the dangers posed to them by the outside world.”

What exactly that entailed and how he was able to accomplish such a feat was unknown to us, and it seemed the King Beyond the Desert’s trail had gone cold, until his reappearance, or at least, reemergence in 2022. 

So we decided to split our resources. Tom went to interview Katie Clark, who after nearly six months of silence had contacted us to arrange a meeting. Lucas, focused his attention on Norumbega and the King’s connection to it. Meanwhile, I focused on Ragnulf’s history in Norway, particularly his time in the court of King Olaf Tryggvason.

We’ve been trying to determine exactly what Ragnulf, who was serving as an aide or adviser to the king, did that got him exiled. Most mentions of Einar Ragnulf were erased from history at the order of King Olaf. Whatever he did, was so heinous that the king wanted no record of the sorcerer even existing. 

In my investigation, I haven’t been able to find much of what he actually did. There aren’t many surviving historical records from over a thousand years ago, and those that do exist have all but erased Ragnulf from them.

I did manage to find something interesting that I believe relates to our investigation, however.

Our initial research had uncovered a Viking poet and historian, Hagnbarth Haddirsson, and it was in a portion of his Véorr Sagnir or Sacred Stories, that we found the story of Einar Ragnulf. I was able to find a partial copy of a second collection of stories Haddirsson wrote, the Saga Þjóðanna [pee-o-nja] or Saga of the People. This was an incomplete text and it took some time to translate it into a workable read. I want to thank Professor Yates at Armitage College, who we worked with back in Episode 45. He helped translate the saga, and without his help, we would have been at a loss. These ancient histories lose a lot of meaning when you run them through an online translator.

One of the stories in Haddirsson’s collection, written in the form of a long poem, claimed that King Olaf was given a gift by his seer, which the sorcerer claimed would ensure his lord never lost a battle. It was a small bauble, no larger than a man’s hand. It was covered in runes, some of which the King could read and understand, some that were unfamiliar to him. According to Haddirsson, these runes seemed to writhe and twist like a snake and moved like the waves over the surface of the artifact. The king’s seer had put a powerful spell on the object so that any mortal blow aimed at the king would instead be redirected, meaning he would never fall in battle.

And the shape of this object?

A pyramid. A black pyramid.

We’ve seen this symbol before, of course. The King Olaf coin, the Exile wore around his neck, was stamped with a black pyramid on the back. This was the same coin found in 1957 at the Goddard site along Penobscot Bay. 

And here’s where the stories get interesting. Historically, we know that Olaf Tryggvason won an astounding number of battles during his relatively short tenure as king. He was able to unite all of Norway in under five years and had indeed made excursions into other parts of Scandinavia hoping to unite the entire region under his banner.

Could Einar Ragnulf’s black pyramid have helped the king? According to Haddirsson, that was the truth. His saga tells of a savage blow from an enemy chief’s sword that pierced right through Olaf’s stomach. When his enemy removed the blade he was surprised to find not a scratch on Olaf, who promptly beheaded his foe. Another story told of an axe simply shattering into a hundred fragments when it struck the king’s exposed neck. 

But Haddirsson claims there was tragedy in all of this victory. For all his prowess on the battlefield, King Olaf failed to produce an heir. His children, of which he and his wife conceived many, all seemed to shrivel and die soon after their birth. The oldest a child ever lived, a boy named Tryggvi only made it to three years old. 

And according to Haddirsson, all of these deaths occurred after Olaf had won a major battle.

The king began to believe that the trinket his Seiðmenn had given him was cursed, that he was paying for his success with the life of his children. The poem concludes with Olaf Tryggvason locking the black pyramid away in a treasure vault, purposefully leaving it behind when he sailed forth to the Battle of Svolder to face the combined forces of Denmark and Sweden.

Olaf Tryggvason lost the battle, and to avoid execution from his enemies, leapt into the sea with his full armor on, and drowned. 

So, is it possible that this black pyramid, the so-called protective charm that transferred his imminent deaths to his innocent children, was the reason that King Olaf exiled Einar Ragnulf? The timing certainly works out. 

If Olaf the First suspected his seer had cursed him, and that this malediction had caused the death of his children, it would certainly justify his banishment of Ragnulf. It would explain the black pyramid coin, a sign of his crime, so to speak. Soon after Lief Eriksson sailed to America with the Exile in tow, King Olay engaged in the battle of Svolder, from which he never returned. 

We now suspect that Ragnulf was exiled for this very treason. When he learned the truth of the black pyramid, Olaf wanted nothing to do with his adviser so he banished him far beyond the borders of the Viking known world, to the remotest place he could conceive. And without the protective yet damned charm of the pyramid, death soon caught up to the Norwegian king.

But that’s not the end of the story of the black pyramid. In fact, it would turn up centuries later in a familiar place.

But before we get to that, we should check in with Lucas and his investigation of Norumbega.

LUCAS: So, after David Ingram, Henry Derring, and William Lumbarde all returned to England, many people went searching for Norumbega. None of them ever found anything except a few dilapidated huts. Nothing that would suggest the majesty of Ingram’s stories was true. It appears that Norumbega simply disappeared and many people believed Ingram and Company had made up their tale. There isn’t much else to find regarding the fabled city-state. By the 1700s most believed it to be fiction, and outside of a few poems and fantasy stories, there isn’t much to discover. Whatever The One Who Stands Alone - the name the Norumbegans gave to the man we believe was Einar Ragnulf - did to take the kingdom beyond the dangers of the outside world seemed so effective no one ever saw them again. But that may have had to do with the Europeans limited knowledge of how the kingdom itself worked.

As we discussed in Episode 50, Norumbega was a kingdom, which David Ingram, a British sailor who was stranded in America, referred to as a city-state. He and his fellow survivors described Norumbega as a magical place with glowing crystal buildings, mythical animals living alongside the citizens, and people with amazing powers including feats of magic and extended lifespans. 

It was Henry Derring, David Ingram’s companion, who actually married a Norumbegan woman, that clarified the place they were actually in was a city called Arembec. It served as the central hub or capitol for the kingdom, but other cities and villages existed inside the domain of Norumbega. Arembec was where Ingram and Derring stayed, where they befriended the Bashaba, and met The One Who Stands Alone. 

It’s important to note that Europeans used the two locations Arembec, the city, and Norumbega, the nation interchangeably. When Samuel de Champlain searched Maine for Norumbega he was specifically looking in the location of Arembec. So when historians talk about the city-state disappearing or no trace of it ever being found, it’s unclear whether they refer to the city or the kingdom. Perhaps both, as no traces of any advanced Native American civilization like the one described by Ingram, Derring, and Lumbarde has ever been discovered in Maine.

LUCAS: When I broadened my search to include Arembec, at first I didn’t find much more. As many of these sources came from European explorers the two terms were used synonymously with each other. Once I moved onto more metaphysical sources, I was shocked to find a reference to Arembec in, of all places, the biography of renowned metaphysician, Dr. Darren Maguire.

For those who don’t know or don’t remember, Dr. Darren was a fairly well known parapsychologist, following in the footsteps of Timothy Leary in his recommended use of psychedelic drugs, but Maguire claimed he was also able to communicate with the dead, a gift he had developed as a boy, long before his association with hallucinogens. It should be noted that Dr. Darren Maguire was not actually a licensed doctor nor did he hold any advanced degrees. His honorific was self-appointed as he claimed to be the world’s first doctor of the metaphysical arts.

While the title makes him sound something like a real-life Dr. Strange, the famous Marvel comics Sorcerer Supreme, also created in 1963, the real life Dr. Darren was a far cry from his comics counterpart.

Darren Maguire was known for wearing muted cardigan sweaters and thin ties. He smoked a pipe when in public, but was known to switch to cigarettes in private. He had the open, honest face of an actor or model, which made him more attractive to his audience. On the outside he looked every bit the part of the conservative psychology professor.

LUCAS: His conventional appearance belied his extensive drug use, his practice of metaphysical magic, and his noted ability to converse with the dead. Maguire would often take large doses of LSD and lock himself in a darkened room with nothing but a pen and notebook. He would emerge hours or days later with the notebook full of what he claimed were messages from a spirit from the otherside. Sometimes he claimed to have revisited a past life or alternative dimensions, guided by these spirits. Other times he simply recorded their stories and wisdom. His notebooks were often difficult to read, as he wrote them in complete darkness, and he and his assistant at the time would take days, even weeks trying to decipher them.

Dr. Darren had a relatively short career. He was “active” from 1963-1969, at least in the popular zeitgeist. He continued practicing his brand of psychedelic mediumship into the 1980s before passing away from cancer in 1991. While not one of the most well known mediums in history, Dr. Darren had a unique spot in pop culture, and for a time at least was a fairly well-known name. Unfortunately that did nothing to drive sales of his autobiography, Beyond the Rainbow, which he released in 1977. The book was part personal history, part collection of his conversations with the dead.

LUCAS: One passage of the book detailed a trip to Maine Maguire took in 1966. He traveled to what he calls a site that was a nexus of ancient mystical energy. He doesn’t use Norumbega by name, but he references how indigenous people used the site for powerful magical ceremonies. Maguire went out into the woods and set up camp at a site he claimed he was drawn to. There he took 200 micrograms of LSD, an hour later he took another 50 microgram tab. 

He writes that just as the full moon rose in the night sky, he was visited by a spirit. He claims the man walked not out of the woods, but through them. That the trees and plants didn’t part for him, but that the man parted for them. He was a luminous turquoise color and that mystical fire limned his skin, though seemed to cause the man no discomfort. He was wearing clothing made of scales or small hammered discs, and he wore bands of gold on his arms from his wrists to his elbows. He wore large gems or crystals in his ears, and one one his forehead. Maguire says the man approached the campfire he had made, nodded to him, then sat down. Maguire knew right away the man was a spirit.

“I am a Prince of Aremebec that was,” the spirit said. “And my story has been untold for these many centuries. Heed them, magician, so that I may find rest.”

Maguire continues that the spirit told him of the mighty city of Arembec, the jewel of the wide world. He talked about the spires of solid gold that stretched to the sun and the palaces carved from crystalized light in which even the poorest man dwelt. Much of what the Prince supposedly told Maguire is similar to the information from Ingram, Derring, and Lumbarde - great magic energy, long life, etc. 

But then the Prince claimed a darkness came to Arembec. A darkness that walked on two legs and wore the face of a man. This darkness was as cold as the whitest winter chill and moved like a snake, sneaking into the graces of the fabled city. The Prince claimed that in secret the darkness that was a man slew their Chief and conspired to take his place. 

A quick note of what is probably obvious to our listeners. This darkness that the Prince of Arembec is talking about sounds awfully similar to what we know about the One Who Stands Alone from Henry Derring’s account. The description of the whitest winter chill also coincides with the descriptions of Wanabothlet, the Penobscot area boogeyman which we have discovered was the exiled Einar Ragnulf. The iciness may be a description of his skin tone or perhaps his demeanor; it’s difficult to say.

It’s also interesting that here the Prince claims it was Ragnulf who killed the Bashaba, where Derring’s account claims the Exile blamed curses or diseases brought by the Englishmen for that death. Here it becomes apparent that Ragnulf killed the Bashaba himself and assumed power of the Council. This seems to be a pattern for him, as we earlier noted he sought to poison the line of Olaf Tryggvasson, so he could assume power. It also aligns with the prophecy he was given that he would become king by his own hand from the ancient Viking myth.

LUCAS: The Prince continued that after the death of their Chief, the Darkness That Was a Man claimed the throne of Arembec. He convinced the Council of Elders who ruled the city to assist him in a powerful ritual, one designed to remove the city from the influence of the outside world. With the ritual complete, Arembec shifted out of this plane of existence, never to be seen by mortal man again. According to the story, “Arembec, the shining jewel, was taken, hidden from sight, but in this new shadow where it now dwelt, Arembec lost its glow.” The once magnificent towers and buildings of crystal and gold lost their luster and drained away to a twisted, obscene black.

In this new place, beyond time and space, the Darkness That Was a Man died but after a day and a night he rose and walked again. According to the spirit, It was in this death that the Darkness gained new knowledge of the universe and ordered all of the metal to be melted down and built into a colossal edifice. This he believed, would funnel the ultimate power of the universe through him and grant him the power he had been promised. While the Darkness sat on his black throne, the people of Arembec worked his awful will. As this sable edifice took shape, slowly, over many centuries in that timeless dimension, life began to recede from the once fertile Arembec. Trees and plants died, the land dried up, even their ancient and mythical animal servants collapsed as the construction sapped their life. When that wasn’t enough to complete the task, the citizens of Arembec, first the laborers and farmers, but in the end even the Princes of the Council toiled day and night to complete the task of their new wicked king. When one of them dropped from exhaustion, the others simply cast the body aside. This continued until the last drop of life had been leached from the once beautiful kingdom. In its place a vast and barren desert spread in all directions, littered with the bones of the fallen. And at its center was the massive Stygian structure and in that inky heart, sat the Darkness That Was Once a Man, king of everything and nothing, for all time.

That’s where the Prince’s story ends. Maguire claimed he and the spirit sat in silence until the sun began to rise and the Prince’s form melted away.

Now, it goes without saying that the words of a man under such a large dose of psychotropic drugs should be taken with care. It’s entirely possible, Darren Maguire knew the story of Norumbega and under the influence of LSD created this elaborate encounter.

On the other hand, there are some similarities and details that seem a little too specific to be dreamed up in a hallucinogenic state. While it is possible that Maguire knew the stories of Einar Ragnulf, Wanabothlet, and the reporting of Henry Derring, not to mention at least passing knowledge of the Gray Fool, this seems like a tremendous coincidence. It’s taken us over six months to find these stories and we study these things for a living. 

So, does Darren Maguire’s account of the Prince of Arembec explain the King Beyond the Desert? It certainly seems so. If Ragnulf performed powerful enough magic that removed Arembec, or perhaps Norumbega at large, from this plane of existence, it would explain why no one has been able to find it. The sable edifice Maguire describes sounds tremendously similar to the Ebony Contaph, the inverted black pyramid at the heart of the bone desert where the Gray Fool, the Discord Weaver, and servant of the King Beyond the Desert takes dreamers to test them. 

LUCAS: As much as this seems to be the missing piece for us, connecting all of our theories on the Exile, one part of the story stood out to me. The Prince’s spirit claims that Ragnulf died in this place beyond space and time. And yet he rose a day later. I don’t quite understand this reference, whether it is metaphorical or literal, but if the King Beyond the Desert is for lack of a better term, undead, a spirit or ghost, it may explain why he simply doesn’t manifest here.

Obviously, we’re going to continue digging into this. And as we find answers we’ll be sure to share them with you. We’re beginning to see the larger picture here, but there are still several sections we can’t quite make out. We hope to get those answers soon.

And speaking of the Gray Fool, who we now believe is actually a being known as the Discord Weaver, at least in terms of the King Beyond the Desert… Earlier we spoke about the black pyramid, the small cursed statue Einar Ragnulf gave to Olaf Trygvasson. 

That statue sat in the treasure vaults of Norway for nearly twenty years after Olaf the First quit himself of it. However, in 1018, King Olaf the Second, no blood relation to Olaf Trygvasson, discovered the pyramid. He determined that the object was cursed and decidedly unchristian and needed to be destroyed once and for all. From there, the pyramid disappears from history for a time before emerging almost a hundred years later during the Norwegian Crusades.

At this time, Scandinavian warriors, under the command of King Sigurd the First brought the pyramid to Jerusalem, the Holy Land, in an attempt to cleanse it of its foul curse. There it was traded to King Baldwin in exchange for a piece of the True Holy Cross on which Jesus was crucified. Baldwin planned to purify the pyramid, but the black magic Ragnulf had placed on it was too powerful and the holy men discovered they could only contain it, keeping it hidden beneath one of their churches.

Flashforward to the Seventh Crusade in the mid-Thirteenth Century, where King Louis IX of France led an attempt to reclaim the Holy Land. We know that a man named Sanson de Croan was on this crusade and that many churches and temples were raided and their treasure plundered.

We believe de Croan found the black pyramid in one of these raids. Sanson de Croan, as we previously explained all the way back in Episode 5, was the man who would eventually become the Gray Fool, the Discord Weaver of the King Beyond the Desert.

This does beg some questions, however. The first being the timeline. If de Croan finds the black pyramid in 1250, how is he able to be influenced by the King Beyond the Desert? Norumbega doesn’t disappear until 1569, which means Ragnulf doesn’t ascend to his throne until after that. According to the Prince of Arembec’s statement, it took centuries to build the Ebony Cenotaph, the giant inverted pyramid from which Ragnulf rules.

The Prince also said the dimension where Norumbega went exists outside time and space. What if the two pyramids…spoke to each other somehow. That when it was finally finished the Ebony Cenotaph sent Ragnulf’s…power or will or spirit out back into the past to Sanson de Croan? It may sound far-fetched, but if time can be manipulated the way it is in Norumbega, or as we now call it, the Bone Desert, then it would not be impossible to move backwards through time as well as forwards.

If the small pyramid in de Croan’s possession was able to tune into the power emanating from the larger Ebony Cenotaph, then perhaps that’s how the King Beyond the Desert was able to corrupt the Gray Fool.

Which brings us back to the one person we know with experience with both the Fool and the King: Katie Clark. 

As you will recall from previous episodes, Katie Clark was originally aired for our season 1 episode about the Gray Fool. She had begun having dreams of this being, which tempted her to an inverted black pyramid in the middle of a bone desert - what we now know is the Ebony Cenotaph in the decaying remains of Norumbega. Katie disappeared soon after our interview and was missing for over a year before suddenly reappearing last fall, seemingly no worse for wear.

When we spoke with her at the start of this season, she seemed to brush off our suspicions about the Gray Fool and his master, the King Beyond the Desert. She made it sound more like a self-help experience, an exercise to unlock your true potential, like many of those online classes or groups that take your money in exchange for teaching you the quote, “secrets to unleash your true self.” Lots of times these turn into cults, but Katie claimed she was in no danger and that neither were we.

Then we received an email from her mother, saying that Katie had gotten strangely interested in music. She was listening to tracks backwards, she was listening to multiple songs played from different devices at the same time. She was listening to strange combinations of notes and sounds that only barely resembled music. 

After that we didn’t hear back from Katie’s mother or Katie herself sometime, until out of the blue, she called us and invited Tom to her home for a follow up interview at a specific time and date. She instructed him to come alone.

TOM: We had been to the Clarks’ home several times in the past. When Katie had initially gone missing, we had met with her parents, Roger and Gloria, and had done follow ups several times. The home is a nice Cape Cod style, filled with pastel colors, and bright, sunny windows. It was kept fastidiously clean and both Gloria and Roger both told me before about how they consider themselves organizers, “everything has its place,” she said. But when I arrived to interview Katie again just a few weeks back, the house was different. The grass was long and uncut and the mail was spilling out of the mailbox. There was a stack of unopened newspapers on the front porch. 

Katie welcomed me at the front door and ushered me into the house. It was dark. The curtains, which had always been pulled back to let in the light, were drawn tight. The house was a mess with trash and clothes scattered throughout. There were cardboard boxes strewn about the place as if she had just gotten a lot of packages in the mail. And there was a stale smell to the home, like a window hadn’t been opened in a long time. I didn’t see any signs of Gloria or Roger as Katie led me to the kitchen table, which was scattered with old vinyl records.

[Interview]

TOM: Katie you look…you look different.

KATIE: It’s been several months, Thomas. Women change their appearance all the time.

TOM: Yeah…no. I mean, you look…I don’t know stronger? Taller. Nevermind.

KATIE [sort of chuckles]: Alright.

It wasn’t just that Katie had changed her hair or her style of clothing. There was a difference to her that Tom noticed right away. You can hear it in her voice. This isn’t the same woman that was scared of her bad dreams, or left us those disturbing messages. This wasn’t the same woman who had returned from her time with the King unsure of her place in the world. There was a steely detachment in her eyes and an almost condescending tone to her voice.

TOM: So on the phone you said you wanted to talk.

KATIE: That’s right.

TOM: About what?

KATIE: Music.

TOM: Music?

KATIE: That’s right. I’m…I’ve started a new career that I thought you should know about.

TOM: In…music?

KATIE: Correct. It’s a fascinating area of study. Did you know that the oldest instrument in the world is from 50,000 years ago? A neanderthal carved it from cave bear bones. 

TOM: That’s…interesting. But Katie -

KATIE [continues on, almost ignoring him]: The oldest recorded musical composition is from the first or second century. The Song of Seikilos was carved on a tombstone in Turkey. 

TOM: Okay, but what does this have to do with you? Why invite me here?

KATIE: Don’t you see, Thomas? Music has been a part of human existence from the very beginning. It is one of the most powerful forces in the world. Hasn’t a song ever made you sad or angry?

TOM: Well…yeah.

KATIE: Hasn’t a song changed your mood or your way of thinking? 

TOM: Yeah, sure.

KATIE: Have you ever wondered how that can happen?

TOM: I mean, not really. I just thought.

KATIE: Scientists have found a way to turn music - sound that is - into a weapon. Whales can use sound to communicate up to 500 miles away. Bats use it to navigate. There’s even ways to listen to sounds from a place hundreds or thousands of years old.

TOM: Okay…

KATIE: All of this is to say… to say that sound, music if you will, is an incredibly powerful and precious tool. It can influence the human mind, but more than that, it can influence the physical world. Here, listen to this.

[Katie cues up some strange alien-sounding music]

TOM: What is that?

KATIE: No one knows. There are dozens, maybe even a hundred sounds science can’t explain. The Hum. Moon Music. Black Holes. Places where sound shouldn’t exist. Cannot exist. And yet it does. This was recorded in a field just south of Bangor in 2005. No one knows what it is. No one can explain it. 

TOM: What’s the point?

KATIE: Music is the universe’s oldest magic. It defies all the laws we believe to be true. Its very existence proves the impossible. And it’s become my life’s work.

TOM: You’re…you’re a musician?

KATIE: You might call it that. I have begun composing songs, Thomas. Messages to and from the Universe. From beyond.

TOM: Does this have anything to do with the King Beyond the Desert?

KATIE [growing more serious]: I told you before that the King is none of your concern.

TOM: So there is a King!

KATIE: I am sending messages - music - out into the Omniverse. The King and whoever else is free to listen. Can’t you see that? 

TOM: Katie, I don’t-

KATIE: Music is the key. The right sound, the right note can open doors. Into the human spirit. Into greater cosmic understanding. It can shatter barriers. They will hear, and they will come.

TOM: Who, Katie?

KATIE [ignoring him]: I’m playing a series of concerts this summer. Small things, outdoor events. They’re all over the state. You should come, Thomas.

TOM [growing alarmed]: What do your parents think of all this, Katie? 

KATIE [surprised]: What?

TOM: Your parents? Where are they, Katie?

KATIE: They are gone. They…they’re taking a vacation. They have been through a lot. They needed time…time to understand everything.

TOM: Is he making you do this, Katie? The King Beyond the Desert?

KATIE [almost under her breath]: When the song is right the King will hear. He will come to me.

TOM: What?

KATIE: This was a mistake. You’re not ready.

TOM: Katie, what-

KATIE [scary, cold]: I think you should go.

TOM: Katie…

KATIE: Now. Stay away from me, Thomas. You and your friends. Do not interfere.

TOM: I don’t understand. Interfere with what?

KATIE: Go! Now!

[a strange sounds, like weirded out music overlays her command]

We’ll bring you more updates on Katie Clark as we get them. For now, if you happen to attend one of your shows, we’d appreciate it if you gave us some feedback. How does she look? How does she sound? We’re not convinced something isn’t happening with her, something, well, malevolent. And we can’t help feeling it’s connected to the King Beyond the Desert, as much as she seems to deny it.

It seems like every time we get closer to understanding this story, we uncover two new mysteries. But we’ve got to be getting closer. We’re able to track the King Beyond the Desert from his origins in Norway to Norumbega, some 500 years later. We think we understand the connection between the King and his servant, the Gray Fool. But what about the others, Katie mentioned in our earlier interview? The Enigma Scribe, Ravenous Supplicant, and the Muse? We don’t know anything about them…yet. 

We don’t understand what the King wants, except we know he was promised two kingdoms, the first by his own hand, which we assume is Norumbega. If he poisoned the Bashaba and took the throne for himself, either in this world or in the place he took the lost kingdom to, that would be his first. According to the wolf’s prophecy when the King was young, he would be exiled from the land, but would one day rule the entire world.

Is that it? Is the King Beyond the Desert, ageless somehow, outside of time’s flow, plotting his return to the world he cut himself off from? Is trying to return to claim this world as his own?

And what does all of this have to do with Katie Clark and her newfound interest in music?

For now, we just don’t know. But we’re working tirelessly to figure it out. We’ll have answers for you just as soon as we figure them out. We just hope we’re not too late.

Stay safe out there, Maine.

Malevolent Maine is Lucas Knight, Tom Wilson, and Chris Estes.

If you’d like to read more about our investigations check out our website at malevolentmaine.com

While there, don’t forget to check our merch store. And, if you’re so inclined, support us on Patreon at patreon.com/malevolentmaine

Thank you for listening to Malevolent Maine.

And as always, stay safe out there, Maine.