What happened in The Will of the Many by James Islington - Recaptains

The basics

Title: The Will of the Many

Author: James Islington

Series: Hierarchy #1

- The Will of the Many (2023)
- The Strength of the Few (2025)

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Goodreads Summary:

The Catenan Republic – the Hierarchy – may rule the world now, but they do not know everything.

I tell them my name is Vis Telimus. I tell them I was orphaned after a tragic accident three years ago, and that good fortune alone has led to my acceptance into their most prestigious school. I tell them that once I graduate, I will gladly join the rest of civilised society in allowing my strength, my drive and my focus – what they call Will – to be leeched away and added to the power of those above me, as millions already do. As all must eventually do.

I tell them that I belong, and they believe me.

But the truth is that I have been sent to the Academy to find answers. To solve a murder. To search for an ancient weapon. To uncover secrets that may tear the Republic apart.

And that I will never, ever cede my Will to the empire that executed my family.

To survive, though, I will still have to rise through the Academy’s ranks. I will have to smile, and make friends, and pretend to be one of them and win. Because if I cannot, then those who want to control me, who know my real name, will no longer have any use for me.

And if the Hierarchy finds out who I truly am, they will kill me.

Here is a spoiler summary of what happened in The Will of the Many by James Islington to help refresh your memory before you read the sequel. If you need help remembering what happened in The Will of the Many then you’re in the right place.

What happened in The Will of the Many?

• Vis is a seventeen year old orphan who is currently working in the Catenan prisons in a city called Letens. Vis used to be a prince of an island nation called Suus, but his family were killed when the Hierarchy invaded and took control. Vis has been hiding out since he was fourteen years old.
• Vis works at the prison with an older man called Hrolf. Hrolf hasn’t been there very long, but he’s already deteriorating as the Sappers affect him, just like Vis’ previous coworkers. Vis is unaffected.
• Prisoners are sent to the Sappers, which drain a person’s Will and send it to the elites.
• One night, a Catenan called Hospius arrives at the prison. He wants to speak to one of the prisoners who is on a Sapper. Vis wants to hide Hrolf’s condition, so he shows the stranger downstairs. Vis lifts the prisoner, Nateo, off the Sapper so he can regain consciousness, and the prisoner and the stranger speak in a dead language called Vetusian. Vis is able to understand it, and he overhears them talking about people called Veridius and Careo, and things called an Obiteum and Luceum. The prisoner tries to escape, and Vis is knocked onto the Sapper, but it doesn’t affect him. Hospius seems to not notice, and leaves.
• Every night, Vis bribes Hrolf with part of his earnings so he can sneak off and fight in an underground ring. Vis heads over there and is told that he’ll be fighting a Sextus that night. He has never fought one before because they are very strong from taking the Will of over fifty people. Vis, on the other hand, refuses to take any Will.
• No one thinks Vis will win. He places a bet on himself, intending to throw the fight after a short amount of time. The Sextus manages to wind Vis up so much, though, that he knocks the Sextus unconscious and needs to be dragged away. He gets his money back though.
• Vis returns to the orphanage. The Matron informs him that there’s going to be an adoption that day that he’ll need to assist with, so he should get some sleep before he is woken up to help. The Matron is an awful woman, and beats Vis regularly for refusing to go to the Aurora Columnae to cede his Will. Vis will need to comply when he’s 18, but he has lied about his birth date so he has bought himself an extra four months.
• The guy who’s interested in adopting shows up and it turns out to be Hospius, from the prison. His real name is Ulciscor Telimus, and he’s not a Sextus but a Quintus. He asks to speak to Vis, which angers the Matron and the other children.
• Ulciscor and Vis talk, and Vis impresses him. Vis figures out that Ulciscor imbued something of his so that he could follow him. Ulciscor knows that Vis is not affected by the Sapper, which is probably because he hasn’t ceded yet. Ulciscor offers to adopt Vis if Vis will agree to do something for him. He doesn’t go into detail. Vis accepts the offer.
• Ulciscor and Vis are to head to Caten, the capital city. They will need to travel by Transvect, which is powered by Will. They board, and Ulciscor starts talking. He explains that he’s a Military senator, and he needs Vis to go to the Academy, which is basically a private boarding school for the children of important people. It’s located on the island of Solivagus. On the island are many pre-Cataclysm ruins. Ulciscor thinks that the Religion pyramid, who run the school, is going behind everyone’s backs and wants to take over the Military. He believes that the Principalis of the school, Veridius, found weapons in the ruins. Ulciscor needs Vis to investigate.
• Then the Transvect blows up, the first sign that things are about to get a whole lot more complicated. Ulciscor helps Vis escape, and then raiders pop up out of the forest. Ulciscor kills one of them, but then he’s knocked out by an arrow.
• Vis starts to protect Ulciscor. He realises that the raiders are Anguis, who are basically the Resistance against Caten’s Hierarchy. A woman comes out of the woods – she’s the one who shot Ulciscor. She knows that Vis is a prince from Suus and that his name is Diago. She had planned to capture Vis and make him join the Anguis, but he refuses.
• The Anguis want Vis to attend the Academy too, but he doesn’t want to team up with them. Sedotia, the woman, tells Vis he must attend the Jovan Festival in one month, or she will tell everyone who he is.
• Vis gets Ulciscor back onto the Transvect, and makes it move towards Solivagus.
• Vis wakes up in the infirmary. He meets two students who are hovering over him – Indol and Emissa. Emissa gives Vis a drink and then they hurry away. A man, seemingly a physician, walks in and assesses Vis’ injuries. Ulciscor then shows up and greets the physician, who turns out to be Veridius.
• Vis and Ulciscor head to Caten. Vis tells Ulciscor about the attack, but leaves out that the Anguis want to recruit him. Ulciscor tells Vis that his brother, Caeror, died during the final test at the Academy called the Iudicium. Ulciscor points out the ruins as they pass by.
• Vis and Ulciscor arrive in Caten and then travel to the Telimius villa just outside of it. Vis will begin his training with Lanistia, who is close friends with Ulciscor.
• Lanistia tells Ulciscor off for not warning his wife, Relucia, about adopting a teenager.
• Kadmos shows Vis around and takes him to his new room. He sets an alarm on the door so Vis can’t leave without him knowing. Vis decides to climb out the window instead. He overhears Ulciscor and Lanistia talking about some people who have been murdered by the Anguis. They also mention that the Senate is testing blood for some kind of infection. Kadmos finds Vis quite quickly and puts him back in his room.
• Lanistia test Vis, and gives him lots of reading to do. Lanistia attacks him in the middle of the night to test what he has learnt. It seems to go well.
• Lanistia reveals that her eyes are now empty sockets. In order to see, Lanistia imbues the air around her. She says the Academy took her eyes, so Vis has to be prepared.
• Lanistia takes Vis to a maze in the basement which is used for training. It’s a replica of the training maze at the Academy. Ulciscor wasn’t supposed to have this one built. Using imbued stones, Lanistia demonstrates how she used a device called a brace to move the walls of the maze. At the Academy, the students learn to do this while running through the maze.
• Kadmos tells Vis that he was an academic in Styrece before the Caten Republic invaded.
• A visitor called Quartus Advenius Claudius visits Vis. He’s a senator, and wants to find out more information about Vis, this mysterious boy that Ulciscor has adopted. Claudius tells Vis that he knows that Ulciscor blames Veridius for Caeror’s death, but it’s apparently known that Caeror took his own life.
• Claudius asks Vis to train with his daughter, Aequa. Vis has no choice but to agree. He suggests that Aequa could show him around at the Jovan Festival.
• Lanistia warns Vis not to listen to Claudius, and is frustrated that he agreed to train with Aequa. Vis asks Lanistia to tell him the truth about Caeror, but Lanistia only tells him that Veridius killed him. It seems that Lanistia and Caeror were friends.
• Vis meets up with Aequa and they travel to the Jovan Festival together. He asks Aequa about the naumachia, which is a mock naval battle taking place in the middle of the festival. He also brings up Caeror and Aequa shares what she knows. Apparently there was an accident during the Iudicium, and Caeror believed that he had killed somebody. He took his own life due to guilt.
• Vis and Aequa head to the arena for the naumachia. The arena has been filled with water for the battle. There’s a fleet of ships filled with prisoners pretending to be sailors. If they perform well, they will avoid being sent to the Sappers. Vis is disgusted by this whole thing.
• Vis quickly slips away to go and find Sedotia, which isn’t hard. Sedotia takes Vis through the sewers below the arena. She introduces Vis to Melior, the leader of the Anuis, who turns out to be someone Vis knows. Melior is Estevan, one of Vis’s father’s advisors from Suus.
• Estevan tries to recruit Vis but he refuses again. Estevan tells Vis that the Caten Republic attacked Suus because Suus had a powerful secret, but he refuses to explain what that secret is. Estevan dismisses Vis.
• Sedotia cuts Vis’s chest with a knife, and then gives the knife to Vis to keep on him as protection.
• Vis heads back to the stands, mildly smelling of sewage.
• The battle begins. After only a small amount of time, the lanterns all go off and no one is able to use their Will. A voice booms throughout the arena, telling the crowd that they are responsible for the corrupt government that they give power to.
• A stone structure erupts from the water. Estevan is standing on it. He tells the prisoners to leave now, but most of them attack him hoping to earn their own freedom. No one manages it.
• One of the stands explodes, killing all the spectators who were standing there. The crowd panics. A second section explodes. Vis helps Aequa escape into the sewers, and then heads off to stop Estevan.
• The knife protects Vis from the explosions, meaning he alone is able to stop Estevan. Vis reaches the man, and begs him to stop. Estevan kills himself by pulling Vis’ knife into his own throat. Vis collapses.
• Vis wakes up in Ulciscor’s villa. He learns that thousands died, but everyone is pretty happy with Vis because he saved thousands too. The Senate has named Vis “Catenicus”.
• Ulciscor explains the whole thing about Caeror. Apparently Caeror and Veridius were friends when they were in the Academy together. Ulciscor heard about the accident during the Iudicium. Lanistia almost died. Caeror supposedly jumped off a cliff, but Ulciscor doesn’t believe his brother would do such a thing.
• Ulciscor received a letter from Caeror that he sent before the test. There was a secret message within the letter, talking about the Obiteum, Lyceum, and that “only Veridius knows. Ulciscor destroyed the older letters from Caeror, which is unfortunate because those may have contained secret messages too.
• The Senate send a physician to check up on Vis. He takes a blood sample, asks some questions, then leaves. Vis asks Kadmos why the sample may have been taken, Kadmos agrees that it’s weird but it shouldn’t be a problem.
• Vis continues his training. Lanistia tells him that he needs to get into Class Three to be of any use. Two weeks later, it’s time to head to the Academy.
• Ulnius, the Academy’s physician, welcomes Vis. Vis saved Ulnius’ sister, so he’s very grateful.
• Veridius walks Vis to his new dorm. Veridius says that he knows Ulciscor blames him for Caeror’s death, but Veridius says that he’s innocent.
• Veridius introduces Vis to Callidus, another boy in Class Seven. Veridius tells Callidus to take Vis to eat.
• Another student called Eidhin threatens Callidus, and Vis punches him in the face. Emissa and Indol warn Vis that he could be expelled for this. A teacher called Nequias, who heads up Class Three, takes Vis away.
• Vis apologises to Eidhin using a Three-Fold Apology. If Eidhin accepts, he can’t demand that Vis be expelled.  Eidhin does accept. Vis is given the punishment of cleaning the stables every evening for the next two months.
• Callidus is unimpressed by Vis stepping in and thinks he’ll be a bigger target for the other students now. Callidus used to be in Class Three but he was doing so badly that he got demoted all the way to Class Seven.
• Vis bumps into Aequa, who talks a bit about the naumachia and what Vis did.
• Vis attends his first Class Seven lecture. It’s pretty awful.
• Callidus apologises to Vis for being rude before. He tells Vis that Callidus’ father has vetoed many bills in the Senate so he’s not very popular right now.
• Emissa shows up at the stables that evening to help with his punishment. Emissa tells Vis that he must impress the Praeceptors if he wants to climb the ranks. Apparently the Praeceptor for Class Six, Dultatis, is a knob, and will be a challenge.
• Vis is promoted to Class Six, and is put in a dorm with Eidhin and some others. Eidhin doesn’t seem to be holding any grudges, he just ignores Vis.
• Vis tries to sit with the other Class Sixes at breakfast but they don’t want him around, so he sits with Callidus even though students of differing classes shouldn’t be mixing.
• Callidus and Vis train together every morning.
• Class Six starts training in the Labyrinth occasionally. The students work in pairs, with one wearing the bracer and the other running through the maze. They often have to use code to direct each other.
• Vis is paired with Eidhin. Vis runs first and they lose. Then they switch, and Vis shouts commands in Cymr, Eidhin’s native tongue. Eidhin reaches the exit but Dultatis say this was cheating.
• Vis realises he’s going to need to get a move on with his investigation because he could be in Class Six for a while since Dultatis hates him so much.
• Callidus goes on a rant about the school system and the Republic’s unfairness which it mimics.
• Vis sneaks out to the ruins. He scales the spiked wall that surrounds the school and heads into the forest. Vis reaches the ruins and heads into the domed structure in the centre. Inside the dome, the walls are covered in symbols in an unknown language. These symbols are also on the walls of the Labyrinth.
• Vis also sees some words in Vetudian, which he struggles to read.
• Vis stumbles across a chamber filled with creepy bodies that have been stabbed with obsidian blades. Then Vis starts to hear creepy voices, which say “Obiteum is lost. Do not open the gate. Synchronous is death.” The corpses’ eyes open, and Vis runs off.
• Vis sees Veridius and another man coming to find out who set off the alarm. Veridius tells the other guy to check the dorms, so Vis has to race back to his room. He cuts his hand on the spiked wall. Eidhin sees Vis stumble in and pretend to be asleep, and when a teacher shows up Eidhin lies and says he hasn’t seen anything weird.
• Vis has to disguise the cut on his hand so he pretends to fall and cut himself at breakfast. Ulnius hints that Veridius is looking out for anyone with strange injuries as he fixes Vis up.
• Callidus tells Vis that there will likely be a civil war soon because Military, Governance, and Religion are so unhappy with each other.
• Eidhin asks if Vis killed someone the other night. Vis is appalled, and tells Eidhan that he just snuck over the wall. Eidhin clearly hates the Catenans so he won’t tell anyone. Vis tells Eidhin that he’s working with Military to find out what Religion is doing on the island. Eidhin asks Vis to tutor him in the Common tongue. Vis agrees.
• Vis heads to Necropolis for the Festival of the Ancestors. Families gather on a mountain filled with mausoleums to celebrate and remember their dead. A crowd greets Vis as he arrives. He’s very popular after he saved so many at the naumachia.
• Ulciscor welcomes Vis and takes him to the family mausoleum. Ulciscor is able to speak to Vis before the rest of the family arrives. Ulciscor is annoyed that Vis is stuck in Class Six. Vis tells Ulciscor what he found at the ruins, and Ulciscor tells Vis that he needs to go to another set of ruins on the far side of the island. Vis will need Ulciscor to imbue some things for him to be able to do this.
• Ulciscor’s parents arrive, as does Ulciscor’s wife, Relucia. Relucia turns out to be Sedotia in a shocking twist of events.
• Relucia hugs Vis to hide his shock. She asks Vis to walk with her. Relucia explains that the Anguis need someone inside the Academy. She needs Vis to get to Class Three, and become Domitor by winning the Iudicium. This way he’ll be able to get a high-ranking position when he graduates.
• Vis wants to be Domitor anyway so this works for him. He wants to be sent to a place called Jatiere, as far away from the Republic as he can get.
• Relucia tells Vis he must meet her in Caten during the next Festival.
• Ulciscor tells Vis that he knows he’s not really from Aquira as he claims, but as long as Vis follows the plan it doesn’t matter. Ulciscor gives Vis the imbued objects – magnetic cuffs that will get Vis back onto the Transvect after he jumps off to swim to the ruins.
• Vis boards the Transvect, and then quickly gets into position. He jumps off once it passes through the seawall. He drops a locator and then swims to shore.
• Vis pushes through the forest and reaches the ruins. They’re pretty much identical to the first lot. There are more words in Vetusian on the walls, which read “Luceum. Obiteum. Res.” Vis reads them aloud, and a door opens. There are more corpses inside the entrance. Vis goes onto a platform, which descends into darkness.
• The platform takes Vis to a chamber. A creepy man called Artemius appears, and tells Vis there’s a test. In order to pass, Vis will need to reach the exit at the far end. Artemius tells Vis that Remnants guard the maze. 
• Artemius offers to demonstrate the test. He enters the Labyrinth, and is then attacked by Remnants, which tear him apart and then everything disappears.
• Another creepy person appears and says that she too is a traitor. She asks Vis if she should demonstrate the test. Vis doesn’t want this, and also he has to head back to the Transvect, so he declines the offer.
• Vis heads through the forest and back to the beach. He comes across an injured alupi puppy, which he saves. The puppy isn’t very friendly given that it’s a wild animal, but Vis gives it food and his coat and then continues to head towards the water.
• Vis swims to the locator point. He drops his cuff, which is almost a disaster, but he swims down and retrieves it. It pulls him back to the Transvect, almost ripping his arm off. Vis changes into the dry clothes that he stashed earlier, and heads to the Academy.
• A student called Feriun is found dead, supposedly by suicide. Feriun was Class Four, so a Fifth student will move, making room for Vis in Class Five. Dultatis is still a knob though and he wants his favoured student, Ianix, to be promoted. Vis and Ianix then have to get into a duel to prove who is better.
• Emissa points out that students have to duel wearing imbued suits that manipulate armour so that the students don’t ever get hurt. Emissa and Eidhin show Vis how to use the armour and spar with him.
• Eidhin tells Vis in Cymrian that Emissa clearly likes him. Vis responds and says he likes Emissa too. They realise that Emissa also speaks the language. Awkward.
• Callidus asks Vis where he is really from. He says that as his father works for the Census, he can probably figure out who Vis is. He suspects that Vis is the bastard child of a senator.
• The duel happens. Ianix and Dultatis cheat, but Vis struggles to prove it and gets frustrated. Vis decides to knock Ianix unconscious by beating his head against the ground instead. Vis is promoted to Class Five.
• Vis apologises to Callidus for not being able to share his secrets. He implies that it would ruin his fake senator father. Callidus takes this opportunity to share that Class Three and Four students have been dying quite regularly during the Iudicium. He thinks there’s a massive cover up happening.
• Vis works hard and gets to Class Four. Praeceptor Scitus tells Vis he’ll need to make friends with his fellow classmates.
• Eidhin tells Vis that Veridius told him to fight Callidus when Vis first arrived. They think that Veridius was trying to antagonise Vis so that he intervened and got expelled. Eidhin reveals that he himself killed three Praetorians when his village was overtaken, and he was put on a Sapper for a whole year.
• Vis is paired with Aequa during the Labyrinth training. Vis wonders why this Labyrinth is a copy of the one in the ruins.
• Indol invites Vis to train with some of the Third students at his family’s summer home over the break. Vis accepts, and then learns that the summer home is on Suus.
• Class Four heads to Caten for the Festival of Pletuna. Aequa still seems to be suspicious of Vis. 
• Vis finds Relucia – or she finds him – and they talk in private. Vis is angry that Relucia had Feriun killed so that he could advance. He threatens to expose her if she does something like that again. Vis asks for Relucia’s help getting out of going to Suus, but Relucia wants him there. She wants Vis to listen in on what the Military leaders are talking about at their summit. She says she will give Vis an imbued stylus so he can report back to her immediately.
• Vis follows behind Relucia as she leaves. He sees her meet up with a man, and he overhears them talking about shops and Cataclysm weapons. Relucia tells the man she needs a demonstration. Vis feels the air vibrate, and sees the man enter the building again. Vis is very confused.
• Vis tries to go back to his friends but is cornered in an alley by two men. They attack him but then Scitus intervenes. Turns out that Aequa reported her suspicion to Scitus and this was a test to see if Vis was using Will to advance at the Academy. Vis hasn’t been doing that, so Aequa is demoted to the bottom of Class Four.
• Back at the Academy, Vis sees Callidus hanging out with Belli. Vis thinks they’re in a relationship.
• Some of Class Three and Vis head to Suus. Indol and Vis are joined by Belli and Emissa. They arrive in Suus and Vis is STRUGGLING. He learns that Indol’s father’s summer home is the former palace where Vis lived.
• Vis meets Quiscil, and sees that one of his father’s old advisor’s, Fadrique, is working for the Republic as a Sextus now. Vis is upset and angry.
• Vis chooses a bedroom with a hidden passageway.
• Ulciscor shows up and introduces Vis to many of the senators. Vis is then asked to speak to Quiscil about the events of the naumachia, because he wants to know more about the Anguis’ weapon.
• Ulciscor notices that Vis and Emissa are becoming close, and warns Vis to stay away from her.
• Vis and the other students go to the beach. Vis refuses to join them in the water because he doesn’t swim. Belli doesn’t swim either and asks him to play Foundation with her. He declines.
• The students are shown around a nearby town by Fadrique. He takes them to a local tavern and the owner despises the Republic so he kicks them out. This cheers Vis up.
• Indol tells Vis that Emissa is going for a night swim in the lagoon, and asks Vis why he hasn’t joined her. Vis realises that Emissa could be in danger of getting caught in a rip tide and sprints off to save her. He jumps into the water and they swim along the coast, eventually reaching a cave where they stay overnight.
• Emissa spots Vis’ scars and is horrified.
• Emissa tells Vis that Indol and his father don’t get along, and that Indol intends to join Religion once he graduates.
• Vis and Emissa kiss.
• Vis and Emissa get back to the palace. Vis falls asleep, and when he wakes up he finds Ulciscor and Lanistia at his door. Vis tells them both about the Labyrinth. Ulciscor tells Vis that he’ll need to go through the Labyrinth to find out what’s on the other side. Vis doesn’t want to because he thinks he’ll die. Ulciscor says he’ll send him to the Sappers if he doesn’t. Lanistia sticks up for Vis but Ulciscor ignores her.
• Vis pretends to be ill. He sneaks through the hidden tunnels and listens in on the private summit. He takes notes to copy with the imbued stylus later.
• Vis overhears the senators talking about how they’re monitoring other important families. He lists down three names in particular, then erases them after memorising them. Vis puts two and two together and realises that Military helped Anguis attack at the naumachia. They don’t know how to wield the weapon, but still, they’ve been funding the Anguis.
• Fadrique finds Vis as he’s returning through the tunnels. Fadrique explains that he’s still loyal to the people of Suus, but he had no choice but to become Sextus. Fadrique asks whether Vis will be getting revenge on Quartus Latani, who led the invasion of Suus. Fadrique offers to kill Latani, but Vis declines the offer.
• Fadrique takes Vis to a secret room where he has hidden the previous royal family’s items. Vis is overwhelmed. Fadrique says he took Vis to the tavern so the owner could see that their prince is still alive.
• Fadrique says that Vis’ father would be proud of him.
• Vis and the others head to the beach again the following morning. Indol sits with Vis and asks how long it has been since he was last home. Vis is shocked that he has been found out. Indol thankfully only thinks that Vis was someone important, not the prince of Suus. Indol promises to keep this a secret.
• The students return to the Academy. Vis knows that he must focus now and reach Class Three.
• Eidhin and Callidus have been bonding while Vis was gone. Vis plans to do their training in the mornings together, and run the Labyrinth with Emissa in the evenings.
• Callidus admits to Vis that he thought he was in love with Belli, once. He stole important documents from his father to prove that students have been dying. Belli took the documents and blackmailed him.
• Vis puts together a plan to take out Belli and get into Class Three. Emissa agrees to help. Vis challenges Belli to a game of Foundation. If he wins, he will take Belli’s place in Class Three. He plays very well and backs Emissa into a corner. Belli asks whether they could draw, and Vis says they can if she gives Callidus the documents. She agrees, and returns the documents to Callidus. Then Vis beats her anyway.
• The teacher for Class Three, Nequias, doesn’t like Vis much. Vis is finally challenged in this class and in the Labyrinth. Vis is at the bottom of the class when Nequias announces that their positions are set and they are to start preparing for the Iudicium.
• As part of the Iudicium, Class Three needs to pick two students from the other classes to team up with them for the test. Vis asks Callidus and Eidhin, who both initially agree.
• Vis speaks to Veridius to tell him who his teammates are. Veridius is approving, and says that Vis did well to choose people he trusted. Veridius will now speak to Eidhin and Callidus privately.
• Eidhin drops out of the deal. He tells Vis that his father made a deal with the Republic to put Eidhin on the Sapper to save the rest of their people. Eidhin can’t risk joining the Iudicium.
• Vis asks Aequa to take Eidhin’s place.
• Vis, Aequa, and Callidus train together in the weeks leading up to the Iudicium, and then the time finally arrives. The students gather at the starting location and are told what the test will entail.
• There’s an object called the Heart of Jovan hidden somewhere on the island. The student who returns the Heart to the statue wins. If that student is a Third, they will become Domitor, and whoever is helping them will climb to the top of Class Four. If someone lower than Class Three returns the Heart, they will be awarded with whatever Veridius offered them privately.
• Vis sees that Iro has recruited Belli for his team.
• The students are given a medallion to track their location. They need to keep this medallion on them in order to stay in the test. If they wish, they can steal or break each other’s medallions to remove their competitors from the test. The students are also given tracking stones so they can track the other teams, with the most stones going to the top ranked Third and the least (none) going to the bottom ranked – aka Vis. Each student is also required to swallow a tracking bead so the safety team can track them to help if necessary.
• The test begins. Vis, Callidus, and Aequa head west. Vis makes himself vomit to bring up the tracking bead so that the safety teams can’t follow him if he doesn’t want them to.
• Iro’s team intercepts Vis and his team. They tie the three of them up. Iro asks Callidus and Aequa to join his team. Callidus refuses, but Aequa accepts. She takes Vis’ medallion with her as she leaves.
• Vis and Callidus wonder whether Aequa will come back for them. Vis is convinced that Aequa betrayed them, but that’s actually not the case. She left Iro’s team to “scout” and returns to Vis and Callidus. She unties them, and tells them that Iro is skirting west too.
• Vis tells Aequa to go back to Iro to retrieve Vis’ medallion. Vis and Callidus plan to ambush a safety group to get their tracker, as Vis and his team don’t have any stones.
• Callidus distracts the safety team by singing a rude song. One of the team chases after him, and Vis enters the camp to grab the tracker. Vis is almost caught and gets chased into the forest. Vis steals a cloak as he escapes.
• Vis realises this is the only time he has to get to the ruins and run the Labyrinth. He heads over there. He notices that the cloak he stole is covered in blood. Then an alupi appears and pins him. It turns out that it’s Puppy Diago, who is no longer a puppy. Diago growls a lot but seems to not want to kill Vis. He follows Vis to the ruins and tries to stop Vis from entering, but Vis is insistent.
• Vis enters the chamber. One of the creepy traitors appears, and Vis asks them to demonstrate the test. He does this five times, and each time learns a bit more as the traitor runs the Labyrinth and then gets caught by the Remnants.
• Vis runs the Labyrinth. He does well to begin with, but then he comes across Belli’s body pinned to the wall. This shocks him and he loses track of his count. He runs to the end of the Labyrinth as he’s being chased by the Remnants. He gets through the other side, and then everything disappears.
• Vis figures that Belli was sent to the maze by Veridius.
• Vis comes across a chamber with a circle in the centre. He sees more words of Vetusian, but he’s unable to understand all of them.
• Vis steps into the circle, which is encompassed by bronze spikes that begin to glow red. The air vibrates and starts to crush him. It lifts him off the floor and then drops him so he passes out.
• Vis wakes up and finds that he is surrounded by black fog. There are figures in the fog which aim weapons at him. Vis sees the word “Wait” appear on his left arm, so he follows this direction. A second word, “Run” starts to appear, so he follows this command too. Vis runs back through the Labyrinth in the direction he came and up the stairs to the outdoors.
• Creepy humanlike things block Vis’ exit, telling him to complete his journey, whatever that means. Puppy Diago rushes in and attacks them. Several of the creepy things get out of the building and start attacking Vis and Diago. They fight the things off, and Vis passes out.
• Vis wakes up and sees Diago was waiting with him. The wolf heads off into the forest, but Vis thinks that Diago is still looking out for him while Vis tries to reunite with his team.
• Aequa tries to treat the wound on Vis’ arm as well as she can. It’s not looking good. Vis tells Aequa and Callidus about the bloodied cloak, which seems weird but they can’t figure out what it means.
• They start tracking the other teams using the stolen tracker. They see that Indol is near the Heart.
• The plan is for Callidus to take their medallions and go towards the Academy so they can’t be tracked. Vis and Aequa will sneak behind Indol and retrieve the Heart.
• The Heart is hidden in a tower. Vis and Aequa skirt the outside, and come across a mass grave filled with bodies of students and the safety teams. They realise that the safety teams have been replaced by the Anguis. They know they need to warn the other students.
• Vis plans to find Indol and his team, while Aequa goes looking for Emissa. They’ll then reunite and find Callidus.
• Vis has no problems finding Indol and he explains the situation, using a severed arm as proof that the Anguis are on the island. Vis tells Indol that his father is working with the Anguis. He also tells Indol that Emissa told him that Indol plans to join Religion, but Indol tells Vis that he never told Emissa this. Indol leaves.
• Vis goes to find Aequa, who has found Emissa’s teammates. Emissa has left for the tower. Aequa goes to find Callidus while Vis goes to the tower to find the Heart and Emissa.
• One of the Anguis are already at the tower. It’s the man who spoke to Relucia at the Festival of Pletuna, the one who somehow reentered the building. The man starts talking as though he knows that Vis ran the Labyrinth and went through the gate. The man seems to have done this too. The man disappears and reappears behind Vis. The man leaves.
• Vis runs the rest of the way up the tower to find Emissa.
• Another Anguis man is waiting at the top. Vis fights him, and it goes quite badly. Emissa appears and uses Will to kill the man. Vis grabs the Heart from the floor. He tells Emissa about what’s going on.
• Emissa sees Vis’ dodgy arm and asks him for the Heart. Emissa tells Vis that she needs to win. Vis drops the Heart on the floor. Emissa stabs Vis in the stomach and he falls backwards. As he falls out of the tower window, the Heart flies into his hand.
• Vis falls into the river. He manages to survive the fall, and he notices that his stab wound is fairly shallow.
• Vis heads towards the Academy to try to win the test.
• Vis comes across a wounded Callidus lying next to a dead Anguis. Vis carries Callidus back to the Academy. Callidus struggles to breathe and to speak, but he asks Vis to tell his father why he was demoted from Class Three to Seven. Callidus then dies before Vis can reach help.
• Vis carries Callidus’ body the rest of the way. He reaches the Academy and sees Veridius is talking to all the students about the attack. Aequa, Emissa, Indo, and Iro are there. Vis lays Callidus’ body at Veridius’ feet. He vows to get revenge on Veridius and Emissa.
• Vis puts the Heart into the statue, winning the test, and then passes out.
• Vis sees his father, who tells him to keep fighting and that he’ll see him in death… eventually.
• Vis wakes up and finds Veridius in the room. Veridius explains that Vis’ arm had to be amputated, and that his blood is now tainted. Veridius asks Vis about the Labyrinth, and whether the writing on Vis’ arm helped Vis escape. Vis sees no point in lying, so he confirms that’s what happened. 
• Vis tells Veridius that he found Belli’s body.
• Veridius tries to tell Vis that Emissa didn’t want to kill him but the wound on his arm meant that she had to. Vis is having none of it and doesn’t want to hear the explanation.
• Veridius tells Vis that he needs to pledge to Religion once he is named Domitor. He insists that Vis should request a position under Terius Pileus.
• Senators enter the room and congratulate Vis on his win. They ask what he wants to do. Vis decides not to run away as he had initially planned. He asks to work for the Censor so he can gather information.
• Veridius is quite upset. Vis tells him they will speak when Vis is ready to do so, but he doesn’t want to work for Veridius.
• Vis notices a toy ship that he made as a boy next to his bed. The name Diago is carved into it.
• Epilogue 1: Vis wakes up in the chamber of the Labyrinth. He has the words “Wait” and “Ru-” cut into his arm. He follows the direction, and sees some sentences on the wall, which read “Sealed against the tools of the enemy after the rending. The passage to Luceum requires a toll to ensure validity.” Vis feels immense pain in his shoulder, and finds that his arm has disappeared. All of a sudden, Vis is standing in a rotunda surrounded by snow. Two men and a woman approach, asking him to stay. They say another from his world will be coming.
• Epilogue 2: Vis wakes up in the chamber. A man is already there. He welcomes him to Obiteum, and asks whether Vis was sent by Veridius. The man introduces himself as Caeror. Caeror says they have two minutes to save Vis in Res. He also says that Vis has been copied. Caeror pulls out a knife and asks for Vis’ arm.

That’s what happened in The Will of the Many! Check out our recap list for more recaps. If you can’t find what you need, you can request a recap from us!