A brutal life at the bottom of a vat. A short bleak future ahead. Only one way out. A mysterious cosmic game...
Slaves to the remote and oppressive Exarch, Rhone and the crew he grew up with are doomed to a life cleaning the gargantuan cauldrons where the Exarch's Ministry performs its grotesque, eldritch experiments. Rhone expects to clean until an inevitable, fatal slip or an infection by alchemical, toxic sludge.
There is little hope for a better--or even a long--life until Gaji, one of the rare slaves over the age of forty, brings Rhone and twelve others together to form a tribe. A tribe to strike back at the Exarch and the Dominion that controls their lives.
Perhaps even more unlikely than his participation in a slave rebellion, Rhone discovers he is a piece in a vast intergalactic contest. If he can discover the rules, perhaps he can bring his friends to a better life. If he can't, Rhone may find there are fates worse than scrubbing poison sludge.