The Strength of the Few — James Islington
Omne trium perfectum
The Hierarchy still call me Vis Telimus. Still hail me as Catenicus. They still, as one, believe they know who I am.
But with all that has happened—with what I fear is coming—I am not sure it matters anymore.
I am no longer one. I won the Iudicium and lost everything—and now, impossibly, the ancient device beyond the Labyrinth has replicated me across three separate worlds. A different version of myself in each of Obiteum, Luceum, and Res. Three different bodies, three different lives. I have to hide; fight; play politics. I have to train; trust; lie. I have to kill; heal; prove myself again, and again, and again.
I am loved, and hated, and entirely alone.
Above all, though, I need to find answers before it’s too late. To understand the nature of what has happened to me and why.
I need to find a way to stop the coming Cataclysm, because if all I have learned is true, I may be the only one who can.
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cauterised.
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nape.
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crook and flail.
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DEATH IS A DOORWAY.
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tonight. We walk for a full minute, leaving the susurrus
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torpor.
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indignant,
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There’s grim silence as I lock eyes with him again. The illusion of power too often becomes power, my
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the only thing we can control is our attitude. And sometimes that can be enough.
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Blithe
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wizened
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“None slower than the impatient,
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‘Improvement is not a destination,’
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Contrite
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tremulous
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too. The door swings open without warning after
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vanquished.
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Talent, as my father used to remind me constantly, matters only when it’s married to effort.
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COMPETITIVENESS, YSABEL ONCE QUOTED PRIMLY as I celebrated beating her at Foundation, is insecurity in action. To which my smiling father immediately responded that a complete lack of it shows only apathy or arrogance.
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DEATH, EIDHIN ONCE INSISTED WHILE explaining the ddram cyfraith, is our most important horizon. It matters because we need an end to what we can see. Without it we would drift, overwhelmed, nothing to orient ourselves against. Without it, we would never be able to focus on what is truly important: that which is in front of us.
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alacrity
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various points over the past week—and they’re all very good.
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A MAN WHO IS CHASED may be free. A man who chases never is. Kadmos told me that,
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dissemble,
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every corner and every crevice had a purpose. A design.
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cairn.
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supine,
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detritus
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coterie.
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regret what was right.”
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I close my eyes, and know no more.
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miasma,
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men become their choices, not their intentions.