Chapter 15 — Oceans of Conversion
A cold dawn crept over the Thames, silvering the Cathedral of Innovation's gears. London hummed with a new kind of diplomacy — not merely envoys trading titles, but engineers trading blueprints, priests trading lesson plans, and merchants trading routes that crossed seas faster than any horse could run.
[System Notice]Quest: "Consolidate the World" — Active.Primary Objectives: Stabilize Protectorates; Spread Church of Innovation in the Americas; Secure Pacific Routes (Alaska Purchase).
Edward looked down from the gallery of the Cathedral, the city below a lattice of rails and smoke. His inner circle gathered at his side: Charlotte with treaties stacked in her arms; Annabelle with a crate of new water filters; Mei Lianhua fluent in diplomatic subtleties and mathematical logistics; Éléonore with the Seine Kingdom's seal and a list of trade leads.
"Today we secure what we built," Edward said quietly. "Not with force alone, but with contracts, schools, and trust."
Charlotte tapped a scroll. "We finish the protectorate charters for Spain and Portugal, expand guild charters in Cuba and the Philippines, and fund five more Cathedral-Institutes across the Atlantic."
Annabelle's eyes sparkled. "And factories. More factories. We can ship a line of steam looms to Cartagena and Veracruz next week."
Mei added, "We must be culturally sensitive—translate doctrine pamphlets into native tongues, teach local artisans our metallurgy while also learning their techniques."
Éléonore smiled thinly. "And secure a diplomatic summit. Neutral powers will want a say now. The Ottoman Crescent and the American Republics both sent formal invitations."
Edward nodded. "Then we host them in London — on neutral ground and under the spire of the Cathedral. We show them a covenant: progress that binds nations, not binds them."
Consolidation: Law, Schools, and Steel
Over the next fortnight the Cathedral Network's administrators signed dozens of local charters. Old municipal laws were rewritten to include clauses for industrial regulation, worker protections, and tax incentives for locally owned workshops. The new Merit Rank Civil Service opened exams in Havana, Manila, and Lisbon — locals queued in the rain to try their luck.
In Cuba, the sugar plantations were retrofitted with steam presses that reduced labor and increased yield; freed laborers could now take apprenticeships at the Cathedral-Institute. In the Philippines, small shipyards in Cebu adopted iron-reinforced hulls and taught local carpenters the art of riveted joins. The Church of Innovation funded scholarships and seed capital; in exchange local governors accepted membership on the Continental Council as associate delegates.
[System Update]Protectorate Stability: Cuba +12% | Philippines +10% | Iberian Protectorates +18%Church of Innovation — Americas Conversion Rate: Increasing (Caribbean +45%, Central America +28%, South America Coastal Cities +22%)
There were resistances — guerrilla raids at night in a Spanish Andalusian town, a burned workshop on a Filipino islet — but each incident was followed by targeted relief, rebuilds, and community councils. The strategy of service-first, governance-second worked; people who once feared foreign banners now accepted roads, hospitals, and wages.
The London Summit — Neutral Powers at the Spire
The Cathedral's nave filled with diplomats like a beehive. Emissaries arrived from the Ottoman Crescent, the American Republics (a coalition of federated states across the Atlantic), Neutral Northern Principalities, and even a cautious envoy from the Tsarist Court in the Far North.
Edward greeted them not with royal posturing but with a simple demonstration: an automated printing press that printed a bilingual pamphlet titled "Industry, Faith, and the Public Good." It was distributed in English, French, Spanish, Arabic, and a polished translation of the Eastern Empire's tongue — a tangible promise that information would be shared, not hoarded.
The American envoy, a stern republican senator, leaned forward. "Prince Windsor, your cathedral and factories reach us like a tide. Some fear imperial shadow; some welcome the trade. What assurances do you offer to republics that prize independence?"
Edward met him squarely. "No annexation without consent. Trade charters with equal terms. Local governance stays local. We propose mutual institutes — shared patents, joint shipyards, and arbitration courts under a multinational charter."
The Ottoman envoy — a dignitary with a patient smile — asked about religious plurality. Edward responded, "The Church of Innovation is a civic faith. It educates and supports. We will not abolish local rites. Our chapel is a schoolhouse; our priests are teachers first."
After days of negotiation, the Summit produced the London Concordat — a treaty of industrial cooperation, maritime free-trade corridors, and mutual protection clauses for institutions founded under the Cathedral Network. It recognized protectorates as semi-autonomous but secured trade rights for Continental Council members.
[System Reward]Diplomatic Status: London Concordat Signed.International Trade Capacity +25% | Neutral Powers Recognition: Partial
Missionary Steam in the Americas
With legal cover secured, Edward turned to the Americas. Missionary-engineers were dispatched in fleets of steam transports: teachers, doctors, and mechanics carrying the Church's twin tools — the needle and the gauge. Nova Scotia's fishing towns accepted salted-meat canneries that saved incomes; Veracruz's markets filled with steam-fabric bolts; Río de la Plata's ports adopted telegraph relays to speed trade.
In the United States — a young, wary power — the Church of Innovation found fertile ground among industrializing states: textile towns in New England traded blueprints for iron castings; river cities in the Midwest linked to new steam-hauled barges. Edward's envoys offered cooperative patents and technical scholarships for engineering colleges. Many states welcomed the boon; a few politicians muttered about influence, but the American public loved faster trains and cheaper cloth.
[System Update]Americas — Church of Innovation Influence: North America Coastal +30% | Caribbean +55% | South America Port Cities +33%New Economic Nodes: Halifax Ironworks, Veracruz Textile Hub, Buenos Aires Telegraph Relay.
In Spanish America, ex-colonial elites found pathways to regain prosperity by converting former plantation estates into industrial complexes, often partnering with local artisans and Edward's engineers. The Church-sponsored schools taught practical trades alongside literacy and the Doctrine, and the Cathedral-Instutes printed local-language manuals — "Steam for the People" — that taught safe operation and basic civic rights.
The Alaskan Purchase — Steel for Territory
One major strategic goal remained: securing safe passage across the North Pacific and a staging ground for Pacific logistics. Russia's northern empire — vast, cold, and stretched thin — had long coveted hard currency. Edward's diplomats opened discreet talks with the Tsar's emissary: purchase, not plunder.
Mei Lianhua's mathematical charts showed the value in telegraph and coaling stations across the Alaskan coast: a string of relays would shrink Pacific communication times dramatically and provide winter harbors for the Innovator fleet. Éléonore's merchants calculated trade gains in a single table that made even cautious financiers smile.
Negotiations in St. Petersburg were conducted with finesse. Edward offered an enormous purchase fund — gold, industrial investments in Russian railways, and a promise of a joint naval base to protect Russian northern trade in exchange for peaceful transfer. The Tsar, needing funds and wary of overextended northern administration, agreed.
[System Notification]Diplomatic Acquisition: Alaska Purchase (Signed).Assets Transferred: Alaskan Coastal Territories — Sovereignty Transfer to Britain (Crown Dependency / Strategic Naval & Telegraph Hub).Strategic Bonus: North Pacific Supply Chain Secured; Coaling & Telegraph Stations +40% logistic efficiency.
The treaty was framed publicly as a mercantile agreement: investment in Russian infrastructure for sovereignty transfer of sparsely populated northern lands. Locally, administrators were appointed who engaged indigenous leaders, funded schools, and established small harbors — a delicate effort to avoid the stigma of colonial seizure. The Church of Innovation sent its first Arctic Institute to teach navigation, cold metallurgy, and basic medical care.
Ripples — Praise and Protest
The Alaskan purchase was controversial. The Holy League denounced "the seizure of frozen homelands," while some republics accused Edward of empire-building under the banner of charity. Merchants and industrialists celebrated the new routes and resources. The Summit's London Concordat, however, softened international backlash: Edward emphasized trade benefits and joint scientific stations, not conquest.
On the home front, the Church of Innovation's reach in the Americas soared. Coastal towns sent emissaries to London requesting instructors; city councils petitioned for steam looms and schools. Cable lines began to snake across the ocean, connecting continents in faster pulses of news and orders.
[System Summary]Alaska Purchased — Strategic Control Secured.Americas Conversion & Integration: Widespread — Church of Innovation influence expanding rapidly across trade hubs.Global Diplomacy: London Concordat solidifies Edward's role as an industrial hegemon with multinational support.
Night Reflections
Edward stood at the Cathedral balcony and watched the cables glitter like a net across the sea. In his palm lay the final stamped copy of the Alaska purchase treaty — a piece of paper that smelled faintly of cedar and diplomacy. He thought of distant children reading manuals under stained-glass gears, of harbor masters learning to read gauges, of priests teaching gauge-reading beside catechism.
Charlotte came to his side, exhaustion in her shoulders but clarity in her voice. "We secured trade and a northern port. We made friends and paid for land."
Annabelle placed a small, warm mechanical sparrow on the railing. "And we built another school. The first class starts in Kodiak next month — cold hands and warm minds."
Mei folded a hand-lettered schedule for the Arctic Institute. Éléonore hummed a quiet tune that had been popular in the Seine Kingdoms.
Edward breathed in the night air, which tasted faintly of coal, salt, and possibility. "We spread a doctrine and a dozen machines," he murmured. "Now we must be careful. Empires are not only built with factories. They are kept with laws, schools, and the consent of those we claim to help."
[System Log]Global Influence: Church of Innovation — Substantial (Transoceanic).Long-Term Goal: Maintain Protectorate Stability; Expand Joint Institutes; Manage Holy League Retaliation.
Above the harbor, a telegraph clacked with lights — another wire connected, another message sent. The world was smaller now, and louder. The age of steam carried the church's bells to every shore, and men and women across continents learned to read both gauges and scripture.
The revolution roared onward — girded with treaties, purchases, and classroom prayers — and the Cathedral bells rang in a language that now had an accent in Havana, Manila, Kodiak, and the ports of the Eastern Empire.
End of Chapter 15.