The age of strife comes to an end. Soon a new age will begin and bring with it great change. But deities are impatient. Even now pieces are moved, warriors raised, champions readied. In the dark, deals struck, spies sent, assassins poised. And for the most brazen ones, outright war. Atlas, as a young boy, travels far, far from friends, far from family, and far from foes. He pursues the oldest of pursuits, to prove to peers and parents that he is a man, not the boy he was or the ill cripple he was destined to become. But there is no golden apple that falls into his lap, no great gift to even the score. The dream of a boy comes clashing with the most dangerous time of an Age. Atlas has lived a life of blood, sweat and tears, and it will take him a life more to make him into the man he wishes to be. [participant in the Royal Road Writathon challenge]