No, not this empire:

This one:

The Fall of the Empire by Zoe Saadia is about some sort of pre-Columbian Mesoamerican conflict — I only just started it, I picked it up via BookBub so long ago that I don’t remember the writeup, and the plot hasn’t kicked in yet, so I don’t really know what’s going to happen. All I do know is that it’s nighttime.

The moon shone brightly, and Etl wanted to curse, glancing at the sky once again. Not a single cloud obscured the black vastness, the beautifully dark mantle studded with glimmering lights.

Hmm. Sounds a bit like Vegas. Meanwhile, things are not looking so good for Mercy and Bernard over in their neck of the woods …

When it banged shut, he heard a latch click back into place on the exterior of the cube, but no one closed a lock to hold it in place. The sound originated from a large metal plate, unreachable by arms extended from the inside of the cell; no doubt any prisoner who tried to get at it would lose a limb to a guard’s pole-arm before making any progress toward opening the catch.

Trapped in a cage that wasn’t even locked? Brannoc would be so disappointed in him.