Chapter 1

The towers of the Imperial Palace, four exactly squared eminences, reached so high that we believed only our gods could inhabit their uppermost levels. Standing in the Palace’s central courtyard, I looked up toward the top of one of them and could barely make out the point in the sky where it ended. It was easy to imagine a deity choosing that perch to observe the course of human activity.

I’m sure I gawked like a farmer from the outlands. I was struck with the thought that I was about to accomplish something remarkable—something that might rate the notice of a god.