Agony - D. E. DeGraw

Born into the world, Lucian lives as a testament to an ultimate transgression: his existence itself. To his Father, he is merely a profane reminder of loss that must be hidden in the dark, disciplined, and eventually cast out from his Father's grace. But exile does not break Lucian. It molds him into the only man he could ever become.

Survival is not enough, though, and Lucian craves to learn about the world and the good lesson assigned him. He reinvents the definitions and needs of mercy by replacing them with the cold sovereignty of control. He creates a new identity using the fires of his own pride to build a world where he no longer has to scrounge about to survive, and he becomes the architect of his own destiny.

Yet godhood requires more than just one's own will. It requires mastery.

As he ascends the political ladder in Fall River, Lucian sheds the last remnants of his humanity by rejecting the only person who ever offered him genuine connection and salvation. In his quest to make his maker proud, Lucian unintentionally becomes and perfects that which they justify.

This is a modern mythological retelling of the fall and the ascent. It is a dark exploration of what happens when a mistreated creation decides that it is finally time to seize back its own life and sit upon the throne of man.

The cycle of Agony is complete and everlasting.