The Will of the Many

While other teachers confer, Fifth Praeceptor Taedia warns that Eidhin could insist on Vis’s expulsion. Vis needs to swallow his pride to avoid this. Nequias, Veridius, and Eidhin arrive. Vis apologizes, using a Catenan form called the Three-Fold Apology. He realizes that Eidhin is not a native Catenan but a “transplant” (state-assimilated immigrant) who may not understand that, if he accepts the apology, he cannot demand further reparations. Again, Vis apologizes and Eidhin relents. Veridius acknowledges that the form has been observed and Vis cannot be expelled. However, he orders Vis to clean out the horse stables every evening for two months as penance.

Vis returns to the Seventh dorm. Callidus is not grateful for Vis’s intervention, believing it will only make him a bigger target. The other Seventh students say that Callidus is bitter because his father got him into Class Three but he performed so badly that he was demoted to Seven, shaming his family. Vis declines to join the gossip.

Vis wakes early and wanders the school grounds, running into Aequa. She talks about the naumachia and implies that there was something suspicious about Vis’s actions. She leaves, explaining that it will hurt her standing if she, a Fourth, is seen speaking with a Seventh. Vis says they will talk again when he reaches Class Four.

Vis attends his first class. He is shocked by how rudimentary the class is. None of the Seventh students are near his level. Callidus ignores the teacher and reads a highly advanced book on his own. At lunch, Callidus apologizes for not being more grateful. He warns Vis that Veridius was not doing him any favors by pairing him with Callidus. Callidus’s father recently vetoed many bills in the Senate and the Ericius family is now highly unpopular with the other Senate families. Veridius knew that Callidus was a target. Vis files this information away for later. He asks if Callidus really belongs in Class Seven, and Callidus admits he could be higher. After lunch, the Seventh Praeceptor gives Vis an aptitude test. In the evening, he goes to the stables.

Vis sets to work in the stable when Emissa appears implying that she is also there for punishment. Emissa advises him to impress the Praeceptors if he wishes to advance. However, the Sixth Praeceptor, Dultatis, will not be easy because he and Nequias believe that only “true Catenans” (255) are worthy. They know Vis to be a non-Catenan orphan, which is a mark against him.

Vis is physically attracted to Emissa but recalls his father’s warnings that attraction leads to poor decisions. They finish their work and Emissa leaves, revealing that she is not there for punishment but merely to help him. When Vis returns to the dorm, he is told to pack his things because he is moving to Class Six.

Vis wakes in the Sixth dorm to see Eidhin studying. He is momentarily worried, but Eidhin ignores him. At breakfast, Vis tries to sit with the Sixth students who refuse his company. Irritated and hurt, he sits with Callidus, who is also alone. Callidus cheerfully toasts “the Pariah Table” (262).

Though Class Six is no more challenging than Seven, Vis makes little progress because of Praeceptor Dultatis’s obvious hatred. He and Callidus meet every morning to train and they eat their meals together. Emissa joins Vis most evenings while he works in the stables and they become friends.

After several weeks, Dultatis takes the Sixth students to train in the Labyrinth. Class Three trains there every day but lower-level classes only do so occasionally. Vis is excited to show what he can do. It surprises him that he students do not wear the arm bracer and run through the maze at the same time. Instead, they work in pairs: one student runs the maze while a second stands on the platform, manipulating the bracer and directing their partner through using pre-established codes. Meanwhile, the other students move through the maze to catch the runner. Vis is paired with Eidhin and tries to formulate a code, but Eidhin ignores him. Vis runs the maze while Eidhin wears the bracer. They lose.

Vis and Eidhin switch places. Vis shouts commands but realizes that Eidhin does not understand him. Surmising that Eidhin is from Cymr, Vis speaks in Cymrian, successfully directing Eidhin through the maze. They are the only team to make it through. Dultatis claims that speaking in a dead language is cheating.

Vis realizes that he will not be able to legitimately earn his way out of Class Six. He had hoped to wait until he was ranked higher before he tried sneaking out to investigate the ruins. Now, he believes he needs to risk it so he can prove his value to Ulciscor when they meet again. Ulciscor may then be willing to pull some strings to help him advance.

That night, Callidus tells Vis he is wrong to assume the school system is meant to be fair. Instead, the school mimics the Republic, and is therefore built on selfishness and political manipulation. He argues that the system is unbalanced and very few of those who possess skill, but little political power, will ever succeed. The system is “built on promise, and therefore on greed” (283), and few are ever granted the rewards they have been promised for hard work.

The Festival of the Ancestors approaches, during which students have a two-day holiday to visit family. Vis needs something to prove to Ulciscor that he is holding up his end of the deal. So, Vis sneaks out to find the ruins. He takes rope from the stables and scales the tall, spiked wall that surrounds the school grounds.

Vis travels through forests until he reaches the ruins. At the center is a large domed structure. Inside, the walls are covered in carvings: words and diagrams in a language he does not know. He walks through a long corridor until he sees symbols he recognizes: They match symbols in the Academy’s Labyrinth. There are also words in the dead language Vetusian, which Vis can read a little. He finds a chamber lined with bodies punctured with obsidian blades. Voices fill the room, repeating the words “Obiteum is lost. Do not open the gate, Synchronous is death” (292). Vis realizes the corpses are speaking. They open their eyes to reveal empty sockets like Lanistia’s. Vis runs.

As he leaves, Vis sees Veridius and another man arriving to investigate a tripped alarm. Veridius orders the other man to check the dorms to see if anyone is out of bed. Realizing he has little time, Vis rushes back and cuts his hand on a spike as he climbs the wall. He crawls back into the dorm and Eidhin sees him arrive. Vis jumps into bed just as a teacher enters the dorm. Eidhin lies, saying he has been awake studying and no one else has stirred.

To disguise his cut, Vis stages a bad fall during breakfast, pretending to cut his hand with a kitchen knife. He goes to the infirmary. Ulnius clearly knows the cut is not from a knife but says nothing. Afterward, Callidus and Emissa tease him for being clumsy. Vis asks again why Callidus was demoted.

Callidus explains that his father is in a powerful but unpopular senator in Governance. Callidus believes there will soon be a civil war because power struggles between Military, Governance, and Religion are escalating. He feared becoming a bargaining chip for Religion to hold against his father, so he decided a mediocre son in Class Seven would be less valuable than a successful son in Class Three.