https://www.theashmarch.com/ Grimdark low fantasy from the Ashmarch: border towns, excommunicated inquisitors, and a crown and an order that answer to no one. en-gb https://www.theashmarch.com/tales/a-lesson-in-fishing https://www.theashmarch.com/tales/a-lesson-in-fishing The tree had been there before kings. Thu, 29 Oct 2026 00:00:00 GMT https://www.theashmarch.com/tales/the-last-bronze-worker https://www.theashmarch.com/tales/the-last-bronze-worker The first thing Olwen Povey sold that morning was a mouse. Thu, 29 Oct 2026 00:00:00 GMT https://www.theashmarch.com/tales/the-inquisitor https://www.theashmarch.com/tales/the-inquisitor An inquisitor of the Lucent Order walks his rounds, and the town closes its shutters as he passes. Under a loose stone in the dormitory floor is a bundle of letters he is not permitted to keep. He has been careful with them. He has not been careful enough. Thu, 29 Oct 2026 00:00:00 GMT https://www.theashmarch.com/tales/fools-gold https://www.theashmarch.com/tales/fools-gold A Crown scout is paid to see clearly and to go unseen. Across the valley something shines, and by the time he knows what it is, the slope behind him will not let him climb back. Twice the border almost keeps him. Twice he comes the whole way home, to a woman he has never met. Thu, 29 Oct 2026 00:00:00 GMT https://www.theashmarch.com/tales/nine-hundred-and-ninety-nine https://www.theashmarch.com/tales/nine-hundred-and-ninety-nine Yuland turns eighteen, and the Crown stops feeding him and starts using him. The work is under the poor quarter, the master is a man called Valan, and there is an earring at the end of it for those who last. Most of the counting is done in the dark. Thu, 29 Oct 2026 00:00:00 GMT https://www.theashmarch.com/tales/what-the-sparrows-taught-him https://www.theashmarch.com/tales/what-the-sparrows-taught-him A boy learns what he is worth to the people who feed him — some sixty summers before The Trader's Reckoning. Thu, 29 Oct 2026 00:00:00 GMT https://www.theashmarch.com/tales/the-woodsman/part-two https://www.theashmarch.com/tales/the-woodsman/part-two He has a shelter, an axe and a winter coming. What he does not have is any idea how to live out here, and the forest is in no hurry to teach him. https://www.theashmarch.com/tales/the-woodsman/part-one https://www.theashmarch.com/tales/the-woodsman/part-one A Crown captain is left for dead in a forest that owes him nothing. What it gives him instead is time. https://www.theashmarch.com/tales/glitter-and-glow https://www.theashmarch.com/tales/glitter-and-glow Glitter or glow: gold, or a son. Darlion has failed at both, and her husband has said so out loud. Everything after that is her answer. Four thousand words from the world of The Trader’s Reckoning — and the making of the woman readers of Book One already know as Mrs Kline. https://www.theashmarch.com/tales/two-bats-for-a-boy https://www.theashmarch.com/tales/two-bats-for-a-boy The sound the arrow made going in was wetter than he expected, and duller. https://www.theashmarch.com/tales/belron https://www.theashmarch.com/tales/belron A mare is left at the stable against unpaid lodgings, and what she is worth is the foal inside her. The new lad is set to raise it, and given one rule to keep along with the animal. He has already broken it, and nobody has told him yet. https://www.theashmarch.com/tales/the-forest-asks https://www.theashmarch.com/tales/the-forest-asks His name had been forgotten years ago, even by himself, most days. He lived alone with his four birds in a hut in the Duskenwood. https://www.theashmarch.com/desk/thank-you https://www.theashmarch.com/desk/thank-you Thank you for stopping by www.theashmarch.com. Day one: 144 new visitors, and 117 of you listened to my short story. Mon, 20 Jul 2026 00:00:00 GMT https://www.theashmarch.com/desk/what-this-site-is https://www.theashmarch.com/desk/what-this-site-is If you've found this site, you're early. Nothing's published yet — not the book, not a single story. This is the very start of something, and I wanted this first post to explain exactly what that something is, and how it's all going to work. Mon, 13 Jul 2026 00:00:00 GMT