"Hey, Hass," Johine called again. "It's a Calm! If you want to find out where that daughter of yers is, this'll be the time. Hey. Hey!"

  Hassani lay on her side, wrapped in her blanket and staring at the dawn's light casting slowly-drifting shadows across the stone cliff face. At some level, she knew there was a way out of this, a way she'd somehow get Avani back, but she was just too tired to listen to it.

  "Go away, Johine. It's over," she groaned.

  Without the constant wind snatching away her words, he unfortunately heard her. "Hah, go away! Ha ha! Where 'xactly am I supposed to go, Hass? Oh, what am I doin' in this cage all this time. Should'a left here ages ago. Ha! Ha ha!"

  "You know what I mean. It's all pointless. Find someone else to bother."

  "Yeah, who? Mutey or the Crone? Ain't no botherin' goin' on there. They jus' ignore me."

  "I wonder why. Leave me alone."

  "Jus' tryin' to help and yer bein' all rude," Johine said, humphing. By the way his words muffled, he turned his back on her. "Fine. I'll just sit here alone more. Not helpin' anyone. Just wastin' away until they get tired of feedin' me."

  She almost felt bad at the hurt in his voice. Almost. For what felt like hours, she lay there, the calls of slaves trading news, asking the whereabouts of family or friends, and the like drifted past her like wind.

  Lost. That summed up everything. She was lost. She'd lost Avani, lost her when she was so close. Fatma would never let her go, would keep her daughter dangling just out of reach to keep Hassani as her violence puppet forever. She'd lost Avani and Denault. Her whole little family. Even lost her way as an Inviolate. There was nothing left.

  "Hassani," a voice whispered, barely audible.

  "Shut it, Johine. For real, I don't care about-"

  "Hassani," it came again. This time she sat up, realizing Johine never got her full name.

  She looked around for the source of the voice. Only when her eyes traced the cave mouth near the wooden framework holding her cage did she see it.

  "By the Ascen," she whispered, the mutter half a prayer.

  The skin, or what was left of it. It must have followed her from Ziggurat, somehow survived all this time since. It had shed its fine clothing, its attempt to wave at her weak as a scrap of paper caught in the wind. Tatters of skin raveled up from its broken-off right hand. Where it's head already had been torn before, it now barely held together at all. It's legs ended at mid-shin. Just a brittle husk of dark skin now, yet somehow it still whispered to her.

  "How are you still alive?"

  "Not. But here. Help," it managed.

  "Okay, see that lever over there? Pull it."

  It drifted where she pointed, every movement painfully slow. Its body sagged and dragged. It wrapped itself around the lever, but her heart sank when she saw they'd shoved a heavy locking peg into place to keep the arm from swinging in. The skin would never be strong enough to pull it out.

  "Hey, Hass!" Johine said, his voice soft for once. "What's that?"

  "Skin. From a Molt. But it doesn't matter," she slumped down against the bars, the bleakness even worse after the sharp jolt of hope. "It's not strong enough."

  "They never put my peg in last time," Johine said, pointing towards the base of the arm supporting his cage. "Hole's bored wrong size and never got around to gettin' a right-sized peg, just stuck a stick in it. A toddler could pull it out. If that thing can get it out and work the winch, it could free me and then I could free you."

  "Even if it could find its way to you and unpeg it, it never would have the strength to work the winch."

  "Ha! See what you know," Johine shouted before looking about sheepishly and dropping to a conspiratorial, loud whisper she could barely understand over the background chatter. "Its old, an ancient pen they put Johine in. If I swung myself in my cage at the right time, I could help move the bar too."

  This text was taken from Royal Road. Help the author by reading the original version there.

  To demonstrate, he lurched in his cage, timing the movements to make it swing just slightly further on each end of the chaotic pendulum motion he created. "See, see?"

  Hassani pointed to the ledge abutting Johine's cage and the cave that opened to it. "Skin. Can you make it there? Could you try? It might be our only shot."

  If it spoke, she missed it. The hollow just slumped down and dragged itself slowly back into the cave mouth.

  And then they sat. Waiting. For hours. Hassani prayed to any Ascen that might be listening that the Calm would stay as even the mildest of breezes might rip the skin from the cave mouth when it got there and hurl it away. And with it, her only hope of getting out and having any sort of advantage over Fatma.

  The sun crept up the wall and the noise of the other slaves grew, rising to almost deafening.

  "What's going on?" she finally snapped at Johine, trying to decipher the commotion.

  He squinted his eyes and tilted his head to present an ear towards the heart of the commotion somewhere above them and seemingly around a jutting thrust of rock. They both scanned distant cages. She couldn't make out much, but they seemed to be pulling in cages by the dozen, leading the slaves within off into the tunnel network.

  "Somethin' about the Slave Legion I think. Preparing for an attack by the Ancients or to attack the Ancients or somethin'. Don't make no sense to me but they're takin' most everyone somewheres."

  "Come on, skin," Hassani hissed. The slavers could come for her or Johine next. Who knew how long the skin could stay animated or when the next Calm might be when it could move without risking being ripped to tatters or tumbled to the filth river below?

  Just as she was about to despair about him making it at all, Johine started jumping up and down in his cage. The skin crawled over to the winch basing Johine's cage and hefted the stick free from the peg hole as though it were a heavy metal bar. It leveraged all its flimsy mass against the winch and heaved. The winch didn't move.

  It tried again, sometimes pushing, sometimes pulling. Only by placing what was left of its legs against the cliff face and pushing with all of whatever force propelled it did it finally get it turning. Gradually, painfully, it turned the arm and inched Johine's cage closer. Johine began to lurch in his cage, building momentum. The skin proved smart enough to time its movements with the maximum swing to augment its efforts. Then, when Johine's cage swung to a person-length from the ledge, the skin pulled and its arms ripped completely free from its torso, shredding apart with the force of its exertions.

  Johine jimmied open the bar holding his cage shut - a feat designed to be difficult for the slaves inside the cage, but slaves had nothing but time to mess with such things - and lurched about to expand the pendulum swing to dangerous spans.

  When the motion reached its apex, he visibly steeled himself then hurled himself across the gap. The force of his launch threw the cage back in a spin, skewing the arc of his jump. He crashed hard against the ledge's lip and clung to it half-on, half-off, scrabbling for anything that might grant him a hold and keep him from plummeting to his death.

  Finally, he found a crumbling handhold and hauled himself up to lay there panting.

  "Johine, there's no time to rest!" Hassani called, hearing voices almost directly above them. The beam supporting Mutey's cage began to move and come in towards the cliff face. From what she'd managed to gather in her last trip with Fatma, the tunnel network leading to Mutey's cage also connected with hers and Johine's.

  They made eye contact. Though she'd never really communicated with the silent, shaggy slave, something passed between them. Perhaps she somehow relayed her desperation. Perhaps the mutual understanding and shared misery of fellow slaves said something to him. Whatever it was, Mutey nodded and slid the long, pinky-thick, hand-long sliver of wood he'd peeled from one of his bars along his forearm. He swung out of sight. She heard the cage's wooden bar slide free. Stern orders called out and a whip cracked.

  A burst of surprised hollers and screams. A jailer hurtled off the ledge, clutching his bloody neck and screaming. He sailed out towards the hard stone and meager river below. More shouting. Then Mutey fell past, another guard wrapped in his bear hug.

  "Johine!" she called, peering upwards towards his ledge. He and the skin were both gone. "Damn you! Come let me out."

  Her cage lurched and she clung to the bars, startled.

  "Damn me? You want me to stop rescuing you?" He actually stopped cranking the winch and stared at her.

  "Don't stop. Mutey sacrificing himself might have delayed them, but they'll just send more guards with the next group. Don't know how much time we have. Keep going!"

  Grumbling to himself, he complied. It seemed to take another hour before he'd winched her in, opened her cage, and she pulled her out. As her foot touched stone, it was as though the world beyond the wooden bars suddenly pulled itself into sharper resolution. If she was free, then Fatma was hers. A faint movement in the shadows drew her attention.

  What was left of the skin wormed its way into the light.

  She knelt beside it, feeling bizarrely sad as she knelt beside it. "Thank you. I don't know what I could have done if you hadn't come along. I probably would have been Fatma's slave for life and Avani kept alive only to keep me under her thumb. You saved me. Saved us."

  "You would... have found... way," it whispered, barely audible even with her ear almost touching the shreds of its lips. "Go... daughter... then find... Terminus."

  "Find what on Terminus? What else is there to find after Avani? My daughter is all that matters in the entire Book right now."

  It didn't answer. Its rustling ceased as whatever life force its Molt imparted to it finally ran out. With a reverence born out of gratitude, she carefully scooped up its negligible weight, walked to the mouth of the cave, and released it into the canyon. Its body fluttered and twisted as it floated down. Then it fell into shadow, and was gone.

  Next chapter: Same chapter. Time to literally hit Fatma where she lives.

  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.

  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

  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. 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, 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

  Sava: Dynast of Libriam

  Savalius: Grand Quartermaster of the Legions

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

  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

  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

  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

  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.

  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

  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.

  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 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"

  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: "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, 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