Several other avenues of research had not panned out. An attempt to devise a more powerful flamethrower was ruled out early on as it was simply too dangerous given the flammability of the new Imperial airships, which relied on fermented manure gas for lift. Intrigued by the Adüan fire rod, Atharo tried to see if it could be weaponized along the same lines as the silkmotic arrows. However, the resulting bolts, which relied on the fire rod instead of an Ogé jar as the detonator for firework powder, were devoid of any obvious performance benefits over the silkmotic arrows—in fact, they were worse, as the fire-rod arrows lacked the paralyzing jolt that the silkmotic arrows delivered.
“Silkmotic force, silkmotic force…,” Miza Crun muttered. “I’m certain that this is the proper direction.”
The fact that a small Ogé jar charged fully by the massive silkmotic generator could let out a jolt powerful enough to kill a chicken was tantalizing. Working day and night, Miza Crun tried to squeeze more power out of his instruments of healing and entertainment so that they could become machines that killed.
The first, obvious thing to try was to create larger Ogé jars to hold more silkmotic charge. A great deal of experimentation revealed that the capacity of an Ogé jar could be increased by making the jar itself as thin as possible while making the surface area for the channeling coatings as large as possible. However, making large, thin-walled jars out of glass or porcelain proved impracticaclass="underline" They were too fragile to handle and transport.
The mathematician-administrator Kita Thu gave Miza Crun an idea: “While it’s hard to build one large hall with a spanning dome, it is easy to make many small interconnected rooms with small domes. The total capacity of each is the same. Can the same principle not be applied to Ogé jars for the storage of silkmotic power?”
Miza Crun cursed himself for not thinking of this path earlier. Connecting multiple Ogé jars together to combine the silkmotic force stored inside each was a trick he already had some experience with. When he connected the jars end to end in a series, the intensity of the spark on discharge increased—that is, the spark could stretch across a longer gap between the two channeling rods attached to the inner and outer walls of the Ogé jars. But when he connected the jars side by side—for instance, by placing all the jars on a silver plate and then tying wires attached to the inner surfaces into a single bundle—the reservoir formed by the collection of jars generated a thicker spark, though it could not leap across as wide a gap. In other words, with the jars connected in parallel, the silkmotic force seemed to have more quantity, though it wasn’t as intense.
A large reservoir of Ogé jars generated a shock powerful enough to kill a sheep or calf, though the channeling rods had to be held in such a way that the silkmotic current flowed right through the heart of the animal. It was conceivable that with enough Ogé jars, a reservoir could become powerful enough to kill a garinafin.
But calculations by Kita and Zomi revealed that such a collection of Ogé jars would be much too massive to even fit inside the hull of an Imperial airship. Besides, even if such a collection could be constructed, charging them using the single silkmotic generator would take forever. As it was, the generator had to operate continuously to create a usable supply of silkmotic arrows.
What they needed was a source of silkmotic power that would be strong enough to kill a garinafin in a single jolt and a reservoir to hold such power that wasn’t so bulky or fragile as glass or porcelain Ogé jars.
Just as the scholars were about to give up, a chance experiment with Zomi Kidosu opened an unexpected path. Miza Crun suggested that Zomi try out a silkmotic bath on her left leg to see if perhaps the vitality of silkmotic force could rejuvenate it. Just as Miza had used the power of the silkmotic generator to relieve some Faça veterans of the Chrysanthemum-Dandelion War of the pain of phantom limbs, it had also done wonders for cases of paralysis and damaged nerves. If the force could even cause the legs of dead frogs to kick and swim, could it not bring life back to Zomi’s disobedient left leg?
Zomi consented to the treatment. Sitting in a sitting board elevated upon blocks of resin—an excellent silkmotic dam—Zomi allowed Miza to run a silver rod attached by wire to banks of charged Ogé jars over the skin of her leg, bathing muscles and nerves long deprived of feeling in currents of silkmotic force in an effort to bring life back into them.
This was the first time Zomi had directly experienced the power of silkmotic force, and she could feel her hair stand up and the invisible force pouring into herself. Bits of paper and dust in the air swarmed around her, attracted by the power the machine poured into her body.
“Hold on to the armrests,” said Miza Crun. “This will sting a bit.”
Another silver channeling rod was attached to the other surface of the Ogé jars. Miza brought it over with jade gloves, and, as he touched the rod to her leg, Zomi experienced her first shock.
An invisible current coursed through her body, numbing, burning, quaking her to the very core.
The sensation of being shocked by the silkmotic force, Zomi discovered, was like a faint echo of what she had experienced twenty years ago, when the thunderbolt had struck her and left her leg partially paralyzed.
The similarity between the appearance of the sparks generated by the silkmotic machines and lightning had long been remarked on, but until now, no one could say that the two were the same. However, as one of the few survivors of a lightning strike, Zomi knew beyond a shadow of a doubt that the power of the lightning was silkmotic force wielded by the gods.
Heavy, dark clouds loomed overhead, so oppressive and close that it seemed possible to reach out and touch them. Zomi and Théra busied themselves in the open field high up the slope of the mountain.
On the ground they had erected two winches, connected to each other by a silk belt. The first winch was connected to a large kite made of silk over a strong bamboo frame, as well as a thin iron rim around the edge for collecting charge. The string of the kite was made of silk strands twisted with silver wire. At the bottom of the string, an iron chain dangled into a large Ogé jar.
Zomi and Théra stood some distance away at the second winch, from where they could control the ascent and descent of the kite. Eyes intent on the clouds above them, they let out more of the string, causing the kite to rise higher.
“Lord Kiji,” Théra fervently prayed, “please allow us to borrow your power.”
As though in answer, lights flashed deep inside the clouds, but it was impossible to tell if Kiji was saying yes or no to their request.
The sky darkened as though someone had banked the fire of the sun. The world seemed to grow smaller while heaven and earth pressed closer to each other. The very air was charged with invisible lines of power.
Heavy drops of rain fell. Théra and Zomi huddled under a flat, low canopy set up next to the second winch. The sound of rain striking the roof was like the explosion of oil inside a frying pan. The kite string, laden with water, sagged.
More flashes in the clouds above.
The iron chain dangling from the kite string began to crackle, and faint sparks could be seen streaming from it into the Ogé jar.
Théra and Zomi looked at each other.
“It’s true!”
“Look!”
A large stag emerged from the woods, leaping gracefully through the rain as though not bothered by it at all.