PedrePaxim

Arik is a swean - a warrior adept of his clan - and on his way to become a man. His father was one of the greatest warriors, his elder sister is already a griph rider and Arik has inherited all the talent he needs to join their ranks. There's just one little snag. He just can't bear harming anyone, not even beasts.There is another way, of course. He could join the mairtans and train for becoming a craftsman instead. But the sacrifice involved in that is more than he's prepared to make.There's a third way, too, which is beginning to look all the more likely. He could simply fail his test - to mount a griph while it tries to kill you - and all his problems would be over because he would be dead. That's also not much to his liking.Leaving the clan would be another way. But he'd have to run so far before finding someplace where his clan isn't feared and hated for its fierce dominion over their land, controlling the only trade route past the great desert. That would just be another way of getting himself killed.So what option is there but to harden himself, become the killer that the clan expects? Surely there is no other way? Or is there?Cover image by Deligaris on Deviantart.…

PedrePaxim

Young Robird, third son of a lowly villein, doesn't mind his hard life but of course dreams of better. Every day on his way to manorial labour, he greets a majestic oak on the top of a hill as a king. Sometimes he visits the tree, pretending to be the king's loyal vassal and telling it of his life and dreams.He did not ever think that the tree would one day answer him. When it does, it offers him a deal that would bring him wealth and fortune. But trees, even talking ones, are not human and making a deal with them is no risk-free undertaking.Open invitation from the author: I enjoy taking my time getting into the characters, both when I read and when I write. Rushing the plot is not really my thing. Am I alone in enjoying stories that evolve slowly? If anyone is reading this, please let me know if the pace turns you off from it. I guess I could speed it up, killing off a darling or two...The oak art on the cover is courtesy of Lars Alvestal, link: https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Kvill_Eken,_picture_taken_2018-09-02,_Heavily_Edited.jpg…

PedrePaxim

This is a poem written to the tones of the fourth movement of Antonín Dvořák's Symphony no 9, From the New World (available on Spotify). If you listen to it while you read, I hope you will be able to find which parts of the music corresponds to which lines in the poetry. If you do, or if you don't and want to know, please comment!…

PedrePaxim

A violinist on stage for the grand opening of his new show recalls his way there. It is no ordinary way - nor is it any ordinary show. Just how extraordinary it is, the audience will soon find out...This is a steampunk-inspired short story and it involves fairies. If you want to know more, please have a read.…

PedrePaxim

Ludvig and his family, climate refugees from their country in the north, embark on a ship for a journey to the habitable zone and a new life, such as can be had in this ruined world. It's the last ship to depart from there before the storms make the journey too hazardous. It's not going to be a walk in the park as it is, not least since everybody on board have lost everything but their lives and what little they could carry. In that limbo between hope and despair, new relationships will be forged... or lost.…

PedrePaxim

Meet Wrenne - an eloped and embittered young woman at the end of her line. When she meets a strange trio of powerful women (of which one is actually a bear), she sees her opportunity for the revenge she craves to redeem herself. But her hopes are dashed by Arkteia, their leader, who insists on offering to teach her about hunting for a living, not for revenge. Wrenne decides to play along and then puts all her ingenuity into maneuvering the people around her into a position where she will be granted the power to become the Merciless Hunter and bring the men who have wronged her to a macabre justice. By and by, she comes to realise that the price might be higher than she thought and that the powers whose help she seeks have ideas of their own. But she will not be swayed. Trigger warning: The story contains allusions to strong themes (such as sexual violence) but no explicit content.…

PedrePaxim

A master of arcane arts yearns for love and has devoted his life to creating a perfect woman, a suitable match for him. His apprentice fears for the consequences, but his misgivings are all waved aside. As the master succeeds he at first seems vindicated - she is indeed perfect and she loves the master with a burning passion.But all his insightful studies notwithstanding, the master hasn't really grasped the essence of love. And as she begins to wonder who she is, the apprentice's fears seem to become more realistic.This is a story entirely without dialogue, written that way because I felt that my stories relied too heavily on dialogue and wanted to challenge myself. Instead, it's composed of three interwoven streams of consciousness, and you will also get a couple of glimpses into a fourth, non-human consciousness...…

PedrePaxim

Elvgar, a young novice of Peleutos, God of enlightenment, messes up again... and this time the masters have had enough. Elvgar is banished from the temple for a year. To redeem himself, he is charged with the task of serving Argylve, a pagan warrior priest who has done the temple a great service, for the year. Argylve himself reluctantly agrees to take on the young addlehead. But he is going to the south along with his fellow champions, to investigate - they have run across hints that an ancient enemy is awakening. And it will be no picnic...Thus begins a struggle for a young pacifist to come to terms with the harsh realities of war. During his journey with the champions, he discovers truths about them, about himself and about the world that set him on the path to become the Chronicler.…

PedrePaxim

Duke is the recently crowned witch king of the Black court while John, his elder brother, is that of the White court. Between them, they should be upholding the balance between light and dark. But for some time now, John has been attracting Duke's subjects to his courts like moths to the light. If this goes on, Duke will end up king of none but himself. Even their little sister Evie, love of the land, seems to have taken John's side.When Duke finally confronts his brother about it, it ends badly. And the king of darkness ends up in the dazzling human world, in human form, with no memory left to him about who he is and how he ended up there. But as luck would have it, he is found by perhaps just the right person - Charles, renowned artist, with a unique sense of nuances.Can Charles help Duke recover his memory and find a way back?…