Hassani was deeply grateful for the hard, repetitive task of pulling the ropes on the Stacks trolley. As Johine trudged past her to grab the line at the front of the trolley, he'd shoot her worried looks. Shaved and bedecked in the uniform and armor of a Vale Legionnaire they'd cut down on their way out of Berujat, he looked practically human.

  Much more human than she felt. Numbness and a chill far beyond the one born in the chill rain drizzling from Stacks' gray skies penetrated her core. She'd caught Fatma, dragged her pleading through the looting, fighting, and fleeing that had become Berujat, and shoved her in the same cage Fatma had thrown her in. To no avail. Even the filthcages had only led Hassani to a false Avani.

  The little girl posing as her daughter pleaded for Hassani to take her with as Fatma had ripped her from her family to duplicate Avani, but in her disgust and despair, Hassani had left her behind to fend for herself in the chaos. Hassani should have cared, but she couldn't make herself.

  What little hope she held out that perhaps Goboro and his network of connections in the heart of the Black Court bureaucracy would somehow have found her died in the smoldering ruins of the Analis. She'd stood on the docks, staring at its burned husk, the rotting corpse of a murdered god swarming with insects in the marshes. A clutch of fleeing refugees had spoken of the Aj lose in Libriam, killing gods and anything or anyone else who got in its way. She hadn't believed it until she spotted the creature laying lifelessly in the muck, somehow magnificent and awesome even in death.

  When she set out to search the collapsing, smoldering ruin that was the Annalis she had tripped over the day-old corpse of an old man with a slit throat propped against a dock post with the severed head of a dusa sitting in his lap.

  No sign of Goboro anywhere, living or dead, headless or otherwise.

  One faint hope propelled her: Deia. Inscrutable and frustrating, yes, but Deia had somehow known she would would almost leave her sword behind after the fight with Denault. She had known Hassani would need it to shatter the gate in Ziggurat to reach the Thorn. She knew Hassani would reclaim it after her time as a slave. If the odd old woman knew all that then, perhaps she knew where Avani was now.

  If she didn't, Hassani would dive off into the deep watter and swim until she couldn't. That or hunt down Rega herself, force the Dynast to turn the whole power of the Ancients towards finding her daughter, or die trying.

  They'd come to Stacks to find a brand-new fortification surrounding the Thorn. The quality of the work looked hasty and poor, but not nearly so poor as the quality of the guards Jaxe had left manning it no so hasty as their rush to open the gates to her and Johine when she'd drawn the Aze blade. Word of what had happened at Ziggurat had traveled, it seemed. That they were certainly sending wyres to every Ancient stronghold in the Book at this moment bothered her little. Without Avani, nothing mattered.

  When they reached Broadcliff, they found a cluster of militia guarding the line house. These, too, dispersed upon sight of the Aze blade, giving her and Johine wide berth as they climbed out.

  "Lines to Jaxestack intact?" she asked the large man with the spear who seemed vaguely leaderish. They'd found several lines severed in Tallmarket, a shocking sight considering how many Anchorites had died and the massive outlay of watter and currency Jaxe had spent with his Primus Thread when he'd been granted Stacks in the first place. Given the state of the Book now, every line was irreplaceable.

  "Yes," the man grumbled. "Though Jaxe left some versal guard with a mancer at their lead to protect the linehouse on this end."

  Hassani mused on this for a moment. "Boat?"

  "None for sale," he said. He watched her hand casually float to the handle of the Aze blade and raised his hands. "But for an Inviolate, I'm sure we'll work something out."

  An hour later they rode the waves in a small cutter, skipping across the waves with a stiff wind at their back. Though he'd never sailed before, Johine proved competent enough at the tiller while she dressed and directed the craft's single mast. The dark fell rapidly as she moored the boat at the tiny jetty jutting from the side of Deia's stack. Their whole approach, Hassani had peered intently at the tiny sliver of a stack, hoping to see her master sitting and watching.

  For the first time, Hassani climbed the stairs and stood atop the stack without her master watching her. She approached the small trap door slowly, half-expecting a trap of some sort. Wiping her rain-soaked bangs from her face, she waved down at Johine. "I'm going in. Keep the boat ready, just in case."

  He nodded and returned to staring at the sky-scraping, horizon-filling spread of the World Spear.

  The trap door lifted open silently. Peering within, she beheld the small, surprisingly-cozy home of her master. A small bed nestled next to a fireplace that must have been cleverly vented as Hassani had never noticed any sort of smoke hole in all her trips to the stack. Shelves lined every available stretch of wall, packed with odds, ends, and oddities of every sort and description.

  Golden chalices studded with gems held gaudy bead necklaces and tiny shells. Blades of every description, quality, and length overflowed a tattered wicker basket held together with silver chains and fishing nets. Priceless paintings leaned in rows against the walls, their corners serving as impromptu hooks for robes, necklaces, fine silks, and plain knotted ropes. Chipped clay jars overflowed with gleaming coins of every metal, denomination, and age.

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  Hassani cared nothing for any of that. When scrambled down the sturdy ladder in all haste it was to kneel by Deia's side as the old woman huddled shivering under layers of thick blankets.

  "Not you too," Hassani said, clutching at her master's suddenly-frail-looking hand. "I've lost everyone else. You can't die."

  For a moment, Hassani wasn't sure Deai heard her, the old woman's lips moving without making a sound. A light tap at her neck startled her and she twisted to see its source.

  A chopstick rested lightly against her throat. "Dead," Deai whispered.

  Hassani laughed in spite of herself. "Can't help yourself can you?"

  Deai's eyes cracked open. "Not much time left now."

  "Don't say that. You could live for years yet," Hassani said, wondering even as she did so how old Deai truly was.

  "Not me. The All," Deai whispered. She reached for a wooden cup, but her shaking fingers knocked it over. Hassani leapt to her feet, snatched up a gleaming silver pitcher full of what smelled like spiced wine, and filled the wooden cup.

  Deai drank at length, then handed the cup to Hassani. "The search for your family."

  Hassani blinked, trying to decipher Deai's meaning. "I search for Avani still, yes."

  "She's here. But not here."

  Hassani barely resisted the urge to roll her eyes or snap at Deai in frustration. "You mean she's in my heart? Or that our memory of a person is just as real as they are?"

  "No." Deai closed her eyes. Hassani thought she'd fallen asleep again and rose, but Deai held tight to her hand and opened her eyes again. "I didn't kill the Immortal Swordsman."

  "What?" Hassani said, wondering if her brain was extra-foggy from exhaustion or if Deai had always been able to surprise her so. She couldn't remember. "You didn't kill him?"

  "You can't kill an Imminent."

  "Of course not. If you could, why would they show up?"

  "No," Deai said, shaking her head and closing her eyes again as if holding them open took too much effort. The frail woman coughed a few times before continuing then opened her eyes again. "If they die they can't be born. He let me wound him, knowing his death was near but willing to make the sacrifice so you would get that."

  Hassani looked towards where Deai pointed. It took her too long to realize Deai pointed at the Aze blade. "This? For me? Why?"

  "To kill the One-Eighth Aj," Deai whispered. Hassani leaned close to hear her over the sound of the wind and rain.

  "To kill the eighth Aj? What about the other seven?"

  "No seven. Just the one. To begin an unravelling. To allow the rethreading that must be done for any Dynasty to survive. Here or real."

  Hassani stared at Deai mouthing back the cryptic words. "I don't understand."

  "You will at the right moment. Das told me you would." Deai's eyes drifted from object to object littering the room, unseeing. "Only three of them left now of all the thousands of years of Imminent. Three to meet on Terminus. Two to leave. One to witness another end and bring forth another beginning to be sure the next end is realized. An end with no beginning. A beginning with no end."

  "None of that makes sense. An Imminent told you all this?" Pieces began to click together in Hassani's mind. "Did he tell you about the sword on the night of the storm? About the sword being the key and finding it after being caged?"

  "He told me, but you must tell him before Eth makes him Imminent. Before that, you must go home and return here once more. This stack holds one more treasure, even if it is one you do not wish to carry."

  Hassani stood up and punched her fist into her palm. "Home? Stacks is home. Enough with the riddles! Just tell me clearly so I know what to do."

  Deai shook her head. "I know only what I have been told to say. Das told me all this years before I first met a young, Pale girl for the first time. He was why I taught her to wield a sword it was illegal for her to carry. He was why I arranged for you to come that morning not long after you became Assessor, knowing you would encounter Denault on that trolley. They leave nothing to chance for nothing survives the wrong roll of the die."

  "How do you know? How can you believe them?" Hassani said, pacing about the room. "Everyone believes their every word, yet for every happening they foretell, two lies fall from their lips."

  "Because I watched one let me slide my blade between his ribs, unresisting," Deai said, looking over at the basket of swords. "Saw the fear and determination in his eyes I dealt him a mortal wound he knew he wouldn't survive. His sacrifice, his belief birthed mine."

  "I'm not doing anything until I have Avani," Hassani said emphatically. "He and even you can sacrifice what you want, but I'm not doing anything until she's safe."

  "This is the only way she can be safe," Deai said, pointing weakly at the ladder. "But if you want to see her, you must go home now."

  "Home?" Hassani said, staring at the ladder as if it would reveal some sort of answer. "Denault? He's alive? He has her?"

  "He will. But you have to leave now."

  Hassani was all the way up the ladder and running down the stairs before her mind registered Deai's parting words. "And I'm sorry."

  Those words mulled through her mind as they raced back across the water towards Jaxestack in the darkness. She killed the guards who challenged her on the docks ringing the stack without thought or hesitation. A twisting snarl of stairs and hallways passed in a blur, Johine's cries as she left him behind. When she threw open the door to her apartment, her heart leapt to her throat when she saw a figure leaning against the archway to the balcony where she'd last seen her husband.

  "Denault?" she gasped, surprised at the strength of feeling that rose in her chest.

  The figure turned and moved into the moonlight. Hassani gasped again. "Goboro?"

  The black swelling around his eye, the bruising along his jaw, and his cracked lip warned her, but not in time.

  Another figure slid up behind Goboro, the glint of a long knife lifting the scribe's chin. Two other figures slipped into sight as she reached for her sword hilt: a massive man filling the doorway behind him, a sturdy war axe tight in his hands and a short-haired woman stretching a bow with an arrow's feather's brushing her cheek.

  "Who are you?" Hassani growled.

  "Ghulen," he said amiably. "And you must be Hassani. Drop the sword or both you and your chubby friend die here."

  "Where's Avani?"

  "Here too," Ghulen said, his plain face catching the moonlight beside Goboro. "Be a good girl and you can see her. Put the sword down."

  Against every instinct of her training, she unbuckled her belt and set her sword down.

  "Good girl," Ghulen practically purred. "I can't tell you how long I've been waiting to meet you."

  Next chapter: Ryk's hundred.

  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

  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

  "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

  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

  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.

  Johine: crude slave

  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

  Rustrovan/"Rusty": Eth's old, gap-toothed skinscribe

  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

  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

  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"

  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