I stand there. Head spinning, heart thumping as I try to grasp what he’s telling me. This is madness. “Eighty thousand.” Still not enough to compete with a legion—it takes four times that number to create five thousand Sextii—but … gods.
“Eighty thousand who need neither food nor sleep. And who can make more of their number, if you are forced to fight.”
I pale as I take in his meaning. Feel a slow, creeping horror as I imagine the power of an army that could do what he’s suggesting. The dead of everyfoe adding to their number. Growing, and growing. Each battle making them stronger, and larger, and more impossible to defeat.
In a strange way, not unlike how the Hierarchy conquered the world.
“Do not do this, Vis.” There’s true dismay in Eidhin’s voice as he gazes around at the three bodies pinned to the platform. “This is … sick.Wrong. No different to what we spoke of after you were here with Emissa. For a man to die, and then his body—hismind—to be used like this. To be so trapped without even death as an end …” He turns to me, places a large hand on my shoulder. Serious blue eyes locked to mine. “Do. Not. Do. This.”
I say nothing for a long few moments. “And your kin in Redivius’s camp?”
“We will find another way.”
I nod slowly. Something oddly comforting in the strength of his hopeless conviction.
“Catenicus. I accept this may seem abhorrent, but understand—that is a sacrifice that men like you and I must inevitably make. Instead of the easy gift of our lives, we must suffer the hundred little deaths of self in order to protect this world. Not because what we do is good, but because good will no longer exist if we do not.” The iunctus steps forward. “You were right, in Caten. I need you to stop this war. And beyond that, I need what you can do, because you are now the only one who can do it. So think well. Make your decision and make it without regret, but know that if you wish to truly make a difference, you have others to come which will be much harder and mean much more.”
His voice echoes away down the green-lit tunnel, until finally we three stare at each other in silence.
I hesitate, then close my eyes. Sway from exhaustion, from the throb of my legs and the abrading pain of their braces. Kadmos’s tea has almost worn off.
The strength of the few is all that matters.
My father once told me that men become their choices, not their intentions. I wonder what he would say to me now.
Before I can change my mind I take two steps, and crouch by the first corpse, and place my hand on his forehead, and imbue him.
The thin obsidian spike jutting through his chest retracts, sliding slowly downward and vanishing into the man’s body. He sits up and his hand finds mine before I can move. Nothing spoken, but I immediately feel the small portion of Will flow into me. He releases his grasp again. Every motion stiff, deliberate. No interest or recognition in his eyes.
I shudder and don’t pause to watch what happens next. Step across and place my hand on the second cold body. Imbue. All my training makes it so easy, now.
“Vis?” Eidhin’s voice. Distant beneath my pounding heart.
“He has made his choice,” comes the iunctus’s soft reply.
As soon as the second iunctus has ceded to me, I’m moving across to the third impaled form. There’s motion in the corner of my vision. The first one is on his feet, descending from the platform with calm, mechanical intent.
I imbue the third man. Watch the black, glimmering sliver of stone retract. Allow him to give up half his Will to me.
Then take a weary seat as he stands and heads purposefully after the other two.
Minutes pass as I just watch in horrified, vaguely sick silence. First there is only the movement of the three iunctii. Then six. Then a dozen. On and on, a widening ripple of waking corpses. The Will being ceded to me builds in ever growing increments. My weariness begins to wash away, even if my misgivings do not.
“They will continue until each node is filled to its most efficient level,” says the iunctus behind me. “Once their pyramids are set, they will be unable to attack one another, or you, or leave—but will otherwise regain control of themselves. Their memories. Any further restrictions will be up to you.”
I can see more empty white slabs than occupied, now. Swathes of iunctii begin vanishing farther down the tunnel in both directions.
After a while, Eidhin finally joins me. His eyes are sad as we watch together.
“Fear is a lack of control, Eidhin,” I tell him eventually. “And I am tired of being afraid. I want to be able to seejusticein the world again.”
He looks across at me sorrowfully. Nods.
“I am still with you,” he promises quietly.
I don’t know how long it has been before the first voices start to ring out. Questions echoing. Anxious, more than angry. I see iunctii slowing, shaking their heads and looking around in confusion, as if waking from a dream. Soon the tunnel is filled not with the slow shuffling of feet, but the mutter of bemused conversation.
I stand again. Gaze out over the throng. Some are starting to gather around the base of our platform, though none are climbing the stairs. But we’re the natural centre of attention up here. I am going to have to explain what is happening, soon enough. What I have woken them all to do.
