Rega tilted her head so slightly that Aida wasn't entirely sure she didn't imagine it. Flanking her on the other side stood another tall, armored female Dynast that Aida gradually realized must be Sava.

  "Oh, you survived the Directory. Can't imagine that was much fun. Hope you don't mind that we buggered off."

  Sava's gaze shifted from her mutual staring contest with Wake and took in all of Aida with on dismissive glance. "Lost half my Legion fighting my way back out of there. I'll lose every man and women in the remainder if I can finish putting down the Rag rebellion here."

  "We'll see what we can do to accommodate the first part of that," Wake snarled.

  Aida turned to Aliasara. "I think we're winning on the witty banter front so far at least."

  "Good," Aliasara whispered in her ear. "Because I think even with everyone together, the Legions still outnumber us. And we don't know whose side the Directory is on yet. Or... whoever the painted people are."

  "Well, looks like we'll find out shortly," Aida said, nodding towards a gap that opened in the encircling Militant to allow Maxem and a handful of the fancy tank-knights to pass. About the same time, another opening peeled apart on the other side to let the painted trio in, plus a tall, likewise-painted woman whose long hair carried an large enough assortment of bones and charms to fill a basket. The woman looked grim as hell and even the painted warriors they passed gave the woman wide berth.

  "Inro? You're supposed to be dead!" Jaxe half-shouted in surprise.

  Inro apparently was the two-eyed, two-handed, buff guy. Aida wasn't sure she'd heard anyone with a voice as deep as his before as he replied. "Really? I heard all the Ancient propaganda about me going about destroying verses. Turns out it's the Mon and the Aj after all."

  "Directory's been fighting demons and monsters in Ink for centuries," Maxem said blandly. She glanced at the tank-knights about her. "Keens are our weapon against them."

  "So you're here to fight demons?" Aida said, frowning. "Sorry to break it to you, but we're lucky enough to not have any here."

  "Yet," Maxem said, then shook her head. "But we're not here for that. We're here for something else entirely."

  "Then whose side are you on?" Wake said bluntly.

  "Which side of what? Your civil war or rebellion or religious feud or whatever this is?" Maxem said, with that way she had of sounding like they were talking about vaguely-popular 80s hair bands she didn't particularly care about. She glanced at Sava. "We're here to gain recompense for the death and damage the Legions wrought in Ink."

  "Ha!" Aida said. "Take that."

  Maxim looked at Wake, then glanced towards where the majority of Inkies set up around the Terrtle. "We also came to reclaim our people whom you kidnapped from Ink."

  "Kidnapped?" Aida said, incredulous. "Don't you mean, 'people we didn't stop from leaving your depressing dystopia of a verse when they had the chance?'"

  Maxem looked at her flatly, then sighed.

  "Give them back to us," she said to Aida, then turned to Rega. "Then, you, you give us the leaders of the Legion that assaulted Ink and broke a treaty that's held for centuries. We've otherwise no quarrel here."

  "We'll pay you to join us!" Jaxe shouted. "We're the Ancients, we now rule all the Book."

  Maxem sagged as she looked at Jaxe. "The verses crumble under the weight of dead gods and floods of demon-spawned monsters. You own a shredded book, many verses of which you don't dare enter and whatever is left losing value by the day as your menials rebel in verses crumbling and cracking for lack of gods. The Directory is pulling back to its verses to fight the end; we've no interest in fighting here aside from claiming what is ours."

  "If those people want to stay, you'll take them back over my dead body," Aida said, glaring.

  "Even as leader of the Ancients, I've no authority to tell any other Dynast what to do," Rega said. "And I'm guessing Sava doesn't want to go."

  Sava snorted and glared at Maxem as if daring her to do something.

  "I thought if you could get three Dynasts and an Inviolate, then you'll be able to do whatever you want," Aida said, innocently.

  The story has been stolen; if detected on Amazon, report the violation.

  "Unfortunately, we don't have an Inviolate handy," Sava said. "They're off trying to hold the Book together."

  "Well, conveniently, I've got one here somewhere," Aida said, glancing back as Hassani pushed he way through the Militant. The woman's albino daughter and dark-skinned, gaunt husband trailed behind, the girl curious and the man hovering over her like the girl might vanish suddenly at any moment. Strangely enough, they'd also collected a tall, fat baby-faced man in dirty, loose-fitting orange robes and a cloth cap. The man looked completely out of place here, in demeanor and appearance both.

  Turning back to the Inviolate, Aida saw something deeper riding beneath Hassani's feigned lightness. The woman appraised Rega the way a predator might look over a dangerous prey animal or territorial intruder. Hatred or vengeance or both burned in her eyes. Aida wondered what happened to bring about that intense an emotion, but knowing how Dynasts treated everyone, she doubted it was unjustified.

  Rega seemed mostly unfazed upon seeing Hassani, except her lips pressed tightly together. On anyone else, it would have meant nothing, but considering it was the largest movement the Ancient leader had made since the stopped walking until that moment, maybe it meant something.

  "How about we hold a Tribunal right here," Hassani said, glancing around. "No shortage of Dynasts. And an Inviolate to spare if that's Taesal I see arriving at the back of your entourage."

  Aida glanced the direction Hassani gestured, seeing a buff, black-haired woman whose face bore a long white scar. The woman gave Hassani the Book equivalent of the middle finger and Hassani waved back, suppressing a smile.

  "The Rags assaulted the Black Court, stole the Partaker, and thus broke the rules of the Black Court," Rega said. "Tribunals have no more meaning than any of the laws of the Book now."

  "How convenient, now that you're potentially on the pointy end of it," Aida said dryly.

  "What about you, Inro was it?" Aida said. "I've heard things about you, but most of my information comes from centuries-old stories."

  Inro's companions had spend the whole time looking about at everything and everyone like curious children or gawking tourists, whatever their ferocious, savage appearance. Inro took everything in as if they were variable he was busy plugging into some complicated formula. All attention turned to him as Aida spoke to him.

  "I, like the Directory tool there," Inro began, gesturing towards Maxem with a dismissive gesture, "have only two demands."

  He pointed past Aida to where Eth stood behind her, chewing her fingernails down to the quick. "The Imminent killed Ebon during the Kiss. I've waited more than five centuries to claim vengeance for my mothers death and I'm not going to wait a day longer."

  This caused tumult among nearly everyone, emotions ranging from surprise to anger to confusion to disbelief to outrage to skepticism. Aida turned to Eth, seeking confirmation. All she saw instead was a scared, confused teenager trying to hold it together and barely pulling it off.

  "You don't even know do you?" Aida whispered as she stepped closer.

  "I don't know who anyone is or what's going on. I just have a feeling that I've told myself for a long time that what's about to happen has to happen. It's not a memory since I barely remember anything, but it's a feeling."

  As she hugged the trembling Eth, she wondering what it was about people across time and universes that made it seem acceptable to murder someone vaguely related to a tragedy to somehow make them feel like they'd fixed the old tragedy with a fresh one.

  "What's the second part?" Jaxe said, chuckling. "We have to capture the Aj and bring it to you so you can put it back in prison?"

  Inro looked at Jaxe, with a look of distaste. "No. I'll kill the Aj myself. I want Rega to step down and leave me in charge of The Book"

  Most of the Ancients burst out laughing or shouted at him. Others broke into scandalized gossip or just stared in shock. Rega stood like a snake considering lunging at its prey. In the distance, the Draggin' moaned, the sound creating a minor quake.

  "No," she said, the word somehow intensified by her strings so that even as quietly as she uttered it, the word cut through all other sound. "No. I've worked for centuries for this. Even the Imminent said it will all be mine."

  "Look how well it turned out, now that you own most of it," Inro said, gesturing as if to encompass the Book. "Give it to me while there's still anything left to govern."

  Jaxe laughed loudest, the sound coarse and forced. Suddenly he stopped, his face grim. "How about you leave now while you at least have your band of painted savages following you."

  The look Inro gave him promised future violence, but Jaxe demeanor and affect fell somewhere between drunk and hysterical.

  "I think loosing his verse destabilized whatever little he had mentally," Aida whispered to Eth.

  "His moment of triumph is his last moment," Eth murmured, wiping her nose with her sleeve.

  "What?"

  "As long as we're making demands, I have a few," Jaxe said, drawing his huge sword and pointing toward Aida. "One, give me the Feral that paralyzed my arm, Mother of Shitholes. Two, turn yourself over to me so I can have my way with you. Three, let me take my pick of slaves among your people so I can repopulate the Stacks."

  "Demons and monsters rule the Stacks now," Hassani said. "Those slaves would just be sacrifices at your funeral."

  "Those are my demands." Jaxe planted the blade point-down then looked at Aida like he'd just remembered something important. "Oh! I have a gift for you, I almost forgot."

  He turned and pushed through the ranks of followers behind the Ancients. Aida felt weight settling in her stomach, knowing whatever excited Jaxe was likely to be something awful.

  She wasn't disappointed.

  A moment later, he returned dragging what looked like a mummy behind him. They way Rega's Seneschal tensed up gave her warning. The stench of rotting meat that came with him drew dark looks and mutters even among the Ancients. Aida'd smelled that familiar smell far too many times. The weight in her stomach grew heavier.

  Jaxe grinned and yanked the wrappings away from the rotter's face, revealing... Fallon, his visage familiar even with months of rotter-slowed decay. His milky eyes stared at nothing and he swayed, barely able to stay standing.

  "I found your Seneschal, Mother of Shitholes," Jaxe said. "Had to scrape him off the streets of Jadeye and hustle him to the Crowmen before he rotted away, but I knew you'd treasure a reunion."

  Next chapter: Same chapter. Another party joins in and complicates things.

  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