“Iron Eyes and the Watered Down World” by Saladin Ahmed

Card picked: 9♣
From: Engraved on the Eye, available for $0 at Amazon!

The Story
With a dual-saber-wielding tough-talking rabbit-woman named Hai Hai, I wish this would have been last week’s story. But, alas, I drew the nine of clubs this week instead. Such is the fickle nature of Deal Me In.

This is mostly a straight-up fantasy tale that feels like it could easily be the upshot of a good table-top gaming session. Zok Iron Eyes is our main character. He’s a tough warrior with an enchanted broadsword. His wife was killed a decade ago by a toad-headed demon and he’s vowed vengeance. He carries one of his wife’s earrings as a token of remembrance. Joining him on his adventures are Hai Hai and Mylovic, a cleric with un-clericly penchants for money and poppy derivatives.

The story is set in motion when the earring is stolen from Zok’s money purse by a young man that seems to be a part of the weak, soft generation that surrounds Zok and his compatriots. There is a little twist to this story which isn’t hard to guess at, but the tale is nicely told, all in all.

Is This Your Card?
Not the 9♣, but I thought I’d share something card-related. Back at the beginning of 2015, I won five uncut decks of cards from The Blue Crown. What does one do with uncut decks of cards? Well, I decided to turn two decks into a bit of wall art yesterday while the internet was down.

One thought on “Deal Me In, Week 16 ~ “Iron Eyes and the Watered Down World””

Great idea on the wall art! I may steal that idea some day. :-). I’m still in Iceland until Friday, but I have found a few decks of cards that I bought for my collection, one featuring the Norse Gods and one featuring “facts about Iceland” or something like that. Then at “the famous church whose name I can’t spell” (not its official name) I found a deck of cards featuring it in the gift shop. But the weird thing is that, as I was walking back to my hotel, I saw a random, unrelated, playing card lying on the sidewalk. I assumed that the DMI gods were trying to tell me to read that story while I’m here. It was a jack of clubs, so “if I ever do a blog post again” 🙂 it will be on Hawthorne’s “The Celestial Railroad.”

P.S. Would “DMI Gods” be pronounced “demigods?” 🙂

Jay says:

April 25, 2017 at 02:20

Great idea on the wall art! I may steal that idea some day. :-). I’m still in Iceland until Friday, but I have found a few decks of cards that I bought for my collection, one featuring the Norse Gods and one featuring “facts about Iceland” or something like that. Then at “the famous church whose name I can’t spell” (not its official name) I found a deck of cards featuring it in the gift shop. But the weird thing is that, as I was walking back to my hotel, I saw a random, unrelated, playing card lying on the sidewalk. I assumed that the DMI gods were trying to tell me to read that story while I’m here. It was a jack of clubs, so “if I ever do a blog post again” 🙂 it will be on Hawthorne’s “The Celestial Railroad.”

P.S. Would “DMI Gods” be pronounced “demigods?” 🙂