Efe and Darius

He wards himself to dampen his sense of smell, struggles to speak when overwhelmed, corrects other people’s grammar and spends his life in the company of an infuriating eldritch entity. Darius Liviu isn’t quite suited for the adventurous life in an allistic world, but the universe pushes him onto the road of heroes, and a talent for words alongside a willingness to blood magic goes some way to keep Darius alive. He’s awkward, suspicious and stubborn when it comes to holding people at arm’s length, and his stories are slightly-more-serious fantastical escapades involving marketplaces, rose-covered walls and a king, Efe Kadri, who wants to save the world and begin a relationship.

Darius’s stories begin fourteen years before Tes arrives at the College and establish much of his background referenced in Kit March, including the origins of the belt, his becoming the destroyer of tyrants, and his slightly-complicated history with Kit.

The aftermath of Darius’s years with Efe and his new occupation as a teacher in a magical school shaped by Kit’s secrets is depicted in The Unnatural Philosophy of Kit March. Darius also narrates the side story The Skin Game, set between One Strange Man and The Adventurer King.

Certain Eldritch Artefacts: a Marchverse short story

Cover image of “Certain Eldritch Artefacts” by K. A. Cook. Cover image shows a cartoony, stylised vector image scene of a market scene with hanging peppers and fabric above the text and rows of corked potion bottles sitting on a wooden counter display surrounded by vegetables and sacks. Title and author name are written in a dark brown handdrawn type.

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…

Contains: a trans, pansexual, autistic magician’s misadventures in a cluttered hell; a verbose eldritch entity; a too-helpful weapons dealer; a good amount of casual queerness; and a decision Darius will surely live to regret.

Links: Smashwords | Gumroad | PDF | EPUB | MOBI

Sequel works: One Strange Man, The Adventurer King, The Unnatural Philosophy of Kit March

One Strange Man: a Marchverse short story




Links: forthcoming

Contains: a trans, abrosexual, aromantic autistic breaking the rules for the friends he loves; a queer trans man and a pansexual, aromantic genderqueer in a QPR; and an acceptance borne from a midnight flight through the streets of Rajad.

Prequel works: Certain Eldritch Artefacts

Sequel works: The Adventurer King

The Adventurer King: an Efe and Darius story




Contains: a trans, abrosexual, autistic magician who comes out as aromantic to a terrifying eldritch entity; a cis, bisexual, allistic king who can’t be simply identified as ally or enemy; and the beginning of a quest that will likely end in chaos and magic.

Links: Smashwords | PDF | EPUB | MOBI

Prequel works: Certain Eldritch Artefacts, One Strange Man

Sequel works: The Unnatural Philosophy of Kit March

Forthcoming stories include Love in the House of the Ravens, a novelette concerning a conversation Darius has with Ila and Akash about the word “aromantic”; and The Performance Magician, a novella detailing Efe and Darius’s first adventures and mishaps in Ashad.