Chapter 16 — The Edge of the World
Year of Our Lord 1258 — The Age of Voyages begins.
I. The Call of the Horizon
The empire's forges roared, but Leon's mind drifted to the sea.In council, he would pause mid-discussion, gaze toward the maps unfurled upon oak tables, and trace with his finger the uncharted waters beyond India and Cathay.
"The Lord has given us iron," he said, "and the courage to wield it.Shall we now fear the waves He made?"
Thus he decreed the founding of the Royal Aragonese Fleet, a navy not of galleys and oarsmen, but of iron-ribbed ships driven by wind and primitive steam pistons.They were called Navíos del Fuego y Fe — Ships of Fire and Faith.
At their head stood Captain Hernán de Toledo, a man of bold heart and quiet prayer, once a soldier at the Ebro, now chosen to carry Aragon's flame across the world.Fatimah oversaw their construction; Father Tomas blessed the keels before launch.
Each ship bore a copper plate inscribed with Leon's motto:
"In Ferro Veritas, In Mare Lux."In Iron, Truth — In the Sea, Light.
II. The Voyage East
In midsummer, five great ships departed Valencia.Their sails bore the crowned cross and the hammer-flame of Aragon.Crowds gathered on the cliffs to watch them vanish into the sunlit horizon — the empire's first gesture toward eternity.
The fleet sailed south past Africa, around the Cape of Storms, and eastward into the vast Indian Ocean.They traded in Goa, were blessed by monks of Ceylon, and finally braved the endless expanse beyond the Malay seas.
Many thought they would never return.Yet Hernán's journals — preserved in the Royal Archives — tell of calm seas, strange stars, and a sense that Providence itself guided them.
"Each sunrise feels nearer to Heaven," he wrote."And though the stars are new, the Lord's hand is constant upon the mast."
III. The Isles of Saint Philip
After nine months at sea, they sighted a great archipelago — green, mountainous, ringed with coral and golden sand.The natives came in boats carved from single trees, bearing gifts of fruit and gold dust.
Hernán named the islands Las Islas Filipinas, after Saint Philip the Apostle — patron of new missions and far journeys.
Here, the cross and the forge came together once more.
Missionaries built the first cathedral at Cebu — half wood, half steel — its bell cast from melted cannon.Local chieftains swore fealty to the Emperor of Aragon, their baptism recorded as The Covenant of the Sea.
Within a decade, the Philippines became the empire's brightest jewel — a haven for trade, a gate between West and East, and the birthplace of the Manilan Commonwealth, where Aragonese, islanders, and Chinese merchants lived and prayed together.
IV. The Fortress of Formossa
Further north, the fleet found a green mountain rising from the sea — fertile, beautiful, and perfectly placed between China and Japan.They called it Formossa — "The Beautiful."
Upon its southern coast rose the port of Santa María de Luz, a fortress and shipyard that became the empire's outpost in Asia.From its forges came the first oceanic galleons — hybrid vessels of wood, iron, and faith.
Formossa soon grew into the Shield of the East, protecting imperial trade routes from pirates and rival kingdoms.Missionaries there established schools of navigation and science, blending Eastern astronomy with Aragonese engineering.
The chronicles record:
"In Formossa, the stars of Cathay met the steel of Aragon,and from their union was born the compass of the modern world."
V. The Pacific Crusade
Not content with Asia alone, Leon ordered further voyages "toward the rising of the moon."The fleets sailed into the vast blue — an ocean so wide the sailors called it El Silencio de Dios — "God's Silence."
But even there, islands awaited.They found archipelagos of green and fire — the Marianas, the Carolinas, and a thousand more.Each was claimed "for God, for Leon, and for the Light of the Forge."
Crosses rose on beaches no Christian had seen before.On some, natives welcomed the newcomers; on others, they resisted, and the sea ran red.Yet every chronicle agrees — Aragon's banners were planted deeper than any before them.
In the court of Zaragoza, mapmakers drew the first world globe — the Orbis Aragonensis, the World of Aragon.For the first time, the empire spanned from the Ebro to the Pacific.
VI. The Empire of Three Suns
By the close of the 1260s, the Aragonese Empire ruled what scholars called the Three Suns:
The Sun of Europe, where the empire was born.
The Sun of Africa, whose coasts supplied ivory, spice, and gold.
The Sun of the Orient, shining upon the Philippines, Formossa, and the Pacific isles.
Trade ships crossed oceans; missionaries translated the Gospels into a dozen tongues.Aragonese engineers in Manila built bridges of steel and rope; in Formossa, the first mechanical clock in Asia tolled the hours of prayer.
The empire had become not merely a realm of conquest, but of culture — where the flame of industry and the light of faith shone together.
VII. The Emperor's Vision
When word of these discoveries reached Zaragoza, Leon stood silent for a long while, gazing eastward from the palace terrace.
Fatimah, old now but unbowed, said softly, "Your ships have reached the edge of the world."
Leon smiled faintly."No," he said. "They have found where the world begins again."
He ordered that in every cathedral of the empire, bells should ring at dawn — to remind all men that somewhere beyond the sea, new souls were hearing the same chime for the first time.
End of Chapter 16 - "The Edge of the World."Thus the Aragonese Empire crossed from faith to eternity, and the sun that rose over Zaragoza came to rest upon the islands of the Pacific.