"What did it do?" Aida cried as anguished tears ran down her face. Rage, sorrow, and confusion warred as she glared at the motionless, expressionless Aj, glancing back at them dispassionately, inhumanely.

  Ghillie grabbed her chin and turned Aida to face her. What must be done. Eth had to know this was coming, right? She chose this.

  "How could anyone choose this?" Aida said, leaping to her feet and wheeling towards Aj. "Hey, you! You, hey!"

  Inro shouldered her aside so hard she fell over, the Dynast charging towards Aj's back. His shadow-wrought blade shifted like smoke. Hassani stepped into his path and he skidded to a stop, the one-eye'd warrior hoving tight to one flank while the woman spun a grenade-stone in a sling on the other.

  "It will end, but it's not for you to do it," Hassani said.

  "Out of my way, Inviolate, or you die too," Inro growled, looking past her towards the Aj.

  "All of this happens, has happened, and will happen for a reason. And the Aj is the key to making it so."

  "Everything's been broken since I was a boy. Since Ebon died. If the Aj is the key, then it needs to be destroyed," Inro said.

  Aida turned to blast away an obnoxious pair of Legionaries as they charged towards her, missing the last of the Inro and Hassani's discussion. She turned back just as the fight started, Hassani's super-human timing and reflexes making a centuries-old warrior-Dynast look like an awkward teenager by comparison and his companions like toddlers. In a few perfect sword strokes, she blocked his shadow blade, shattered the one-eye'd man's spear in a detonation that left all of them bloody, parried a sling stone from the woman, rolled, and kicked her legs out from under the woman all in the same fluid motion. She stood with her ice blade held to the woman's throat as the man's companion groaned and struggled to pull himself from the mud.

  In the distance, a unit of Keens thundered charged a Legion formation, arrows and spears shattering on their armor. A few string-armed Dynasts blasted them apart, but as soon as they did so found themselves riddled with fist-sized holes from the Keen's rifle-canons. Mancers charged out of the Legion ranks just before the Keens hit, slicing through rusting armor with paper-thin blades of blue energy, shifting endlessly through vaguely-animalistic shapes, and others somehow locking Keens in rigidly in place with a touch. Then they vanished in a cloud of rifle-cannon smoke.

  On another front, a horde of Inro's warriors hurled exploding grenade-stones into a Legion shield-wall, arrows and spears shattering against their sparkling clay. Someone in the Legion camps wised up, unleashing catapults full of something like Greek Fire or napalm. However much the clay protected from impact, judging by the screaming, thrashing forms, it did little against being cooked alive. Then a rush of warriors thundered into the explosion-gapped Legion ranks. The battle lines dissolved into a thousand small skirmishes and Inro's clay-clad warriors not-yet engaged wheeled about to face a terrifying charge of strider cavalry crashing into their flank.

  Closer to the Terrtle, a block of Keens advanced cautiously, some sort of megaphone-like device ordering the Inkies among Aida's people to surrender. Everyone fled their advance, even the Militant's tight formations backing away slowly in the face of the clanking mass of walking armor. Then the formation marched through a cluster of boulders and a group of boys with slings hurled what looked like sodden chunks of flesh out into their midst. Everyone then discovered the boulders were terrtles, the meat awakening them and sending them snapping out at the nearest Keens. As the Keens turned to chop at the terrtle's apparently stone-tough shells, a screaming mob of Inkies rushed forward with Molotov cocktails.

  Most were gunned down on approach, but enough hurled their flaming projectiles to set the trampled Tangle about the Keens alight. Terrtles and Keens alike roasted in the blaze, their screams lost in a rippling volley of gunfire from packed ranks of Directory riflemen formed up behind them. Their bullets tore into Aida's people indiscriminately and Aida found herself shouting in rage and involuntarily lurching back towards the Terrtle.

  A scattering of dead strider corpses shifted, revealing themselves as actually couple dozen Vibrants packing more flaming bottles. They caught the front ranks of Ink riflemen reloading while the back stood unable to fire through their companions. As densely massed as there formations packed, they could do little but shout, jostle, and scream as the firebombs erupted in their midst. While their companions screamed and writhed, most of those nearby dropped their weapons and fled. A few potshots hit the fleeing, shifting Vibrants, but most made it back to the relative safety Terrtle unscathed.

  Aida happened to spot Wake and Sava circling each other across a stretch of body-strewn ground, combat raging all about them. Both of them screamed at the same time, some terrible sort of resonance building up between them. Everyone nearby clutched at their ears and even at her remove Aida winced as the sound fluctuated and shifted through discordant extremes of volume and frequency. Then, as the sound shifted too high for hearing but so high Aida could feel it, their bones shattered like glass, exploding out of them. Their punctured husks collapsed.

  She found herself next to Inro, the man agonizing as he watched the Aj vanish into the smoke and dust, then glancing to where Hassani stood, holding her blade to the woman's throat.

  "Let him go," Hassani said. "End this."

  "Let the Inro go," the woman at Hassani's feet echoed. "Let past die or have no future."

  "Your people can come with," Aida interjected, pointing to the rubble of the Terrtle's skull. Atop the heap, the Thorn jutted, intact. "We'll just-"

  She cut off as the Thorn stretched to a massive extent, blurred, and whipped back. Shapeless, jagged, spined, taloned, and bladed shapes materialized out of the haze-shimmer of Vale transition. Screams and shouts began, the abominations launching in all directions to rend, tear, and bite. Shouts and screams from the opposite direction towards where the second Thorn was located whipped her attention around. A much, much larger mass of crawling, slithering, bounding, flapping dark chitin and tendon and flesh poured through the Tangle.

  "Demons," Aida said, her blood chilling and goosebumps rising on her skin. "Goddamn. They're here now too."

  "Monsters," Parathas corrected numbly, hugging his wife and children close. "Hopefully few demons among them for many are invulnerable."

  Instantly, the human-against-human fighting halted, everyone who didn't immediately launch themselves at the creatures running away screaming. Aida stepped forward and glared into Inro's face. "We're retaking that Thorn, getting everyone we can together, and getting out of here before this place is as fucked as everywhere else. You have once chance to bring your people with or you can fight the demons for a chance to die trying to kill the Aj instead. Your call."

  With that, she turned away and thrummed her strings to life, Ghillie suddenly at her right side again. A moment later, Hassani join her on her left while his family and fat friend trailed behind.

  After blasting a few of the things to spatters of fleshy goo, Aida amplified her voice to a level she worried might break the strings. "GET TO THE THORN, NOW. THERE'S ONLY ONE CHANCE TO GET OUT OR YOU'RE STAYING HERE."

  "What if there's more of these on the other side?" Parathas said, the scribe looking strange armed with a spear he'd picked up somewhere. His wife picked up a bayoneted rifle and even the kids carried knives that probably served more as security blankets than real protection against the horrors they faced.

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  "We'll kill those demons when we cross them," Aida said before unleashing an arcing, ripping scream that mulched a wave of monsters in their path.

  Something splattered all over her and she whirled to see Hassani standing behind her amid a pile of bony dark viscera that likely had been a monster a moment before.

  "Thanks," Aida said, moving up beside a phalanx of Militant advancing like a brutal machine into the mass of monsters. Spears thrust and yanked, men stabbed between shields with short blades, slipped in mud thick with demon ichor and corpses of monster and man alike. A few were yanked from the their brothers by a stray tentacle, barbed whip, or pouncing horror, but somehow they maintained cohesion, plugged the gaps, and continued to advance. Aida screamed and shouted until her throat hurt, several strings snapped, and her legs ached with the effort of slogging forward into the gruesome mire.

  The Militant advance slowed as exhaustion and wounds wore at them. Though the Thorn came in sight jutting from the Terrtle skull rubble heap, too many monsters still seethed between them and it.

  "We're not going to make it," Aida said to Ghillie as the woman leapt away from turning a snake-milipede into a leaky, many-legged flesh tube. "But if we pull back, where is there to go?"

  She turned to see what had seemed an endless, immense battle near the Terrtle was but a skirmish compared to the endless churning mass of monsters beginning to engulf the Legion camps. With their fortifications, massive numbers, hard discipline, and training, the Legions slaughtered every monster that crawled, slithered, bounded, or flew within range. Siege weapons hurled rocks, logs, burning jars, and spears as big around as her arm. Reinforcements streamed in to relieve exhausted soldiers on the front lines or carried wounded back to sprawling hospital tents. Dynasts plugged gaps, launched counter offensives, and bolstered morale with ripping string-blasts that arced monster pieces dozens of yards into the air.

  But the monsters came on. They poured in endless profusion from the direction of the second Thorn, seemingly drawn to Rega's gleaming bronze ziggurat. At least it spared the marginally-armed mob around the Terrtle the worst of it, only having to fight the smaller masses which spilled from the Terrtle Thorn. Lumbering monsters the size of houses thudded, rolled, or churned amid their smaller brethren. Most died long before reaching the battered ditches and palisade walls to siege munitions or strider rushes darting in for Dynasts to shatter them and retreat to safety. But here and there a strider went down and a Dynast died. The ammunition piles stacked beside the siege weapons looked impressive, but they dwindled as she watched. An occasional flying horror made it through the withering storm of javelins, arrows, and sling stones to damage a catapult or tear a ballista crew to shreds before being put down.

  Suddenly, a pure, sharp hum shook her bones. The white throne atop the ziggurat glowed and an ear-splitting cry so strong as to produce a shock wave punched out from the top of the ziggurat. The kinetic sound plowed a half-kilometer-long furrow through the monsters towards a demon that floated in the air in what looked something like a gown made of wisps of smoky energy, blasting the abomination into swirling motes of blackness.

  But still they came on.

  Her gaze skipped towards the mountainous Draggin as it roared in anger or pain, its colossal body swarmed with monsters that appeared the size of ants compared to its immensity. Then, with enough force to crevice the ground and jolt everyone off their feet for a moment, it lurched and rolled, crushing uncounted demons beneath its impossible mass. Distant volcano's belched forth fresh gouts of ash and fire at the impact, their rumble adding to that of its tumbling immensity.

  Aida grinned fleetingly as she turned back to the fight to see the Militant formation no longer advancing, but slowly giving ground. Every warrior bled or limped, most gritted their teeth or shouted with the exertion of holding their shields against the press of dark flesh and sinew. A few collapsed with nothing left to give as she watched.

  Aida rose her strings to their maximum, ready to save them or die trying when explosions suddenly ripped through the monsters. Painted warriors singing a ferocious, explosive war chant charged past her, slamming full-force into the monsters. Unlike the disciplined phalanx of the Militant, each warrior fought like a wild animal, laughing, snarling, or howling as they fought. Grinning as they died. Inro and his companions halted beside her for a moment and the woman looked Aida in the eye.

  "One Tribe choose live. All go where the Mother go, even if that be death."

  Inro nodded, grinned, and was off into the fray. As the monsters reeled under their ferocious onslaught, the ground trembled and she turned to see a wall of rusting metal charging forward on the Militant formation's far side. Gunfire rippled from their ranks, fist-sized balls of iron ripping through the monsters. They punched into the swarm with an audible concussion that Aida felt shake the ground like a bomb blast, their cleavers rising and falling like a mobile, early-industrial butchery machine on any monster dumb enough to come near.

  Behind them, gray-garbed riflemen marched with bayonets extended, firing in sections at any creature trying to flank or break through the Keens ranks. Those strange caterpillar-walker machines crawled along behind them, heavy with baggage and surrounded by mobs of what looked like normal Inkie city-folk.

  Maxem trudged through the mud as though it was nearly too much to manage and looked up at Aida tiredly. "Directory ordered us home to defend Ink. Monsters everywhere. They're using the people as fodder to wear them down while they fall back to their fortresses."

  She shook her head and looked over at a mix of Inkies, ex-slaves, and locals fighting for their lives with improvised weapons against a scorpion-wolf-thing and shook her head. "I'm not fighting for them anymore. Once thought they served the people, but they'd sacrifice all of us just to buy themselves an extra day of safety before our cities are overwhelmed. I sent orders to escort as many as we can from the cities to the Thorns and come to this Thorn. Didn't expect it to be obeyed, but it seems I'm not the only one who felt this way. Don't know how many will make it here, but reports are it's just as bad there as here. Ink is doomed. You're our hope now."

  With a sigh and a shrug, Maxem turned to look at the Keen's handiwork. "Or a novel variation of the same doom, anyway."

  "Cheery, as always," Aida said, then ran with Hassani and Ghillie flanking her to join the fray.

  The fight for the Thorn took what had to be hours by the drift of the suns, the fight prolonged by the Thorn regularly spiraling out to disgorge more waves of horrors. Hassani had taken the Earth 'nail from Aida and, with supernatural grace and battle prowess carved her way to the Thorn with that crazy ice blade. Apparently, touching the 'nail to the Thorn's base sufficed to turn it from a door in to a door out. The arc of the Thorn painstakingly stretched to what seemed like an impossible diameter as it expanded to encompass more and more of those packing in towards it. Not only were her people pressed about it so tightly they could barely move, Sect creatures, Mancers, Mune Collectivists, and Dynasts huddled tight. The Militant, the One Tribe, the riflemen, combat marcers, and Keens held a tenuous, bloody perimeter as the monsters began to surround them.

  "We can't hold anymore. We have to go."" Ocyl's Seneschal Janali shouted from where she'd taken over holding the 'nail to the Thorn. Aida had no idea where the woman had come from, but was suddenly glad she was here. She glanced around for Ocyl but couldn't make him out in the chaos if he was there at all.

  Aida shouted again, blasting a bus-sized octopus-eagle back into its companions. A hum shook her bones and left her trembling, whether from overusing the strings or something else she couldn't tell. All around the perimeter, the lines were barely holding. The few areas where their encirclement wasn't complete, monsters were murdering anyone trying to make it into the Thorn's reach. A quick, brutal mental calculus left her figuring that more were dying than were being saved. She nodded at Janali and the woman pulled the 'nail away from the base of the Thorn.

  Immediately, everything began to shimmer. The monster horde redoubled their efforts, yanking people out or tearing at each other to get in before the Vale pulled them away. Aida tried to shout again and... nothing happened. She lurched back, touching the strings to find they'd all broken.

  Dazed and exhausted, she backed up behind Ghillie and Hassani, her gaze drawn to the distant ziggurat.

  Monsters had completely overwhelmed the Legion camp. The battered survivors made a desperate stand on the ziggurat's tiers, but the lower levels had already been taken. Another was overrun as she watched. Rega stood atop the Throne, her voice crescendoing and energy building visibly, the ash and smoke choking the air curling into beautiful resonant geometries about the ziggurat's apex. As the last line of Legion defense crumbled, Dynasts blasted about with their strings desperately, and her steel-clad Ferals took the brunt of the onrush of malformed shapes clawing their way up the ziggurat, Rega screamed.

  Aida clamped her hands over her ears, but it served little to muffle the piercing, endless cry. The sound detonated the bodies of the Ferals and Dynasts inside their armor, sending them crumpling down about her. In rippling waves, the monsters likewise imploded, whatever their size, shape, or composition. The explosion rippled outward, sprays of viscera and bodies hurling a twenty meters up into the air as the shock waves echoed out from the ziggurat in all directions, rushing across and shredding what was left of the Tangle in a tsunami of sound. A moment before the wave reached Terrtle and Thorn, the Vale yanked them away.

  Next chapter: The last journey.

  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. Died on the One-Eighth birthing as an 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. Killed by Jaxe in the One-Eighth.

  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. Died fighting his Hundred in the One-Eighth.

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

  Sava: Dynast of Libriam, died fighting Wake in the One-eighth

  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. Died fighting Sava in the One-eighth.

  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