“They reel to and fro, and stagger like drunken men, and are at their wits’ end.” ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ There are many legends of a great, rare gift that once came from the divine. In times past, the gods would walk amongst men, and for those whom the divine deemed worthy, a strange set of numbers and symbols would appear before their eyes. Through their actions, changes could be made to these symbols and numbers, and these changes would grant the chosen incredible powers. Great strength, astonishing intelligent, or disturbing magical talents, nothing was beyond the grasp of those blessed by the gods. Or so the old legends say. Yet, there's been no recorded instance of such an event occuring for at least two thousand years, and any educated man knows the ancient scholars were anything but impartial. Only children and utter fools would be gullible enough to still believe in such fairy tales. Gifts of strength, genius, and magic do not rain down from heaven onto the deserving, one is either born with these talents, or they aren't.  Simon Dupuis is no such fool, nor is he one to give into childish fantasies. In fact, he is not one to give into any kind of fantasies, or hopes, or dreams. Betrayed by friend and family alike, he is now a convicted man, condemned to a life of hard labor for the rest of his days. For him, every day is an eternity, as he serves out his sentence in one of the deepest mines of the blue mountains, located on the dangerous frontier of the new world.  Yet, as fate takes with one hand, it gives with the other. Those children's stories weren't simply stories, and Simon Dupuis will win back his freedom, and the life he lost, no matter the cost.  ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Chapter updates are slow right now and will come every 10 days or so at the moment (May 2021). I could claim I'm very busy but actually instead I'm going to say I'm LARPing as George RRRR Martin so don't blame me, blame him.