Everyone wanted a piece of the One-Eighth.

  About the bronze-plated ziggurat now sprawled a massive Legion camp replete with neat rows of white tents, flapping battle standards, and fly-swarmed latrines. Aida guessed the Legionnaires there numbered in the tens of thousands. Palisade walls and ditches went up and down respectively, messengers galloped about on striders, and a group of Dynasts stared back her way from atop the ziggurat as Aida stared out from the Thorn. One of them sat upon a gleaming white throne visible only in snatches through the mirage shimmer obscuring the ziggurat's apex.

  "Nice to meet you too, Rega," she mumbled to herself while waiving at them with feigned exuberance.

  A ways away from the Legion camp, a cluster of boxy machines threw together what looked like a radio tower at the heart of a mass of lumbering tank-knights and marching columns of musket-wielding, gray-skinned and -garbed infantry. Clanking, caterpillar-like convoys ambled endlessly to and from the distant Syphon. All of it fell in a pall of rust and desaturation.

  About the turtle, several armed camps milled and watched the distant Legion and Directory forces warily:

  Freed slaves, refugees, and her original waves of settlers improvising weapons of bone, wood, and rock with many worried looks at and likely hushed conversations about the massive showings of Ancient and Ink power.

  Mune Collectivists forging bronze spearheads as fast as they could make them, as organized and orderly as ever.

  Gray-skinned refugees from the Directory carrying the odd musket or rusting steel sword moving in herds about ever-color-shifting people like the ones who'd backed up Eth back in Ink.

  A much smaller, rougher version of the Legion's vast, precisely-ordered camp full of scarred, hard-faced soldiers carrying mismatched, battle-worn gear whom she assumed were the Mother's Militant.

  On the far side of the Terrtle from the Legion and Keen camps, the Tangle seethed with insectoid and sauroid creatures of all sizes and descriptions. If it weren't for the uncannily-human Anticores wandering among them in their uncanny pairs, she'd have assumed it was a bug invasion from some movie, but in spite of their appearance, they stayed within surprisingly tight boundaries.

  A stir began to rise among pretty much every camp, with much pointing of fingers and climbing onto vantages to get better looks. Aida turned that direction to see an uncountable horde of naked warriors painted with swirling, multicolored clay which sparkled and gleamed in The One-Eighth's diffuse, multi-sunned light. They carried an odd mix of short stone spears, slings, and a motley of Legion bronze weaponry and shields. Small units of Legionnaires marched among them, making it all even more confusing.

  At their lead, a muscular man wearing only paint and carrying a stone rod who walked like a general strode, accompanied by a one-handed woman and a tall, one-eyed man both naked except for liberal coatings of the same paint.

  An excited call of "Aida" broke her from her reverie. She turned just in time to stabilize herself for a hurling Aliasara and avoid falling off the Terrtle skull completely. They wrapped up in a hug before Aliasara released her and launched into a breathless description of the apparently-exponential increase in the One-Eighth's popularity that Aida'd mostly surmised from a one-minute scan of everything. One part did catch her attention though.

  "Wait wait, you said there's a bunch of Masters here? Like, slave owners?"

  Aliasara shook her head and gestured broadly to a cluster of varied, but generally fine-looking tents clustered not far from the rotter pens. "Apparently, various Imminent visited them in the last few months telling them to come here around now. As far as I can tell, all of the types of Mancers are represented from Clockpriests to Pheros to Anchorites."

  "Great. Don't suppose the Imminent told them why they were coming here so I have some idea?" Aida said, sighing. "My frickin' verse and I'm always the last to know everything. How'd they all get here, for one? Must've been busy and tense at the Thorn here for a bit."

  After another hug that did little to make her feel better, Aliasara shrugged. "They came because something about coming here when The Book was breaking. About you leading them to safety or a new verse or something. As for the Thorn, apparently they found another one off near the base of those volcanoes over there," she said, pointing off in the direction the Terrtle skull stared, vaguely off the direction of the Legion camp. It, oddly, wasn't the direction the painted warriors marched from.

  "Oh good. A back door. Glad it's your verse not mine anymore. Also, nice to know what I'm supposed to be do done will did or whatever. Is the Terrtle shell like Noah's Ark and we're going to ride to a new world on a flood of magma?"

  "No need to worry about any of that much longer," Eth said, as angry and grumpy-looking as Aida'd ever seen her. She was about to make a snarky comment when she caught Ghillie's eye. For whatever reason, the Feral waved her off and shook her head. Leave it.

  "Whatever." Aida said, straightening up, adjusting her demon-goo-stained and ripped shirt and pants, and looking over towards the ziggurat. "I'm guessing that's all of the Ancients there... never mind. By the looks of it, they're on their way."

  Stolen story; please report.

  Scanning the various parties, factions, and groupings spread out in the vicinity, it appeared small detachments from most of them were breaking off to approach the Terrtle as everyone spontaneously decided to send delegations.

  "Apparently, they know I'm here. Guess I won't have time to change before we get down to horse-trading or making a treaty or declaring war on each other or me being proclaimed the Messiah or a heretic or whatever."

  Aliasara turned to Stiller, the boy having arrived in Wake's wake as the Fraction Dynastic leader and entourage marched imperiously towards her. "Go get Aida a change of clothes, quickly!"

  Stiller grinned and ran off as Wake marched over, now wearing armor, carrying a sword, and flanked by a dozen other Dynasts.

  "You finally got back," Wake said by way of greeting, glaring out at the Legion camps as if they were Aida's fault. Strings thrummed resonance into each word.

  "Good to see you too," Aida said, rolling her eyes. "Any idea what's going on?"

  "War," Wake said, resting her hand on her sword's pommel.

  "You got some strings I see."

  Wake brushed her fingers over them disdainfully. "Seems gauche wearing faux-Seneschal attire, but Ocyl's Seneschal showed up with an old little Optimime who fitted a bunch of us with them. Ancients have a surprise in store for them when the fighting starts."

  "Okay, but why here? If they want the Terrtle and Tangle, they can have it," Aida said, gesturing about her. "Not much else here."

  "Rega's come to claim the One-Eighth since she's already conquered pretty much everywhere else that the demons didn't destroy first. At this rate, she'll be fighting the Mon for the carcass of the Book."

  Aida blinked at that. "Demons? The things that attacked us on Stacks? They're attacking elsewhere too?"

  Wake frowned then grinned. "They've taken out Stacks? Finally, something to rub in Jaxe's face for a change."

  "Yes they... what?" Aida said, her heart skipping a beat. "Isn't Jaxe dead?"

  Wake gestured off-hand towards the Legion camp city. "I saw him from a distance a while back. Not dead, yet anyway. All the other Ancient seem to be here, why not him?"

  "Because I killed him?" Aida said, feeling heat rise as her confused brain tried to process everything going on.

  "Apparently not. Jaxe's slipperier than one of Ocyl's gons pots in Jadeye. Had secret passageways carved into every stack in Stacks it's said so he always has a way out."

  Aida thought back to the dome inside the dome on Jaxestack. She'd just assumed he was dead but never checked the rubble for a stairway, trapdoor, or ramp. From the morose digging of his Feral's she'd figured he was dead, but the slimy bastard probably trained them to do that as a contingency.

  "Mother fucker," she growled.

  "He did, didn't he?" Wake said, winking. "I seem to remember seeing the two of you trailing silk in the Jadeye."

  Aida shuddered and wiped at her arms as though sloughing off imaginary filth. "Don't remind me. The thought of me and him... bleh. Feel like I need a shower just thinking about it."

  Wake frowned and looked at the streaming black clouds overhead. "Well, doesn't look much like rain so might have to settle for killing him again."

  "Perfect," Aida said, then sighed again as she made her way towards the new ramp. "Guess we may as well get this over with."

  When they got to base of the ramp, the Mother's Militant converged on her, led by a heavily-scarred woman in a battered set of Legionary armor.

  "Commander Eudora, head of the Mother's Militant," the woman said, curtly, nodding to Aida. For a supposed militant religious zealot, she didn't seem too impressed with meeting The Mother herself in the flesh. Some of her followers were not so detached, staring at Aida with wild looks that made Aida a bit nervous, especially considering how heavily armed they were.

  "The Mother, apparently," Aida said. She gestured at the throng rapidly gathering as ex-slaves and refugees of all varieties began to converge on her calling her name. "Don't suppose you could set up a perimeter or whatever to keep these people back a bit? I think we're about to parley with some powerful mucky-mucks and don't want any toes stepped on. Literally or metaphorically."

  "Done," Eudora said, turning and issuing some curt orders to her cadre of officers. Within minutes, a couple hundred of the Militant had formed up a wall of partitioning soldiers any municipal riot control police commander would envy.

  Aida did her best to ignore the cries, pleas, prayers, demands, and calls coming from the other side of the armored wall. Not much she could do to help any of the hungry, lost, injured, sick, and/or homeless horde packing the One-Eighth. It was almost a relief when the various factions arrived.

  Rega arrived first, clad in a suit of gilded scale armor that looked too heavy for the woman's frame. Once the woman stopped, she stood perfectly still, only the slight drift of her eyes asserting she was actually alive and not a brilliant bit of statuary. Aida didn't fail to miss the strings around the Dynast's throat.

  "Not as much a surprise as you think, Wake," Aida said softly.

  Wake grunted, the sound amplified almost comically.

  Aida's heart stopped for a moment as her gaze drifted among the dozen-odd Dynasts around Rega, locking onto the distinguished-looking older man bearing the gleaming strings of a Seneschal embedded in his throat. He looked so much like Fallon, for a moment she was sure he'd survived somehow, resurrected in some way that aged him a couple decades in the process. Then her rational mind asserted itself as small details broke the match: a nose too long, the hairline receding, the bit of weight he carried about his midsection. The much-complained of father?

  No time for musing; behind him, Jaxe glared at her, snarling. The armor he wore seemed to be hand-me-down, not quite fitting on his barrel-chested frame.

  "Motherfucker of Shitholes," he said by way of greeting.

  "Jaxe? Is that really you?" she replied, feigning surprise. "I figured you were just a greasy stain we left an entire verse just to get away from. Oh wait, you are."

  "Smart enough to trick you into thinking you'd beaten me," Jaxe spat back.

  "Gosh, and all you had to do was abandon all your people, your Ferals, and your entire verse to deceive me. Well played, sirrah," she said, slow clapping.

  He began to push towards her, drawing his massive blade from his back as he did so, but Rega stilled him with a whisper of his name. Still glaring, he stepped back behind her and released his grip on the sword's hilt.

  "What a good boy! Good little doggy," Aida said, leaning forward and baby-talking as if praising an obedient chihuahua. The look he gave he was almost worth finding out he hadn't died.

  Aida turned to the woman. "You must be Rega."

  Next chapter: Same chapter. Negotiations and unhappy reunions.

  Adonissian: a Phero who poses as a traveling musician. Died of the Wretch Plague in Heaven's Tread.

  Aida: MC. Mother of Exiles. "Ender of Verses?" "Savior of Dynasties?"

  Aj: a long-slumbering, powerful being which annihilated Inro's Sunset Legions. Also "almost destroyed the Dynasty single-handedly six-and-some centuries ago"

  Alerestro: a handsome, multi-talented man from Azure. Partner of Viviana. Accidentally killed by Jaxe in the One-Eighth.

  Aliasara: servant at Ocyl's villa who befriends Aida

  Anticores: a pair of Sect representatives, off-putting and strange

  Arca: chief of the tribe that "adopted" Inro

  Asta: Tertius Dynast of Silk. Assassinated by the Rags.

  Avani: Hassani's daughter, an albino

  Baka: Dynast of Ziggurat. Huge, massively strong. Tertius. Killed by Cairin in Ziggurat.

  Balmos: Venger working for Ghulen. Killed be Deia in Stacks.

  "Braid"; a thug who accosted Aida in Jadeye. His face gifted to Aida by Ocyl.

  Broadaxe: large, axe-and-shield-wielding Feral protecting Aida. Killed by Jaxe in Jadeye

  Cairin: Arca's sister, slinger

  Cleft Hand: malcontent in the One-Eighth, maimed hand due to Ryk. Impaled on a broken spear by Wretches in the One-Eighth.

  Das: Rega's Immanent. Died becoming an Imminent at Eth's hand in Terminus.

  Deai: Hassani's swordmaster, renowned for killing a Paragon. Died fighting Ghulen's thugs on Stacks.

  Dels: Dynast of Azure

  Denault: Hassani's husband. Shipwright, Kin.

  Eonora: a Legion officer in Ziggurat who defected with the Rogue Legions Mother's Militant

  Eth: a young Imminent

  Ghillie: a 3rd Feral who wears a primitive Ghillie suit. Carries cross between kunai and acupuncture needles

  Ghulen: Rega's "pet monster", an Inviolate. Eaten by a demon in Stacks.

  Goboro: a fat, amiable scribe friend of Hassani's in Libriam

  Godge and Ardina: Primary Small Masters in Berujat

  Fallon: Aida's Seneschal. Died killing the Inviolate Rasofi in Jadeye

  Fatma: weakest Small Master of Berujat

  Feral: a bone-masked woman of violence (Feral) in Aida's service. Knife wielder. Killed by Ghillie in Jadeye.

  Festrin: Seneschal of Monopollis, father of Fallon

  Fetriene: Ocyl's soresearer

  Goldilocks: twitchy, spear-and-javelin carrying Feral guarding Aida. Died burning a Wicker Way in Jadeye.

  Hassani: Inviolate agent of the Black Court, sent by Fractious Fraction

  Hue: Vibrant accompanying Simon

  Huspara: minor bureaucrat in Libriam

  Ijran: Multi-minded wiz, Small Master of Berujat

  Inro: Dynast formerly ruling Sunset

  Izbali: a silent tribal shaman

  Janali: Ocyl's elegant Seneschal

  Jaxe: Dynast of Stacks. "Young" (Secounds), wealthy. Also has "the Pale" (an Albino). Ancient. Blasted by Aida on Stacks.

  Johine: crude slave. Killed by Ghulen in Stacks.

  Kass/Kassenia: mercenary attached to Adonissian.

  Maxem: High Parser from Ink, ambassador to Jadeye

  Ocyl: Dynast of Heaven's Tread, powerful and unpredictable

  Parathas: Aida's skinscribe. Also a mountaineer.

  "Professor, The": leader of Aida's Wretches, impaled on a tree in the One-Eighth

  Rasofi: Inviolate killed by Fallon in Jadeye

  Reck: Dynast of Chalk, "not witty enough to be clever and takes himself too seriously to be ironic". Paranoid, Fractious Fraction. Tertius. Died to a mob of menials in Jadeye.

  Rega: Inro's sister, Dynast of Monopolis. Septemius

  Riccaro: majordomo of Ocyl's estate. Hung by a looting mob in Heaven's Tread.

  Ruja: Dynast of Berujat. Killed by Cairin and company in Ziggurat.

  Rustrovan/"Rusty": Eth's old, gap-toothed skinscribe. Died of Wretch Plague.

  Ryk: "the most beautiful man Aida had ever seen", a Paragon

  Sadar: odd boy traveling with Semon, a Twine. Killed by Kass in Libriam.

  Sava: Dynast of Libriam

  Savalius: Grand Quartermaster of the Legions. Killed by Baka in Ziggurat.

  Semon "Goldtongue": white-haired, one-eyed master of cults. First Disciple of the Mother. Killed by Ghulen in Libriam.

  Sephily: diminutive Arborist from Groves

  Stiller: serving boy at Ocyl's estate. Rendered mute by psychological or head-trauma

  Strygen: a dusa traveling with Semon. Killed by Kass and Balmos in Libriam.

  Taesal: one of Rega's other Inviolates, axe scar to face

  Three Bracelets Left: "Leader" of the Mune collective

  "Toothy": leader of a group of thugs who accosted Aida in Heaven's Tread. Killed by Feral in Jadeye

  Tyrs: many-pierced Secundus Dynast of Forge. Fed into one of his own forges by the Rags.

  Valeer: a mentally challenged, unkempt individual able to manipulate Thorns. Died in Jadeye to "Braid".

  Vanyen: A crippled young woman who created the Cult of the Mother. Martyred Prophet of the Mother. Murdered by Semon Dynastic Assassins.

  Venner: Grandmaster of Optimimes in Jadeye, "best in the entire Book"

  Viviana: gorgeous, multi-talented ex-slave from Berujat. Partner of Alerestro. Killed by the Vale Legion in Berujat

  Wake: Dynast of Graves, marries even though they all die. Quintus. Isolate.

  White Spiral: an older Feral in Aida's service. Archer. Died protecting Aida in Jadeye

  36th Dynasty: A Dynasty the Anticores have met?.

  100th Dynasty: The Dynasty ruling the Book.

  Adventures of Bubo, The: popular kids story

  All, The: All the verses, even those beyond The Book.

  Ancients: a major Dynastic Chapter, an "elite number", "own Ziggurat" and "run the great bank that is Monopolis"

  Anchorites: individuals capable of creating anchor points affixed to nothing.

  Annalis compound: sprawling complex in Libriam, heart of The Book's bureaucracy. Arrivals 'Dirt' home to new dispatches, Archives 'Dust' storage for old material. Paths and Ways storage for 'nails. Burned to the ground by the Rags.

  Anticore: Sect creature which "wears convincing human skins" with "swarming insects... beneath the skin"

  Arborian: gardeners from Groves

  Arcers: a type of mancer able to summon blades of energy

  Ascen, The/The Ascendant: divinities "watching over every verse"?

  Assessor: census-taker

  Audits/"Diggers": Libriam internal affairs

  Autumn: verse rich in gold?

  Aze: swordmaker?

  Azure: An oceanic verse with blue beaches ruled by

  Berujat: "fleshmarkets"; primary seat of slave trade and home of most Lineage Masters, owned by Fraction.

  Black Court: a realm of pure darkness. Also, those who rule there. Where Partaking happens.

  Black Court Tribunal: localized Black Court authority?

  Blood, The: imbibed at Partaking, transforms one into a Dynast if they survive

  Book of Verses, The: the 1,000 verses ruled by the Dynasty. "The Kiloverse"

  Broadcliff, Tallmarket: cities in Stacks

  Bubo's Tale: Story of an ancient dyast who explored a mythical land called "Christendom" with his rats

  Calms: periods when ever-blowing winds die down in Berujat

  Canyon of Cages: cliff where slaves are held in Berujat

  Cave Dwellers: tribes that live in the underground in Origin, keep others out until "the Return"

  Century Thread: additional threads appearing elsewhere on the body every century a Dynast lives

  Cerebrist: creator of slavants

  Chalk/"Vistas": verse entirely made of chalky cliff, belongs to Reck

  Chant, The/Sacrosanct Chant: some sort of law in the Dynasty?

  Chant of Inoculation: chant supposed to protect against disease, "Mudra of Cleansing"

  Chapters: power groupings among the Dynasts of the Book: predominantly The Ancients, the Fractious Fraction, and Isolates.

  Circular Sea: an ocean abutting the Jadeye segment of Heaven's Tread

  Clock Priest: priests from Gears who track and tell time religiously

  Commu: chewed drug/herb?

  ConMach: convoy? courier? "ConMach drains the very life from the Directory's verses". Supply "ConMach machines"

  Construct: some great machine draining reality via black holes to create the All.

  Crowmen: buy corpses to return them to life and service as rotters

  Cupola Thorn: the main Thorn in the city Jadeye in Heaven's Tread, a stone dome built over it

  Currence: something valuable inside old coins? "harder than currence"? "Solid current forms currence." Currence melts to watter.

  Currency: money, gold coins once held currence inside to give value, now debased

  Current: some form of energy that powers "artifices"? "Solid current forms currence."

  Directory: "the Directory to Ink is like the Dynasty to the Book", dominating rulers of Ink

  Donative, The: Black Court taxes, taken by Legion if not offered. Don't pay, no Partaking every century.

  Dusa: people with manipulable hair of silver wire, from Gears

  Dynast: individual given rule of a verse if they survive Partaking. Ageless and hard to kill. Regenerative. Sustained by "the Blood"; no food or water necessary.

  Dynast's Tower: a massive tower at the peak of Ziggurat.

  Dynasty: the Dynasts who rule the Book

  Ebon: founder of the Dynasty and Black Court

  Ebon Saga: the tale of Ebon's foundation of The Book and Dynasty

  Ebonese: the language of the Book

  Echoseer shells: devices to allow one to "see" in the Black Court

  El: semi-insubstantial snake/remora-like creatures that follow gods (and sometimes Dynasts) around

  "Emperor of Everything": popular kids story about Inro turning down becoming emperor, then crushing those who elevated a different Dynast

  Feral: bone-masked bodyguards who require the essence of their master to survive. "Damned to Ferals" as a form of capital punishment. "the damned", "damned to a Feral"

  Fetalist: Imminent faction who believe the future is unchangeable

  First Thread/Primus: a fresh Dynast/the first luminescent silver thread etched into their foreheads.

  Forge: verse ruled by Tyrs with much metalworking

  Fractious Fraction/"DissatisFaction"/"The Renewal": a major Dynastic Chapter who "hate everyone including each other", "entice every freemancer and Lineage Master" ... "to Berujat". For those with "verses deficient in maor ways."

  Gates, The: Inter-verse travel method created by Ebon. Opened with Limn

  God, A: unique, "undying" creatures of immense size, The First Ones

  God's Rote: child's first memorization, what gods are

  God-dwellers: "monks" who live on a god

  God-touched: those who have physically touched a god (and lived)

  Gonist: organ dealers and traders

  Gons: self-sustaining organs capable of living outside a host

  Graves: a verse "Made of the dead by the dead for the dead".

  Green People: A tribe of jungle dwellers from Origin

  Groves: a forest verse, home to Arborists

  Heaven's Tread: a verse "inside a hollow rolling pin", host to Jadeye, the largest city in the Book

  High Parser: officials from Ink

  Imminent: seers advising Dynasts and shaping course of The Book

  Imminent Prophecy: something about a barbarian Dynast, Ender of Verses and/or Savior of Dynasties?

  Inevitables; faction of Imminent who believe it is their sacred duty to ensure the future comes to pass as seen

  Ink: home verses of the Skeinry, Keens, Directory, and "the Faded People". Drained of color and drained.

  Innoculist: doctors who teach chants "brought from Logos" to cure disease

  Inviolate: agents of the black court who "serve the Black Court, protect the Dynasty, uphold the Chant, root out corruption" with "unlimited, undisclosed, and untraceable budgets"

  Inviolate Vial: carried by Inviolates as badge of office

  Iode: substance that ignites when crushed

  Iris: the giant portals leading between one cylinder of Heaven's Tread to the next

  Isolates: a major Dynastic Chapter with a "unified stand for independence", "cheat the Donative, stockpil[e] currence and watter" "hire Keen mercenaries" "raise own private Legions in secret"

  Jade Eye, The: the "giant emerald" at the middle of Ocyl's Spire in Jadeye

  Jadeye: the largest city in the Book and major trade hub, in Heaven's Trade

  Jar: Name of a "gold" coin now made of brass. Once held currence within.

  Jaxeday: holiday in Stacks with boat carvings, feasts, games of Fishhead, dances, and storytelling

  Jaxestack: a whitewashed stack on Stacks home to Jaxekin. Destroyed by Aida.

  Jutland Reach: a verse with guns?

  Gates: previous travel method before Thorns and the Kiss, opened by painting Limn on an arch in one verse and another in Terminus

  Green People: tribes that live in the jungles of Origin

  Keen: Ink warriors wearing impossibly-heavy iron armor whose power source drains color from the area about it. "Tank knights"

  Kin: descendants of a Dynast, most desperately trying to reach 100 so they can Partake

  Kiss, The: disease that wiped out "hundreds of verses", also name for the time period when Aj became active last and destroyed 100s of verses before halting in Sunset

  Lambent ram: animal whose wool glows?

  Letch: sect bred leech-like creature designed to stop bleeding on wounds

  Libriam: a swampy verse home to the Annalis, heart of The Book's bureaucracy

  Libwe: tribe possessing the "holy" Limn clay bed.

  Limn: "infused clay" bearing some sort of internal power, used by Ebon to found the Dynasty

  Lineage: a line of mancers taught by a Master

  Linemen: workers on the Stacks trolleys who pull the cars along the lines

  Lizard Hunters: Arca's people, walkers of the wastes of Origin

  Logos: "the thought realm"

  Machine Curse: something that stops machines from working between verses?

  Mancers: "no mancers arc (could) affect it", people with abilities beyond human normal, usually trained/implanted by a Master.

  Master's Markets: primary slave market in the Book in Berujat

  Menial: common folk

  Molt: person able to shed skins (see skins)

  Mon, The: "the Outsiders". "exist only to destroy the Book" with their "demonic and monstrous children" from "the Hells beyond". The same race as the Ascen but objectors to the creation of the All.

  Monopolis: the "City of Currency", bank verse ruled by Rega

  Mourne, The: something dangerous that lurks in the Vale, "the why we do not tarry"

  Mother's Faith: the relgion based on Aida created by Semon

  Mother's Militant: Formerly the Rogue Legions led by Eonora, now pledged to protect the people of the Book

  Mune: a utopist collective from Dost who mask their identities and share everything communally

  Nameday: when children are named

  Ocyl's Preserve: a garden "beyond the Circular Sea" in Heaven's Tread?

  Ocyl's Spire: the tower home to the court of Ocyl, Dyanst of Heaven's Tread

  One Tribe, The: Arca's new tribe incorporating the Libwe and whomever else is conquered or enticed to join.

  One-Eighth Shithole: Aida's verse. Unfortunately. A desolate place home to volcanoes and a giant dead turtle

  Optomime: gadgeteer

  Origin: the First Verse, from which Ebon originated, containing the "Cities Below". The "first page of The Book"

  Pale, The: light-skinned people, conquered by Ebon during the founding of the Dynasty. Alternately, albinism

  Paragon: warrior who can see the future

  Partaking: the ritual that creates Dynasts (or kills those who try). Performed by some unknown, large creature in the Black Court.

  Phero: Lineage whose scent creates overwhelming attraction

  'pillar: fuzzy Sect-bred giant caterpillar pet

  Porcelain Guard: Ocyl's white-masked Ferals

  Pure Priest of the Ascen/Blind Priests: priests praising the Ascen and back the Black Court

  Rags: derogatory name for alliance of Isolates and Fractious Fraction. Call themselves "Resistance Against the Grevious Ancient Coup."

  Reachers: massive, Sect-bred creatures that direct traffic and rescue unfortunates in the Sighted Path in Jadeye

  Reconquest: time four-hundred years ago when Inro "drove [tribals] back into civilization's fold at spear point"

  Rotters: sack-clothed, crudely-masked 'zombies' uses as pack-beasts and simple laborers. Created/sold by Crowmen.

  Royal Strider: giant striders which carry carriages of the wealthy slung underneath them

  Sect, The: breeders of useful insectoid- and/or sauroid-like creatures

  Seericide: seers capable of Knowing everything as they die

  Seneschal: chief servant of a Dynast, bear permanent strings allowing them to speak and understand any language

  Shale: a verse famous for its expensive stone

  Shore Striders: tribes that live along the oceans of Caves

  Shackle Pens: slave pens near Master's Market in Berujat?

  Shrineway: religious section of Jadeye "brailled prayers along the walls ... [and] cobblestones"

  Sighted Path: the zero-g road down the center of Heaven's Tread

  Silk: verse owned by Asta where all of verse's silk originates

  Sixth Tier Rebellion: last major uprising, in Ziggurat a century ago when "half the legions rose up". Put down by Baka

  Skeinry: iron-plated communication centers where Skeiners translate vibrations sent by wyre from other verses

  Skin/Hollow: animate skin of a molt able to move, talk, and share snatches of its experience with its molt

  Skinlife: living tattoos

  Skinscribe: individuals brailled with lore, walking libraries

  Slavant: an individual who "loses much" to be implanted with an ability

  Soresearer: individuals capable of "healing" by cauterizing wounds with their hands

  Stacks: An ocean verse comprised of tall pillars jutting up from the seas. Trolleys run on long ropes between them "affixed by Anchorites to airy nothing". Overrun by demons.

  Striders: "stilt-legged gray-skinned insect-lizard"s used as fast mounts, large enough to carry several riders

  Strings: worn or implanted wire devices that translate speech

  Stone Walkers: tribes that live in the cold of Origin

  Subterrane, The: inter-verse travel route accessed by Ebon via Limn

  Sunset: the verse where Aj was 'contained', formerly protected by Dynast Inro. The "Prison of Prisons" holds mad Dynasts, monsters and demons... vaults of dangerous relics.

  Sunset Legions/Vault Legions: Inro's Legions, wiped out by Aj in Sunset

  Surgon: person able to remove organs

  Swirl: A verse. "The pleasure barges of Swirl"

  Syphon: machine ConMach uses to "drain the very life" and color from a verse to "fuel... machinery"

  Tangle, The: the jungles of the One-Eighth

  Terminus: the verse from which the Gates all opened, hub of the Book before The Kiss and now mostly abandoned.

  Thorn: huge, curling thorns which Valeers can use as gateways to the Vale, doorways between verses. Grow into verses over centuries. The 2√3 Dynasty.

  Thrum: guide in the Black Court

  Tribunal: group of three Dynasts coming together to make ruling or pass judgment

  Twine: "one soul threaded through two bodies"

  Unkillable Swordsman: a Paragon killed by Deia long ago

  Vale: "The Place Between". A realm of high-contrast black and white full of thorns and Thorns.

  Vale Walkers: discoverers of verses

  Valeer: people capable of activating Thorns, barely functional of anything else

  Valeer's 'nail: crystals containing wafers that allow travel within the Vale to specific verses without a Valeer

  Venger: muscle man?

  Verse: a pocket universe or world

  Verser Lord/Lady: agents of an individual Dynast who rule part of a verse at the whim of their Dynast

  Vibrant: color-changing individuals from Ink?

  Watter: an energetic liquid. "Currence melts to watter. Watter's current dissipates over time, leaving water."

  Weeping Falls: Jadeye Iris flowing with waterfalls

  Wicker Way: towers of stone, wood, and rope that connect opposite far sides of Jadeye

  Wiz of Berujat: multi-minded, capable of performing multiple tasks simultaneously

  World Spear: an immense stack on Stacks

  Wretch: untouchables forced to walk on all fours, "the human refuse that cleans up the literal waste piles"

  Wretch Plague/Dynast's Plague: the flu. A horrific disease spread by Wretches.

  Wyres: lines run through the Vale between verses that allow communication between. A giant Ziggurat