It's a hot summer night in 548 CE Constantinople and Emperor Justinian, distraught from the death of his Empress Theodora, has exiled John, the Lord Chamberlain. At the Church of the Holy Apostles, an Egyptian magician tries to raise the empress from the dead. As the unholy ceremony explodes into chaos, supposed demons vanish into the darkness with one of the city's holiest relics, a fragment of the shroud of the Virgin. Felix, Captain of the Palace Guard, is selected as John's successor. Already juggling his gambling debts, political maneuverings, and an ambitious new mistress, Felix is...

It's a hot summer night in 548 CE Constantinople and Emperor Justinian, distraught from the death of his Empress Theodora, has exiled John, the Lord Chamberlain. At the Church of the Holy Apostles, an Egyptian magician tries to raise the empress from the dead. As the unholy ceremony explodes into chaos, supposed demons vanish into the darkness with one of the city's holiest relics, a fragment of the shroud of the Virgin. Felix, Captain of the Palace Guard, is selected as John's successor. Already juggling his gambling debts, political maneuverings, and an ambitious new mistress, Felix is...