All click, no bang.

  Aida shook with relief and anger as she fell away from Ocyl. He slumped back like a man pushing away after Thanksgiving dinner or rolling off after sex.

  "Ah, delightful." He sighed. "How was it for you?"

  "Dammit, you knew it wouldn't work." She threw the useless weapon across room.

  "It never has before, but there's always a chance." He leaned heavily against a pedestal hosting a domed jar over piled white powder and offered an intimate smile. "We always learn so much about each other when someone plays the game with me."

  "Never before? A chance? This game? How many people have you pulled that on?" She wrapped her arms about herself, feeling unclean, furious, taken advantage of. It took great effort to not scream at him. "Did you purposely make a gun that doesn't work?"

  He smiled, stretching like a contented cat as he glided after the gun. "It worked perfectly in Jutland Reach. I received it as a gift from a man who hated me."

  "Because he knew it wouldn't work?"

  "Because honor required I kill him with such a weapon." He picked it up and examined it closely.

  "You fought a duel with that and survived?" She wasn't sure if she really cared or if she just wanted to distract herself from what she'd just tried to do.

  "It killed fine in Jutland." He carried it to the case and placed it gently onto its cushion. "I killed someone important with it in a duel there, yet in no other verse has this weapon produced so much as a spark. The Machine Curse and all that."

  "You killing a man in a duel would impress me more if you weren't immortal." She stepped towards the door.

  "Immortal, yes. Though we Dynasts do little to discourage the belief in our lessers, your Seneschal fails you if he's not yet disabused any notions of our invulnerability."

  "Don't be so surprised. He's failed me every way he can think to do so thus far." She immediately regretted such disclosure to this Dynast. "Disabuse away."

  Ocyl mimed what Aida interpreted as a gardener snipping at a bush. "If you trim a few branches, a tree regrows, yes?"

  He glanced at the dirty, bloody cloth strip wrapped about Aida's hand. A flush accompanied phantom pain spearing through her missing fingers. She hugged her injured hand close involuntarily, suddenly aware how badly her misadventures had managed to batter, stain, rip, and mangle her dress. Even in its sorry state, at lest she still wore enough clothing to contain her personal bits.

  He continued without waiting for her reply. "Groves possesses gnarled, undying trees far older than any living Dynast, yet a child with a hatchet could chop one down in an afternoon. Are they immortal?"

  "So we can be killed?"

  "Immortal just means everyone else dies first."

  Faces appeared before her eyes. The Valeer, White Spiral, Feral lying dead in that alley. Her son and daughter. Mother and father. All three husbands. Her roommate Nancy who had probably passed alone while Aida ran away on this... whatever this was.

  "I know this must all be overwhelming as a barbarian, but take heart. All will be second nature in time and quickly after you'll be as bored by it as the rest of us. As for the Jutland pistol, surely your sad, disgraced Seneschal regaled you with the unfortunate Machine Curse the Book suffers?"

  This tale has been unlawfully lifted from Royal Road. If you spot it on Amazon, please report it.

  "Disgraced how? Actually, never mind." She threw her hands in the air and walked towards the door. "If a sham attempt at assisted suicide and taking over Fallon's job of treating me like a child was all you wanted me for, glad I could oblige. I'll be going now."

  "Leaving already?" He slumped against the pistol's pedestal as if suddenly exhausted. "But we've only just met and you haven't told me what you want yet."

  Tension took up slack in her muscles like a sailing ship's lines in a squall. "What makes you think I want anything from you?"

  "Nothing a Dynast says to another is idle. Every word comes laced with poison and honey. The speaker offers their cock in one hand while a blade hides behind their back in the other." His eyes drifted to her crude knife belt while her eyes drifted down his open kimono, then darted away.

  "If I were going to stab you, my knife's right here out in the open." She patted its battered handle. "And I don't have a cock."

  He grinned. "Want one? If you know what I mean."

  She almost laughed at such an idiotic pickup line from the ruler of a universe.

  "Pardon the pun, but I've had my fill, if you know what I mean." She turned, trying to emulate his smooth slide across the tile, using the surprisingly sturdy pedestals to keep her balance.

  He laughed heartily. "I like you. Most seeking my audience prefer screwing Dynasts to shooting them. Or trying to screw them over more commonly. Refreshing."

  "So glad I passed your little test." She paused at the entrance curtains. "How many Dynasts come here?"

  "Oh, a few now and then. Would you like to meet some of our fellows?" He walked back towards the archway he'd entered from, stared at the broken glass glittering across the floor for a moment, then glided to the room's back corner. Only when he pulled it open did she recognize the hidden door, painted to blend perfectly with the wall.

  "Can't be much worse than you," Aida mumbled, following.

  "How's your Valeer, by the way?" Ocyl halted so abruptly in the doorway that Aida almost sailed into him. "I heard you got a rare one."

  "Rare? I don't know, he's the only one I've met." She stared down at the broken rock occupying the display case before her. What she could only describe as a beam of shadow extended from the stone's jagged end. A geode containing darkness not crystal. "He's dead."

  Ocyl exhaled heavily, closed his eyes. "Unfortunate. I'll see to it that what of him can be replaced, is."

  "Um... thank you?" She frowned, trying to figure out what he meant.

  He pushed on without a backward glance, as if he didn't care whether she followed or not. After a long, half-longing look at the curtains, she trailed behind him.

  A series of narrow passages. A disorienting, cramped, spiraling wooden stair.

  She felt off-balance and not only mentally. Down drifted as they climbed higher, moving slowly to one side even as the gravity's pull grew weaker and weaker. Then they came to a strangely curved hallway roofed in the broad-faceted emerald curve of what couldn't be anything but the outside of the eponymous Jade Eye.

  As they strode the up-curving hallway, the direction of down shifted rapidly but always pointed down into the floor where they walked. A moment later, the hallway ended and they entered the massive round spheroid. The deep green light flooding the interior combined with the minimal gravity to inspire a strong sensation of standing underwater.

  Outside, traffic had resumed after the god's passing and the Sighted Path streaming above them as busy as ever. Disorientation increased when Aida realized down had moved perpendicular to where it had pointed when she stood at the Spire's ground floor. Up always pointed towards the Sighted Path in the city's center while down became the opposite direction.

  The city spread everywhere she looked, distorted by the thick green glass and confused perspective. A round city seen from a spherical room.

  The immense space's floor lay scattered with white and green cushions in the hundreds. Distributed here-and-there among them stood long silver poles ending in shepherd's crooks, each dangling a faintly green-glowing, half-meter-long thread. The poles rose from sturdy, glazed clay pots featuring jungle motifs replete with parrots and panthers.

  Bone-masked male and female Ferals stood about, armed and armored in a dozen different degrees, styles, and color schemes. Some lounged on the cushions while others regarded each other warily or watched the aerial display. Other servants wearing Ocyl's favored white and green or nothing at all stood about, many holding silver food or drink platters. Every servant wore their platinum blond or red hair loose against pale skin. Not one servant could be called less attractive than pleasant, some bordering on stunning.

  Ocyl turned to her, pulling a silky blanket from atop a heap of cushions. "For decorum's sake, we provide these."

  With gravity so light, naked couples and groups drifted slowly down through the emerald space or launched upwards, sailing high and leisurely.

  "Decorum? What are they..." She realized, heat rising. "Oh."

  "One rule." Ocyl grinned at her as she eyed the nearest descending coupling. "New partner arrangement every time you touch down."

  Ocyl proved to have dressed perfectly for the occasion and it was Aida who'd arrived improperly attired.

  To be fair, no one told her to dress for an orgy.

  Next chapter: Meet Adonissian the Phero as he tries to figure out what the heck to do with Hassani

  Characters and terms

  Characters (alphabetical)

  Adonissian: a Phero who poses as a travelling musician

  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.

  Arborian: gardeners from Groves?

  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: 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?

  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"?

  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.

  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

  High Parser: officials from Ink

  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

  Jutland Reach: a verse with guns?

  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: ?

  Machine Curse: ?

  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"

  Mune: someone from the Collective on Dost?

  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-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.

  Phero: ?

  'pillar: fuzzy Sect-bred giant caterpillar pet

  Porcelain Guard: Ocyl's white-masked Ferals

  Pure Priest of the Ascen: priests?

  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

  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

  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

  Skinlife: living tattoos

  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

  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.

  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

  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