Enlightened Empire

Chapter 356: War for the City's Soul

A deep sigh escaped Corco as he watched Watayi lose his mind. Spittle flew from his mouth and the fire of madness burned in his eyes. This was a bit over the top, wasn’t it?

Had this guy actually suffered this much when he had been Corco’s subordinate? And if he was this obvious now, how did he manage to hide it from the high priests? He didn’t look like a good actor. When the high priests had picked their representative for these talks, surely they wouldn’t have failed to see this person’s state of mind, would they?

Maybe, Watayi’s appointment wasn’t an accident like Corco had thought earlier. Maybe the high priests had sent this one on purpose, with the express goal of destroying what little relationship there was left between Saniya and the priesthood.

The more he thought about it, the more it made sense. Not every one of the priests would be convinced that giving up on Corco’s southern kingdom was the right way to go. After all, their alternative was Pacha’s central kingdom, a place that had cheated the priests in the past.

However, things would change if the talks between Corco and the priests came to a standstill. If, for example, the priests sent someone like Watayi, someone who would never negotiate or compromise with Corco. This way, they could say ‘we wanted to negotiate, but the king remained stubborn’ to silence the priests who wanted to reconcile in earnest. The entire reason Watayi had agreed to a meeting in the first place may have been to find an excuse to cut their ties.

Even now, despite all that, Corco was still willing to try and mend the relationship, on the off-chance he was wrong and the high-priests had simply sent the wrong person by accident. So at least he had to remain civil.

At this point however, there was clearly no more point in acting servile. He had thought that his humility would satisfy Watayi’s vanity and make talks easier, but it had only fueled the flames. Since nice words didn’t help, he would have to try with bad ones. Corco was much better with those anyways.

“You done laughing? Are you having fun?” Corco asked the madman once both had calmed down a bit. “At this point, I think it’s only fair to inform you that there are two minute keepers in the next room. From there, they can hear every word we’re saying. Everything we’ve said since you entered the room has been independently written down by two people, word for word. I’d also like to inform you that you’re not the only one in the world who knows that printing presses exist. By this evening, I can have this entire conversation printed out by the thousands, and delivered to every household in the city. Within a week, I can spread it to every city in the kingdom. I’ll even add a little notation, so everyone understands the exact context of our conversation and understands what kind of person you are. I wonder what your masters will think if they see what kind of a shoddy job you’ve done during negotiations.”

As Corco spoke, all the color drained out of the priest’s red face. Where he used to be filled with pride before, he was now hollow to his stomach.

“You would not dare!” he shouted, with a squeak of panic in his voice. “Who would dare oppose the high priests like this! Do you wish to be an enemy to the entire Pacha priesthood?”

“Try me.” Corco sneered. “As far as I’m concerned, I’m already your enemy. At least that’s how you’ve been acting. So it’s not like anything changes for me whether I do this or not. I just decided to fight back, that’s all. With disastrous consequences for you, if I might add. If the priests want to preserve their standing among the people, you know what they’ll have to do. ‘Priest Watayi is a lost soul. He does not represent the will of the Pacha priesthood’. That’s what they’ll say. They’ll drop you, with the same trash excuses they used to drop Watachay. Meanwhile, I’ll still be dealing with the same shit as before, but at least I won’t have to stare at your dumb grin any longer. Now, do you want to try how serious I am? Go ahead, keep laughing.”

This time, the priests didn’t even have weak threats to offer. After all, to many, King Corcopaca was still the madman who had almost killed his brother in a duel and had blatantly broken all kinds of rules and conventions during the Succession War. As far as the old elites of Medala were concerned, Corco could do anything if he was provoked. Now that Watayi’s backing was in danger of turning against him, the small-minded priest’s inflated ego shriveled up like a balloon with a hole in it.

“Okay, looks like you’re smarter than I thought,” Corco said. Now that he finally had control of the conversation, he calmed down again. “How about this: I can strike the problematic parts of our conversation from the transcripts. You know, the ones where you wanted to ruin our talks and destroy a Medalan city just because of a personal grudge. And in return, we try with some actual negotiations. It’s not like I’m blackmailing you, so don’t look at me like that. In fact, I’m willing to make some concessions to the priests. I think what I have to offer is good enough to talk about, so you better listen up.”

As soon as Watayi heard that Corco was still eager to negotiate, his back straightened again.

“In the end, won’t you bow your head either way? Nothing but big talk.” He sneered, while he took a handkerchief from within his robe’s sleeve to wipe away the cold sweat on his face. “Then go ahead, King. Talk about the concessions you are willing to make to the great priests.”

If anyone else had talked to Corco like that, he really would have just ended negotiations there and moved on to plan b. However, at this point, Watayi still represented the Pacha priests. Even though there were some priests the king didn’t like, he himself was still a believer in the Pacha faith. As a result, he was far more willing to cut them some slack.

And although Watayi’s attitude was still all wrong, at least now he was willing to listen to Corco’s offer. With everything he could bring to the table, the king was confident that he could satisfy the priesthood and end their siege of Saniya’s streets early.

“All right.” Corco leaned forward. Now that all the nonsense was cleared out of the way, it was finally time to get to the actual negotiations. “Let’s start with the easiest one: Quicksilver in thermometers. That’s one dispute that’s pretty easy to resolve. I won’t remove thermometers from classrooms, since I won’t deny my people education. But we’re already working on alternative substances to replace the quicksilver inside. It’s pretty poisonous after all, so we always wanted to minimize our use of quicksilver in the first place.”

“And how fast will that replacement be?” Before he spoke up, Watayi’s head shot around the room, probably in search for any possible issues with Corco’s offer.

“Hard to say. Right now, the city is in chaos, so everything is delayed.” The king shrugged. “Though if we can solve our internal problems early, we’d like to get the replacement done at some point in the next year. A one year deadline shouldn’t be too long, right? If you’re really still bothered, we can just not teach students what’s inside the thermometers. We’ll just classify it as a national secret until then, so there is no chance of quicksilver’s spiritual value being trivialized. Does that satisfy you?”

Again, Watayi looked around for reasons to refute Corco’s offer, but what more could he possibly ask for? Thus, he had to gnash his teeth and say, “There are no problems from the priesthood’s side.”

Although I’m sure you’d love to find some.

While Corco knew that the other points of contention wouldn’t be cleared up as smoothly as the first one one, he still had to try.

“Next, the judges,” he continued. “We can reinstate the judges that have been removed before, but they need to be properly sworn in to the laws of the kingdom. And they can no longer overstep their boundaries and judge against the letter of the law.”

This was really the best he could do on this issue. However, Watayi’s smile told Corco that he had been able to find the obvious problem this time.

“And what if the law interferes with the teachings of Pacha?” he asked.

“...they’ll have to keep with the letter of the law,” Corco repeated in response. “That’s the entire point of having written law. If the judges can’t uphold the law, the people have no idea what to do to avoid punishment. It defeats the purpose of having independent judges in the first place. If you’re so inclined, I’m willing to have a talk about certain laws you think are problematic from a religious perspective. You can submit them at any time, but don’t expect me to change everything just because you don’t like it. I won’t overthrow my entire legal system to make you happy.”

This was already a massive concession on Corco’s part. For the first time, he would let an outside power give input on the laws of his kingdom. However, to him, the priests still had a special status, so he would let them give some advice on his legislature, so long as they behaved. However, it seemed like his generosity would once again not be rewarded.

“Not good enough.” Watayi sneered. “The priests cannot be asked to speak judgment against the teachings of faith! For them, the laws of men can never hold precedent over the teachings of the Divines.”

Then they simply can’t be judges, you dumb fuck! This is impossible!

Of course, he didn’t say that part out loud.

“Okay, since we don’t see eye to eye on this issue, let’s try to make progress elsewhere. When it comes to teaching religion in schools, I’m willing to fund theology courses at my new universities. I’ll even let you send the teachers if you want to support me in this way. Teaching the people more about the Pacha faith should be desirable to you as well, right?”

“And what university will they be taught in?”

Again, Watayi found a problem. This time, Corco had anticipated the issue, since Watachay had already warned him about it before. However, this time, he was far less eager to give in.

“The vocational one, of course,” he said after some pause. “Don’t ask for things that are impossible.”

No matter what, he wouldn’t compromise his entire educational system to make the priests happy. The king’s emphasis on education should have also been known to the high priests, so he thought they may have been willing to take a step back in this area to advance elsewhere. However, once again, he had underestimated the greed of the priesthood, and the shamelessness of Watayi.

“Hah, as if the noble priests could be compared to mere craftsmen!” he shouted with his nose in the sky. “How dare you compare the great priests to carpenters and blacksmiths.”

“There won’t be a course on blacksmithing at my university. At most, we’ll offer a course in engineering or materials science. Physicians are also gonna study there. Don’t tell me you think your status is higher than that of a master of medicine.”

“Blasphemy!” the arrogant priest shouted back. “Surely, the mysteries of the stars are more important than a cough!”

Before Corco could get annoyed by another faked outburst from Watayi, he noticed something else in his words. He didn’t want to believe it, but had to confirm his worst suspicions.

“Wait a second, you don’t think you’ll be teaching astronomy in those theology classes, right?” he asked, fearing the answer.

“Of course they will.” Watayi said with a look of triumph. “Not only that, there will be no teaching of the stars outside of the courses held by the Pacha priests.”

“Is that supposed to be an order?” Corco shot back.

Finally, Watayi had been successful in making Corco angry again. If this was how the priests wanted to play, then he’d just have to forget about his respect for them.

“We’ll be teaching astronomy in SoHCahToa University, and we’ll be teaching it based on the scientific method,” he said in an icy tone. “That’ll happen, whether you like it or not, and I will never move on this point. And if your priests teach something in your theology courses that goes beyond their field, or worse: Something that contradicts our astronomy courses, I’ll throw them out and ban them from teaching. Is that understood?”

“The high priests will never agree to these conditions, and neither will I.”

Since they weren’t getting anywhere like this, Corco was willing to try one final time. In a final attempt to come to a consensus, he would take out the biggest concession he had prepared for these talks. Maybe if the priests saw concrete benefits in the form of gold and silver, there was still a chance to turn things around.

“All right. How about this: In return for letting me teach astronomy at the university, I’ll take out 100,000 Sila to build better, more modern observatories in sites of pilgrimage all over Medala. This way, we can study the stars together, in cooperation.”

Confronted with wealth only the richest of Medala’s lords would ever come in contact with, Watayi’s body stiffened. However, much to Corco’s disappointment, the priest’s greed only ruled him for a few seconds, before he swallowed heavily and remembered his hatred towards the king.

“That is not good enough,” Watayi said. “Study of the stars is the exclusive domain of the Pacha priesthood. Once mortals meddle in this power, there can only be catastrophic consequences.”

“Again, I’ll teach astronomy at my university, whether you like it or not,” Corco replied. “If you’re fishing for more benefits, you’ll be disappointed. That’s all I can offer you. Take it or leave it.”

This was as far as he was willing to go. If all his generous offers still weren’t enough for the priests, then he would know that they had never been interested in compromise in the first place. Unfortunately, Watayi’s next words took away his last bit of hope.

“Apparently, King is not interested in compromise. It seems the discussion can only end here.”

The priest stood up, a smug grin on his face once more. Finally, Corco exploded.

“It’s not a compromise if only one side moves, you dumb fuck!” He jumped up from his chair as well. “I’ve moved on every single position, and you only sit there with your dumb grin and say no to everything! What more do you fucking want!?”

“This rudeness will also be reported to the high priests.”

Watayi’s grin widened. Corco realized that his anger would only make the petty man happy, so he took a deep breath and calmed down again. All this time, he had wanted to find common ground with the priests, but even if they didn’t play along, he still had other options.

Only, those options weren’t something he wanted to fall back to, not unless he absolutely had to. After his alternate plans came to fruition, he knew that he would always be considered a heretic in the eyes of the Pacha priests. As a faithful believer, it was a fate he had wanted to avoid.

However, now the priests had left him with no option. They had forced Corco to choose between the integrity of his kingdom and his own private beliefs. In that case, his kingdom would always win out, every time. He made his choice in a second, and began to prepare his plan b.

“All right, good. Report it, little man,” he said. “I don’t need your help to control my city. When you go, you can take a message with you. From now on, the King of the South will retreat into his castle, to reflect on his faith. Also, during this year’s winter solstice, Saniya will organize the largest festival anyone in Medala has ever seen, in honor of the Divines, with its center right on Rapra square in front of Rapra Castle.”

“If you think those little tricks will be enough to prevent your destruction, you will have a rude awakening, lowly king,” the smug Watayi said before he left. “You better bow your head, mortal, and realize your weakness. Or see your lands destroyed.”

Unbeknownst to the priest, in Corco’s head, he was planning his counterattack, one that would prevent any meddling from the Pacha priests every again. Also unbeknownst to the priest, the downtrodden ex-apprentice Watachay, now in commoner clothes, was entering the city of Saniya this very moment.

“We’ll see about that,” Corco said towards Watayi’s back.

Despite the priest’s confidence, the war for Saniya’s soul was still far from over.