"No one else has to suffer, at least," Aida said, trying to convince herself as much as Ghillie. "A fast death is better than what they were facing."

  Ghillie nodded, then turned and pointed.

  What Aida had thought was a cloud front darkening the horizon gained detail as they drifted towards it. Not a cloud, another stack, its size dwarfing even the largest of its kin. It filled half the horizon and reached up towards the blue heavens like the white cliffs of the Vale.

  The World Spear, Ghillie signed.

  "Thorn. Home." Aida said, slumping down against the nearest railing, suddenly more tired than she could remember being. "Home... whatever that is."

  It took most of the rest of the day to reach the World Spear. The size of the thing kept reclassifying in her mind from huge, to stupidly huge, to colossal, to almost absurd. A pillar made from smashing a couple Mount Everests on top of each other.

  The docks spread larger and more extensive than those pretty much anywhere else she'd seen on Stacks. In spite of that, they were clogged with ships, barges, rafts, and pretty much anything else that could float. Individuals of all sorts, types, and description streamed down the docks carrying bundles of all their worldly goods towards the theoretical safety of the World Spear. Many bore gruesome wounds, missing limbs, or soaked-through bandages - testament to the presence of demons or monsters or whatever all across the verse.

  Squinting into the dusky shade, she thought she recognized the lone figure standing at the gap in a stretch of dock they tiredly paddled towards.

  Eth. Tapping her foot impatiently and sighing between chewing on her fingernails.

  "Nothing fancy about it," Eth called by way of greeting, speaking at the same time Aida did in that annoying way she had.

  "Fancy meeting you... right." Aida called back. "So I guess you know what all happened? My turning Jaxe into chunky paste, breaking his stack, and fleeing the demons?"

  "Of course I did. I've known it since long before I met you that this happens." Eth rolled her eyes.

  "Of course you did. Oh, because... I just told you," Aida said, speaking her thoughts aloud as she the realization hit her.

  The ship scraped against the dock and people scrambled out half in panic. The second barge neared another stretch of dock closer to the horizon-filling World Spear in whose shadow they stood, the craft nearly tipping as everyone pushed to one side of the boat. Mere meters from shore, the barge capsized, dumping everyone into the brink. Aida cursed impotently as people thrashed and clawed to find a way ashore while many of those who had made it to land lay prostrate on the docks, reaching down to pull others from the water before they drowned or attracted hungry sea creatures, natural or otherwise.

  Screams broke out on a dock further away as an immense, tentacled whale-jellyfish-octopus thing crashed straight through a two-masted galley just pulling in itself and splintered the boards of the wide dockway there like matchsticks.

  "Hurry maybe," Eth said, pointing towards the dark, yawning mouth cut into the Spear like an open mouth vomiting out a sprawling fan of bobbing wooden plankways. People pushed and shoved all around her to scramble off the barge, tilting it alarmingly. "It ends up being tight, as usual, especially since you insist on trying to get all these people through with you. Don't know how you managed to keep those clothes clean and intact this long, but they won't be by the time we leave."

  "We taking them back to the One-Eighth?" Aida said, then turned and used a number of creative threats and sheer volume to stabilize the refugees' desperate scramble off the barge before they mirrored the other's fate. She waited to get off until most of the refugees had finished their departure, in part since she'd just gotten Eth's assurance they all made it and part to avoid getting knocked into the drink like a dozen-odd of those who'd gone before her.

  Regardless of Eth's assurances, she had no more desire to face one of those creatures in the dark, fizzing waters than anyone else here did.

  "Sending them there while we go to Terminus," Eth said, reaching out to help stabilize Aida as she lunged across the gap between ship and dock. "Yes, Terminus."

  "Did you say Ter-" Aida sighed. "Name inspires all sorts of delightfully uplifting thoughts."

  "It's not about the where we're going, it's about the who we meet there."

  "Assuming you won't clarify? Wouldn't want to ruin your girlish cryptic mystique."

  Eth grunted in a very un-girlish manner as they strode quickly down the dock in a thickening flow of other refugees. People mobbed about her as she walked, calling out for "the Mother's mercy" and begging for her protection. As the mob pressed in and slowed their progress to a crawl, she amplified her voice yet again. "I offer my protection to all who want to come to the One-Eighth with me. Just head to the Thorn my Imminent says they've got in the Spear and we'll get the hell off this rock ASAP."

  You might be reading a stolen copy. Visit Royal Road for the authentic version.

  "I'm not your Imminent," Eth grumped.

  The monstrosity that had broken the ship apart and half-beached itself on the nearby dock slipped back into the water dragging a dozen screaming unfortunates into the water. It made her doubt her ability to do jack to protect them, but if her words got them moving instead of slowing her down, she'd promise them anything.

  They managed to make it to the huge cavern carved from the solid rock face without another attack, but the sheer number of people pushing their way in slowed things down to the foot-traffic equivalent of rush hour in Los Angeles. Even amplifying her voice to get people to move out of the way did little as there seemed to be nowhere to go for those already smushed inside aside from a wide yet still too-narrow stairway curving up into the rock on the chamber's far side. As they eventually passed under the yawning arch leading inside, Ghillie tugged at Aida's sleeve and pointed behind them.

  At the sky, not water.

  "Fuck me," Aida said, squinting out at what she first thought were sea birds fleeing the other stacks, but gradually realized were shaped wrong and as many undulated through the skudding, golden dusky clouds as flapped wings or wing-equivalents. "Are those more demons?"

  "Yes," Eth said, without looking. "Sooner we get to that Thorn, less people get eaten."

  Aida turned and shoved harder, but it did little. Boosting her voice to near-deafening level didn't help a bit. Then the people outside spotted the swarm of demons gliding towards them and turned the tight space reeking of fear and sweat into a mosh pit. If enough people went down, it would turn to a stampede.

  "You have to," Eth said, looking at her grimly.

  "You mean blast my way to the Thorn? I can't even see it yet."

  "If you don't do it now, everyone dies, including us."

  Aida froze with indecision for a moment, then turned to see a sleek, shark-bat thing at the lead of the flock of horrors dive down and impale a straggler as the man climbed out of an overcrowded rowboat. The thing didn't kill him quickly, either, seeming to savor his pain, fear, and futile struggle.

  "Dammit," Aida said, thrumming her voice to a level she hoped would more displace and less maim. "Where's the Thorn?"

  Eth pointed towards the staircase wide leading up into the Spear.

  "Sorry people. It's the only way," Aida mumbled, before bracing herself. "MOVE!"

  People tumbled like bowling pins, spun like tossed dolls, and flattened into those nearby. The force of the shout knocked people down ten rows deep on either side of the channel she furrowed through them. Ghillie took off sprinting while people still tumbled through the air, with Aida and Eth running flat-out right behind her. When they reached the stairs and Ghillie's needles came out to ruthlessly drop anyone in their path who couldn't or didn't get out of the way.

  Aida glanced back. And immediately wished she hadn't.

  The flock had arrived, dropping like hawks onto the terrified press still pushing to get inside. The Spear's cavernous interior filled with echoing screams of horror and pain. As Aida feared, the stampede began, those not fast, strong, or lucky enough trampled beneath an unending surge of their fellows.

  Fortunately, they didn't have to go more than a few flights up before they found the spacious Thorn chamber branching off the gradually-spiraling stair. Most people fled past it further up the stairs towards who-knew-what, leaving the Thorn chamber mostly empty. Without a Valeer or 'nail, which apparently no one had, it wasn't an exit, but a literal dead end.

  Eth raced to the Thorn, produced a 'nail, and rubbed it against the Thorn. The Thorn's swelling response came immediately, as did the rush of desperate people spotting it on their flight up the stairs and deciding out was better than up. Eth called and waved to her from the Thorn, but Aida stood planted on the stairs at the Thorn chamber's opening, gesturing for people to head inside while keeping her strings thrumming at high intensity, ready to vaporize the first demon she saw.

  She didn't have to wait long.

  A trio of things half-spider, half-hawk scrambled across the ceiling above the stair tunnel. Aida smeared them across the stone with a bark, wincing as blasted bits of stonework rained down on the poor people scrambling up the stairs. She glanced at the Thorn, gauging how much longer she had until it reached maximum extent and yanked everyone off to the Vale. No more than a minute, she guessed.

  Turning her attention back towards the stairs, she cursed and leapt back. Another of the spider-things had launched itself at her while she was distracted and only a rapid-fire flurry of Ghillie's needles slamming into it as she crashed into it kept it from sinking it's hooked footpads into Aida's flesh. Ghillie rolled atop the thing, gripping its dark furry mass between her knees while driving the silver points into it like faster than a haywire sewing machine. Whatever her needles lacked in paralyzing power against the thing Ghillie made up for with speed. By the time the thing stopped moving and began to slough off into a thousand threads of black, oily meat and grimy hair, it couldn't have had less than a hundred holes punched in it.

  "Thanks," Aida said, pulling Ghillie to her feet and walking backwards slowly towards the nearly-maximal Thorn with her strings still thrumming at her throat.

  Not time to die yet, Ghillie signed before flicking dark blood and who-knew-what-else from her needles.

  An unending chorus of screams accompanied by the horrible sounds of meat ripping echoed up the stairs. The last frantic rush of survivors threw themselves towards the Thorn. A heaving mass of crawling, hopping, slithering, scrabbling abominations hounded their every step, dragging down the slowest of those fleeing them.

  "Aida!" Eth shouted. "Now!"

  "One sec," Aida said under her breath, amplifying her strings to the point she worried they might come apart, blow her voice box out, or both. Waiting until the awful judgment that the last few runners wouldn't make it into the Thorn's embrace, she unleashed her voice on the stairway's ceiling. As it shattered and crashed down, Aida and Ghillie ducked back under the Thorn's protective reach.

  A handful of demons proved fast enough to clear the raining debris. Aida screamed at them as they hurled through the air towards her.

  And Stacks fell away.

  Next chapter: Hassani's hasty reunion and flight from the same stack.

  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.

  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

  Deai: Hassani's swordmaster, renowned for killing a Paragon

  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