Aj returned to the place

  before

  between

  after

  to find another of its kind.

  Waiting.

  -Aj-

  'Da'

  -Da-

  'Why that name

  of my many, 102?'

  -Aj / 102-

  'A name

  the humans use

  for one that came

  before them.

  Should I call 15 then?

  Why do you come?'

  -Da / 1n-

  'Da is sufficient.

  I come

  so we can together

  find the right end

  of the path

  you've set us on.'

  Reaching the apex of the turtle's immense shell, Aida rested her hands on her knees. A cool, humid breeze gusting through felt amazing in spite of its sulfurous undertones. The newcomer Immanent had already disappeared off to wherever Eth deposited them, leaving Eth sitting beside Parathas the skinscribe. They stared off into the distance, deep in some sort of conversation.

  The blond, teenage Immanent looked haggard. Her acne had flared up and deep bags hung under her eyes like she'd stayed up for two days straight studying for finals. Wind rustled the stained, pale blue fabric of her light, sleeveless shirt and flowing skirt. The burden of knowing the future had to be heavy; seemed like too much for a girl that back in the USA would be taking SATs, worrying about her crush, or fretting about something someone said about her on the Internet.

  In her especially annoying way, Eth spoke without looking at her. “Aida, you finally made it.”

  “Hope I didn't keep you waiting long, your Imminence.” Aida plunked down next to Parthas, the scribe wearing faded, orange-ish canvas clothing shuffling a bit to give her room as she joined them in staring out across the once-bleak, now green, gorgeous, and dangerous span of her verse. “I don't suppose you're waiting here for me so you can tell me what I do to change the One-Eighth into something other than a deathtrap?”

  “You'll figure it out after I go.” Eth scraped windblown hair from her mouth. “I'm taking your skinscribe.”

  “Good to know I'll... what? Go? Taking him where?”

  “To replace Rustrovan. Of course he is, or will be soon. And yes I know it's annoying.”

  “Rusty? Is he dying? Grr... do you know how...” Aida trailed off, glaring at Eth as she picked at a hangnail. If the Imminent carried some tiny shred of a sense of humor she'd be almost tolerable.

  A bone-rattling bellow interrupted their conversation. They turned towards the literal mountain of a god endlessly dragging itself across the horizon. Though it moved rarely and the distance to it was still great, the impossible creature loomed larger and closer than when Aida first saw it that first morning after their flight from Heaven's Tread. Her brain still struggled to process the beast's size, something she felt would be true even standing right beside it.

  “I call it the River Draggin. See how its weight dredges wherever it goes? Looks like it's dragging a river behind it. Get it? River. Draggin. Dragging? Dragging a river? Draggin'? No?”

  Eth's teenagerly look screamed “you're a boring, lame, stupid adult” loudly enough the Imminent didn't need to say anything to convey her attitude. She said something anyway. “So you want answers to all your problems?”

  “I'm not nearly so greedy. I'd settle for the answer to one even.”

  The Imminent put her face in her palm, then rubbed her hand down to her chin. “I really don't know why I keep trying, but kill him now.”

  “What? Who? Parathas? He's right here you know.”

  Parathas glanced at her, squinting as the sun struck his tanned, weather-worn face. For all the words brailled on his skin, the man didn't talk much. She wondered if someone forced him to become a scribe over his true calling of mountaineer.

  “Not Parathas, Cleft-Hand.”

  Aida blinked. “I don't even know who that is and you want me to kill him?”

  “People will die when you don't. Been debating staying, but that might screw up-”

  “Wait, we're leaving?” Aida stood up.

  Eth sighed. “No, I'm leaving. No not now.”

  “Now? I can't... I have a verse to...” Aida's mouth flopped open and closed as her mind caught up with Eth's words.

  “You know the worst thing about you?” Eth stared at her in that way she had of making Aida feel like an object, not a person.

  “I'd guess but I'm sure you'll tell me anyway.”

  “You've always been quick on your feet.”

  “Okay.” Aida waited for the punchline. “That sounded suspiciously like a compliment.”

  “Too quick. If you were even a little bit worse maybe you'd have learned to plan. To really lead. Also you don't take anything seriously enough.” Even while criticizing Aida's whole approach to life, Eth managed to sound like a whiny teenager complaining about her mom to her friends. “By the stupid, short-sighted Ascen, why did it have to be you?”

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  “Some days, I'm right there with you, sister. In my defense, I think not taking everything maximum serious is how I lived to a hundred in the first place.” Aida stepped carefully on the slippery moss, angling towards the ascent lines. “If you're just going to tell me what's wrong with me and order me to kill people I've never met, I'll be going.”

  "You met Cleft-hand briefly, when he earned his name." Eth rose also, staring out into the Tangle. “On another note, don't break his heart. He must love you until he dies.”

  Aida whirled and raised her hands. “What? Who? The Clef-hand dude you want me to kill?”

  “You know who. Whatever you feel, he must continue to believe.”

  “Ryk? Why would I not like Ryk? He's perfect.” Aida looked towards where Eth stared, hoping to see the Paragon. No dice. “So now we're done with my personal failings and on to my love life? How about anything about shelter, food, water, or every new batch of arrivals shitting in the waterholes and trying to kill our Wretches? What about Ryk packing half the metal in the entire verse with barely a scrap of bronze to be found among all the rest of us? We're practically in the Stone Age here!”

  Eth walked over to Aida, standing uncomfortably close. “I already told you. You figure it out after I go. Plus steel. No, not steal. Steel.”

  “Steal not steal? What are we supposed to steal? I just told you no one who shows up has anything!” Aida gritted her teeth and took a deep breath. “Okay, if you won't answer any relevant questions, how about fielding a few I've had bouncing around in the back of my mind the last few weeks while you've been off eating all the Book's Imminents or whatever you do with them?”

  She took Eth's abstention from dropping a snarky comment as permission to continue.

  "Right. First, I got caught up in everything going on and forgot something that seems obvious now: why don't we make a quick pit-stop back at Earth? I mean, you got me from there, why don't we go swipe some stuff? Penicillin, guns, some encyclopedias and medical textbooks. Oh, and some pants that don't wear out in a week."

  Eth gave a sigh worthy of Fallon and shook her head. "The Valeer is dead."

  "The? Singular? Can't you just make more?"

  "Yes, but it's painstaking. They must visit all the Verses they will know while being Slavanted. And he was the only one who knew where Earth was, it being on the Forbidden Verses list and all."

  "Well, it seems kinda important. Can't you just look into the future or whatever and find when someone goes there next. Get where it is that way?"

  The teenager gnawed at her hangnail and stared off into space for a moment. Aida was about to shake or maybe slap her when she finally spoke up again. "It seems like such a simple solution that it's frustrating. It's the only verse on the Forbidden List twice. I don't know what happens if we go there too soon, but the Imminent in the Vale Walkers are certain it's a warning."

  "I get the frustration since everything about you people is frustrating. A warning from who?" Aida said.

  "From us, presumably." She paused. "From an alternate path where we did so. The Vale Walkers refused aside from making a 'nail which hopefully we retrieve again since, well..."

  "Well what? A nail to do what with? We’re a bit short on hammers if you hadn’t noticed.”

  An eye roll. "Was Fallon the incompetent one, was it mostly you, or did we just pick terribly all around?"

  It took Aida too many deep breaths to rein her temper in under Eth's belligerent glare.

  "Stick it out or you get no answers at all," she reminded herself. "Pivot."

  After a long, deep breath, she changed subjects.“Okay, Earth's off the table. Sucks, but I think I kind of understand? Like, you tried it once upon another time, everything went haywire, and you left yourselves a warning not to try it again?"

  Eth's arm-crossed, hip-thrust, head-tilted look said either Aida was boring her or that she was stating the obvious.

  Aida took another deep breath to calm herself and stay on track. "Okay, so how about the 100th Dynasty? Have there really been that many generations of Dynasts? How do they track it if they're immortal?”

  “Immortals still die. Accidents, assassination-”

  “Okay, so they live a few centuries until they get hit by lightning or fall in a vat of molten bronze or whatever. When does the 101st Dynasty start?”

  “It doesn't. No more Dynasties begin.”

  “Because of...” Aida sighed and rubbed her eyes. “Wait, I have the feeling this gets blamed on me too.”

  Another silent answer.

  “Okay, good to know. So the I keep the 101st plus Dynasties from ever getting off the ground. Great. Would things be better off if I just killed myself?” Aida tried not to sound bitter, but looking down at Aliasara's family trudging back from the Crowmen's swelling zombie pens didn't exactly make her feel like dancing.

  “You're not the type. And no, it would make it even worse somehow we're pretty sure. Believe it or not, you're the best choice we've found. You have to be. Why do you think I'm here?”

  “I figured it was to punish me for having the gumption to get kidnapped and have immortality tortured into me.” Aida thought about the pandemic raging through the already-suffering people of the Book and wondered grimly how it could get worse from here. “So, great. I'm only the second-worst thing to happen to the Kiloverse?”

  “I didn't say that.”

  “You always know just the thing to cheer me up. Okay, I've got a couple more." Relief at finally having the chance to ask some of the hundred questions welling up inside her warred with the frustration that packed every interaction she had with the semi-omniscient brat. "White Spiral and Feral, the first Feral. What'd they do to get doomed or whatever?"

  Eth rolled her eyes in that way that made Aida want to slap her. "All the important things you might ask and that's what you want to know?"

  Aida put her hands on her hips and glared. "Yes."

  The Imminent sighed. "I don't know because I don't care."

  "You finally don't know something?" Aida put on the biggest expression of mock-surprise she could muster.

  "I only know important things."

  "Now you sound like Fallon." His name caught in her throat a bit. Not wanting to let emotion mess up this opportunity to get something out of Eth, she pressed on. "Speaking of Fallon, why was he so pissed off? Something about his father, right. And as long as we're tugging at that thread, who is my father?”

  “You'll meet Fallon's father. Your father is the one who left you the necklace.”

  "Can't wait to tell Fallon's dad the news. Though if he let people half-slavant his son, maybe he'll be happy to hear it." Aida tilted her head and cupped her ear. “And did you just skip an opportunity to show how much you know and somehow insult me in the process?”

  Eth rolled her eyes.

  Aida lifted the crude silver crescent on its silver chain about her neck. "Is this special or magical or something? It always looked to me like it was part of something else."

  "It's not any more special than you are."

  "After you just told me you picked me out of everyone to save the Kiloverse. I don't even know how to take that."

  "Didn't pick. No room to try other options or we might wreck everything enough that we can't find a way fix it again. We're stuck with you."

  Aida sighed. "Do all the Imminent think so highly of me or did I just get lucky getting saddled with you?"

  "We considered it too much of a risk to let anyone else try to step in since we know how this goes. You are my doom."

  "Feel the same way about you right now. I'm going to change the subject before I give in to the urge to hurl myself off this turtle. So who sent Fallon to get me from-”

  “Your father did. On orders from elsewhere.”

  Aida took a deep breath. “So my father's still alive?”

  The Imminent blinked at her, then turned to picking at her fingernails. "He's a Dynast."

  “Obviously. Who? There's a thousand last I heard.”

  “The one who sent for you.”

  Aida's hands curled into claws and she gritted her teeth. “I know, you just told me that.”

  “If you find out now, you'll do things differently later.”

  “What if I beat it out of you?” Aida leaned over Eth, her strings thrumming.

  Eth didn't budge, staring up into Aida's eyes. “If you were going to try it, I wouldn't have showed up here.”

  “That makes a brain-bending sort of sense. Okay, fine, let's move on to another one that's been bothering me. That assassin chick from the Spire who stabbed Fallon screamed something about some guy telling her she would get away with it. Sounds an awful lot like Imminent talk to me. One of your coworkers want me dead?”

  “If I wanted you dead, I'd just send my Paragon.”

  Aida grinned and patted her on the shoulder. “Sorry sister, but I don't think your Paragon would do it. At least not 'do it' like you mean. Might stick me with the wrong spear. Speaking of, know where he's at? Could use some good 'sticking' right about now.”

  Eth flushed and turned away abruptly. "He's probably practicing for the Hundred. You know what I was saying.”

  “The Hundred what? Wait, not getting me distracted this time. So you say you didn't send the assassin chick, but yet you also sent Goldilocks off to burn herself to death when she might not have even been sick and if she somehow survived that she starved to death after 'cause she couldn't get to me. And Fallon... what did you tell him?” Her temper flared as she mentioned him again. She grabbed Eth and spun her around. “You nodded to him before he went to Jaxe back in Jadeye, before he died.”

  “Do you want the truth or what I told him to ensure things happened the way they have to?” Eth said, her voice hoarse. “Can you imagine even the barest, tiniest scrap of what I do to preserve even the smallest shard of hope amid the horror and carnage already erupting in The All?”

  “You're up for telling the truth now, then? You say that like it's a rarity. I'm getting the feeling Ocyl is right not to trust you.”

  “Ocyl may not trust us, but he trusts everyone and everything else less, including himself. Thus, he obeys. Learn a lesson from him; he's been at this centuries longer than you." Eth pried herself from Aida's grasp and stepped away to stare out across the Tangle. "You want the truth?”

  “Sounds refreshing,” Aida snapped, though a knot of dread lodged in her gut.

  “Fallon was a coward. After I told him he would have to kill that Inviolate for you to escape, he asked...” Eth took a deep breath and swallowed hard, grimacing as though choking down something bitter. “He asked if he would survive. I didn't answer him until-”

  “Until you sent him to die with a lying nod.” A confused, angry, hurt welter of emotions surged through Aida. She felt like slapping Eth, shoving her off the turtle. At the same time, the depths of pain in the teenager's haunted eyes made her want to hug her tight and tell her it would be okay. Anger slowly won out, though icy instead of molten. “There had to have been another way where he didn't have to die. Or you could have told him the truth and let him face his death with courage instead of ignorance.”

  Eth laughed, a harsh sound. “Then he wouldn't have done it. You tell me of what could be as though you could do better. You have no, no idea how fine a line we thread with death shredding the weave a step behind us and waves of utter destruction looming so high on all sides until the only way out we've found looks more a tunnel than a valley. Mope and moan about your burden as a Dynast to someone else; every time you complain you sound like a spoiled child throwing a tantrum.”

  Aida stepped away, clasping the strings at her throat as they hummed to life. Blowing wind carried Tangle critter-cries and the odd shout from the Shanties. It took several minutes before Aida trusted herself to speak.

  “Final question: I figure out everything after you leave, right? So why haven't you left yet?”

  “I've been waiting since you got here for you to get to that one. Come Parathas, need to get as much of Rustrovan onto you as we can before he joins the Crowmen.” Eth pushed past Aida and began the descent. She paused for a moment, glanced back, and said, "I do see what you pull off later. Would be impressive if I didn't know it was all luck and Blood rather than any skill on your part."

  "Sure, thanks, whatever that means." Anger solidified into a jagged layer of resentment inside Aida as she watched the Imminent turn back and continue down the shell. “Ocyl, if you managed to put up with this crap for centuries, you're a better person than I.”

  Next chapter: Meet Ghulen as he learns the Ancients' plans and gets a new mission

  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

  Avani: Hassani's daughter, an albino

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

  "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

  Das: Rega's Immanent

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

  Denault: Hassani's husband. Shipwright, Kin.

  Eonora: a Legion officer in Ziggurat

  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

  Fallon: Aida's Seneschal. Died killing the Inviolate Rasofi in Jadeye

  Fatma: slaver?

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

  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

  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. Died of Wretch Plague?

  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

  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.

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

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

  Sava: Dynast of Libriam

  Savalius: Grand Quartermaster of the Legions

  Semon "Goldtongue": white-haired, one-eyed master of cults. First Disciple of the Mother.

  Stiller: serving boy at Ocyl's estate. Rendered mute by psychological or head-trauma

  "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".

  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.

  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

  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.

  Anticore: Sect creature which "wears convincing human skins" with "swarming insects... beneath the skin"

  Arborian: gardeners from Groves?

  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: A verse?

  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

  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"

  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.

  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".

  Groves: a forest verse

  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 verse of the Skeinry, Keens, Directory, and "the Faded People"

  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?

  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"

  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"

  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 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

  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

  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: "Gates End", 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

  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?

  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