The Prologue is from Wrath’s perspective and takes place during the awakening—when the gods become mortal at the Agon’s start. After seven years as a god, Wrath’s human body feels clumsy and slow. He pities the original gods for having experienced the transition 212 times over the centuries and feels superior because “this would be his final taste of mortality” (2).

Hunters from the House of Kadmos arrive, dragging a struggling Hermes. Hermes tells Wrath he’ll never find what he seeks. With confirmation his prize has not been destroyed, Wrath beheads Hermes and sets forth to claim his eternal glory.

Chapter 1 opens with Lore engaging in her 15th arena fight in the six months since her friend Gil’s death. The fights have offered her many benefits over the last several weeks, and tonight it distracts her from the knowledge that “the hunt had come back to her city” (12). The hunt, or Agon, occurs once every seven years when Zeus turns the other Olympian gods mortal for seven days. Descendants of ancient Greek heroes hunt them, and if a hunter kills a god, they take that god’s place for seven years until the next Agon.