The Will of the Many

Vis and Aequa head toward the heart hidden in a tower near a river. They stumble across an open grave filled with bodies and they realize that the safety teams have been murdered and replaced by Anguis infiltrators. Among the bodies are several Academy students. They decide to warn the other teams. There are only two teams left on the tracker: Indol’s and Emissa’s. Vis will locate Indol and Aequa will find Emissa, and then they will both look for Callidus.

Vis finds Indol and convinces him that the Anguis have infiltrated the island and they need to return to the school. Before they split up, Vis warns Indol about his father working with the Anguis. He admits that Emissa told him about Indol’s plan to pledge to Religion and fears that Quiscil might retaliate. Shocked, Indol says he never told Emissa about his plans. Warning Vis to be careful, Indol splits off.

Vis finds Aequa and Emissa’s team. Emissa’s teammates explain that she left her medallion behind so she could not be tracked and was headed for the tower. Aequa leaves to warn Callidus and Vis follows after Emissa.

At the tower, Vis runs into one of the Anguis. It is the same man Vis saw speaking with Relucia at the Festival of Pletuna. Somehow, the man knows Vis recently went through the gate, saying it is something they have in common. To demonstrate, the man warps the air and disappears, then reappears standing behind Vis. He warns Vis that he will likely lose his bitten arm, stating: “None of us get out without scars” (592). Then he leaves, allowing Vis to run up the tower to where Emissa is.

At the top of the tower, Vis confronts another Anguis. Emissa uses Will to kill the Anguis and push him out of a window. Vis sees the heart on the floor and grabs it. He tells Emissa about the Anguis and that they need to get to safety.

Then Emissa sees the bite wound on Vis’s arm and freezes. She demands that Vis give her the heart, insisting that she needs to win. Hurt, Vis drops the heart to the floor. Emissa stabs him in the stomach with a dagger. As he staggers backwards, the heart leaps back into his hand. Then he falls out of the window into the river.

Vis drags himself out of the river, amazed that he survived. He believes the fall should have killed him and the stab wound is shallower than it should be. Heartbroken by Emissa’s betrayal, he heads to the Academy, realizing he can still win the Iudicium. On the way, he finds Callidus gravely wounded, with a dead Anguis by his side. Vis carries Callidus toward the school. Callidus asks Vis to tell his father why he was demoted. Vis promises and Callidus dies in his arms.

Vis walks into the school grounds where Veridius speaks to a crowd of students, explaining the attack. Emissa, Indo, Iro, and Aequa stand by his side. Vis walks up to Veridius and lays Callidus’s body at his feet. Quietly, so that only Veridius and Emissa hear, he vows revenge. He places the heart into the hands of the statue and collapses.

Vis dreams of his father telling him to keep fighting and not give up. Then he wakes in the infirmary to find Veridius sitting beside him and his arm amputated. Veridius says his blood is now tainted and must be kept secret. Veridius asks if he ran the Labyrinth and if the writing on his arm helped him escape. Vis confirms both.

Vis tells Veridius about Belli’s death and Veridius tries to explain that Emissa did not really want to kill him but saw the wound on his arm and believed he was beyond saving. Finally, Veridius says that a senator is about to arrive to hear Vis’s requested position, which is his right as Domitor. Veridius urgently insists that Vis pledge himself to Religion and request a position as Imperator under a senator named Tertius Pileus, promising to explain later.

Several senators enter, asking Vis to choose his position. Vis considers: He does not intend to follow Veridius’s order, but he suddenly does not want to run away as he originally planned. He decides he must stay and fight. He requests a position working for the Censor, under Callidus’s father. He believes being in the office in charge of information might be useful.

Vis promises to listen to what Veridius has to say when he is ready but has no intention of working undercover for him. Finally alone in the infirmary, Vis notices a toy ship sitting by his bed. He recognizes it as one he carved as a child for his father. Carved into one side is the name Diago.

Vis wakes in the Labyrinth chamber, surrounded by the bronze blades and red light. Words cut into his arm spell out “Wait” and then “Ru–.” Vis runs back to the Labyrinth where words in the wall read, “Sealed against the tools of the enemy after the rending. The passage to Luceum requires a toll to ensure validity” (616). Pain flares in his left shoulder, and he reaches out to find that his left arm is gone. Then he is suddenly standing in a rotunda. There is snow around him, and mountains in the distance. Two men and a woman approach him, saying, “Traveller, stay with us. [...] The other from your world will be coming” (616).

Vis awakes in the chamber, surrounded by bronze blades and red light. A man welcomes him to Obiteum and asks if Veridius sent him. He introduces himself as Caeror and says they only have “two minutes to save you back in Res” (619). He explains that Vis has been “copied.” He pulls out a knife and reaches for Vis’s arm.