"The Bitter End" is a science fantasy short story by American writer Randall Garrett, featuring his alternate history detective Lord Darcy and magician Master Sean. It was first published in Isaac Asimov's Science Fiction Magazine and has been included in the second edition of the collection Lord Darcy. The Lord Darcy stories are set in an alternate world whose history supposedly diverged from our own during the reign of King Richard the Lionheart, in which King John never reigned. Most of Western Europe and the Americas are united in an Angevin Empire whose continental possessions were never lost by that king. In this world, a magic-based technology has developed in place of the science of our own world. Source: Wikipedia (en)