In this chapter, we learn that the emperor's willfulness has cost the empire a lot of money, and that he has been declared an enemy by the senate. The emperor is also going to be subjected to "memory cleansing" , which means that he's going to have to give up some of his personal belongings. He's not going to let this happen, though, because he doesn't want to be the first emperor to be punished for his actions. He wants to make sure that the people of the eastern provinces don't have to suffer the same fate as the governor of the western provinces. He also wants to know why the governor's weren't fighting the invaders to death, when a leader should be acting in a destructive way . He wonders if the emperor could allow nia to "atone for sins" by allowing him to fight the invaders. He says he'll talk to the senate before making a final decision on the matter.