They called him 'Inro the Inevitable' for his legendary persistence. 'Inro could out-wait a stone' they said. Entirely true and complete sham: he absolutely seethed with impatience inwardly while wearing his mask of calm implacability.

  Like the many tribals he'd crushed during the Reconquest, these people waded through thickly-layered rituals and taboos to accomplish anything. Back then he'd ignored their taboos, broken their rituals, overwhelmed their false magics, and drove them back into civilization's fold at spear point. Now he sat at a ceremonial fire reeking of animal dung and pungent weeds, wrapped in a flaking, stinking lizard skin to protect them from his foreignness while he chewed the bitter roots and leathery meat these primitives survived on. All to garner some form of hospitality protections.

  Aside from the lizard and snake headdresses for the men, crude necklaces and belts, and the long, uncut hair both genders wore, no one wore anything beyond broad smears and vague geometries of bright paint. At least the married women arranged their hair to fall across their chests in token modesty.

  Their language eluded him beyond the odd word here and there. Those words, however, told him it must share some common root with Ebonese. Despite this limitation, Inro had walked the halls of power long enough to understand the dynamics even here where they lacked the sophistication to even build a hall.

  Arca, the older warrior who'd served as guide after Inro had killed the rest of his party, clearly spun the battle to maximize his own glory, to honor the noble fallen, and shame the fleeing coward. His retelling held the whole tribe enthralled with its potency. When the tale finally ended, the entire tribe rose up as one to drive the coward's entire family from their midst under a rain of fists, clubbings, and thrown rocks.

  Warlike to the extreme, these menials, respecting strength and valor over all else it seemed.

  The banishment served as useful distraction at least: the crude meal laid in a woven-grass bowl before Inro tumbled into the fire unnoticed.

  The urgency of what Inro absolutely needed to be doing right now to preserve the Dynasty ground his teeth so hard his jaw ached. So much to be done and here he was stuck playing the mysterious and powerful yet polite and non-threatening guest while these backward menials thrashed out the febrile nonsense they called a culture.

  He smiled politely and waved his now-empty bowl as they returned. This earned nods, gap-toothed smiles, and his inclusion in the next round as the animal bladder sloshing with what tasted like fermented urine passed among them. He feigned delight in this awful concoction too, pretending to savor the taste before feigning reluctance as he passed the drink on to the next gaping idiot in the ring of cretins surrounding him.

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  At least Arca made for entertaining watching, the man opportunistically utilizing their former chieftain's death at Inro's hand to maneuver himself for the position. All others who tried to interject or pushed for the position themselves he outmaneuvered through subtly-undercutting jokes at their expense while his own accomplishments and quallities inflated to smother theirs.

  So Arca became the new chieftain by acclaim. This state of affairs suited Inro fine since the fellow proved not only capable but also disposed to help Inro. So he sat, waited, and watched while Arca's ascension celebrations blended with funerals for the fallen. A few times Inro's hand drifted towards his sword when a mourning family member approached, but even the families of those he'd killed revered him for his battle prowess. They likely believed some gibberish about the dead earning plots in some warrior heaven through their glorious demise at Irno's hand or other such nonsense.

  Inro played his part. He'd wait and watch for opportunity. If only his Seneschal and his strings had escaped Sunset with him to expedite the process with real communication. The idiot had tried to talk to Aj to stall it during the rout. Aj punched his fist through the man with so much speed and force the chunk of meat flying out his back knocked over two Legionaries while the Seneschal stared down at the hole in his chest.

  When a new figure joined the gathering, the woman's appearance drove Inro's spine straight.

  Clad in feathers, paint, and bone piercings, the old woman moved only in dance, singing her own arhythmic song as she interjected herself into the community's center. The clan shaman or its equivalent. All others quieted and stilled as the white-haired woman took center place by the fire. Her cracked voice raised in a guttural chant. Hide drums appeared, their rhythms joined to hers.

  This all would simply serve to extend the nonsense but for one thing: the woman's paint. Inro knew now why the women wore it as clothing and their warriors armored themselves in thick, colorful smears as though it would turn a weapon: the shaman's paint would.

  Her swirled designs bore the distinct glinting glow of long-lost Limn, the very infused clay that Ebon utilized at the Dynasty's birth to cross the Subterrane, found the Black Court, create the Gates, birth the Dynasty, enslave the Pale, and create the Book. He'd only seen meager bowls of the stuff a few times in the treasure hoards and private collections of the most wealthy Dynasts. Once seen it could not be mistaken for anything else.

  When some signal invited the people to join the dance, Inro smiled and followed their tugged entreaties to join them.

  On the outside, he welcomed their invitation to the tribe in a welter of back pats and women's kisses. He donned ceremonial necklaces and painted his face. He even let a few touch his swords if not draw them. On the inside, however, he plotted and planned, calculating every wink, smile, and laugh. Playing the part they'd allotted for him would ply the most effective route to his goals for now so he took to his role with all his formidable discipline.

  He'd find the way to the bed of Limn clay the shaman used, paint his way into the Subterrane as Ebon did, and leave this whole desolate verse behind. If he had to demean himself acting the barbarian and playing the tribe's warrior uncle he would do it for the Dynasty in a heartbeat.

  When the opportunity arose to make his escape, however, he'd kill every man, woman, and child in the tribe if they stood between him and returning to the Book to find a way to stop Aj before it destroyed everything.

  Next chapter: Aida goes to court to meet the delightful Ocyl

  Characters and terms

  Characters (alphabetical)

  Aida: MC.

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

  Avani: Hassani's daughter, an albino

  "Braid"; a thug who accosted Aida in Jadeye

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

  Denault: Hassani's husband. Shipwright, Kin.

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

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

  Fallon: Aida's Seneschal

  Hassani: Inviolate agent of the Black Court

  Inro: Dynast formerly ruling Sunset

  Jaxe: Dynast of Stacks. "Young", wealthy. Also has "the Pale" (an Albino)

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

  Parathas: Aida's skinscribe. Also a mountaineer.

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

  Rega: Inro's sister

  The Fallen

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

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

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

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

  Terms (alphabetical)

  All, The: ?

  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.

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

  Assessor: census-taker

  Aze: swordmaker?

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

  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. "Kiloverse"

  Broadcliff, Tallmarket: cities in Stacks

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

  Cerebrist: creator of slavants

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

  Chant of Innoculation: chant supposed to protect against disease

  Chapters: ?

  ConMach: convoy?

  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?

  Current: some form of energy that powers "artifices"?

  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.

  Dynasty: the Dynasts who rule the Book

  Ebon: founder of the Dynasty and Black Court

  Ebonese: the language of the Book

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

  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"

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

  Gates, The: ?

  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

  Gonist: organ dealers and traders

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

  Ink: home verse of the Skeinry and Keens

  Innoculist: doctors?

  Inviolate: agents of the black court who "serve the Black Court, protect the Dynasty, uphold the Chant, root out corruption."

  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

  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

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

  Jaxestack: a whitewashed stack on Stacks home to Jaxekin

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

  Kin: descendants of a Dynast

  Kiss, The: ?

  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

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

  Lineage: ?

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

  Logos: ?

  Mancers: ?

  Menial: common folk

  Molt: person able to shed skins (see skins)

  Mon, The: ?

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

  Nameday: when children are named

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

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

  Optomime: gadgeteer?

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

  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.

  'pillar: fuzzy Sect-bred giant caterpillar pet

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

  Reconquest: time 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

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

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

  Sixth Tier Rebellion: last major uprising, in Ziggurat a century ago

  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

  Skinscribe: individuals brailled with lore, walking libraries

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

  Soresearer: ?

  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"

  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

  Subterrane, The: travel route accessed by Ebon via Limn?

  Sunset: the verse where Aj was 'contained', formerly protected by Dynast Inro. The "Prison of Prisons"

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

  Surgon: person able to remove organs

  Terminus:a verse?

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

  Thrum: guide in the Black Court

  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.

  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

  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

  Watter: an energetic liquid

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

  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"

  Wyres: lines run through the Vale between verses that allow communication between

  Ziggurat: the verse basing the Legions