Inro lost himself in smears of pain, hallucination, and thrashing, nightmare-plagued sleep. Snatches of wakefulness came and went, their contents as blurred and seemingly-unreal as his dreams or waking visions. Aj stalked him, Rega mocked him, and a Legion of the dead followed him wherever he went, staring at him mutely with blame-filled eyes.

  When his senses finally returned, he was surprised at how clearly he knew he was awake. During the timeless loop of nightmares, hallucinations and confused wakefulness he'd been trapped in, he never quite knew whether what was happening was real since everything and everyone skewed vague, figmentary, and unreal. With Cairin stroking his hair as he lay half-covered by a fur inside a straw hut, however, he knew instantly he was back from the edge of death and conscious in ways he couldn't explain even to himself.

  "Where..." his voice cracked. She poured water onto his cracked lips. A trickle ran down his throat. That he needed water at all hit Inro hard. Dynasts were generally sustained by the Blood. If he was dehydrated, he'd come closer to dying than he ever had in all the centuries since his Partaking.

  "Your hand," he muttered, reaching up to grasp her fingers.

  She smiled sadly and lifted the sheared-off stump of her left hand. Clearly shadow-blade work by the straightness of the cut and the blackened, necrotic flesh capping it.

  "Arca used Inro blade of nothing to remove or Cairin would not be here." She brushed his cheek with her fingers. "Could not do same for Inro as would have had to cut off head."

  "Remind me to thank Arca for not trying to save me that way," he said dryly as he stiffly pushed himself to sitting. The hide blanket fell away and he traced a dozen puncture wounds with his fingers on his neck, face, hands, feet.

  "Bites Inro took would have killed ten men."

  "Feel like it. Speaking of men, do we still have ten left? Last thing I remember before everything becomes blurry is us losing to a swarm of people who smelled of copper, venom, and fruit."

  "Shh, talk later," she said, pressing him back down. As he came completely to his senses, he realized that she too was naked. "Been waiting too long."

  A much more pleasurable but equally-unknown length of time later, they emerged from the hut. Inro winced and raised his hand to shield himself from the blinding sun. Within moments, calls went out informing everyone he was awake and within minutes he found himself buffeted on all sides by a grinning gathering of friends clapping him on the back, cheering, and dancing around him. It spontaneously turned into a celebration, complete with drums, whistles, baskets of food, and jars full of fermented who-knew-what.

  He startled to see Green People mixed among them, as well as a scattering of new tribes people with exotic shells gauged into their ears, ribbons of some sort of kelp braided into their hair, wearing skirts woven from the same, and bearing distinctive ritual scarification decorating their cheeks. Not only them, but also a cluster of shorter, broader people who were the only ones wrapped in something resembling full clothing: long, cape-like hides of some white-gray-furred beast bound at the waist with thick belts of braided hair.

  "Shore Striders," Cairin said, gesturing towards the first group. Then she pointed at the second. "Stone Walkers."

  Before he could inquire further, a cheer when up and Arca arrived, looking every bit the warlord with his sword, war paint, a new string of exotic, polished shells about his neck, a brilliant feathered cape like the Green People elders had worn, small snail shells gauged into his ears, and a thick hair-belt enwrapping his waist. Flanking him walked not only Izbali, but the young shaman that had stood beside the Green People elders. He stood facing Inro sternly and, for the span of a few breaths, Inro wondered if Arca had grown powerful enough to kick him aside and take sole charge of the One Tribe.

  Then Arca grinned and hugged him ferociously. When the one-eyed chieftain pulled back to look him over at arm's length, tears ran from his eyes. "Welcome back from trip to spirit world, friend."

  Inro rubbed at the pairs of marring the flesh of his face and neck. "Glad to have come home. I have the feeling I missed a bit."

  "Indeed. But Arca and Cairin will tell it over fire and feast. It grows dark soon. Arca will make happen, Inro rest until ready." Arca clapped him on the back, then turned and began to issue orders. At first, Inro felt annoyed that Arca was taking charge, but then it felt as though his perspective on the entire world shifted subtly and he relaxed back against Cairin, relieved that he didn't have to handle everything. It would work out.

  As a spontaneous feast came together, Cairin led Inro out of the sprawling camp. They scrambled up a rocky bluff and, in the light of the setting sun, he saw what Arca and Cairin had accomplished while he was indisposed.

  The camp spread at the base of a series of ancient, rounded rocky mountains. Caves pocked every face ranging from small holes to great, jagged tears ripping across the half a mountain face. Between a craggy range of bluffs and the mountains' base, their camp spread: a rough collection of huts, lean-tos, hides thrown down around fire rings, cave dwellings, and a few stone silos here and there implying some degree of permanence.

  "How long was I out?" Inro said, marveling. "There have to be at least ten-thousand people here."

  Cairin pulled him down beside her atop a low, flat boulder to watch the sunset over the camp's bustle. "Long enough for Izbali to bring help to defeat Green People after Cairin and Inro fall to snakes. Close thing. All Green People after battle respect strength and join One Tribe. Few didn't flee deep into jungle where not worth follow. Then on to Shore Striders."

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  Inro realized he was holding his breath and slowly released it. "I missed an entire campaign?"

  Her smile stirred a warmth inside him the likes of which he'd never felt. Or never allowed himself to feel. "No campaign. Peoples hear of strength. Not warlike, the Shore Striders, so simply gave fish and clam. Sent warriors to join. Stone Walkers arrive in all numbers soon later, ready for great war Inro and Arca promise."

  "And now we're at the doorstep of the Cave Dwellers," Inro breathed. "Have they given us any trouble?"

  He loved the way Cairin's hair glowed in the setting sunlight when she shook her head. "Izbali spend days convince Cave Dwellers Inro child of Ebon return after all time since Ebon leave. They wait to meet. Feast tonight, Inro meet tomorrow."

  "My armor!" he half-shouted and rose to his feet, chiding himself for not noticing its absence in the hut earlier. Even if he'd nearly died, it was no excuse for a career soldier not keeping track of his kit.

  "Calm, love," Cairin said, pulling him back down beside her. "Inro swell up like corpse in sun as venom pump through blood. Had to cut armor off and not know how to fix. Arca keep no-blade safe."

  "No Blade," Inro said, smiling. "You've named my sword."

  Cairin's smile and the way she ran her hands through his hair made him want to run off with her to the mountains and make a new life with here off in a hut somewhere. After the blurred, transitory half-existence he'd just survived, the Aj, the Book, Rega, all of it felt like just another bad dream.

  She brought him back to reality by straddling his lap. "No dream while wake. Inro had enough for five lifetimes last weeks."

  "I've lived more than ten lifetimes, if you measure by the age most menials live to," Inro murmured. He wasn't sure if it was his near-death experience, all this time forcibly separated from his identity in the Book, or the hard contrast with the way Cairin and Arca managed to live so in-the-moment and with so much peace and joy in spite of hardship, but everything looked different now than it had before the Aj had shattered his world. Literally and metaphorically.

  Cairin wiggled and then grinned wickedly. "Inro drift away again. Cairin feel Inro getting back to here, now again though."

  Inro smiled back, the effort easier than it used to be. The muscles required to do so had atrophied to almost-nothing over his centuries of endless training, mulling, and planning in Sunset, but now it almost felt natural. He pulled her tight against him and kissed her neck. The growl of feral pleasure she made in reply drove a spike of excitement deep into the armored shell he'd wrapped around his soul.

  The evening passed pleasurably, both up on the cliff with Cairin, then at the feast with his people that night. Warriors rose to tell of battles fought, companions lost, or made good-hearted mock of one another. Respected grandmothers rose to tell of hardships endured, times of famine and lack survived, and boasted of babies birthed with as much ferocious pride as the warriors spoke of kills. Peoples of the various tribes and clans argued with one another over superstitions and taboos in a way that at another time could have led to bloodshed, but with the greater purpose unifying the One Tribe were instead spectated, cheered, or booed like some sort of gladiatorial match in the arenas of Berujat.

  At the peak of the night, with much fermented juice having been drunk and many young couples already drifting giggling out into the warm night to find some privacy - or dispensing with privacy and enjoying each other right there by the fires while others cheered, whistled, and hooted - Arca rose. He stood at the heart of the ancient, long-abandoned amphitheater from the time of Ebon and raised his hands. In moments, all fell into expectant silence.

  He began the tale of the One Tribe from his first skirmish against Inro and his Feral to the ferocious fighting at the Battle of the Bluffs. Those who had been present on any side of the battle listened solemnly and raised their half-melon cups as he saluted the ferocious strength and bravery the combatants on both sides had exhibited.

  With great embellishment, he carried the rapt audience through jungle ambushes by the Green People and the desperate Three Elder's Battle, the tale managing to swell the chests of Green People warriors present and earn them respectful nods from others around them at their cunningly effective tactics even as it praised the courage of the One Tribe warriors fighting desperately against them. Next, his masterful telling focused the rapt audience on the generosity of the Shore Striders helping tend the sick and wounded from the campaign in the Green People's jungles, described the marvel of their long canoes, and exalted the wisdom of their decision to join their strength to the One Tribes without bloodshed.

  In hushed tones, he spoke of the One Tribes' worries leading to the lands of the Stone Walkers. The broad-chested warriors of the mountain vales were renowned for their raw strength, their willingness to attack groups ten times their number and he embellished their trepidation as they came to the foothills of their domain to contrast the relief and joy they'd felt when the mountain tribes met them at the mouth of a pass with all their families, beasts, and possessions in tow, ready to join their strength to the One Tribes.

  He finished by speaking of their combined purpose, retelling Inro's stories of the Book's rich fields and packed cities, the strange technologies of Ink and the formidable discipline of the Legions. With wonder, dreams of glory, and not a little greed reflecting back at him from thousands of bonfire-lit eyes, Arca turned the stage over to Inro.

  After surprising the chieftain with a fierce hug, Inro found the spot Arca indicated where some sort of ancient acoustical engineering projected his voice to the ears even of those seemingly too impossibly far away to hear. He noticed Izbali squatting with a dozen more stern men and women wearing similar decorations and swirls of Limn paint, studying him with dark eyes and half-bowed to them.

  "Cave Dwellers," Arca murmured in Inro's ear. "Here to lay final judgment if Inro truly returns as Ebon's child. If they decide yes, the City Below belongs to you."

  "And with it, a gateway to Terminus. And from there, to any verse old enough to have an arch once we paint them back to life with Limn," Inro said softly, half to himself.

  As Arca took a seat beside Cairin, Inro looked out among the One Tribe, feeling a fierce swell of pride as deep as any he'd felt reviewing the finest of his Sunset Legions. Deeper perhaps. Those were fine troops, volunteers and conscripts from a hundred verses thrown into ranks by the Centurions' harsh discipline and made hard through endless drill, march, and training. These were his people. They'd welcomed him as one of their own, fought with or against him fearlessly to protect their lands, out of loyalty and love for him and Arca, and out of the vision Inro had brought them of a greater world they could claim for their children. A dream far better than their endless struggle for survival in this lean, harsh verse.

  Next chapter: Same chapter. Inro tells the Ebon Saga.

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

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

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

  Alerestro: a handsome, multi-talented man from Azure. Partner of Viviana

  Aliasara: servant at Ocyl's villa who befriends Aida

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

  Arca: chief of the tribe that "adopted" Inro

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

  Avani: Hassani's daughter, an albino

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

  "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. 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.

  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

  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