“Well, we found the cradle within a foundry lexicon…the bit that holds all the definitions…” Orso thoughtfully tapped his chin. Sancia thought he was milking it a bit much. “We found that could be twinned quite easily.”
The Michiel scrivers looked at one another.
“Are you saying that instead of writing out several hundred definition plates by hand,” said Moretti, glancing at the velvet-lined box, “for our several hundred foundries…”
“Yes?” said Orso.
“We…We could use your technique to twin all the cradles within our foundry lexicons…”
“Yes.”
“And then if you fed just one set of definition plates into one foundry lexicon…then all of them would just believe they contained those arguments?”
“Yes.”
“And then all the arguments that we’d written out…would apply everywhere?” asked Moretti.
Orso nodded like the idea had entirely been Moretti’s, rather than his. “That could definitely work, yes.”
The Michiel scrivers were not slouching in their chairs anymore. Most were sitting up, or sitting forward—and some were even standing.
Sancia could see the math taking place in their heads: the hours they’d save in sheer labor, and the efficiencies they’d gain, campo-wide. And it would also eliminate a whole host of security concerns, for scriving definitions were easily the most valuable things a campo owned: lexicons might be the heart of a campo, but the definitions were the blood. Even this small-scale application of Orso’s technique would be revolutionary for them.
“And it’s all here,” said Orso, placing a hand on the giant tome on the table. “I’ve no doubt such advanced minds as yours will make quick work of this…”
“After the demonstration,” said Moretti sharply. “I will want to make sure it works.”
Orso bowed. “Of course.”
Berenice and Sancia continued their work, carefully applying the appropriate markers on the iron box. Within half an hour, they were done.
“Finished,” said Berenice, stepping back and wiping sweat from her brow.
The Michiel scrivers rose, approached the stage, and studied the alterations they’d made to the test lexicon and its heating chamber, as well as the iron box. Their work was deceptively simple—no more than a bit of bronze, a few plates, and a few hand-wrought sigils, carefully etched.
“It’s not working now, is it?” said the scriver with the lisp warily.
Orso gave him a thin smile. “No. It won’t work until the lexicon is ramped up and turned on. Only then will we have successfully twinned reality.”
“But how shall you prove that it works?” asked the scriver with the lisp.
“Well,” said Orso, “there are several ways we coul—”
“No. We shall see to that,” said Moretti. He waved to one of the scrivers at the back of the room, who trotted forward with a box of their own—though this one was silver and bronze, as opposed to Orso’s dull wood.
Moretti opened the box. Inside was yet another definition plate, along with a small scrived lantern. He turned to Orso with a wide smile on his face. “While it sounds like your demonstration might actually measure up to your initial pitch, rather than seeing you put on a show with your tools, I’d prefer to see how your technique would work with ours. This definition here will argue that this lantern will turn on…but only within a foot of whichever lexicon supports it.”
Orso nodded slowly. “So…you mean to turn on the test lexicon, put the little lantern on top of the iron box, and…wheel the iron box out of this room to see if the lantern keeps working?”
“Precisely,” said Moretti. “To a part of the campo that I know you have never seen before. You or your employees.”
The Michiel scrivers looked at Orso—but he simply shrugged and said, “Certainly.”
Moretti’s smile dimmed a little. “Proceed,” he said, nodding at his team.
The Michiel scrivers carefully placed this second scriving definition inside of the test lexicon. Then they shut it, sealed it, and turned it on.
About half the Michiel scrivers backed away, worried that it might explode. But it did not: there was just a squeak from the cart that the iron box sat on, as if a three-hundred-pound weight had been placed on it…
Which, Sancia knew, was true. Test lexicons weighed hundreds of pounds. If the iron box believed it now contained one, then it would have just grown incredibly heavy.
Orso waved to the lantern. Moretti held it up, and turned it on. At first it did nothing—but when he set it on top of the iron box, the lantern suddenly glowed with a bright and steady luminescence.
The scriver with the lisp gasped. Moretti stared at the lantern, eyes still narrow.
Orso pointed to the door. “If you would like to take the box beyond,” he said, “myself and my chief of innovation would be happy to walk with you to answer any questions”—he gestured to Sancia, who stepped forward—“while Berenice and Gregor stay behind to ensure nothing goes wrong here.”
Moretti gave Sancia a lingering glare of disgust. “And…why must I have this creature walking through my Hypatus Building?” He glanced at Berenice. “Why not her?”
“Ahh,” said Orso. “Well. Berenice is quite competent. I always find it works well to pair the competent people with the people who are, uh, less so.”
Sancia and Gregor exchanged a look—How charming.
Moretti smiled, slapped on a tremendously false grin, and said, “Of course. That makes perfect sense, then.”
Two Michiel scrivers took the cart and began to wheel it out the door. Moretti and the rest paraded out after them, with Orso and Sancia among them.
Sancia took a long, deep breath. Time to go to work.
2
Sancia, Orso, and the Michiel scrivers plodded through the corridors of the Hypatus Building in near silence. Everyone’s eyes were fixed on the little glowing lantern sitting atop the iron box, waiting for it to flicker and go out—though Sancia knew it wouldn’t. They had not fooled them. The box really did believe it contained the test lexicon, and all the definitions it asserted about reality.
“Exactly how far do we plan to go, Armand?” said Orso. “Purely out of curiosity, of course…”
“Until my curiosity is sated, Orso,” said Moretti.
They took a left, then a right, roving through the halls, deeper and deeper into the workshops and assembly rooms and libraries. Sancia knew that, like nearly every hypatus building on the campo, many wild and dangerous experiments could be found here.