Read a The Will of the Many summary with spoilers, book #1 in James Islington’s Hierarchy series. If you are wondering what happened in The Will of the Many by James Islington, then you are in the right place! Get ready for book two by reading up on exactly what happened in book one.
Special thanks to Emily for providing this The Will of the Many summary!
Author
James Islington
Ratings
4.7 stars on Amazon
4.60 stars on Goodreads
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Hierarchy Series
#1 The Will of the Many summary (this page)
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***** Everything below is a SPOILER *****
What happened in The Will of the Many?
Your The Will of the Many summary:
Vis, a seventeen-year-old orphan, works as a guard in the Catenan prisons, where prisoners are sent to be drained of their Will, which is then given to the elites. One night, a man named Hospius (It’s really Ulciscor) arrives to speak to a prisoner named Nateo. Vis thinks something is off with the man. Vis must disconnect Nateo from the Sapper he is attached to so he can wake and speak. The two talk in front of Vis in a dead language called Vetusian. They don’t know Vis can understand. They say something about Veriduis, Careo, Obiteum, and Luceum. The prisoner thrashes when he realizes Ulcisor is not there to rescue him, and Vis is knocked into the Sapper, but it doesn’t affect him. Ulciscor seems not to notice and leaves, after asking Vis’s coworker, Hrolf, about him. Hrolf is deteriorating simply by being around the Sapper, as all Vis’s previous coworkers have, yet Vis remains unaffected.
We learn that Vis was once a prince of Suus. His family was killed when the Hierarchy took control. His real name is Diago, and he’s been in hiding for almost four years.
Vis sneaks away to fight to earn money. He does this most nights, and tonight he will be fighting a Sextus (someone very strong because they take the Will of over 60 people). To everyone’s surprise, Vis defeats the Sextus. He is kicked out of the fighting club because the owner says he cheated.
After this, he returns to the orphanage, where the next morning, someone comes to adopt a child. To the other kids’ disappointment, Vis is called in to interview with the man. It’s Ulciscor Telimus from the prison the night before, and he is a Quintus. Vis refuses to hand over his Will. Ulciscor saw that the Sapper didn’t affect him and knew he understood the dead language. Ulcisor decides to adopt him because of what he knows, and in exchange, Vis will help him.
As they travel to the capital city of Caten in a Transvect (an enormous vehicle powered by Will), Vis learns that Ulciscor is with the Military and wants Vis to become his spy at the Academy. Ulciscor believes the Religion pyramid is up to something. Possibly looking for pre-Cataclysm weapons to take over the Military. There are many pre-Cataclysm ruins on Solivagus, the island where the school is located. If he’s accepted, Vis would need to investigate the ruins and keep an eye on Veridius (the Principalis of the school).
Before they arrive, part of the Transvect blows up. After they crash, Ulciscor is knocked out, and Vis speaks with an Anguis raider (a group who fight against the Hierarchy). Her name is Sedotia, and she knows who he really is and admits to orchestrating the whole thing: the crash and even Ulciscor finding Vis. She tries to force Vis to come with her, but he refuses. She says he has one month to decide to help her or she will tell everyone who he is. Vis is to meet her at the Festival of Jovan in one month. Vis carries Ulciscor onto the transport, and they leave.
Vis wakes up in an infirmary at the Academy and is questioned by a physician, who actually turns out to be Veridius, the Principalis. He was fishing for information. Ulciscor arrives, but Vis does not tell him that the Anguis want to recruit him once they have a chance to talk.
Ulciscor and Vis continue to Caten, and Vis learns that Ulciscor’s brother, Caeror, died at the Academy, and he lets on that maybe it was to hide something. When they arrive at the Telimius villa, Vis learns that he will begin training with Lanistia. Ulciscor leaves, and they begin right away.
Vis is required to do a lot of reading and train in a secret maze. It’s a replica of the Academy’s labyrinth, which may be considered cheating. But Lanistia assures him that he needs the extra practice. She reveals that she lost her eyes at the Academy. She now must imbue the air around her to see. She is teaching Vis to use imbued stones to move the walls in the maze.
A man named Claudius visits Vix, and he reveals that he knows Ulciscor blames Veridius for his brother’s death. The official story is that Caeror took his own life by jumping from a cliff because he thought he had killed someone. Claudius wants Vis to train with his daughter, Aequa, who is already at the Academy. Vis uses her as an excuse to go to the Festival of Jovan, where he is to meet with the Anguis.
Vis and Aequa go to the arena, which holds over 100,000 people. It’s been filled with water for a sea battle. Prisoners will fight to avoid the Sappers. Vis hates everything about it. Vis slips away, and the Anguis raider finds him and takes him to Melior, who turns out to be Estevan, one of Vis’s father’s former advisors.
Vis again refuses to join them, and Estevan reveals that the Caten attacked their home in Suus because Suus had a powerful secret. He refuses to explain more. Sedotia cuts Vis’s chest and then gives him the blade to use as protection. Vis goes back into the arena and Aequa.
After the sea battle rages for a while, the lights suddenly go out, and no one can use their Will. Estevan’s voice booms through the arena. He tells the crowd that they are responsible for the corruption happening in their government since they give Will to it.
A stone platform rises from the water, holding Estevan. Any who attacks him dies. An explosion blocks the only way out of the stands. Somehow Estevan evaporates entire sections of people one after the other. The crowd is in chaos. Vis helps Aequa escape through the sewers, but he goes back to stop Estevan.
Vis is able to get close, and for a brief moment, he has a vision of a black pyramid. Vis begs the older man to relent, but, instead, Extevan falls on Vis’s knife, killing himself. Vis passes out.
Vis wakes up a week later to learn that everyone knows he saved thousands. Ulcisor reveals that Lanistia is the girl his brother, Caeror, thought he killed. Ulciscor’s family took over caring for her after he accident, which is why she lives in their villa. Ulciscor doesn’t believe his brother would jump from the cliff, but Lanistia has no memory of the events in question.
Vis gets a look at some letters Caeror sent to Ulciscor just before his death. There is a hidden message, and there may have been more in letters that he discarded long ago. The letter talks about Obiteum and Lyceum and mentions that “Only Veridius knows.”
A Senate physician arrives to check up on Vis and take a blood sample. He also shows Vis a photo of a black pyramid, and Vis tries to hide that he recognizes it from the vision he had just before confronting Estevan.
Vis heads to the Academy with the goal of moving into Class Three. Veridius escorts Vis to his dorm, letting Vis know that he’s aware that Ulciscor blames him for Caeror’s death.
Right away, Veridius puts Vis in a position to defend a boy named Callidus against a stronger opponent, Eidhin. Vis tricks Eidhin into accepting a Three-Fold Apology, meaning the boy (from a higher Class) cannot demand he be expelled. Instead, Vis must clean out the stables every evening for two months.
Gradually, Vis and Callidus become friends. Emissa shows up a few times to help Vis in the stables, and they become friends. Vis tries not to like her more than he should.
Vis is quickly promoted to Class Six with Eidhin. Eidhin ignores him, as does everyone else. Vis should sit with the others in 6, but they are not welcoming, so he continues to take meals with Callidus. The two begin training together every morning.
Class Six gets a turn at running the Labyrinth, and Vis is paired with Eidhin. Vis loses when he runs, because Eidhin doesn’t give any instructions. When they switch, Vis realizes that Eidhin doesn’t speak Common very well and starts giving instructions in his native Cymr. They make it through, but the leader, Dultatis, who really seems to hate Vis, says they cheated by using another language.
Later, Vis scales the walls, sneaks out to the ruins, and enters the Domed structure at its center. There are symbols on the wall that mimic the ones in the Labyrinth. He arrives at a chamber filled with corpses. They are missing eyes and are impaled by obsidian daggers. They seem to wake and start chanting, “Obiteum is lost. Do not open the gate. Synchronous is death.”
As Vis is leaving, he sees Veridius and another man. They know someone has set off an alarm, and they are relieved that “they’re all there.”
Vis returns to his room, narrowly avoiding getting caught.
Callidus reveals that he thinks the Military, Governance, and Religion are reaching a boiling point. There will soon be a civil war. Vis and Eidhin slowly become allies, and Vis tutors the other boy in Common.
Most students, including Vis, go to Necropolis for the Festival of the Ancestors, where families gather to honor their dead. A crowd greets Vis. It seems he’s popular after “killing” Estevan. Ulciscor takes him to his family. He is annoyed that he hasn’t moved on from Class Six, but he seems to be forgiven when he explains about the ruins. Ulciscor also admits he knows Vis is not really from Aquira, but Vis reveals nothing.
Vis meets Ulciscor’s parents and is shocked to find that Ulciscor’s wife is none other than Sedotia. (Her alias is Relucia.) She pulls him aside and tells him that the Anguis need him to get into Class Three and become Domitor by winning the Iudicium.
Vis uses the Transvect that runs between the Academy and the Festival to hitch a ride to the ruins on the other side of the island. When he enters, a man, who doesn’t seem to be quite alive, greets him. He says there will be a test, and to pass, he needs to reach the other end. It mimics the Ladrynth. Vis doesn’t go in, and the man offers to demonstrate. He enters and is attacked and killed by Remnants who guard the way.
Vis leaves and is on his way when he finds an injured and dying ilupi puppy. He saves it and moves on without it. He catches a ride back with the Transvect just in time.
A Class Four student named Feriun has died by suicide. This leaves room for students to move up. Vis should be the one, but Dultatis doesn’t want to give it to him. Instead, Vis must fight Ianix, and whoever wins will be promoted. Emmisa and Eidhin help him train.
Ianix and Dultatis cheat by disabling the imbued armour. Vis wins anyway and is promoted to Class Five.
Callidus reveals that Class Three and Four students have been dying at an alarming rate, and it’s being covered up. Vis must try to move up anyway, and he does.
The Class Four Praeceptor encourages Vis to make friends with the others in his class. Vis and Aequa must run the Labryrinth. They do well enough, though a boy named Iro tries to sabotage him, because he blames Vis for his sister’s death.
Indol invites Vis, along with several others in Class Three, to train during the break at his family’s vacation home. Vis agrees, then, shockingly, learns they will go to his former home, Suus.
But first, they head to Caten for the Festival of Pletuna. There, Vis speaks with Sedotia. She reveals that she was the one who suggested that Vis go to Suus. Vis is to spy for her.
Vis follows Sedotia for a while and listens to a very confusing conversation between her and a man. Something about Cataclysm weapons. She tells the man she wants a demonstration.
Soon after, Vis is attacked by two men, only to learn that Aequa had reported her suspicions that Vis was using Will to advance at the Academy, and that the attack was a test. He hasn’t, and Aequa was is domoted.
The trip to Suus finally arrives. Vis learns that Indol’s vacation home is the former palace where Vis grew up. One of his father’s former avisors, Fadrique, is working there as a Sextus. Vis believes he’s a traitor.
Ulciscor arrives and introduces Vis to many senators. Ulciscor warns Vis against starting a relationship with Emissa.
Later, Indol tells Vis that Emissa is going for a night swim. Vis knows how dangerous the lagoon is during the changing of the tide. He runs out and must rescue her. They kiss. Emissa later confides that Indol intends to join Religion when he graduates, which will be a shock to his father.
Vis tells Ulciscor and Lanistia about the Labyrinth. The older man tells Vis he will need to go through it. Vis doesn’t want to, so Uliciscor threatens the Sapper if he doesn’t.
Pretending to be ill, Vis sneaks through secret passages in the castle and listens in on the summit. The senators are monitoring certain families. He learns that the Military helped the Anguis attack at the colosseum and have been funding them in other ways. Vis sends what he learns to Sedotia.
Fadrique meets Vis in the passageway and declares his loyalty. He shows the boy things that he has saved that belonged to his family.
Indol later lets on that he knows Vis has been to Suus before, though he hasn’t guessed who he really is.
Vis returns to the Academy with the goal of moving up to Class Three.
Callidus reveals that he once loved Belli and stole documents from his father to prove to her that students have been dying. Belli kept the documents and has been using them against Callidus ever since, even forcing him down the ranks.
Vis knows how to solve both their problems. Vis challenges Belli to a game of Foundation. He eventually has Belli in a position she can’t get out of. He gets her to give Callidus his papers, which she does, and he will back down and call a draw. Only he doesn’t draw. He beats Belli. She goes to Class Four, and Vis moves up to Three.
Eidhin tells Vis that his father made a deal with the Republic that sent Eidhin to a Sapper for a year, though it saved some of their people.
They start preparing for the Iudicium. Those in Class Three pick two other students from other classes to join them in the test. Vis asks Callidus and Eidhin. Eidhin agrees at first, but backs out after speaking to Veridius. Aequa joins Vis instead. The three start training together.
How did The Will of the Many end? The Will of the Many summary
When the test arrives, they learn the rules. The winner will return with the Heart of Jovan. To everyone’s surprise, the helpers from other classes can change loyalty or even return with the Heart for themselves, winning something that Veridius secretly promised them. Everyone has a tracker, and some higher-ranking students can even track their competitors. The safety team is also tracking everyone.
When they begin, Vis vomits up the tracker they made him swallow. Iro’s team catches Vis’ team almost immediately. Aequa seems to deflect to the other team, but later comes back to free Callidus and Vis, who have been tied up.
Aequa returns to the other group to retrieve their stolen items, while Vis and Callidus steal a tracker from the safety team. (Vis also steals a bloody cloak.) In the aftermath, they run in different directions, so Vis heads to the dome in the ruins. He runs into the alupi puppy along the way, who has grown a lot. It follows Vis to the dome and doesn’t seem to want him to go in.
Vis goes in and meets another half-dead guide. Vis learns about the labyrinth as the guide, and then several others run through the maze trying to evade the Remnants.
Finally, Vis plucks up the courage to run the maze. The sight of Billi’s dead body slows him down, but he makes it through. He comes to a chamber where large spikes make a circle. He passes out, and when he comes to, he sees figures in the fog. The word “wait” appears on his arm. He does as something destroys those outside the circle. The word run appears, and he does, going back through the maze where the alupi (SP) protects him from the undead. (Though some escape the dome.)
Vis meets back with Aequa and Callidus. Aequa tries to treat the awful wound on his arm. They begin following the other teams using the stolen tracker.
Callidus takes their medallions toward the Academy so that Vis and Aequa won’t be tracked as they go for The Heart, which is hidden in a tower. As they travel, they come across a mass grave filled with body parts from students and the safety team. Anguis have replaced the safety teams, so they decide to warn the other students.
Aequa looks for Emissa while Vis looks for Indol and his team. When Vis finds him, he explains what’s happening and shows them a bloodied arm. Vis also tells him that his father is working with the Anguis and that Emissa told him Indol planned to join Religion. Indol says he never told Emissa that.
Vis reunites with Aequa. She reports that Emissa and a few teammates have left for the tower in search of The Heart. Aequa heads one way to find Callidus while Vis goes the other to warn Emissa.
Vis runs into one of the Anguis. He implies that he knows Vis ran the maze and that he has, too.
Vis goes to the top of the tower where a Sextus is waiting. They fight, and Vis is nearly defeated, but Emissa uses Will to kill the man. Vis ends up with the Heart and tries to tell Emissa what is happening. She sees his injured arm and tells him she needs The Heart because she has to win. Vis drops the Heart when she threatens him.
Emissa stabs Vis in the stomach using Will, and the force pushes him from the tower. As he falls, The Heart flies into his hand, and then he splashes into the river. The fall alone should have killed him, yet somehow he is still alive. The stab wound seems shallow.
With The Heart in hand, he heads in to try to win, running across Callidus, who is near death. Vis carries him back to the Academy, but he dies before they arrive.
When he reaches the Academy, Vis lays Callidus at Veridius’s feet. He vows revenge. After placing The Heart into the statue, winning the contest, he passes out.
He wakes to find Veridius in his room and that his arm has been amputated. Varidius wants to know if the writing on Vis’s arm helped him escape, and Vis confirms that it did. Veridius says Vis’s blood is tainted and that Emissa didn’t want to kill him, but that the wound on his arm meant that she had to. Vis is now Domitor, and Veridius urges him to pledge to Religion.
Senators arrive to find out what Vis wants to do. Vis asks to work for the Censor rather than Religion or Military, and Veridius is visibly upset. Vis says he doesn’t want to work for him, but that they can talk later.
Vis finds a toy ship from his childhood in the room. His real name, Diago, is carved into it.
After this, we, the readers, jump to the Synchronism. We learn that Vis created duplicates of himself across parallel dimensions after completing the test in the Labyrinth. The Vis we know may not realize it happened.
Synchronism 1: We jump back to Vis waking and finding the words “wait” and then “run.” He does and then reads these words on the wall: “Sealed against the tools of the enemy after the rending. The passage to Luceum requires a toll to ensure validity.” Vis pays it, with the loss of his arm. After, he is standing in a rotunda surrounded by snow. Three people rush to help him, saying, “Traveller, stay. The other from your world will be coming.”
Synchronism 2: We jump back to Vis waking, and a man, Caeror, Ulciscor’s brother, is already there. Vis is in Obeteum. Caeror confirms that Vis knows Veridius and says that Vis has been copied, “the same way the world was thousands of years ago in the war against the Concurrence.” Caeror says they have two minutes to save the Vis in Res. He begins to carve what we assume is the word “Wait” on Vis’s arm.
There you go! That’s a recap of what happened in The Will of the Many by James Islington. We hope you enjoyed this The Will of the Many summary with spoilers.
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