A/N: A quick note to address to a question (on something I probably should have clarified sooner, on hindsight!)
"The world you describe is like original Flatland. Same hierarchy, same rules. But still, how you describe everything is sounds like third dimension 3d world. Otherwise characters are not suppose to see each other or anything else as anything but lines. So is this 2d or 3d? A combination? Flat figures, 3d world?"
It is a bit of a combination of the two, yes. While the Second Dimension is heavily based on Flatland, I took a few liberties describing it.
If it were precisely as described in the novella, all the characters could see of each other would be lines - no way of seeing each other's eye and by extension expressions. Plus, they wouldn't have any limbs to speak of - while both Bill and Kryptos are shown to have arms and legs. It would be difficult to write and, I think, kind of boring to read, without any sort of expression or gestures being described. (Or maybe someone more talented than me could pull it off, but not me, I am afraid!)
There is a lot that is not explained about Flatland in the novella (for example, how the characters can move around with no legs, or write or build or handle just about anything with no hands), so I'm describing it as somewhat different due to necessity. Think of it as a mix - flat figures as Bill appears in GF, in a world that does have some traits of tridimensionality, but is overall characterised by flatness, with no color to speak of. Bit like flat cardboard cut-outs on a black-and-white stage, if you will. That's how I imagine it, anyway.
Hope that helped!
Bill had many talents, but apologizing and meaning it was not among them. Thankfully, lying convincingly was.
Tad answered to his apology with one of his own, and everyone, including old Randall, seemed willing to leave it at that. Bill didn't spare a moment to wonder whether or not Tad's apology was more sincere than his, because it didn't really matter. As far as he was concerned, all those meetings were about now was getting any scrap of knowledge they may uncover - to use for the other meetings, the one he held at his place, with the ones who actually had some guts.
They held them in Liam's old room, which he unlocked for the first time in years. He was sure Liam would have liked that.
Now the Irregularity of a Male is a matter of measurement; but as all Women are straight, and therefore visibly Regular so to speak, one has to device some other means of ascertaining what I may call their invisible Irregularity, that is to say their potential Irregularities as regards possible offspring. This is effected by carefully-kept pedigrees, which are preserved and supervised by the State; and without a certified pedigree no Woman is allowed to marry.
"I just don't recognize her anymore. She gets married, has kids, and suddenly this world is not that bad, suddenly we don't really need to do something. Didn't she say she wanted this world to be better for any kids she may have?"
Nora put her glass down with some more force than it would have been necessary, and it took Bill a conscious effort not to tell her something along the lines of 'you break, you buy'. Beside him, Hillmann sighed.
"I can sort of understand her. Don't look at me like that - when you have children, their safety is your first concern. I would know - had Tad jump through fire hoops to save my boy," he said, his voice somewhat bitter. Bill glanced around Liam's room, thought back of their parents' silence on the matter - how they hadn't tried to do anything to save him - and said nothing.
"Perhaps you'd understand if you had children," Hillmann was going on. "Esther must have thought long and hard about the risks they may run if she's ever caught. Her kids are Regulars, male and Polygons to boot. Their future is secured, but one slip from her part might change that and make them lose everything."
You could lose everything. Please. Be reasonable!
"Great excuse, that," Bill heard himself muttering.
"Bill-" Kryptos began, but it was Nora to cut him off.
"No, I'm with him on this one. It's ridiculous. We all have something to lose, but it can't be an excuse to get absolutely nothing done."
That was enough to shut him up, and Hillmann didn't add anything, either.
Nora was a good asset to have on their side: more knowledgeable in mathematics than any of them, due to sticking her eye in her father's book since she was a kid, and in the perfect position to let them on to the most secretive studies among high-level scholars. The most important one, now that Esther had married and moved out of their father's residence, thus losing regular access to his library. Speaking of that...
"Any news on what your father's been breakin' his brain over?" Bill asked, and she frowned, shaking her head.
"No. It's something big, it's got to be. He spends most of his nights in the study, and locks it when he's in and when he goes out. He's never been that secretive before."
Hillmann gave her a worried look. "Do you think he may have realized what you've been doing?"
"Doubtful. He'd have confronted me about it," she said, and she sounded absolutely certain. "A such thing would make him absolutely livid. If he hasn't said anything, then he doesn't know. It's just… he seems really nervous."
Bill and Kryptos exchanged a quick glance. It looked like they both had reached the same conclusion: if the old man was being that careful without having a cause to think there was any need for him to, then whatever he was working on had to be really big.
"And he never lets go of the key, huh?" Bill asked.
"Rarely - and never long enough for me to get in his study without him noticing it's gone, let alone to look into… whatever this is about."
"Long enough to take a cast, though?"
That caused everyone else to pause, and Nora's eye to widen.
"Oh! Hadn't thought about it! Yes, I could do that. I take it you can get a copy of the key out of it?"
"I know someone who could, yes. One who doesn't ask questions."
Hillmann gave a chuckle. "You certainly know interesting people."
"Comes with the whole pawning side business," Bill said with a shrug. "Not half bad, I've got to admit. Just get me the cast, Nora, and you'll have the key. Just don't get caught, okay?"
It wasn't clear whether she winked or blinked - that was always hard to tell - but her voice certainly sounded smug. "I won't. Don't worry."
And indeed, she was not. In three days' time she showed at his shop, pretending to be there to buy something - being a woman had to be great when it came to walking around unnoticed: they all looked precisely the same, regardless their status - and placed the cast on the counter.
"What can I get for this, good sir?" she asked, and Bill laughed.
"A shiny new key, that's what. Will be ready by the end of the week," he said, taking it.
"And what do I get in exchange for whatever I'll unlock with said key? I noticed you've got a nice pendant over there," she added eyeing it from the other side of the shop.
The information she would return with would turn out to be priceless, but Bill had no way of knowing that yet: all he had was a hunch that they were on to something. "Hard to give your a quote without knowing what it's all about. I'd be going about it blind," he said, already knowing that wouldn't end the discussion. Nora could buy any jewel she wanted, so this wasn't so much about the object as it was about the fun of bargaining. Bill kinda like that part, too.
"Take a leap, then," she was saying, leaning on the counter. "Isn't your job all about taking risks, too, Mr. Cipher?"
"Calculated risks."
"Sounds terribly reasonable to me."
This time, they both laughed. There was some more haggling, but Bill had already decided to let her have it before they were halfway through: she was risking it, and that was something he appreciated. In the end, she left his pawn shop still chuckling, the pendant on her like a trophy. She had it on when she came back to collect the key. She had it on at the next meeting at Randall's bookshop, and the one after that at Bill's place.
She still had it when she was caught. In the end, the real price to pay would be so much higher than a pendant - but at least she paid it willingly.
The others would pay because Bill said so.
Straightway I became conscious of a Presence in the room, and a chilling breath thrilled through my very being. [...] Looking around in every direction I could see nothing; yet still I felt a Presence, and shivered as the cold whisper came again.
"I believe the Circles are looking for the Sphere's entrance point to our dimension."
Nora's statement came out of nowhere, causing everyone in the room to fall silent in the same instant, and - in the brief instant before what he had just heard truly sink in his mind - Bill thought that she sure knew how to drop a bombshell, and that she deserved a tip of the hat for that.
Then what he had heard did sink in, and he could only stare as though frozen on the spot. Somehow, old Randall was the first one to recover.
"What… are you certain? An entrance point?"
Made sense, Bill thought: the Sphere had to get in their dimension from somewhere. They had speculated long ago that there might be a weak spot somewhere, in the line between world, that the Sphere used to come through once every thousand years - but that the Circles had come to the same conclusion and were looking for it… well, that was entirely new.
Nora nodded, everyone's attention on her. They were all there except from Esther, who was staying home for some reason related to her children. She did it an awful lot lately, probably to distance herself some; it only added to the tension between the sisters, if Nora's scowl at the beginning of the meeting was anything to go by.
"This… This can't be good," Kryptos said, glancing nervously at the others. "What do you think they want to do? Move into the Third Dimension?"
"Unlikely," Bill said. Actually visiting the Third Dimension was something he had dreamed of since he had read about it in Liam's books, but he doubted the Circles, apt as they were to hide its existence, would want to visit it as well. They were the ones on top in their dimension, but wouldn't be anything to write home about in the Third. That was why they wanted to keep things as they were: the moment people knew, they would cease to be the pinnacle of everything. "If anything, they probably want to seal it off."
Pentos scowled. "So that the Sphere cannot return at the next turn of the Millennium?"
"And possibly never again," Tad said. "Each time the Sphere has come with its message, the Circles in charge had to scramble to silence whoever spoke of it - and something escaped their control regardless, or else we wouldn't be here. It makes sense that they'd want to solve the matter at its root. It's-"
"Reasonable," Bill quipped, cutting him off. There were a few, weak chuckles.
"Heh. From their point of view, I suppose it is," Tad said.
"We can't let them succeed," Randall spoke up. His hands were shaking; Bill supposed the thought of a such thing happening was enough to make even him decide something had to be done. Well, better late than never, though earlier would have been better yet. "If they seal the opening, then there will be no hope for this world."
The Circles can keep this world, Bill thought. If his visit to his birth family had taught him anything, it was that their world and the idiots in it didn't deserve saving. If they couldn't be bothered to do anything, then why should he? If the chance arose he'd be better off just leaving them all behind to rot and making a run for the Third Dimension.
Still, he knew better than sharing those thoughts with… well, anyone else in there. Some were smarter than others, all well-intentioned, but also so damn sentimental. They would never see things his way: they'd sooner stay on the sinking ship, trying to get water out with buckets while the passengers cowered and refused to get on the lifeboats, telling each other how reasonable it was to stay put in their assigned place.
Maybe he'd be able to convince a few of them that it wasn't worth it, one day, but that wasn't the right time to discuss.
"Nora, how close are they?" C-C-Croatoan was asking. "How close do you think your father is to figuring it out?"
"There is still a lot he needs to calculate," Nora said slowly. "But I don't think he's too far away from figuring out the actual coordinates. And once he does, you bet he'll be letting them know in record time - even if he has no idea what they want them for."
"Any way we can talk him into not doing it?" Pentos asked, but of course he already knew the answer, and his suggestion was met with silence - and Bill's eye-roll, though no one seemed to notice.
We should silence him, he thought, and very nearly said it, but he stopped himself just on time. Not that he didn't think he couldn't get some of them on his side - maybe even Nora, considering the stakes - but because it wouldn't be such a bright idea to begin with. His death would surely attract the attention of those who had tasked him to find the passage point, after all, and that might be too much for them to chew at once.
Plus, he wanted to know where that passage was. He wanted to get through it and into the Third Dimension himself.
And if you ever get a chance to see what I can only read of, promise me you'll take a good look for both of us.
"No," Nora was replying. "He would never go against the Circles. You can get that out of your mind - pretty sure the thought alone might give him an aneurysm. What I can try to do is solving finishing the work before he does."
The skepticism in Pentos' gaze was palpable. "Do you really think you can figure out the coordinates before he does?" he asked. Because of course he would be skeptical: for all their pats on each other's back they couldn't let go the concept, ingrained in them since birth, that women were not made for logical thought - no matter how many times Nora and Esther had proved otherwise.
Was that the same reason why there were no Isosceles among them? Bill had never wondered about that. Not that it mattered. Not now that he had seen how gutless and brainless Isosceles truly were. If anything worthwhile had ever come out of their lot, that was him.
"Do you have any better ideas?"
That shut him up. No, he did not - none of them did. In the end, they could only agree that their best shot was letting Nora try getting to the coordinates first. And then… then they'd see.
"I suppose it's all for now," Randall said with a sigh, ending the meeting. But it wasn't, and Bill knew as much the moment Nora slipped something in his hand - a folded piece of paper - before leaving, not even looking at him. It took Bill some… well, a lot of effort to wait until he was alone to read it.
There is something else you should know. I'll come to your shop tomorrow. Don't tell anyone for now.
Well. It looked like there was something more there - a secret. Bill kinda liked secrets, as long as he happened to be the one who knew.
Yet, if this evil be not arrested, the gradual diminution of the Circular class may soon become more rapid, and the time may not be far distant when, the race being no longer able to produce a Chief Circle, the Constitution of Flatland must fall.
"An equation to open up a tear in time?"
"Not so loud, Bill. And yes, that's precisely what it looks like"
"That's insane."
"Thought it would be your thing."
"... Fair enough," Bill conceded, and gave a quick look around. There was no one else in the shop and anyone looking in through the window would think he was seeing him showing a client some items, but it didn't hurt to be careful. "Okay. A tear in time. You're saying you can open up a tear in time with math."
Nora rolled her eye. "Everything about this world is about mathematics. It is the fabric of reality itself. It shouldn't surprise you this much."
"And why would your father work on something like that?"
"On that and on the coordinates to the Sphere's entrance point. I have a guess. What's yours?"
Bill did have a guess alright, and he didn't like it at all. "... They can't use the equation just about anywhere, can they?"
"Bingo. No, I don't think it would work anyway. It would need to be used someplace where the fabric of reality is already thin."
"The entrance point."
"Precisely."
The idea of what a such thing would allow the Circles hung unspoken between them for several moments. With the mind's eye, Bill could imagine several options, none of them pleasant. They could travel forward to the next turn of the Millennium and terminate the Sphere the moment if came through or, worse yet, travel back in time to the very first visit - so that, once the Sphere was terminated, none of said visits would have ever happened.
And if they were allowed to do that, then it would be the end. No word of the Third Dimension would make it through, no memoirs nor books would ever be written. The knowledge would be lost, and he would live his whole life never knowing nor longing for anything better.
And that wasn't something Bill was willing to let happen. He'd choose death before that.
"... Do the others know?"
"No. This is too big and we can't mess up. We only get one shot at this. Kryptos loses his nerve too easily, and Hillmann is leaning a bit too much on Esther's side of the argument. I don't know if we can trust him all the way," she said, and handed him something - another piece of paper. "This is the equation. For now, it is useless. Once I'll have figured out where the entrance point is, though, it will change everything. It will take us to the first turn of the Millennium, so we can warn the Sphere."
And see the Third Dimension, Bill thought, but he said nothing and just looked down at the equation. A day would come when a look would be all it took for him to understand everything, but at the moment he had no such power. It was too complicated for him to grasp, too advanced, and all he could do was trust Nora on that one.
"You'll need to beat them to it," he said. Theirs was, quite literally, a race against time.
"I will."
"This involves time. Even if they find out after you do, they can still get back in time and-"
"I will burn my father's study to the ground with all of his work once I have the coordinates. With him in it, if necessary. They won't have them."
The silence that followed was longer than the previous one, but not by much. Nora looked away; her voice had been harsh, too harsh not to think it was to mask something else she was trying not to let out. But that was none of his business, and he said nothing of it.
On hindsight - usually when he couldn't fall asleep, eye fixed on the flickering shadows Pyronica's flames cast on the cell's walls - Bill would feel rather stupid for not thinking, even for a moment, that someone could betray them. That someone would talk, for convenience or fear or because forced to, and the rest of them would take the fall.
Some would die. Some would be imprisoned. Some would go into hiding. He would make it to the Third Dimension, one way or another.
For a time, Bill wouldn't be able to tell whether he had been the luckiest or unluckiest of them all.
"Whereas the States had been troubled by divers ill-intentioned persons pretending to have received revelations from another World, and professing to produce demonstrations whereby they had instigated to frenzy both themselves and others, it had been for this cause unanimously resolved by the Grand Council that on the first day of each millenary, special injunctions be sent to the Prefects in the several districts of Flatland, to make strict search for such misguided persons, and without formality of mathematical examination, to destroy all such as were Isosceles of any degree, to scourge and imprison any regular Triangle, to cause any Square or Pentagon to be sent to the district Asylum, and to arrest any one of higher rank, sending him straightway to the Capital to be examined and judged by the Council."