In which I ask about a million questions…
***Spoilers through Part II of The Will of the Many. Includes one semi-revealing reference to Sarah J. Maas’s Throne of Glass Series***
The intrigue is ramping up! We’ve got twists and turns; fun reveals; casual conversations over decapitated heads; and our boy Vis is climbing the Academy ladder- with a grand prize of almost certain death at the end! Weee!
There is a lot happening: school rivalries, intergovernmental agency squabbling, family dynamics, a rebel faction who may be worse than the evil empire, and – I believe – a distant and/or ancient alien race emerging (???). As a reader, it’s not too difficult to get the gist and follow along. As a ✨blogger✨, though, I feel a heightened sense of duty to understand the intricacies, lest I mistakenly label a Quintus a Quartus and humiliate myself in front of my loyal wizardwordship followers.
(Honestly, dozens of faithful readers would be a dream.)
Let’s dive off the Transvect into the Sea of Quus!
Vis, who could really use fewer extracurriculars, takes on two ill-advised missions to learn more about the ruins on Solivagus. Both involve wild schemes to thwart Academy security measures, and each time he comes a hair’s breadth from expulsion or death. Vis proves that his heroics at the Festival of Jovan were no fluke – Catenicus indeed!
Both Zelda-esque dungeons he enters (insert Zelda dungeon sound) feature some sort of alien race and a fuckton of creepiness. I was legit scared when he entered the hall lined with eyeless corpses pinned to the wall with onyx swords through their chests. (Quick 📌 for later: I think it was Ulciscor, and maybe Lanistia?, who, when questioning Vis about the temple, focused in on confirming whether the swords were definitely made of onyx. Going to keep an eye on onyx being significant. Catenian Kryptonite?) Vis, main character that he is, doesn’t let a room full of corpses get in the way of the mission. He touches a symbol on the wall – which, miraculously, doesn’t trigger spiked walls closing in on him – and instead launches a map of Solivagus, plus the awakening of the aforementioned corpses to serenade him in a creepy chant:
“Obiteum is lost. Do not open the gate. Synchronous is death.”
Noted.
The second temple run starts with an insane plan involving leaping off the Transvect into a pitch-black sea. Then it’s full jungle-warrior mode, with an intense swim/climb/run. (Remember in Part I when I said I liked that Vis wasn’t overpowered? I may need to revisit that opinion. Our boy can take a beating and still run back-to-back triathlons on zero sleep.) He makes it through hours of dark jungle, finds the weird red glass dome with no door, pulls a Ron-speaking-Parseltongue miracle, and gains entrance. After a harrowing descent into darkness, he encounters a sort of punished-programmed-messenger-avatar-person delivering a canned message and – surprise! – the labyrinth appears!
It’s basically a higher-tech version of the Academy’s labyrinth, but with super-scary Remnants ready to slice you to smithereens if you try to make your way through. I’m pretty certain the labyrinth ends at the gate the last creepy temple strongly warned us against opening, so… not the most appealing of tasks.
Vis, wisely, is all “Oh, would you look at the time. I’ve got to get going on my 8+ hour run/cliff descent/ocean swim if I’m going to precisely time getting magnet-catapulted out of the ocean and catch the last Transvect back to the Academy. But maybe the certain-death labyrinth next time! Ciao!”
Here’s what I’ve gleaned from our time in the ruins:
- The Academy labyrinth is just a ruse to find someone who can run this real labyrinth that opens the portal to Vek-knows-what.
- The missing 3s and 4s are likely related to attempts to run it, either ending badly or jettisoning the winners somewhere unreachable??
- The eyeless corpses are related to whatever happened to Lanistia during her Iudicium.
Ok, honestly, I thought this list would be longer, but that’s all I’ve got – mysteries abound!
I don’t know where this is all going, but fear not! Detective wizardwordship is on the case. And I will figure it out as soon as James Islington reveals the answers!
Let’s get into my (not entirely) quick hits:
Our big twist in this section: Ulciscor’s wife, Relucia, is revealed to be none other than Anguis rebel herself, Sedotia! Now, you know me – even when it’s obvious something is going on with Vis’s new mom – I stay ready to be shocked. So this was a fun surprise.
Tough look here for Papa Ulc. Even as a seasoned veteran of the ups and downs of marriage, I have yet to shoot my husband with an arrow.
As if keeping track of names wasn’t difficult enough, does everyone have to have double identities in different contexts? I’ve made peace with Vis -> Diago (we’ll ride “Vis” until he reclaims “Diago” – I survived Celaena -> Aelin after 2.5 books, so I’m confident in my abilities here). But Sedotia/Relucia is pushing it.
Puppy alert!! During Vis’s jungle dash away from the ruins, he encounters an injured Alupi pup. He saves it, wraps it in his cloak, and gets back on his way- but I am strongly willing to bet that this is not the last we see of the pup. I smell an animal sidekick in our future 🥹
(The restraint it is taking me to not make a RotE comparison here)
I’ll be the first to admit the limits of my brainpower: what I’m most struggling with at this point is- what exactly is everyone’s end goal?
- Vis wants revenge, but he doesn’t want any innocents to get hurt. Yet earlier, he seemed to share Seducia’s (Relotia? Mama SedRel?) viewpoint that on the complicity of the Octavii. So… how does he actually plan to take down the Hierarchy?
- And Mama SedRel (I won’t use this again, promise) just wants to burn it all down, but has no problem eliminating literally everyone? I get that the Octavii prop up the ruling class, but surely they are victims of oppression too? Also, how many Anguis are there?
- Are their goals basically the same, with the distinction that Sedotia is willing to kill indiscriminately while Vis is a smidge less DTMM*?
*down to mass murder
I lied before when I said my biggest struggle was understanding everyone’s goals. What I am actually struggling with is the operational logistics of this academy. I would like to call for an external audit immediately. I already flagged concerns about Vis enrolling midway through the school year, but now that I’ve seen how things are run internally, I’m not surprised admissions is a mess. So:
- The school is divided into five classes, levels 7-3. As you move up (technically down in numbers, stay with me), the class sizes shrink, the material gets harder, and the post-grad job prospects skyrocket. The school year culminates with Class 3, the six-student top of the academy pyramid, getting the privilege of running the final trial, the Iudicium. I’d hate to be the teacher trying to keep Class 7 motivated during third trimester.
- Each class has a single instructor with sole discretion over promotions and demotions, but this mechanism is wildly confusing. If, say, the Class 5 teacher wants to move someone to Class 4, but there is no one in Class 4 worthy of demotion, what happens?
- There are no set times or triggers for movement, and the teachers do not collaborate well.
Flawless system.
I also have serious questions about curriculum oversight. When you get randomly catapulted to a new level (up or down), who’s to say the curriculum aligns with what what you were doing before?
And don’t get me started on labyrinth access. When Vis is in Class 6, he’s told their trip to the labyrinth is the only chance that trimester- tough luck for the poor Class 7 kid who gets promoted the next week! Time in the labyrinth is scarce, unless you’re a Class 3 who gets to practice daily. Oh! But Veridious casually mentions to Vis the labyrinth happens to be empty and unlocked every morning – wink wink, nudge nudge.
When I tell you I could go on all day about the educational administration here… Not exactly a ringing endorsement for Religion’s involvement in the schools.
Romance alert!! We’ve got flirting, people! If you were with me during my Liveship Traders journey (shoutout to my Hobb Heads!), you will recall my enthusiasm for young love (really wish that didn’t sound so weird). I didn’t come to The Will of the Many looking for romance, but that won’t stop me from digging up crumbs like a truffle pig.
We get the slightest flirtation between Vis and Emissa, the Class 3 hottie. It’s cute, but Vis went to the Fitzchivalry School of “Duty Over Love Life” (if you know, you fucking know). It’s all very sweet and innocent, but they are about to head to an island for spring break, so things could heat up! Perhaps a kiss to cover up sneaking around? (I always love the trope where two people caught somewhere they’re not supposed to be have to pretend they were mackin’.)
What is up with Aequa? She has my spidey sense all sorts of tingling. We get the confrontation at the Festival of Pletuna, where she tries to trap Vis into Will-wielding. But beyond that, I think there is more going on with her. On the Transvect ride to the festival, Vis notes:
“It feels like Aequa’s here to observe, more than converse.”
Two can play at that game, Aequa- I’m watching you.
Vis’s new besties check-in! I love how we are supposed to believe that the smart, cool, mysterious, attractive, national hero who singlehandedly stopped a major terrorist attack shows up to school and isn’t instantly the hottest commodity around. Alas, he’s mostly shunned, but manages to befriend two other outcasts: Callidus and Eidhin (who also kind of have beef? But whatever- have I mentioned this is complicated?).
Callidus plays a bit of a Wise Mentor role- minus the white beard and a few hundred years of experience. As the son of the Hierarchy’s Censor (seems important), he’s full of knowledge and disillusioned with the system – a perfect sidekick!
Back in Part I, I mentioned being on alert for characters who seem shady but surprise us. It’s not looking like Veridious is poised to break good any time soon, but Eidhin stepped into the “foe-to-friend” role. His outsider status and complicated backstory makes him a great ally for Vis.
Quick question: have we learned exactly how he went from a sapper to an Academy student?
We get a hint at Vis’s possible magic:
“There’s a feeling in the air, when someone’s about. An oncoming presence that I’ve always been able to sense in enough time to duck into the shelter of a doorway, or double back around the corner before they come into view.”
We saw this way back when Lanistia tries to sneak up on him in his sleep. Definitely seems like something that could come in handy during his Sedotia-assigned mission in Suus…
I would feel remiss if I didn’t mention Vis’s sword duel with Ianix to advance out of Class 6. Vis adapts to a brand new fighting technology with only a few hours’ practice and defeats the junior national champion. A bit like eating your first hot dog and then beating Joey Chestnut the next day. But hey- Vis is #special and willing to fight dirty. Ianix should be thankful Vis kept his clothes on this time.
How big is everything in this world?? I swear every structure we encounter is massive (hundreds of feet wide, tall, deep, etc). This book needs a trigger warning for megalophobia.
Quick Part III prediction: I think we are going to come into contact with a member of Vis’s family – maybe his sister?
Off to Part III. See you in Suus!
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