“No,” said Gilberto, “subjecting millions of people to lifetimes of exploitation is an outrage. It’s a regrettable consequence of colonial dominion that the proper meaning of words is also a victim.”
Hana proceeded to read, “Ranks of nobility will be annulled, aristocratic families will lose their privileges, and your governments will be ceded to assemblies of equal citizens.”
“You have no right to make that demand,” said Carvajal. “Our manner of government is none of your business, and the very suggestion of democracy—”
Gilberto cut him off, and his translator did the same to Carvajal’s. “Wrong. We have the right and the duty to save you from your mistakes. Your own citizens are victims of your system; it would be dishonest of us to seek our freedom and neglect yours. If we find abhorrent the idea that some people are below humanity, we must also refuse to acknowledge anyone above it. Monarchy is the reverse side of slavery, and it is just as repugnant.”
“My father will fight to the death before he’ll let you have his crown,” said Bolai. “And to get near him you’ll have to get past me, and every soldier in China, and every citizen in our capital.”
“Excuse me,” said Gilberto, his patience nearly gone, “did you just speak of the obliteration of the Forbidden City as if it were a rhetorical turn of phrase and not a trivially easy thing to do?”
The prince struggled to answer without showing fear. “Is Beijing hostage to your demand against the monarchy?”
“No, that one is for slavery,” Gilberto said with a smile. “This demand has different terms. Since your father still swears he’s Jesus incarnate, he should be able to use his miraculous powers to protect the holy Mount Sinai.”
The three men jumped to their feet. “God’s finger touched that mountain,” said Bolai.
For perhaps the first time in his life, Carvajal agreed with Chinese theology. “We won’t allow that sacrilege!”
“What you will do is return to your seats. We are issuing the same warning to any ruler who claims to speak for Heaven. The divine right of kings is rendered abolished.”
Carvajal was livid. “Heresy!”
Hana closed her eyes and took a deep breath. “Call it that if you will, but it won’t change the fact that you are the evildoers here.”
“If you meet our demands,” added Gilberto, “and prove that you can coexist with other states in peace, maybe one day we’ll show you how we summon demons.”
Ignoring Carvajal’s grimace, Meijer asked, “Do you mean we’re going to join your Alliance? Are we to become Survivor Peoples, like you?”
Hana shook her head. “You can’t claim that status. I mean, the preferable outcome is that you don’t oppose our demand for liberation and force us to use our magic against you. If that comes to pass, you’ll be considered Survivor Peoples, and we’ll work with you toward repairing the world together. What we’re offering today is a way for you to avoid taking that path.”
“This is the end of the natural order of things,” muttered Bolai.
“It’s nothing extraordinary,” said Gilberto. “You have to treat us with respect and start listening to your own people. Is that too much? All this time, you’ve forced us to debase ourselves and give up our future. What we are forcing you to do is to become better humans.”
“And you will dictate to us what is better?” asked Bolai. “What could you possibly know about ruling people? When did you have a chance to learn it?”
Meijer held up a hand to make the prince pause and asked, “I think his concern has to do with what, precisely, ‘better’ means according to you.”
Gilberto started to think of a reply for Meijer, but thought better of it and turned first to Bolai. “For the Great Ming, it means you’re going to stop treating your women and your children as less than people, and also, drop the pretense that your government is divinely ordained, because, to be honest, you’re making a joke of yourselves. For the Canutic Empire, it means you must grow out of this childish obsession with military power, and for the sake of all that is holy, stop darkening the sky. For Iberia, it means no more punishing people for their thoughts. You’re hurting yourselves. What you need is to learn science instead of trying to run a country on prayers; it makes you look like you actually enjoy catching the plague every year. And for the lot of you, it means you’re going to let us rule ourselves and manage our own resources without interference. For too long you’ve acted like parasites, convinced that you have the right to decide our lives for us. That ends now. From this moment, we are equals.”
“Hypocrites,” spat Carvajal. “You preach about fairness while you threaten to kill us.”
That was the argument Gilberto had been desperately hoping wouldn’t come. He’d spent months thinking of how to defeat it, how to justify behaving like the enemy. Each second that he kept his mouth open without providing an explanation added the weight of all the eyes of humanity gathered in that room looking at him, waiting. “I know what it’s like to be cornered,” he said at last. “It’s something no one should have to know, and I hate to do it to you, but if we don’t do this, you’re not going to stop. Unless you’re done killing us, in which case we’d love to hear it. Are you done killing us? Wouldn’t you like there to be some less horrible way for us to deal with each other? At some point you have to get tired of this, because Heaven knows we are.”
For a while, Carvajal appeared unwilling to answer. All of a sudden, he was possessed by a fit of laughter. He laughed uncontrollably at Gilberto, he laughed at the members assembled in the hall, and his laughter sounded more frightening than if he were firing cannons at them. When he regained control of himself, his face twisted back from its brief amusement and into a display of pure contempt. “You are just announcing your own empire, and all this talk is an excuse to conquer us.”
Astonished at his inability to reach him, Gilberto wished once more he knew what to say. “I feel sorry for you,” he heard Hana reply, and he silently thanked her for distilling his many contending thoughts into one statement. He took another look at Carvajal and saw a man imprisoned by his own upbringing. A pang of sadness shook him as he realized that the degradation inflicted on the survivor peoples had also tainted its perpetrators. Men who had lived like Carvajal or the king of Spain or the High Inquisitor couldn’t be made to see the world in terms different from those set by the cruelty around them. They had become so used to interpreting actions in terms of seeking advantage or gaining prestige that they no longer could recognize sincerity when met with it. Gilberto closed his eyes, searched in his heart for his dream of kindness between humans, and begged it to keep hope for an uncorrupted generation to take over from the ruling one. Then his attention returned to Hana, who was still making his point better than he could. “Live under our rules, and you’ll be surprised at how much freer you’ll be. As unbelievable as it may sound, we have no intention of imitating you. We do want a united world, but not under one banner. We are many. And if a future is to come that is different from the crushing evil we’re living in, it will be forged from the earnest efforts of the many.”
Epilogue
Daytime and Nighttime under Incessant Light, Equinox 1 (New Standard Calendar), First Year of Unity
South Pole City
Hundreds of feet of ice still remained beneath the city, but the newly renamed continent of Concordia wasn’t a forbidding destination anymore. With the continuous burning come to an end, the world no longer had an open wound, but it would always remain scarred. The south pole, now rather livable, provided the most symbolically and logistically adequate location for the permanent meeting place of humankind.