Croaker's Books of the North are my favorite books in the series, and Shadow Games has a special place in my heart because it was NEW. But as I get older, my mental fanfic and the RPG I will never get to run start blending together. For those, I find myself turning to The Silver Spike and Water Sleeps, and increasingly, The Long Run. They are not my favorite books, though I do enjoy them. What they both possess is ambiguity in the Company roster. That allows me to write stories that can intertwine and supplement canon without contradicting it.
Take The Silver Spike. I hate every character in it, excepting Case and Darling, and maybe Old Man Fish. They are well written, they are engaging, and sometimes I am even rooting for them. But I do not like any of them. However, in the action of that novel, there are loose ends that can spawn fanfic or an RPG scenario.
What happened to the last Torque brother? That is a brother of the Black Company running around loose. Case and Darling's descendants are mentioned loving their stories, but not believing them. Maybe one of them was inspired to seek out Raven's kids. Smeds allegedly never told a soul his story, but we know it. When Otto and Hagop return to Taglios, they mention the Limper's return in passing. Maybe a necromancer in the Tower "interviewed" Smeds after he settled in Roses, and the boys brought back that story. Any of these leads are enough to justify a squad-sized "Black Company" loose on the world. Maybe they will make their name in the north or the middle south. Maybe they will pursue Black Company across Glittering Stone in a quest to connect with their fore-brethren.
Take Water Sleeps. Twenty years have passed since the end of the previous book. There is a long period of warfare and covert activity. Sleepy even mentions a lot of brethren have faded away; she holds out hope they might be brought back in the fold. Then the Black Company decamps Taglios and brethren and crosses Glittering Stone, passing beyond mortal ken for awhile. Veterans from the post-Overlook campaigns or stay behinds in Taglios could form the nucleus of a squad-sized "Black Company" surviving under Soulcatcher and waiting for Sleepy's return. Imagine a group Nguyen Bao, one or two dissatisfied Deceivers, a group of Taglios veterans, and that one scrawny kid whose folks were Shadowlanders. He seems to have that ability to talk to shadows. Maybe it will be enough to let your rag-tag ragamuffins survive another day.
Take The Long Run shorts stories. There were brothers left behind in Juniper and in the flight from Juniper to Chimney. Brother dessert in-between actions while fleeing the Taken. Most of them are recent recruits where the Black Company ethos has not had time to jell. Some only joined the Company to escape another dark fate. Perhaps our nascent Dark Lady inexplicably decides to reform the Black Company. With the examples provided by Croaker and Darling, she does not go as dark as lady, but prior trauma prevents her from stay as light as Tobo started. Gathering like-minded or remnant folks, the new Company heads south. It is time carve a life outside the reach of the Taken and Lady's former empire.
There are stories to be told here, exploring the world and themes of the Black Company. Maybe someday.
