The Strength of the Few

In Luceum, another version of Vis wakes on a boat. His left arm is gone. Two warriors and a man dressed in a white cloak with a wooden staff sit in the boat with him. They speak a language he does not understand. He tries speaking in Vetusian, the dead language on the ruins in Solivagus, but they do not respond.

Vis recalls waking in the Labyrinth chamber, losing his arm, and finding himself on a mountaintop surrounded by snow. The man in the white cloak uses gestures to introduce himself as Cian. Cian whispers in Vetusian, warning Vis that the warriors are taking him to their leader tonight, where he will be killed. Cian will help him escape.

The boat reaches land. The warriors lead him to a small village and leave him tied up in an empty building. Cian promises to help soon.

At the Necropolis in Res, a third version of Vis attends the funeral of his friend Callidus, who died at the end of The Will of the Many. After, Veridius asks Vis to visit the Academy soon so they can talk. He insists that he has information Vis needs. Later, Eidhin approaches, explaining that Veridius offered to free him from his father’s agreement with the Hierarchy if he won the Iudicium alone. Je refused to join Vis’s team to avoid the temptation of betrayal, recalling his belief that each man must “find his line, and never cross it” (28).

Callidus’s father, Tertius Ericius, speaks with Vis. He does not trust Vis’s motives for joining Governance. Vis’s decision is seen as a betrayal to his adoptive father, the senator Ulciscor, and his notoriety as Catenicus—a title bestowed on him in The Will of the Many, when he killed an Anguis attacker and saved thousands of lives—will bring unwanted attention. Vis explains that he wants to uncover those responsible for Callidus’s death. Ericius warns that he will receive no special treatment in Governance. He will undergo testing for rank placement after he completes the ceding ceremony.

In Obiteum, Vis and Caeror live in Qabr, a pyramidal structure filled with tunnels and chambers. The walls are lined with crypts where residents sleep. Caeror warns him not to speak with the local Qabrans, who have strict laws about interacting with foreigners. The scarab amulet Caeror gave Vis is a Vitaeria, an object imbued with Will to heal or strengthen the body. Vis notes that there are Vitaeria in Res as well, pre-Cataclysm objects they do not entirely understand.

The Qabrans find a dead man outside. A scout saw him running from the direction of Duat before a Gleaner killed him. Caeror ties the dead man’s wrists and places a blindfold over his eyes. Then he touches the dead man’s forehead, and his eyes flood black, the sign of using Will. The dead man sits up.

Caeror explains that the man, Djedef, is still dead. However, Caeror used Will to revive him. In Res, a person imbues objects or themselves with Will to “strengthen and manipulate,” but in Obiteum, Will is used to “restore and sustain” (37). The revived dead are iunctii; they “do not need to eat, or sleep, or breathe. They don’t age or bleed. They do still remember who they were, feel things the same” (37). When Caeror withdraws his Will, Djedef will be dead again.

Imbued objects and iunctii can be controlled and co-opted by another with Will in a process called Adoption. The world’s ruler, Ka, can leave Will inside iunctii to control them from afar. He needs to test Djedef.

Caeror leads them out of Qabr into the desert. In the distance, the Concurrence city of Duat lies in a valley with a massive black pyramid in the middle and a green river running through it. Caeror draws an obsidian blade like those Vis saw impaled through bodies in the Labyrinth. Caeror calls it an Instruction Blade, a kind of Vitaeria that can heal, kill, or control. By impaling a iunctus and holding the blade, he can command them. He stabs Djedef.

Caeror asks how Djedef died. He says he escaped Duat with the help of someone named Netiqret. A Gleaner caught him outside the city and killed him. Caeror asks more questions and soon realizes that Djedef is a sleeper spy sent by Ka. He kills him permanently by cutting off his head.

Caeror spots Gleaners in the distance. The Gleaners are iunctii modified and controlled by Ka. Though originally human, they have been modified with Instruction Blades for arms and the ability to fly. They make regular patrols around the desert. Caeror and Vis quickly return to Qabr.

Caeror explains more about the world. Most in Obiteum believe that Ka is a god, but Caeror believes he is the Concurrence, who hides in the black pyramid at the center of Duat. From translations in the ruins, Caeror and Veridius surmised that the Concurrence is the only man who survived in all three worlds, allowing him to control all aspects of Will, called Synchronism. For centuries, people have tried using the Gate at the end of the Labyrinth to achieve Synchronism. By succeeding, Vis may now have the power to kill Ka and stop the Cataclysm.

Warriors wake Vis and escort him out of the building. Cian arrives and puts the warriors to sleep. He leads Vis out of the village. Eventually, they stop to rest. Cian sleeps. Vis hears horses approaching and hides in the underbrush as they pass. Afraid, he tries to wake Cian. When Cian opens his eyes, they are black, indicating that he is using Will.

Vis asks about Cian’s Will, but Cian refuses to answer, saying that it is sacred knowledge of the draoi (druids). Cian says they are in the lands of King Fiachra, who is under the influence of Ruarc, a new member of the Grove (the draoi High Council). Ruarc wants to kill anyone who comes from the place where Cian found Vis. Some druids disagree, but many have bent to Ruarc’s rule. Cian is taking Vis to King Ronan, who is more reasonable.

Vis and Cian reach a village where druids are highly respected. A family invites them to rest in their hut. Later, noise outside wakes Vis. Cian says it is Fiachra’s men. He orders Vis to stay hidden and leaves his staff with him. Vis watches from a window as Cian approaches the warriors. The family’s two children watch with him.

Druids are inviolate, but a warrior cuts off Cian’s head, sending the villagers into a panic. The warriors attack the village. A warrior kills the children’s father. Then Vis is injured protecting the children. Their mother enters with a scythe and kills the warrior while the warriors outside burn down the huts. Vis collapses from his injury.

At the Telimus estate in Res, Kadmos tends to Vis’s amputated arm. Kadmos acknowledges that Ulciscor is angry that Vis chose to join Governance instead of Military but insists that Ulciscor cares for him regardless. Vis is doubtful.

Ulciscor enters to escort Vis to the Aurora Columnae for the ceding ceremony. He interrogates Vis about what happened at the Iudicium, but Vis refuses to answer, saying that he will no longer take orders. He is willing to work with Ulciscor but only as an equal. Lanistia enters the room, breaking the tension. They agree to talk as they walk to the Aurora Columnae.

Ulciscor and Lanistia are quiet since Vis finished telling them about the Iudicium and the Labyrinth, leaving out his involvement with the Anguis. They reach the Aurora Columnae, and Vis notices that the crowd of onlookers is unsettled. Ulciscor says that the division is spreading everywhere, both in the Senate and among the citizens.

The ceding ceremony begins. When Vis touches the Aurora Columnae, he feels a pulse of sensation and can feel Will around him. Lanistia looks uncomfortable. Just before Vis finishes the ceremony, Lanistia says, “Complete the journey, warrior” (83) and attacks with a knife. Before she reaches Vis, chains from the Columnae rip free to wrap around her. She collapses.

In Obiteum, Caeror waits several weeks for Vis to adjust before discussing the plan to kill Ka. He does not know much about the man except that the people worship him. His priests rule while Ka remains hidden in his pyramid in Duat. To kill Ka, Vis will need to enter Duat, which will be difficult. Only iunctii go in and out, monitored by the Gleaners and other iunctii called Overseers.

Caeror can only control the iunctii as long as he has impaled them with an Instruction Blade and keeps contact with the hilt the entire time. However, “Ka has a way of controlling his iunctii through lasting connections. Distant, permanent connections” (89). Caeror believes that Vis will be able to do this because he is Synchronous. However, learning to do so will take experimentation. Caeror and Vis experiment with controlling a iunctus volunteer, though Vis is sickened by the concept.

Vis continually fails to control the iunctus. Caeror suggests a technique based on creating an empathic connection. Vis tries and suddenly feels intense terror. He can see himself through the iunctus’s eyes. His own eyes are black with Will.

Vis tells Caeror that it worked, but he does not want to do it again. Caeror insists that they continue. He also warns that Vis he will need to test another skill before he can enter Duat. The walls of Duat and Ka’s Pyramid are shielded by a strange barrier. He believes that only those who are Synchronous can survive contact with it. There is a doorway in Qabr sealed with the same barrier, and he believes there is as powerful weapon behind it.

He leads Vis toward the doorway. On the way, Vis meets a teenage girl named Nofret; the only Qabran who will speak to him. Caeror pulls him away. They reach a door made of gold, covered in glyphs and emanating a strange flickering light Caeror calls mutalis. The mutalis’s sound and energy reminds Vis of the weapon that the Anguis attacker Estevan used to kill thousands in The Will of the Many. Killing Estevan to stop this attack is how Vis gained the title Catenicus. He smells blood and begins to shake. Then he runs away.

In Luceum, Vis wakes. The children’s mother, named Grainne, cares for his stab wound. She calls him Deaglan. Grainne saved him as the village was burning and dragged him to her family’s isolated farm. When he recovers, he stays there with Grainne, her children, and her father, Onchu.

He helps around the farm and learns the language. He asks about Cian’s staff, which Grainne brought when she saved him. Grainne and Onchu say that only the draoi should touch it, but they think it is acceptable for him to keep it because Cian gave it to him. Weeks go by. He feels more at home here than anywhere in the Hierarchy.

In Res, Ulciscor arranges for Vis to visit Lanistia after her arrest. Relucia joins him so they can speak privately. She tells Vis that she has been instructed to hand control of Vis over to a different Anguis contact. From her description, Vis recognizes this new contact as the man he met during the Iudicium who can disappear and reappear. She does not know what this man will ask Vis to do. She warns him to do whatever he asks of him. They reach Lanistia’s cell, and Lanistia asks to speak with Vis alone.