This book, y'all! I'm very thankful to Kyle Summers for commissioning The Grace Of Kings, https://amzn.to/2TpFYzK a book that takes me right back to my fantasy roots. I had thought I knew where things were heading, but these chapters proved me very very wrong.
First of all, the gods are apparently real and are talking with the Emperor about his deeds and his overall goals. I'm wondering what the afterlife is supposed to be like in this universe, because he doesn't seem particularly concerned when a few of the gods tell him he made bad choices, beyond a flash of disappointment that they don't approve. They tell him war is coming and that it will undo everything he tried to accomplish, and then we jump to a plot by his trusted Chamberlain. A lot of bloodshed and suicide follows, and in the end the youngest son sits the throne, a child being managed by a sociopathic manipulator. This is going well!
On the other side of things, there's a civil war erupting amongst the common people who had been conscripted to work on a huge pyramid for the late emperor. Two men who have nothing to lose plant a scroll in the belly of a giant fish they got at market, so that it seems like the gods prophesied that one of them is meant to be king. Fortunately for them, everyone here is really superstitious and it works out. For them, at least.
Thanks you all so much for listening, and I will see you all again soon with a new episode!