The Will of the Many (Hierarchy, #1)

by James Islington

Confidence, real or perceived, has a peculiar power over people.

This is the only place in the world where I don’t have to pretend to be friendly. Or dull. Or servile. Or weary. This is the one place where I don’t have to hold back.

“It’s because you’re a deeply unpleasant child,” continues Ulciscor calmly. “Immature. Spiteful. And honestly, not very bright. So it doesn’t matter how strong your Will is. Nobody wants to have someone like you living with them. You need to change, Vermes. Better yourself, or you’ll be a Solum for the rest of your life.”

Sometimes bullies are better off with the truth, no matter how unpleasant.”

The basics of Will usage—peliphagy, the Catenans call it,

back at the orphanage could have explained that a Septimus has eight Octavii ceding half their Will to them, a Sextus has seven Septimii ceding half of their collected Will, and so on up the pyramid through Quintus, Quartus, Tertius, Dimidius, and finally, Princeps.

people’s Will: four from their combined Octavii, plus their own. That halves when they’re ceding to a Sextus. A Sextus, therefore, starts with the Will of more than eighteen people. And so on.

“Harmonic and Reactive,” he murmurs eventually. “When objects are locked together, it’s a Harmonic relationship. When they push or pull, it’s a Reactive one.”

There are only three pyramids that stretch higher than Quartus, though: the three senatorial pyramids, which everyone refers to simply as Military, Governance, and Religion. Only the strongest, the most skilled, are recruited for those. Quintii from standard pyramids vie to become a Septimus in a senatorial one. And only those in the senatorial pyramids are allowed to use the title “Magnus.”

Victims can still be enemies.”

You fight the tyranny of the many, or you are one of them.”

“There comes a point in every man’s life where he can rail against the unfairness of the world until he loses, or he can do his best in it. Remain a victim, or become a survivor.”

The man who is never nervous, never does anything hard. The man who is never nervous, never grows.”

“Just because you are good at something does not make others bad at it.”

While friendships have never come easy to me, I do know a little about getting people on my side. I was going to be a diplomat, once. I have a fair idea of how to ingratiate myself with others. I just, on the whole, never cared for it. Having to feign interest in those you don’t like, or at least don’t know well enough to have an opinion on. Pretending to have their interests at heart when in reality, you’re just figuring out how to make the best use of them. It’s all so… disingenuous.

obvious: Lucius and Marcellus are from Religion,

Aequa, Ava, Valentina, and Felix—while participating in the wider discussion—seem more inclined to have quiet asides among themselves, too.

The decision may have been made by the few, Diago, but it’s the Will of the many that killed your family.”

Pride and self-respect may mean we never give in, but if they are all our enemies, we will never be happy.”

Undoubtedly the wrong answer, but I was stubborn. Preferred to pretend to know something than admit I didn’t.

“Greed is by definition the moral ruler of the Hierarchy, Diago. All decisions are based upon it. It is not the strong who benefit in their system, no matter what they say—it is the weak. It is the ones willing to do anything, sacrifice anything, to rise.

“There is no form of government that is immune from mistakes or from corruption—but it is the Hierarchy’s foundation, Son.

death is a doorway, Son. You will see him again. No one is ever truly lost.”