The Strength of the Few

The Strength of the Few begins with the consequence of the first novel's Synchronism: three versions of Vis, all carrying the same past up to the split, now continue separately in Res, Luceum, and Obiteum. Their worlds obey related but different rules for Will, and each Vis initially knows only fragments of what has happened. As the three storylines develop, the shared problem becomes clearer. The Rending divided an older world into three realities, Synchronism links counterparts across them, and another Cataclysm is approaching.

In Obiteum, Vis wakes in Qabr with Caeror, Ulciscor's supposedly dead brother. Caeror teaches him that Will here can sustain the dead as iunctii and that Ka rules the surviving cities through revived bodies, Gleaners, and a system of control centered on Duat. Caeror believes Ka is Synchronous and that removing his Obiteum counterpart could prevent the coming Cataclysm. Vis infiltrates Duat by taking control of a Gleaner, frees the revived craftsman Ahmose, and forms an uneasy alliance with Netiqret, an assassin whose daughter Kiya has been absorbed into the city's iunctus infrastructure. Vis learns that Duat's Nomarch coordinates its dead and that the living exploit iunctii as labor, servants, and even components of the city's water system. After Ahmose publicly rejects Ka and kills himself in the Infernis, Vis escapes through Duat's toxic drainage, returns to Qabr, and retrieves a blood-activated golden crook and flail capable of destroying almost any material. He returns to Duat, collapses the bridge across the Infernis, and accepts Netiqret and Kiya's help reaching the Sanctum. Kiya interferes with the Nomarch long enough for Vis to enter Ka's pyramid, where he finds Ka motionless on a Will-linked stone table. With Gleaners closing in, Vis drives a knife into Ka's heart.

In Luceum, another Vis arrives maimed and alone in a society that knows nothing of Caten. After the druid Cian helps him escape Ruarc's men, Vis is sheltered by Gráinne's family and adopts the local name Deaglán. Druid Lir later brings him before King Rónán at Caer Áras, where Vis is maneuvered into swearing an oath and is sent to the warrior school at Loch Traenala. There he forms close ties with Tara, Conor, and the other young warriors and learns that their nasceann resembles an unfamiliar expression of Will. A trial in the submerged city of Fornax identifies Vis as Synchronous. He survives animated silver and black guardians by using a Harmonic connection to command one of them, then leaves with a silver arm as evidence of his passage. Vis later reunites with his resurrected father, who explains that an ancient war produced the Aurora Columnae, the Cataclysms, and the division into Res, Luceum, and Obiteum. The reunion is brief. Gallchobhar kills Lir and captures Vis during the siege of Caer Áras; King Rónán surrenders to save the wounded Tara, only for Gallchobhar to stab Vis and behead Rónán. Thrown into Lake Áras, Vis is preserved when his father gives him the Vitaerium sustaining his own dead body and dies in the exchange. Vis then discovers he can control the Fornax silver arm. Through Lir's staff he encounters the dead druid in the tempeall albios, receives enough strength to return to the battle, and uses the appearance of divine judgment to undermine Gallchobhar's army before killing him. After the siege, the surrendered Ruarc reveals that his name was Caeror and that he is the Luceum version of Ulciscor's brother. He warns Vis that one of Vis's counterparts has made a terrible mistake and begs him not to reveal his true nature to the druids before hearing the full explanation.

In Res, Vis remains in Caten, where his attempt to cede at the Aurora Columnae simply fails and Lanistia attacks while telling him to complete his journey. A scarred contact tied to Relucia later teaches him about Adoption, and Vis develops the ability to take control of Will already imbued into objects. Emissa takes him into Military's secret Necropolis, where a revived Anguis operative reveals that Callidus died because he falsely claimed to be Catenicus, protecting Vis. Veridius then explains more of the pre-Cataclysm machinery on Solivagus and the danger of Synchronism. The political crisis in Caten soon overwhelms those mysteries. The scarred contact, Ostius, demonstrates that he can physically carry the Res Vis through Luceum and back, then uses Vis's Adoption to strip Military's leadership of its defenses. Diago kills several of the trapped leaders, Ostius stages the scene as a coup, and the Hierarchy fractures into civil war. Vis becomes the masked Carnifex while trying to limit the violence. Tertius Decimus murders Aequa and breaks Vis's legs; Vis still rescues Lanistia and Ulciscor from South Caten Prison, then reaches Eidhin during an assault on the city and finally tells him that Vis Telimus is really Diago, prince of Suus.

Near the end of the Res strand, Vis deliberately makes himself visible to Ka because he believes Ka may be powerful enough to force an end to the civil war. Ka speaks to him through a controlled iunctus and claims that the Cataclysm is not his purpose but a terrible means of preventing two worlds from being obliterated and the surviving one from being enslaved. A controlled iunctus later tells Vis that the Concurrence is not a man but an ancient latticework of interlinked dead. Beneath the Necropolis, Vis finds nearly eighty thousand iunctii preserved by Military and is offered a way to awaken them through a Cascade. Despite Eidhin's objections, he begins the process, gaining an army and immense Will at the cost of using the dead for his own political ends. Among those who regain their memories are Vis's mother and sister Ysa. The book ends during their reunion, when Eidhin looks past Vis and smiles at someone approaching and an unidentified familiar voice says, "Hail, Vis." Across the three endings, Vis has stabbed Ka in Obiteum, been warned in Luceum that a counterpart has made a catastrophic mistake, and accepted Ka's assistance in Res, leaving the consequences of those choices unresolved.