Gods' Gaze

Are our wants worth what we must give? If not, can we do nothing? "All warfare is based on deception, like the theater." Evoking his late father’s words, Cato Duilius Claudius assumes the alias, Moon Xeator, and vows to have his vengeance. In the upcoming years, he plots to restore the dual consulship, his father’s legacy, by bringing down the Praetor Maximus and the Triumvirate that slaughtered his family when he was a child. Aware that nothing would crush a man as much as the chink in his own armor, he sows suspicions among his foes and lures them into overreaching. He games the power structure in which all participants are corruptible. Those he keeps around, he taps into their fears, hates, and wants for his own benefit. He turns his friends into pawns, as does his life a board of chess. But the game he plays cuts both ways. His vengeance also brings home the bitterest misery, which is to know so much and still have control over so little. To reach his destination, he trades in everything he holds dear, and when he finally gets there, what will he possibly find when nothing can ease the pain of his losses? Total word count (Book I: 100k)