Enlightened Empire

Chapter 371: Miracle

After Corco’s order had sounded out, lightning bloomed right before his eyes. Back and forth, the light-blue streaks crisscrossed inside the cage in front of Rapra Castle’s entrance. Together, they formed a net that obscured the shocked faces of the crowd beyond it.

Even thought Corco knew how the tesla coils worked, it was still fascinating to watch in person. However, he didn’t have time to admire the spectacle. There was important work to be done. Thus, he nodded towards the shocked Watachay to gain his attention and wake him up.

“Let’s go,” he said, and made the first step. With how the priest’s face looked, Corco was convinced that he would never step through the gate by himself. However, now that the king led by example, the priest had no choice but to follow.

Without looking back, Corco walked into the storm of lightning within the cage. There was no shock or numbness, no tingling or warmth, no feeling at all. It seemed surreal somehow, as if the blue streaks weren’t real, like special effects in a movie. Although Corco was surprised that he didn’t feel the lightning’s effect, he really should have known better.

After all, everything about this moment had been planned long ago, and involved an almost inhuman amount of effort and experimentation. This little spectacle was the result of a month’s worth of concerted effort not only from him, but from the entirety of Saniya’s industrial and scientific production capacity. During that time, they had invested a lot, even though the final product didn’t look like much at a glance, at least from the outside.

The people in the plaza outside could only see one simple cage encased in glass, as well as two pillars made of metal, the tesla coils. However, behind those simple constructions hid a whole lot of work. Most of the important and complex pieces of the setup were, quite literally, hidden from view.

First off were the many, many batteries that had been hidden behind the castle walls. They had already used battery technology for their radios before, but never on this scale. After all, the tesla coils needed sufficient electric current to function. Since they couldn’t come up with a technological breakthrough like coal-powered turbines in a short time, they had to use the dumbest method and simply string together as many individual batteries as possible. Ronnie and his apprentices in the royal laboratory had worked around the clock to fulfill the king’s massive order on time.

Whenever the supervisors from the league of lords had shown up, they had pretended to work on nonsense and driven them away as quickly as possible. Apart from those days, they had done nothing else but build batteries. The result were several rows of knee-high containers that were connected together to form the largest battery of batteries in Saniya, and most likely the largest in the history of the world.

These batteries connected to the outside through copper cables built with the copper from Cashan’s mines, or at least from the leftovers that hadn’t already been used to plate Saniya’s ships to prevent corrosion.

In order to insulate the wires from Saniya’s humid weather, they had to be coated in vulcanized rubber as well. This was another new invention that was only known to a handful of people so far. After all, their supply of rubber was still severely limited. The entirety of the rubber brought home from Atau’s journey had been used up, just to experiment out the right sulfur ratio for vulcanization, and to finally coat the few scant meters of cable they needed for their little demonstration.

Finally, the cables led into a transformer, where the electric current’s voltage was increased as much as possible. This current was then led into the two tesla coils, where it would reach the torus atop, to achieve the simple lightning effect Corco had wanted. All of this work from all kinds of different parties had gone into this one moment, all for those two meter long streaks of electricity that were buzzing all around him.

Even with all the effort that went into the setup, the resulting electric current still wasn’t all that strong. Most likely, the king could have simply walked through the lightning without protection and remain unharmed, which would have made the effect seem even more impressive.

However, he wasn’t willing to take any risks. This was the decisive moment that would change the fate of his nation. If he stepped through the lightning unharmed, he would be a hero touched by the heavens. If his clothes or his castle caught on fire in the process, he would be exactly what the priests had said: A heretic receiving his just punishment. Thus, Corco had also let his foundry and his blacksmiths build him a Faraday’s cage around the tesla coils, which would hold the electricity inside, so no rogue streak could ignite the castle walls or the damage the transformers and hinder the performance.

His people had also built a glass encasement around the cage, to prepare for Saniya’s famed bad weather. In Medala, only Saniya had advanced enough glass manufacturing to achieve something like that in such a short amount of time. On top of that, both Corco and Watachay wore Faraday’s suits in the form of full-body chain mails, which would shield their bodies from the electric current around them.

All of this had been tested countless times over the past month, under as many conditions as Corco could imagine. All of this time, work, effort, and money had been put together to plan for this one moment, for this one effect.

As the king stepped through the lightning, he could finally see his stunned audience, illuminated by the electric storm behind him. With one glance at the frozen crowd, he knew that all the investment had been worth it. Finally, the initiative was back in his hands.

Though as soon as he held the initiative, Corco planned to give it away again. Thus, he stepped aside and made room for the priest who had been walking behind him all this time. Unlike Corco, Watachay looked like he had gone through hell, with a pale face and wide-open eyes. At least he wasn’t illuminated from the front, so the crowd wouldn’t see his panicked face.

Despite the test run they had done the previous day inside the castle’s courtyard, maybe the experience of walking through a lightning storm was a bit too much for him. After all, as someone who had been a priest all his life, he had always believed that lightning had special, divine powers. Corco could only imagine the pressure.

However, Watachay still remembered his responsibilities, despite his upbringing. After a few seconds of shock, he forcefully breathed out a few times, before he stepped up to the giant megaphone that had been placed in front of the tesla-coiled castle entrance.

“Citizens of Saniya! Guests from the three kingdoms of Medala! Guests from foreign lands!” His shout woke up the crowd, all of whom were glued to the speaker’s words straight away. “Today, all find themselves here who have heeded the call of the great southern king Corcopaca Titu Pluritac! From commoner to lord, from all corners of the world, all have come here to celebrate the winter solstice, the day when the heavens stand open to mere mortals, for the Divines to send their messages to their adherents, to be read and understood!”

The priest’s voice rang across the plaza, loud and clear. Although the Megaphone amplified his voice, it really wouldn’t have been necessary. No one said a word.

“However!” Watachay continued. “However, today, no one need look to the stars, and try to divine their obscure secrets through ancient methods! For a clearer message has been received! Throughout the past seasons, divine inspiration has struck Rapra Castle! As a secular man, King Corcopaca felt unworthy, thus the king has invited this humble priest, to interpret the signs of the heavens, and make clear the greatest message the Divines have ever sent upon the mortal realm!”

This time, the crowd finally returned back to life. After all, Watachay’s claims were far too outrageous. Confronted with the claim of a message from the heavens themselves, murmurs started up underneath the tarps and rippled all throughout the crowd, as the people told their neighbors about their bold conclusions.

Of course, none of them really managed to surprise their neighbors, and their conclusions weren’t really all that bold. In fact, their conclusions were all more or less the same, which was the entire point.

Although Watachay hadn’t directly mentioned the lightning strikes in his speech, his language was suggestive enough that everyone immediately thought the same: Those lightning bolts had been the divine inspiration that had ‘struck’ the castle.

After all, they had all just seen the king and priest step through a lightning storm and come out unharmed, right after lightning had struck the castle. With that little visual aid, they would also realize that all the lightning strikes that had hit the castle over the past month had left no damage and caused no fire. Wouldn’t the logical conclusion be that the lightning had been benevolent, a message from the heavens, rather than divine punishment?

For a while, the priest remained silent and let the realization spread throughout the crowd. After everyone had come to the same conclusions, Watachay’s next words would have unprecedented weight, as if they had been written into the sky itself in bold, clear letters. Thus, the priest continued.

“So speak the Heavens: Under the great Sky, atop the great Earth, all are equal. All are children of Pacha, the World, and all shall return to the great Heavens, after their deaths. Through their shared origin and their shared path, all children of Pacha are the same, and Pacha makes no distinction between its children. Be they lord, warrior, or commoner, even priests and those outside the classes, even those who believe different gods, all are the same, all are children of the Earth, and all have a duty to discover the World’s traces of divinity within the small and mundane, as much as within the grand and spectacular.”

Again, the crowd was riled up, but of course, Corco wasn’t surprised. This little speech essentially implied a destruction of the old class system that had held Medala together for centuries. Although the old system was already starting to show its wear in Saniya and other places, its complete dismantling would still feel like a radical step to many.

Just as radical was the idea that the Pacha priesthood would not have a special status within society, that they wouldn’t have some sort of exclusive access to the interpretation of divine signals, and that it was up to every individual to search for and interpret faith by themselves. At most, the priests would just have a guiding function for the people, since they were experts on faith. However, their words would no longer hold the same, absolute weight as before.

Many people would be upset by these revelations, especially those in power. However, Corco was sure that even more would see it as a chance to break out of the limitations of their birth and strive for higher goals. Of course, this message couldn’t be all Watachay offered them.

So far, he had only taken away their beliefs and traditions, removing their trust in the class system and their reliance on the priests. Replaced with nothing, the people could come up with all kinds of bizarre substitutes of their own. Thus, Watachay offered them new purpose, and new guidance.

“Rather than live a life of blind obedience, the children of the Earth shall strive in search of the World’s truth! Many paths can uncover traces of truth within the World. Within progress and new discoveries, within art, within the great mastery of a craft, or dedication to a purpose, traces of the World’s true nature are hidden within all, to be searched out by all, no matter who. Personal perfectionism, dedication, and earnestness shall replace blind obedience, as the ultimate forms of worship!”

Once the priest was finished, silence returned to the square. This time, all chatter had stopped, for the priest’s words lay heavy over the crowd. All people were overloaded with information, since the somewhat cryptic and theoretical words of Watachay were probably too much for many to process in a short time.

Thus, Corco himself had to step forward, to explain to the people what he wanted his future kingdom to look like, and what he expected of them. With his speech, he would lead the people of Medala onto the right path, correct the mistakes of the past and prepare them for a future in a modern society. At the same time, he could use the opportunity to conveniently show everyone who their allies were, and who their enemies. So all in all, it would be a pretty efficient speech.

As the Watachay made way and Corco stepped up to the megaphone, over a dozen figures stepped out of the castle to join him. One by one, they stood behind the king to show their allegiance. Among them were people close to him, like Sumaci and Fadelio, but also all seven lords who had decided to ally with him in the upcoming war. Even Lords Makipura and Llasto had come from the far ends of the kingdom to stand witness to this moment. Just to show whose side they were on, they had traveled all the way to Saniya for this solstice festival, showing their house sigils in large colors behind them so that everyone would see them. Though in truth, they didn’t have much of a choice.

In the reshuffle that would follow Corco’s announcement, all class differences would disappear. As a result, the lords of southern Medala would become the biggest target for everyone else. For centuries, they had hoarded all the money and power in the kingdom. Without ideological and legal protection, they would be ripped apart by the people they had previously governed.

Only by aligning with Corco in such a public way could these lords be safe. Of course, while they wouldn’t retain their official status as ‘superior nobles’, they and their families had been promised enough benefits to make sure they wouldn’t suffer. Even after the big changes brought on by Corco’s next words, there was still a need for governors, for political and economic leaders.

After the king had spent some moments to soak in the atmosphere, and after he had tasted the last moments of the old Medala for long enough, he took a deep breath and spoke into the megaphone.

“To all good souls, from all across the world! Much harm has been done to us in the past months, much has been plotted. But all of it pales in the face of revelation. After receiving the oracle, I did not know what to do, how to handle it. I’m just a normal man after all. However, there are many great people within this great kingdom, many who helped lend a hand and helped re-imagine the future of our empire, for a brighter Medala. Together, as people from all parts of society, we sat and debated, day and night. Together, we imagined a new way for our people to live and prosper. Together, we forged a new path into the future.

Based on these discussions, the people of Medala have agreed that these following fundamental rights are true, logical and self-evident. As inherent human rights, they shall apply to all who live within Medala’s Kingdom of the South. Article one: All people are born free and equal, through their very nature...”

Confronted with the king’s revolutionary words, the people were as shocked as they had been when the lightning storm had first appeared in front of the castle. Even if not all of them understood everything that was happening at this moment, everyone could feel that a great change was upon them. To complete silence from the crowd, Corco read out the founding document of a new kingdom, a declaration that would sound the death knell for the old Empire of Medala.