Not boulders, Terrtles. They must have been in torpor or waiting in ambush or something, but when the man smacked the Terrtle's shell, it's head shot out in a blur and nipped his leg off above the knee. As the man fell screaming, the next nearest rock sprouted six limbs and a sharply-beaked head before rushing forward with a surprising and terrifying burst of speed. It crunched on his head only a second after he hit the ground.

  Like sharks smelling blood, the other Terrtles nearby awoke. The warriors ran, fought, tried to climb trees, but mostly lost limbs in single snapping, crushing, crunching bites.

  "Back up slowly," Eth said, as the Terrtles gobbled down limbs whole, then rushed in for more man-chunks, shoving and nipping at each other over the bodies. More than on Terrle lost a limb to violence from its fellows.

  "Yeah," Aida said, trembling. "I think you're right."

  When they backed free from the Grove, they spotted Ghillie busy plucking needles from a slew of fallen warriors. She motioned them over and they hustled, happy to put distance between them and the Terrtle grove. When they reached Ghillie's side, they gained a new vantage on the training grounds. Jaxe stood amid his Ferals beside the spike branch hazard, pacing back and forth and shooting glances towards the Terrtle grove or the rough area where Eth and Aida now crouched with Ghillie.

  Then Ryk drew everyone's attention, sprinting out of the Tangle on the far side of the clearing. Aida's heart skipped several beats: first to see him still alive and second to see him spattered with blood. Broken arrows jutted from his shield and his spear lost the tip somewhere to reduce it to a long staff.

  He raced to the collapsed tower, stomped on the head of a pony tailed man trying to pry himself out from the rubble. In a quick motion, he snatched up a quiver of javelins from a pole-pierced corpse, hurling them with fantastic speed at the jungle he'd just left. Aida couldn't even see any of the targets before they cleared the Tangle; as though Ryk hurled them at the trees and the men voluntarily rushed out to catch one in the face, leg, or chest.

  Ryk jammed his staff into the broken tower at shin-height, snatched up a discarded spear lying nearby, and leapt to the far side of a grassy ditch as deep as he was tall. He stood their waiting, panting, while a dozen warriors slowly crept from the jungle, clearly not excited to catch pointy bit of death like their faster brethren had done.

  So slow was their advance that Jaxe bellowed at them. "Kill him, you cowards, he's limping."

  "There's dozens of us bleeding out in there," one of the men shouted back, thumbing over his shoulder towards the Tangle.

  "Double his weight in currency then!" Jaxe shouted. He gestured towards a few of his Ferals and pointed towards Ryk since he stood only fifty meters away with his back to them.

  The Ferals seemed not to notice the order.

  "Fine, you damned rebellious cowards. I'll do it." Jaxe began walking towards Ryk, shouting again at the now twentyish men staring at Ryk from the edge of the Tangle. Ryk knelt to wrap a bit of cloth around his calf, wincing as he pulled it tight. "If I get to him before you do, I'll cut your hands off personally."

  That got them moving again.

  "He is hurt," Aida said, standing up and grabbing a sword from one of the dead warriors nearby. "I'm not going to hide here while he dies."

  To her surprise, Eth picked up a spear and nodded. "I already know I can't stop you."

  She glanced at Ghillie. Ghillie shrugged and shot off a bit of sign. You die, I die. So you don't die here.

  When the three of them stepped out of the clearing, they saw Ryk hurl his spear at a man circling to his right, catching the man in the gut. Seeing him unarmed, the others shouted and rushed towards the ditch. Ryk turned and ran towards one of the lower, knee-height platforms.

  Most of the men cleared the ditch, but the clumsier or more heavily armored missed and slipped on the slick grass. They tumbled down into the ditch, screaming and shouting as they disappeared from sight.

  "Moved some unhatched eggs and cocoons from a few varieties of critter from inside the giant Terrtle to the bottom of that ditch," Eth said, tapping on Aida's fingers. As if on queue, one of the very blade-tailed creatures that had cost Aida a few fingers swooped up and dove into the back of one of the men who'd cleared the ditch.

  "How? When?" Aida said, bracing herself as a couple of Jaxe Ferals noticed them and got Jaxe' attention.

  "Those groups going into the turtle weren't all going for your 'turtle soup'," Eth said, grinning. "Paid well for the contents of very specific nests in there."

  Meanwhile, Ryk stood at the center of one of the platforms. A football lineup's worth of men stood about it, looking at it warily or gingerly putting a bit of weight on it with glances at the one burying their ranged support.

  Ryk laughed, planting his shield down beside him and holding the other arm wide. "Come then! Let's finish this."

  "Another spear planted between some of the poles," Eth whispered to Aida.

  "No spoilers," Aida said, but then her attention focused on Jaxe.

  "Surprised you're not running again, Mother of Menials," Jaxe said.

  "Couldn't leave my people alone," Aida called back. "For all I know you'd butcher them all just to spite me."

  "Oh, I still will," Jaxe said nonchalantly. His voice echoed slightly as he spoke and Aida felt a chill run down her spine. "Just as Sava butchered all the slaves and everyone else stupid enough to follow you back in Berujat. When we're done with you and you're people, I'm personally hunting down everyone I find wearing a slave brand and carrying pretensions of freedom. Will rebrand them with my own mark and throw them back in their cages. That and every Wretch. Then every follower of your pathetic faith. They want to be martyr's? We'll make a religion of only martyrs."

  Support the author by searching for the original publication of this novel.

  This drew a sharp look from Alerestro, but Jaxe didn't notice, busy as he was pulling his collar aside and armor down to show the strings tight around his throat. "Ah yes, we learned your little secret, my little barbarian. Pity you lost yours."

  Shouts and cries of alarm rang out from the platform upon which Ryk fought, but Aida didn't dare glance away as Jaxe's company of Ferals fanned out to envelope them as they neared.

  "If you have another plan, I think now may be the time to put it into action," Aida muttered to Eth.

  Eth just nodded, reached back, and hurled her sword high into the air. It spun end-over-end, glinting in the sunlight.

  "Mothers Militant, ho!" shouted a hundred voices.

  Jaxe cursed and spun as a rough line of soldiers rushed from the Tangle. To Aida's surprise, Wreches loped among them, each hurling a fist-sized stone mid-lope just before crashing into the outside edge of Jaxe's Ferals.

  "Damn you!" Jaxe shouted, his voice reverberating to killing strength.

  "Stop him!" Aida called. She ran forward heedless of a handful of Ferals rushing to intercept her. She was vaguely aware of them stumbling and collapsing around her as Ghillie dealt death and paralysis to all comers, but she couldn't see beyond Jaxe turning the strings on her people. Then, suddenly, Ghille was on Aida, yanking her backwards off her feet by the scruff of her neck.

  "Hey, what the-"

  Just as Jaxe braced himself and his hum reached a resonance strong enough to rattle Aida's molars, Alerestro lunged forwards and ripped the strings free from Jaxe's throat. Cleft Hand slammed a knife into Alerestro's back a split second later, but too late. Instead of the channeled blast Jaxe had likely been planing to cut a swath of destruction through the Wretches and Militant racing their way, the blast turned into a good approximation of Aida's first scream back in Jadeye.

  Ghillie flattened atop Aida to protect her, but the force of the blast still proved sufficient to tumble them ten meters back into the Tangle. The Ferals who had been standing plus the nearest Wretches and Militant didn't fare nearly so well. Those still intact lay groaning and clutching their heads or bleeding ears or rising to their feet groggily.

  Aida's ears rang dully, all other sound driven down to a muted sense of sound pulses and waves without differentiation or meaning. When she looked up, Jaxe's Ferals were dragging him away bodily, the Dynast clearly as rattled by the unexpected detonation as Aida had been back on Jadeye.

  Ghillie pulled Aida to her feet and patted her down, checking for wounds. She found a splinter of something in Aida's ribs, Aida herself only come aware of it as her Feral wrenched it free with a stab of pain.

  "Ryk," she mumbled, shaking her head and turning towards where she'd seen him last.

  Her eyes paused on a handful of Wretches pulling a writhing, bleeding-eared Cleft Hand towards the splintered platform. One of the Wretches found Ryk's broken-off spear in the pile and drove the intact end firmly into the heap. While he fought and pulled against him, the Wretches dragged Cleft Hand towards it and, overwhelming his final desperate attempt to break free, dragged him onto it.

  Ryk stood leaning against his spear atop the platform, surrounded by bloody bodies. A few survivors discarded weapons and armor to sprint off into the Tangle, the Mother's Militant hot on their heels. Ryk broken shield lay at his feet and blood coated him. By its trickling flow here-and-there, too much of it was his.

  "Ryk," Aida cried, rushing towards him. Eth reached him just as Aida did, the two catching him as his strength failed.

  "Ryk! Oh my god!" Worse than his wounds was the blank look with which he beheld her. "Ryk, it's me. Aida."

  "A hundred," he muttered, turning to Eth with no more recognition. "That number was important. All I remember."

  "And Aida?" Aida said, feeling guilty that he lay dying and she selfishly wanted him to say her name.

  "A hundred for Aida," Ryk said. His lips began to turn blue. Aida ripped a chunk off of her shirt to staunch his wounds, but Ghillie's hand lighted on hers. The Feral met her eyes, shook her head slightly.

  Aida clutched him tight, sobbing.

  Tears ran down Eth's cheeks as she took Ryk's head in both hands. "Now at the moment of death, comes birth. Here in this now do you lose all future nows. Here does the arrow of your memory reverse, its point burying in this moment. Now you become Imminent, Paragon. Now does your time here end... and begin."

  As she spoke, Ryk turned his eyes to look at Aida, seemingly struggling to recognize her. "I was to do something great. Did I do it?"

  "You were to die for love," Aida said. "I promise you and your hundred will never be forgotten."

  "For love," he muttered, seeming to take some solace in that.

  "For time. For a past full of futures," Eth muttered. As she pressed her hands tight on the sides of his head, a light flared in his blue eyes, burning the color completely out of them. His whole body jerked twice, then fell still.

  Eth stood numbly, staggering off sightlessly as tears rained down. Aida clutched him to her chest and rocked back and forth until the warmth fled the body and the light of the One Eight's suns began to fade.

  When she rose, she found Ghillie waiting, as usual. The Feral held out her closed fist and Aida held her own hand out numbly.

  Strings fell into Aida's hand, the broken necklace chain mended with twine. She stared at them for a moment, then strapped them on.

  Found them on what was left of Alerestro.

  "Why?"

  A brand on his shoulder. A cage.

  "An ex-slave?"

  Ghillie nodded.

  "Guess he didn't trust Jaxe to honor whatever deal they made."

  She looked down at Ryk. "If the Militant were here this whole time, why did he have to die?"

  Ghillie regarded her with her pale-blue eyes for a moment. Imminent business makes sacrifices of us all.

  "And Eth?"

  Off to "collect the Dynasties".

  "Jaxe?"

  Ghillie held up one of her long needles in one hand and a 'nail in the other. In Stacks, Eth said.

  "What's in Stacks?" Aida said.

  Ghillie tapped Aida's strings, then the corners of her eyes crinkled. Him. Us. His death.

  Aida nodded, thrummed the strings to life, and nodded. "Fuckin' A."

  Next chapter: Flipped through the Book and noticed that Inro's back!

  Adonissian: a Phero who poses as a traveling musician. Died of the Wretch Plague in Heaven's Tread.

  Aida: MC. Mother of Exiles. "Ender of Verses?" "Savior of Dynasties?"

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

  Alerestro: a handsome, multi-talented man from Azure. Partner of Viviana. Accidentally killed by Jaxe in the One-Eighth.

  Aliasara: servant at Ocyl's villa who befriends Aida

  Anticores: a pair of Sect representatives, off-putting and strange

  Arca: chief of the tribe that "adopted" Inro

  Asta: Tertius Dynast of Silk. Assassinated by the Rags.

  Avani: Hassani's daughter, an albino

  Baka: Dynast of Ziggurat. Huge, massively strong. Tertius.

  Balmos: Venger working for Ghulen

  "Braid"; a thug who accosted Aida in Jadeye. His face gifted to Aida by Ocyl.

  Broadaxe: large, axe-and-shield-wielding Feral protecting Aida. Killed by Jaxe in Jadeye

  Cairin: Arca's sister, slinger

  Cleft Hand: malcontent in the One-Eighth, maimed hand due to Ryk. Impaled on a broken spear by Wretches in the One-Eighth.

  Das: Rega's Immanent

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

  Dels: Dynast of Azure

  Denault: Hassani's husband. Shipwright, Kin.

  Eonora: a Legion officer in Ziggurat who defected with the Rogue Legions Mother's Militant

  Eth: a young Imminent

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

  Ghulen: Rega's "pet monster", an Inviolate

  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. Died of Wretch Plague.

  Ryk: "the most beautiful man Aida had ever seen", a Paragon

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

  Sava: Dynast of Libriam

  Savalius: Grand Quartermaster of the Legions

  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