It's the Sixth Age. Heroes and quests are a thing of the past. The world has been civilized and tamed, and that's exactly how Brad likes it. He's just graduated and landed a job at a prestigious magical R&D firm. Life is good, except for a heavy load of student debt to dig himself out from under, a still-fresh breakup, and moving across the Empire to a town where he doesn't know anyone in order to take the new job.

All he wants to do is impress his coworkers and the new boss, get his career going, and establish a life for himself. He certainly wants nothing to do with adventuring or heroics. But when fragments of a past Age intrude on his orderly life, he may well find that what he wants matters less to the world than he'd like it to...

[participant in the Royal Road Writathon challenge]