Category: Original fiction
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The Blackswords S1:E7 ‘Marching’
The Blackswords is a serial set in The Inner World, following the misadventures of the eponymous mercenary company. In Marching the company is on their way to a new engagement, when trouble finds them on the road. Read S1:E6 ‘Counting Coins’ here. Content warning: threat/peril, language Marching It was a…
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The Blackswords S1:E6 ‘Counting Coins’
The Blackswords is a serial set in The Inner World, following the misadventures of the eponymous mercenary company. In ‘Counting Coins’ the company is taking stock of their booty, when they discover an unexpected bonus item. Read S1:E5 ‘Prize Fighter’ here. Content warning: language Counting Coins Amudr knew that their…
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The Blackswords S1:E5 ‘Prize Fighter’
The Blackswords is a serial set in The Inner World, following the misadventures of the eponymous mercenary company. In ‘Prize Fighter’ the company’s second-in-command is attempting to assess a new recruit, but his efforts are hampered by an impromptu wrestling match. Read S1:E4 ‘The Yellowbird’ here. Content warning: language Prize…
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The Blackswords S1:E4 ‘The Yellowbird’
The Blackswords is a serial set in my fantasy world, The Inner World, following the misadventures of the eponymous mercenary company. In ‘The Yellowbird’ Ashurra, twin sister of the sorcerer-warrior Maghîllin, is dangerously bored as the company sails away from the fall of Dorna… Read S1:E3 ‘Free Beer’ here. Content…
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The Blackswords S1:E3 ‘Free Beer’
The Blackswords is a serial set in my fantasy setting, The Inner World, following the misadventures of the eponymous mercenary company. In ‘Free Beer’, the archer Umbaral is riding point, trying to guide what remains of the company to the docks of Dorna, to escape the city before it is…
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The Blackswords S1:E2 ‘Lights Out’
The Blackswords is a serial set in my fantasy world, Olnezea, far to the south of the area in which my novel in progress takes place. In this second episode, the mercenary commander Ukhand is eating dinner with the commander who hired him, in the besieged city of Dorna. The…
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The Blackswords S1:E1 ‘Cheap Wine’
More than ten years ago, when I had recently embarked on my hubristically ambitious worldbuilding project, I started writing a serial for this blog. I posted several episodes, and then it petered out. As I’m now close to finishing a novel set in my world, I thought I’d revive the…
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The Blackswords: Episode 6
Amudr knew that their time in Tua was coming to an end. He was probably alone among the Blackswords in regretting it. The city was not large, but it was a cultured place, with booksellers and libraries, and good discourse to be found in its taverns. Soon he would be…
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The Blackswords: Episode 5
The dice were not favouring Rajir. He looked at yet another fistful of ones, twos and threes, taunting him from the table, and threw a handful of coppers at them, standing. ‘I’ve had enough of this, you whoresons,’ he grumbled. ‘Your luck could change at any moment, sir,’ said Falcon,…
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The Blackswords: Episode 4
The cabin shutters were closed, slicing the the sunlight into a gridwork of thin lines: thicker verticals at the hinges, or where the two leaves met, and fine horizontals that passed between the boards. Ashurra’s eyes traced the lines across the wall, and abruptly out, around the lean knots and…
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The Blackswords: Episode 3
Umbaral rode scout to the port, handing his lance to another rider and stringing his bow; being an archer usually let him keep a safe distance from the enemy, which was why he’d specialised as one, but there were other times it when condemned him to the van. It was…
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The Blackswords: Episode 2
The Beroan family kept the matriarchal Roganid Custom in their domestic arrangements; Feldua sat on his wife’s right hand, and Ukhand faced him across the table, sitting, as the most honoured male guest, on her left. Shenailo directed the meal from the head of the table, beautiful, pale, and very…
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The Blackswords: Episode 1
Irtain could smell burning, and hear the rumble of a crowd at war. It wasn’t so much the clash of arms, although there was that as well, muted and intermittent, but the sound of many voices; he had survived enough battles to know the difference between the note of a…
Oliver Arditi 