Enlightened Empire

Chapter 367: Saniya's Longest Day (1)

As evening turned to night, the rainfall worsened, from a drizzle to a steady downpour. Even the water-hardy Saniya people wouldn’t feel like strolling in such a nasty weather. However, they didn’t have to, and neither did the softer visitors. Kind souls were guiding them towards the light. Or rather, those lights were in turn guiding them towards salvation.

To combat the darkening sky, workers from the city government had ignited glass-covered oil lamps all along the city’s major roads. The lamps had been newly installed, specifically for the festival. All of them together formed roads of light in the darkness, which led the citizens and visitors who were still out on the streets towards the city’s center, Rapra Island with Rapra Castle on top.

Just like the rest of the people in the city, Alcer and Killari also followed the direction of the lights to witness what would be the festival’s climax.

“So what will happen now?” Alcer asked, curious on how such a lavish festival would conclude. By now, it was already close to midnight, so he didn’t think the proceedings would last much longer.

“The boss told us earlier. In other cities in the empire, everyone comes together in the town center at midnight. That’s the height of the winter solstice festival,” Killari explained. “In our case, that should be the big square in front of Rapra Castle, where the new recruits always do their drills. I think the priests do a reading of the stars or something? And then we all go home.”

“I see.” Although Alcer was curious about the exact details of the festival, asking Killari would just pointlessly embarrass both of them. Before they had made their respective careers, both Alcer and Killari had been simple dock workers in Saniya’s harbor. They had never been well-off enough to travel, and had never made it beyond their own little town for work either.

Before the arrival of their king, Saniya had been a rural, sleepy town cut off from most of the empire, yet it had been their entire world. Thus, many things that were common knowledge for other Yaku were ties to them. Though no matter how ignorant Alcer was, he realized that some things about their own city’s solstice festival couldn’t be normal.

When the two were closing in on the bridge over to Sillu Island, they could already hear the ubiquitous priests from a distance. He doubted that other cities would be plagued by doomsayers like this during their festivals. These people had never gone away over the course of the festival. Even now, as everyone got ready for the highlight of the evening, they were still hard at work to ruin his mood.

“Gaze at the starless sky! The heavens themselves have been angered by the faithless city!”

“There shall be no starlight to shine upon this accursed place, not today, not any day! Not now, not ever! Not so long as the faithless rule!”

On both sides of the bridge, priests stood elevated on the railings, in the streaming rain. They raised their fingers up into the cloudy, starless sky as they railed off their indictments. The dramatic pose added to the menace, but they didn’t have to do much to scare the people of the city.

As the priests explained during their rant on the bridge, a starless night during a star reading was seen as a bad omen, and as a sign that the Divines had turned their backs on the place of the reading, or on the family that owned the land.

Of course, Saniya’s sky was overcast on most days, but that clearly didn’t matter to the priests. Or rather, they would surely see it as another sign that the lords of Saniya had been faithless for a long time.

Maybe, Alcer thought, they were really just mad that they wouldn’t be able to become the center of attention today, since they couldn’t perform their readings without the stars around. Though most likely, their real intentions were a lot more sinister.

“What are they doing? Do they want to see the whole city up in flames?” Alcer asked in annoyance. He really felt like pushing one of them down into the Mayura River. It would be too easy, right?

“What do you mean? They’re trying to save the city, aren’t they?” Killari asked back, a dull look on his face. “It makes the people scared, but if we’ve been left behind by the Divines, the people should be scared, I think.”

His friend’s ignorance surprised Alcer. Wasn’t Killari a policeman? And hadn’t he explained all day about how hard his job was? Wouldn’t the police suffer the most under an unstable populace?

“You think this sort of talk will save anyone?” Alcer argued in anger. “Even if they’re trying to help, they’re doing more harm than good. If they keep going like this, the city will fall apart!”

“Maybe it will! But at least they’re doing something!” Killari shot back. “The king has hidden away in his castle, to escape from the wrath of the Divines. He has left behind his people when it mattered most. He’s not even playing his music anymore. So who but the priests can save us? I heard from the priests that the king’s new music is against the old teachings and against the words of the divines. It’s no wonder the city is in trouble when we have a king like that.”

“And you believe that?” Alcer asked back, shocked to see his friend parrot these words. He had heard them as well. All throughout the festival, and even before that, the priests had repeated them again and again. Though Alcer hadn’t thought that anyone he knew would believe them.

“You never know,” Killari replied in a hushed tone as he stole a glance at the priests on the bridge. “I think it’s better to believe in the ones who know more than me. I’m not a know-it-all like you. Why would I question the wisdom of the priests? I mean, they’re priests for a reason, right? They know stuff.”

With concern, Alcer stared at his friend’s frightened face. All of a sudden, he realized that they hadn’t changed much from the old days. While both of them had received an excellent education since they had taken on official roles in the kingdom’s system, learning how to read and work numbers had done nothing to change their natures. In the end, they were still the dumb dock workers they had always been.

Even Killari, who was always a loudmouth with no proper respect for authority, and who was in charge of keeping the city safe, was taken in by the words of the priests. Maybe he would talk big when they were away, but directly confronted with the priests’ inciting speech, he was easily misled, out of fear and ignorance.

Of course, others in the city were no different. All around them, the people stared at the sky in fear, as if the wrath of the heavens was about to descend upon them at any moment. The distant rolling of thunder was a familiar backdrop in Saniya, and barely anyone would notice it on most days. But now, everyone jumped and gasped in fear at every bit of rumbling, as if divine monsters were about to descend from within the clouds to swallow them whole.

Meanwhile, the ones who had fought this kind of blind obedience and superstition throughout the years were nowhere to be seen. While Alcer didn’t agree with most of Killari’s points, at least in one regard he was right:

While they were struggling out here and looking for answers, the king and his officials were hidden away and couldn’t or wouldn’t resist these outside forces who provided all the wrong ones. More and more, Alcer realized that the Saniya he loved so much was probably just an aberration, an error of history that couldn’t exist for long and would go away again soon. Then, he would be back to his old life, back to the docks, breaking his back for the rest of his life. If he survived the ensuing war, that was.

As he was lost in thought, Someone bumped into both him and Killari from behind.

“Hey, watch yourself!” the policeman shouted. When Alcer turned his head, he saw a young man in simple, but well-kept, wide robes. He felt like he had seen the young man before, but he didn’t have the time to get a better look.

“Excuse me,” the man mumbled, before he rushed past them, with his head lowered and his hands held close to his chest.

“Hey, wait one second!” Killari shouted again, but the nuisance had already disappeared into the crowd in front of them.

Shocked by a sudden realization, Alcer checked his money bag. Large crowds like this were always a feast for pickpockets. To his relief, he found his money untouched. Maybe it really was nothing more than an accident. For Alcer and Killari, the incident was only a footnote in a long and nervous day, a day that was still far from over.