The Coal Man left ashen footsteps behind him as he walked the desert for days and nights. Unaffected by the blistering heat or shivering cold, the blinding brightness of the day or the total darkness of the night, the Coal Man persisted. He was to head East, to secure the Son of Baird. Such a wonderful bounty would please the King, and so the Coal Man carried on.

  It wasn’t long before he came to a sparse, ramshackle town. The houses, barely more than shacks of garbage wood held up by recycled nails, leaned along dirt path which made up the main road. In this time, places like these were common in the desert. The hardship of the Depression had continued on into the late Thirties. Towns like these were the last refuge of the destitute, but they were not safe from entities like the Coal Man.

  Neither were they safe from other odd supernatural forces which claimed America, such as the wondrous Azure crystal which had formed along the road. It was glowing, emanating an energy which drove the average man to a horrible lust for wealth. Believing they could take the crystal and sell it, any who looked upon the crystal structure would attempt to break it. As they did, it let loose microscopic particles which they breathed in. The Crystal would propagate in their respiratory system, eventually spreading to their entire body. Very quickly, the crystal completely enveloped them, solidifying them into a horribly beautiful azure sculpture of man and mineral. Such sculptures littered the ground around the original crystal bud.

  As the Coal Man approached the hapless town, two Six-Guns stood near the crystal. Chauncy Higgs and Pike Warden, a Seven of Hearts and Five of Diamonds respectively, had been dispatched after reports of the crystal had made their way to the New Mexico Six-Gun authority.

  The two sorcerer-gunslingers were only accompanying their partner witches, two ladies of the Harp Coven. The witches were the ones studying the crystal, cross-referencing known supernatural minerals, and safely taking samples to find a solution. Chauncy felt like he was yet again on a shit job.

  Shit jobs seemed to come to Chauncy like moths to a flame, this was his view of things. He always got the jobs which involved a lot of standing, a lot of guarding, or walking alongside some uneducated rich man with more money than sense who believed he was haunted by a demon. Chauncy never remembered his father Mickey dealing with these kinds of things. Pike Warden, a frequent companion of the younger Higgs, wondered if Chauncy would be happy with any job at all. Chauncy seemed to him to be just lazy. Everything was a shit job to the guy who hated work.

  “The magical structure is similar to Sapphire.” Chauncy’s partner witch Elizabeth spoke to her colleague Nina, partner of Pike. They were working closely together, handling the corrupting substance with care. “Should we treat it as Type 2 Red magic?”

  “I agree.” Nina pressed her thumb to the crystal, examining its response to her magic carefully, “A real hazard. Ought to treat the entire area as a Red Zone.”

  Both women were hard at work analyzing the situation and determining the proper response. Chauncy, on the other hand, stood nearby with his arms crossed, zoned out.

  “I slept like shit.” Chauncy looked to Pike, “I hate the desert.”

  Pike nodded, “Can’t say I’m a huge fan either. The temperature swings too much. Should I pack a jacket or what?” He snickered.

  “Why are we dealing with this anyhow?” Chauncy asked, “Everyone in this town is either rock candy or gone, there’s nobody here. We should just level this place and call it a day.”

  “The ladies wanna look at it, Chaunce. You know better than to say no.”

  Both Six-Guns were made aware of a terrible force approaching slowly from the West. Chauncy and Pike exchanged a look of concern and understanding. A lizard which had been bathing on a nearby stone scurried away as the coming entity had painted nature itself with horror. An eerie singing could be heard on the wind.

  “I was born one morning when the sun didn’t shine…”

  “Hey ladies.” Chauncy called, “Time to wrap it up, please.”

  “We have only just started the examination,” Nina fumed, “Can’t you just sit still and let us work?”

  “It’s not like that. It’s-“

  “Well, well…” The Coal Man cut him off, voice stern. He stood in the road, a black silhouette against the tans and browns of the landscape. “What do we have here? A couple of Posse members. Six-Guns…”

  Both Chauncy and Pike readied themselves. The witches, now made aware of the threat, decided to withdraw from the crystal. They floated over to the buildings. The wind whistled in between the two Guns and the Coal Man. Both of the Guns formed Resolve Stalls to enable decisive aiming. They recognized a horrid yellow Stall around the Coal Man.

  “Pike… this guy’s a Gun. Gotta be…” Chauncy whispered, nervous sweat trickling from his hat brim.

  “This ain’t an Oathbreaker, that energy is pure evil.” Pike responded.

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  “How you boys doing?” The Coal Man grinned, “Sure is a scorcher of a day. Horrible day to die.”

  Pike focused on the right time to strike, brown eyes glowing in the shadow of his hat. He made the risk calculations in his head, judging by the Resolve output he was seeing from the Coal Man. Everything led back to the same answer.

  Pike let out a sigh. His entire life had come to this moment. His hardships, his successes, his wins and losses. Love and loneliness, home and the Trail, none of it mattered now. The figure in front him cast a long shadow, cutting through the bright New Mexico day. That shadow was Death. A creeping feeling gripped Pike with icy fingers.

  “Chauncy…” He spoke low, “How are we gonna beat this guy…”

  Chauncy’s eyes shot over for a moment. He had made similar calculations, they were out of their depth. It was not in Chauncy’s nature to run from things, even if he did complain about them. He always took the shit jobs even if he hated them. He bared his teeth.

  “Shut that shit up, Pike!” He growled, “This is Yellow magic. It’s scary, but it’s not invincible. I’ve seen this before.”

  “Ha!” the Coal Man let out a sickening laugh. “You boys are a riot!”

  A wave of horrifying Resolve hit their stalls, shaking both men to the bone. The influence of the Yellow King laid bare against the naked mind could drive a man to madness. However these were Resolve Sorcerers, protected from that influence through their magic and the temperance of Inner Alchemy.

  “I’ll tell you what.” The Coal Man grinned, “I’ll let one of you live, your witches too. But you have to shoot each other. First man to kill the other walks. Sound like a good deal?”

  Such a twisted proposal hit a nerve for Chauncy. He leveled hazel eyes at the Coal Man, ready to speak. A Critical Moment rang through his mind from an unexpected direction. He heard the unmistakable click as a pistol’s hammer was locked back into position.

  “I’m… I’m sorry, Chauncy…” Pike had his gun raised at his companion, “But that magic…. It’s so cold… I can’t die here. Life is terrible, l-like Grady said…”

  Chauncy took a step back in shock. He could feel the dread across Pike’s Resolve. The Gun was wading in despair, drowning in fear. He couldn’t see the same Pike he had traveled with for over a year. His eyes were broken. The man had stared into the Yellow Pit; and though his Resolve had shielded him from madness, his primal survival instinct was too great to be overcome in the face of a certain, meaningless end.

  Chauncy let out a breath, closing his eyes for a moment. He took in the heat of the day, the sickly-sweet smell of the cursed crystal nearby, and the glint of lavender magic emanating from the Harp Coven witches nearby. He managed a smile, uncharacteristic for Chauncy Higgs.

  “I’m not like you, Pike.” His hand moved to his hip, hovering over his pistol.

  The gun in Pike’s hand rattled as he wavered in his Resolve. He wanted to survive, but this was his friend, his brother on the Trail. He knew he should’ve already shot him but the idea of killing his brother had stayed his trigger finger for just another moment.

  Chauncy opened his eyes, a firm gaze meeting Pike’s terrified eyes.

  “I don’t gotta live forever, ya know?”

  In a flash he pulled his pistol. He didn’t aim for Pike, managing to crack a shot off toward the Coal Man. Chauncy had very carefully dropped his intentions in his moment of contemplation, which prevented the Coal Man from predicting the shot early enough to evade or counter it. Chauncy’s divine inaction had scored him a hit on the Coal Man, tearing open the right side of his skull. A cloud of black ash burst out the back of his head as the bullet opened him up wide.

  Pike’s fear of death had clouded his mind. He misinterpreted the shot at the Coal Man for a shot at himself and pulled the trigger. Chauncy was in point blank range. He knew it would go down this way, but he figured if he could lay down some damage on the Coal Man before Pike shot him then Pike may be able to finish the job afterwards. Chauncy had already accepted his death, unlike Pike. His duty came first.

  Chauncy had been so focused on his gambit that he hadn’t seen the purple energy in the currents. Elizabeth, a determined look on her face, slapped her hand to his back at just the right second. Just as the powerful .458 Comet round left the barrel of Pike’s gun Elizabeth performed a Translation Hex. The two vanished from thin air and Pike’s bullet careened past the spot where they had just been.

  Elizabeth Keller was a formidable witch of the Harp Coven. She was smart, attentive, and lightning quick. The two often appeared to others to be a mismatch with Elizabeth far stronger than Chauncy. She had selected Chauncy not for his prowess as a sorcerer, but for the unwavering courage she had seen behind his disinterested demeanor. Chauncy didn’t feel cold death take him, but the warmth of his witch’s touch.

  Pike blinked as he saw the dust kick up where Chauncy had been standing. His bullet smashed into the plank walls of an abandoned shack a ways off. His hand shook, his Resolve collapsing.

  “Oh now…” The deep, smoky voice continued behind him, “That certainly was interesting…”

  Pike was frozen in place. He tried to steady his breathing, The Yellow King’s emissary had broken him. Every word scratched and gnawed at his mind like a horde of rats. He didn’t have Chauncy’s courage. Pike finally found the gumption to turn and face the Coal Man.

  A massive hole had rendered the Coal Man’s head in the shape of a crescent moon. He had no right ear or eye. To Pike’s horror, there was no gore or viscera. No blood ran down his head. It was as if he had broken apart a charcoal briquette, the inside of the Coal Man’s face was black and chalky. Bits of the coal tumbled onto the sand at his feet.

  With his head torn open the Coal Man still grinned wide. The face began to reform and mend itself, leaving a web of black marks which receded as fast as they had formed.

  “I… I was going to shoot him. I, I had made the choice!” Pike pleaded.

  “But you didn’t shoot him, did you?”

  The Coal Man pulled his pistol and shot Pike dead in the street. Pike’s face was blown to pieces, leaving behind a pink mist in the air. His head did not reform as the Coal Man’s had. He whistled as he stepped lazily over to Pike’s body. Patting him down, he pulled a coin from the dead Gun’s chest pocket.

  “Some kind of collector coin. That’ll do me for a memento.” He snickered, turning to the remaining witch, “I love to keep little mementos.”

  Nina, trying to muster herself toward some kind of spell, found herself cast in a long shadow. The Coal Man placed a hand on her arm, gripping her tightly.

  “Ain’t you something, there’s a lot of magic on you. You’d make me a fine sacrifice…” His grin seemed unnaturally wide. Nina’s eyes bugged in abject terror.

  “Go ahead and scream, sweet thing.” His wicked eyes burned like yellow embers against the silhouette he cast, “Ain’t nobody can hear you.”

  The witch’s screams and cries went unanswered in the desert.