The tone of this story threw me off a bit, admittedly. The way the Tonsor's son was just murdered so suddenly, along with (for the sake of naming the antagonist whilst totally not covering the fact that I have a terrible memory for such things) the Bearded Man's playful tone of slaying the son, had me thinking this story was better suited for a PseudoPod release. What was even more confusing for me was how the Tonsor didn't really give much of an emotional response to seeing his son brutally slain right before his eyes.
I was, on the other hand, pleasantly surprised at the story's twist toward the end, though I wasn't really 100% in favor with how the story led up to this ending. In an attempt to not give away too many spoilers, if anyone has ever seen the 1999 David Cronenberg film eXitenZ you'll know what I am talking about, as there is a similar instance of this happening in the movie. All in all, I have to say I really enjoyed this story and I'm glad I stuck with it to the very end, because it's the ending that makes this more than worthy to be a PodCastle release, which is why I love PodCastle!