Don Antonio Moñino y Gálvez, 2nd Count of Floridablanca, reached the door that gave onto the Secret Chamber, as he was closely followed by fellow Grandee of Spain Don Manuel Alcántara de Téllez Girón, 10th Duke of Osuna, who he had found walking towards the place their Emperor had called them to. They wondered the reasoning behind this, but they knew it had to be important, for if it weren't the meeting would not have been secret.
Upon opening the door, both counts saw that the chamber was not empty, and that they were not the first to enter it.
The room was very simple when compared to the rest of the Royal Palace. The walls were covered with red velvet, and the floor with polished light wood planks. Two windows on the right side of the room from where they were provided enough light. The centre of the room was occupied by a semicircular mahogany table surrounded by several mahogany chairs. The flat side only had four chairs, but the circular part held fourteen chairs. The only decorations in the room were two portraits, one of the Emperor and the other of the Royal Family, and a crucifix over the door in the other side of the room.
Several other people had arrived before them. Floridablanca could see the Duke of Alba and the Duke of Medinaceli in one corner, the Marquis of Cadiz talking with the Duke of Montjuic and the Constable of Castille near the windows. To his surprise, there were not only nobles in the room: Pedro Martínez de la Rosa, former governor of the Kingdom of Granada; General Baldomero Espartero, who had brilliantly served in the Maratha War and had led the army in the victory at the Battle of the Indus Valley; and the Archbishop of Toledo, Cardinal Alonso Quijano.
In total, there were fifteen people in the room. And once the door closed behind the counts of Floridablanca and Osuna, all of them realised what they had in common: all of them were people of the Emperor's confidence, and people that shared the Emperor's mindset. Most of them had been taught next to him in the Noble School that had been part of Spain since the times of King Ferdinand I the Great, and a few of them were even considered good friends or, at least, fellow companions by the then Prince of Asturias. Those that were not nobles had instead drawn the Emperor's favourable attention through their hard work or through heroic deeds in battle.
The counts had engaged in quiet conversation with some of the other assistants when the door under the crucifix opened, and Emperor Carlos VI and his son Alfonso, Prince of Asturias, entered the room. Immediately, all the people that had heeded the call of their Emperor put one knee on the floor and bowed.
"My cousins, my kinsmen, my friends, please rise up and take your seats," the Emperor said. Carlos VI of Trastámara-Borbón, a direct descendant of the Catholic Monarchs through their son Juan III, was an affable man, easy to befriend and willing to hear advice. However, that did not mean that he was easy to manipulate. His intelligence was great, as many of his tutors had realised, and had taken upon the hard tasks of being the Emperor of Spain like a duck to the water. His decision to cut down the ties between the Estados Unidos de Nueva España and the Empire had been a hard one, but he knew that it was best to do that than to keep the Empire in a bad war and worse occupation of territories that were hostile, especially when there were bigger problems at the other side of the world, in India.
Meanwhile, the Prince of Asturias, fifteen-year-old Alfonso de Trastámara-Braganza, was distinguishing himself as an able politician and was studying a field that was little touched by people, that of economics, for which he had developed a couple of ideas that could be applied to the imperial economy.
"Your Majesty, Your Highness," Floridablanca said, bowing to the man and teenager. The others in the room nodded silently. The two central seats were taken by the Emperor and the Prince, while the two seats next to them were taken by Martínez de la Rosa and the Constable of Castile, and the others took the remaining seats.
"I thank you for answering my call, gentlemen," the Emperor said, looking at all the present people. "I have asked you to come here because I wish to deal with one of the problems our beloved Empire is going to have to face, lest it becomes naught but dust and bone. It is, of course, these liberales that have been appearing in our Empire in the last years."
A few of the nobles looked subtly towards Martínez de la Rosa - who had, in the past, been accused of liberal activities, but had demonstrated his innocence - but the man remained unflappable at the looks, and continued to pay attention to the situation.
"What is it that you intend to do with them, Your Majesty?" the Duke of Osuna asked.
"I know that, if we were to order it, our armies would be able to take on any people that tried to rise against my rule in the name of liberalism, but that is not the image I wish to show of our nation. I showed the world that Spain thinks about the good of its people when I decided that slavery was to be terminated. However, this is no longer going to be enough. We may be able to hold off the influence of liberalism for, what, a few years? But I fear that it is not a wave, but a tide, a tide that will either drown us or get us higher and that we cannot stop at all."
The people there were seized with silence. They had never heard such words from their Emperor, and they were illustrative in how he felt.
"This is why I have called you. The thing I want to do is to make sure that, when liberalism becomes a part of our nation, it does not wreck it. Our Empire is going to lie on the edge of its dissolution, and accepting liberalism is probably the only thing that is going to save it from falling, despite what some of the other nobles may say. That is why I need your help, because every one of you that joins means that you will be able to bring more people to our side, and less people on the side of those that would oppose it. Of course, the latter would be probably trying to make it as if they are upholding my will when they do that, despite the fact that I want them to support it.
"I will need your help. Can I count on you for that?"
"Your Majesty, I do not speak for everybody, but you can count on me and mine to support your idea," the Duke of Montjuic said. One by one, everybody in the room (save for the Archbishop of Toledo) gave his support for the Emperor's suggestion.
"Your Majesty, if we support this idea of yours, how will Catholicism survive?"
"You shall not fret, Your Excellency. I am not going to allow Catholicism to fall. It is going to be protected the best possible way I or my descendants can. The Spanish people will pray to Jesus Our Lord until the end of times."
The Archbishop smiled, and gave his consent.
"Thank you, everyone. My son has an idea for the first steps we shall take."
Young Alfonso picked a couple of papers from the table and cleared his throat. "Gentlemen, Excellency, I have here several reports from many parts of our Empire, gathered in the last months and brought to my father. The introduction to the people of this 'shaper' artefact has improved the economy everywhere. The reports clearly state that the mere use of the shaper has increased production everywhere, even doubling in some points of Spain. My suggestion is very easy. Invest not only on these shapers, but on the development of more artefacts like the shapers and the development of an industry based on these artefacts. That can not only improve our economy, but also make us a military powerhouse as we can replenish our munitions far faster than the other nations can!"
The nobles looked at each other, wondering what to do. Their reaction would be important for the Emperor's plan to succeed, and they knew that they couldn't fail him, but at the other side, they couldn't help but wonder what exactly would these ideas bring them to...
To: United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland
From: Empire of Holy Spain
We know we gave our word to help you gain a connection between your two colonies in India, and we really would like to keep that word, but this instance is one where it is not possible for us to do so. The strip of land we hastily drew in one map had several cities inside it, and we can't find a way to narrow it enough to give you that connection without angering the princes under our Emperor's protection. We ask for your forgiveness for this instance, and hope that it doesn't darken the relationships between the Empire of Holy Spain and the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland.
