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    Certain Eldritch Artefacts
    Certain Eldritch Artefacts
    Certain Eldritch Artefacts
    Ebook47 pages41 minutes

    Certain Eldritch Artefacts

    By K. A. Cook

    ()

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    About this ebook

    Newly-graduated, divergent magician Darius Liviu has scoured half the world in search of the rarest of rare magical artefacts: a tolerable talking sword. After a year of failure, one last rumour sees him risk Rajad’s chaotic, cluttered, terrifying Great Souk. The noise, the smells, the people and his inability to move without provoking disaster make everything difficult, but Darius dares the nightmare of chaos and conversations in hope of an item will draw the eye of the man he thinks he loves.

    The sword he finds isn’t elegant. It isn’t tolerable. It has no intention of being gifted as a lover’s token. It is, however, set on destroying Darius’s acceptance that awkwardness and a life of misunderstandings is the best he can hope for.

    Certain Eldritch Artefacts is a story about autism, adulthood and the reasons why one should never enchant inanimate objects...

    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherK. A. Cook
    Release dateOct 28, 2017
    ISBN9781370904570
    Certain Eldritch Artefacts
    Author

    K. A. Cook

    K. A. Cook is a panalterous, aro-ace, genderless, autistic feminist who experiences chronic pain and mental illness. They write creative non-fiction, personal essays and novels about all of the above on the philosophy that if the universe is going to make life interesting, they might as well make interesting art. They are the author of several short fantasy stories combining ridiculous magic, cats, disability, bacon, mental illness, microscopic gnomes, aromanticism, the undead, verbose eldritch entities and as many transgender autistics as any one story can hold.

    Read more from K. A. Cook

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      Book preview

      Certain Eldritch Artefacts - K. A. Cook

      certain eldritch artefacts

      K. A. Cook

      table of contents

      imprint

      blurb

      content advisory

      author’s note

      certain eldritch artefacts

      additional works

      about the author

      imprint

      Certain Eldritch Artefacts, © 2017, K. A. Cook.

      Published by K. A. Cook at Smashwords.

      This story was previously published, in substantially different form, in the collection Crooked Words, 2013.

      Produced in Geelong, Australia.

      This publication is under copyright. No part of this book may be copied, reproduced or distributed in print or electronic form without written consent from the copyright holder.

      Certain Eldritch Artefacts is a work of fiction. Any resemblance to persons living or dead is unintentional. Any references to persons living or dead do not necessarily espouse the views of the author.

      Layout and cover design: K. A. Cook.

      Credits: Cover typeset in Amadeus by Bright Ideas and Life Savers by Impallari Type. Assorted stock images from geralt and Open-ClipartVectors.

      blurb

      Newly-graduated, divergent magician Darius Liviu has scoured half the world in search of the rarest of rare magical artefacts: a tolerable talking sword. After a year of failure, one last rumour sees him risk Rajad’s chaotic, cluttered, terrifying Great Souk. The noise, the smells, the people and his inability to move without provoking disaster make everything difficult, but Darius dares the nightmare of chaos and conversations in hope of an item will draw the eye of the man he thinks he loves.

      The sword he finds isn’t elegant. It isn’t tolerable. It has no intention of being gifted as a lover’s token. It is, however, set on destroying Darius’s acceptance that awkwardness and a life of misunderstandings is the best he can hope for.

      Certain Eldritch Artefacts is a story about autism, adulthood and the reasons why one should never enchant inanimate objects...

      content advisory

      This short story contains several depictions of ageism (targeted at a young adult trans man who looks younger than he is), ableism and one moment of cissexism. Normal is used to mean allistic (non-autistic) by an autistic protagonist in a tone that is meant to be snide-leaning or mocking. There’s also multiple depictions of anxiety/social anxiety provoked by being a dyspraxic autistic having to navigate a world truly not designed for him, and multiple descriptions of the sensory hell Darius endures in the marketplace.

      The sword is a pushy, demanding, frustrating entity, one who may be ideal as a mentor for an autistic teenager because it isn’t an easily-offended allistic/neurotypical human. Whether or not it is being cissexist, deliberately provocative or both is open to question, but it is promptly called out for the awfulness it is.

      It also includes a horde of ducks, bizarre magical accoutrements and a little existential uncertainty.

      author’s note

      For anyone thinking that this seems a little familiar, it is: this story is a rewrite of the same story in Crooked Words. The first version, published in 2013, was just a story about an awkward trans guy without any real recognition of the fact that I was writing about my own experiences as an awkward trans masc person. In the following years, because of the severe mental illness that stopped me from doing anything creatively, I ended up in an assessment where a psychologist and psychiatrist gave me a magical word: autism.

      To say that autism makes an unlooked-for sense about the person I am is a massive understatement.

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