Photo Source: Unsplash I was on watch on the upper balcony of the saloon-hotel when the sheriff rode in. Dantons' Bluff hadn't seen a lawman for nearly a quarter-year, and hadn't seen an honest one for a hell of a lot longer. Billy Tyrone ran the town, did what he liked, and woe betide if you stood in his way.   So I shield my eyes from the noon sun and observed with some considerable trepidation as the dark figure on his bone-white horse kept a’coming. A five-pointed tinstar pinned to his...

Photo Source: Pixabay “You're what ?”   “I'm indestructible,” Cornelius repeated, with a wry smile at his fellow Hellfire Club initiate's incredulity. “I bound a demon to my will. It manifested in an incandescent rage, but my wards held firm. I ordered it to render me indestructible.”   “Why indestructible ?” Sebastian asked.   Cornelius took a sip of vintage Armagnac. “Fools might ask to live forever, without making sure they never age. Others ask for eternal youth, but if they are not...

Photo Source: Pexels Though not an official stop on the Grand Tour, I made a point of visiting Balitar, the city perched at the tip of the Vestrusian peninsula and about which I had read such glowing reports. It was a tedious and surprisingly expensive journey by coach from the nearest town--a fishing village about which I won't waste further words, but this merely added spice to already lofty expectations. As the carriage crossed the causeway, surrounded on all sides by dreary salt...