"But back to the Aj. As Bubo returned with his tale, the Imminent pushed Ebon to seal the Gates." He paused here for long enough that his listeners grew restless, trying to decide which version of the story to tell. The One Tribes held Ebon as sacred and special as anyone in the Book so what he said next was crucial. When he finally decided, retelling the version that was told throughout the Book ever since left a bad taste in his mouth no amount of fruit wine could mask.

  "Ebon finally relented and traveled from verse to verse, shattering the Gates even as the Aj flickered between them, killing indiscriminately. Several times the Aj nearly caught up to and killed her, but in the end she managed to close the last of the Gates. She ended up standing alone in the remote, desolate eternal twilight of the verse Sunset. For days she wept for the devastation visited on the Book she'd bound. Between the Kiss and the Aj, no verse was untouched and hundreds were lost or inaccessible. Beyond that, only a few Valeers existed and would always remain few for their slavanting kills nine of every ten it is attempted upon.

  "Where menial and Dynast alike could once walk the Gates freely, the Vale would remain the path of but a few, easily controlled and out of reach for all but the most powerful, rich, or connected. Here, at the desperate tail end of the Saga, enter the Ascendant. Recognizing Ebon's deep sorrow and honoring her great sacrifices, the came upon her in the greatest of their churches in the verse of Sunset that would later become my own. From that church they took her to Ascend into their holy ranks."

  He took a swig of wine and swished it around, hoping to cleanse the lie from his tongue. Even all these centuries later, the truth of what really happened there remained a bitter drought.

  "Aj had tracked her to Sunset and trapped her inside the great temple of the Ascen. As she prepared to die in a final solo combat against it, the Ascendant are said to have descended on waves of golden sunlight riding carriages of pure gold pulled by chained gods, their faces too beautiful to look upon. Ebon protested, not wanting to leave her people, but they told her she could always talk to them through the Blind Priests who looked not upon the world but the fiery Heavens beyond the verses where the Ascendant dwelt. Thus she departed the Book forever."

  The next bit he spoke with his eyes closed, unable to watch the tears of wonder and delight that the tale of their long-lost, sacred Ebon's finally reached completion. He would bring them more of the truth later, but for the moment the official tale would serve the purposes of their imminent crusade better.

  "When Ebon departed, the Aj dropped to the lotus position and slept. In meditative slumber it remained in under the watchful care of myself and my legions. Then, after nearly six hundred years, it awoke mere months ago, destroyed my legions - over fifteen-thousand soldiers - in spite of all I'd done to prepare for it, and I barely escaped the carnage and made it here with my life."

  That sank in hard. He watched a mix of horror, disbelief, and wonder slide across the One Tribe's faces. He could imagine what they were thinking: as potent a warrior as Inro had proved, what sort of being must the Aj be to single-handedly wipe out his legions and force him to flee?

  "Yes. It is as terrible as you imagine. Its form shifts unexpectedly, one minute hard enough to chip steel and bend bronze, the next as insubstantial as smoke. When it moves it becomes a whisping blur, flickering among you and killing indiscriminately. There were no wounded for every blow pierced through to vitals or shattered the victim's spine or skull. Our first volley of a thousand arrows fell on it like rain, but not one shaft among those thousand found its mark. Half the initial charge of ten-thousand died in minutes and as the survivors fled it hunted them down one by one.

  "No mortal weapons could touch it and those teams I'd equipped with weapons such as my shadowblade made from Night Geodes found only in the forbidden verse of Shade-" Arca leapt up at this to bring Inro his shadowblade along with his belt. Inro nodded, then continued as he belted it on "-all died in their attempts to assail it. I myself tried to approach but was once knocked away by a hurtling body, once half-buried in a building it collapsed with one shattering punch, and last yanked away right as I would have finally landed a killing-blow by one of my Ferals who feared I might die in the attempt.

  "This tale must be told so you all know the sort of entity I strive to return to the Book to confront. I can only assume the Aj awoke again after all these years to finish what it started. If it acts as I believe it will, I it will not stop until the Book lies in ruins and everyone lies dead from the most broken slavant to the eldest Dynast. Though I ordered every known Thorn into Sunset to be severed, I can't know whether all the assigned teams succeeded or even if the Aj needs Thorns to travel. Before they existed, no one ever saw it use a Gate, so perhaps it knows the way through the Subterrrane, knows of Thorns we haven't discovered, or travels by some other means entirely."

  Cairin stood, shaking her head. "This Aj seem like problem for Book, but One Tribe not in Book. Would Aj come here too?"

  The narrative has been taken without permission. Report any sightings.

  "We can't know," Inro said, shrugging. "No one knows why it started killing initially any more than why it stopped. Perhaps it seeks to destroy the Black Court and kill all the Dynasts. Perhaps is seeks genocide and won't rest until no human breathes. Perhaps it pursued some other end entirely and we would be safe remaining here."

  Beside her, Arca rose, his expression grave. "Inro spend centuries in Sunset away from rest of Book. Why Inro and One Tribe return to protect if Black Court turn back on Inro? What if other Dynast kill Aj? Or hurt so when Aj come to One Tribe, fight comes against weakened foe?"

  "Because it's not just about protecting the Book and its people. Because the end of Ebon's story I told you and what has been told for half-a-millennia in the Book is a lie. I was there so I know. I saw her last moments." Inro's breathing grew heavy and he began to sweat and shake as the still-vivid image rocked him.

  The perpetual sunset that spilled through the cathedral's shattered doors. The uncountable bodies that lay sprawled lifelessly in the streets of the burning city as Aj had approached in that slow, inexorable way it had when it wasn't moving faster than the eye could follow. The refugees streaming from the temporary safety of the cathedral, their mouths wrapped in cloth to keep smoke and the White Kiss away. And the almost-casual way it had flickered from one to another, smiting them as remorselessly and trivially as if they were pesky insects.

  Inro had hidden and watched as it slew the last remnant of Ebon's Feral Legion, watched as Ebon faced it with the last Aze Blade. Childish stories of the hero slaying the evil foe at the moment when all seemed lost had swelled inside him as she, for a moment, seemed to match its inhuman speed. Their fight had flashed and surged across the cathedral, bringing half of it down with the force and fury of their battle. But then, when it seemed like she might somehow prevail, Ebon had staggered, coughing a mist of white flecks fine as snow.

  That moment had been all the Aj needed and, between heartbeats, it was there, the featureless, inky black substance of its hand driving like a spear into Ebon's chest. She had seemed to somehow spot the child Inro as she had collapsed, the eyes of the Mother of Dynasts meeting his in a silent plea.

  As her eyes fluttered and her labored breaths ceased, the Aj had dropped down beside her. The radiant, piercing white of its eyes had dimmed as it sank into the lotus position in which it remained for centuries, immovable and indestructible against any mancer's art. Immune too against any artifact his half-brother Ocyl had been able find on his constant travels to the furthest reaches of the All while Inro had waged the Reconquest to rebind the scattered, scarred pages of the Book. All the while, the Aj had slept, unreachable by any slightest hint of justice or vengeance. Deep in his heart, Inro had spoken a reply to Ebon's final plea, a vow of vengeance that had steered his entire life since.

  He came out of his reverie to someone gently shaking him.

  As the past fell away, he struggled to remember where he was, even the woman's face and name before him become a flicker amid tens-of-thousands of life fires he'd walked among and watched die. Cairin was her name. Cairin his love, and Arca his brother-in-battle beyond. His people, the One Tribe, filling the amphitheater about them with worry and concern etched into every face.

  After a few deep breaths, he found the end to his retelling. "Ebon wasn't carried into the Heavens by the Ascen, she was murdered by Aj. I watched it kill her; its final act of the time we call the Kiss before it settled down to sleep in Sunset. We go to the Book not just for conquest, but for vengeance."

  The One Tribe rose up in an roar of rage and outrage, shouting vengeful vows of their own. Inro's eyes drifted to the Cave Dwellers where they conferred with Izbali. Apparently they'd heard enough, for they motioned for him to follow as they turned towards the wide cave mouth cracking the mountain face. To Ebon's first city. To the Gates.

  He followed numbly, feeling strangely out of time; stuck halfway between the far past and the urgent present.

  One element he left out of it all, as did the Ebon Saga itself. One part he'd kept as a secret even from Ocyl who still trusted them so implicitly; a trust which had driven a wedge between the brothers and eventually led Inro to his self-imposed isolation and exile on Sunset.

  The Imminent had guided Ebon through all of it. Every step from Ebon's literal first steps as a child to her ascension as warchief and on as she united the people here in Origin all those thousands of years ago. They'd led her from her first step into the Subterrane through the crafting of the Gates and the discovery of immortality in the ever-shrouded dark of the Black Court. Walked before, beside, behind her until the end when they lured her to that shattered cathedral in Sunset to meet her doom.

  Guided from birth to betrayal.

  He hadn't walled himself off in Sunset merely to guard the Aj, but out of mistrust for the Imminent who steered the Dynasty to their every whim. He'd been certain the Imminent would betray them again as they had Ebon, his Sunset Legions held ready as much to fight back against them when they finally showed their hand as to fight the Aj when it awakened.

  Ebon's gaze had met Inro's, but from there it turned to the blue-clad, unruffled Imminent advisor who had promised her mere hours before that she would triumph against the Aj there in Sunset. He would not, could not forget the look of hopelessness and shock on Ebon's face as she lay dying and met the Imminent's pale blue eyes. She'd reached for his hand as he had approached, but he had stepped over her to collect the Aze Blade, return it to is tarry sheath, and walked out into the burning, corpse-thick city outside without the slightest glance back to where Ebon - Inro's mother - lay dying.

  After he found a way to stop the Aj, he'd purge whatever was left of the long-dwindling Imminent order to ensure they couldn't betray the Dynasty again.

  Next chapter: A brutal battle on the run as Aida and her followers flee the Vale Legions invading Berujat

  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

  Bubo's Tale: Story of an ancient dyast who explored a mythical land called "Christendom" with his rats

  Calms: periods when ever-blowing winds die down in Berujat

  Canyon of Cages: cliff where slaves are held in Berujat

  Cave Dwellers: tribes that live in the underground in Origin, keep others out until "the Return"

  Century Thread: additional threads appearing elsewhere on the body every century a Dynast lives

  Cerebrist: creator of slavants

  Chalk/"Vistas": verse entirely made of chalky cliff, belongs to Reck

  Chant, The/Sacrosanct Chant: some sort of law in the Dynasty?

  Chant of Inoculation: chant supposed to protect against disease, "Mudra of Cleansing"

  Chapters: power groupings among the Dynasts of the Book: predominantly The Ancients, the Fractious Fraction, and Isolates.

  Circular Sea: an ocean abutting the Jadeye segment of Heaven's Tread

  Clock Priest: priests from Gears who track and tell time religiously

  Commu: chewed drug/herb?

  ConMach: convoy? courier? "ConMach drains the very life from the Directory's verses". Supply "ConMach machines"

  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?

  Gates: previous travel method before Thorns and the Kiss, opened by painting Limn on an arch in one verse and another in Terminus

  Green People: tribes that live in the jungles of Origin

  Keen: Ink warriors wearing impossibly-heavy iron armor whose power source drains color from the area about it. "Tank knights"

  Kin: descendants of a Dynast, most desperately trying to reach 100 so they can Partake

  Kiss, The: disease that wiped out "hundreds of verses", also name for the time period when Aj became active last and destroyed 100s of verses before halting in Sunset

  Lambent ram: animal whose wool glows?

  Letch: sect bred leech-like creature designed to stop bleeding on wounds

  Libriam: a swampy verse home to the Annalis, heart of The Book's bureaucracy

  Libwe: tribe possessing the "holy" Limn clay bed.

  Limn: "infused clay" bearing some sort of internal power, used by Ebon to found the Dynasty

  Lineage: a line of mancers taught by a Master

  Linemen: workers on the Stacks trolleys who pull the cars along the lines

  Lizard Hunters: Arca's people, walkers of the wastes of Origin

  Logos: "the thought realm"

  Machine Curse: something that stops machines from working between verses?

  Mancers: "no mancers arc (could) affect it", people with abilities beyond human normal, usually trained/implanted by a Master.

  Master's Markets: primary slave market in the Book in Berujat

  Menial: common folk

  Molt: person able to shed skins (see skins)

  Mon, The: "the Outsiders". "exist only to destroy the Book" with their "demonic and monstrous children" from "the Hells beyond"

  Monopolis: the "City of Currency", bank verse ruled by Rega

  Mourne, The: something dangerous that lurks in the Vale, "the why we do not tarry"

  Mother's Faith: the relgion based on Aida created by Semon

  Mother's Militant: Formerly the Rogue Legions led by Eonora, now pledged to protect the people of the Book

  Mune: a utopist collective from Dost who mask their identities and share everything communally

  Nameday: when children are named

  Ocyl's Preserve: a garden "beyond the Circular Sea" in Heaven's Tread?

  Ocyl's Spire: the tower home to the court of Ocyl, Dyanst of Heaven's Tread

  One Tribe, The: Arca's new tribe incorporating the Libwe and whomever else is conquered or enticed to join.

  One-Eighth Shithole: Aida's verse. Unfortunately. A desolate place home to volcanoes and a giant dead turtle

  Optomime: gadgeteer

  Origin: the First Verse, from which Ebon originated, containing the "Cities Below". The "first page of The Book"

  Pale, The: light-skinned people, conquered by Ebon during the founding of the Dynasty. Alternately, albinism

  Paragon: warrior who can see the future

  Partaking: the ritual that creates Dynasts (or kills those who try). Performed by some unknown, large creature in the Black Court.

  Phero: Lineage whose scent creates overwhelming attraction

  'pillar: fuzzy Sect-bred giant caterpillar pet

  Porcelain Guard: Ocyl's white-masked Ferals

  Pure Priest of the Ascen/Blind Priests: priests praising the Ascen and back the Black Court

  Rags: derogatory name for alliance of Isolates and Fractious Fraction. Call themselves "Resistance Against the Grevious Ancient Coup."

  Reachers: massive, Sect-bred creatures that direct traffic and rescue unfortunates in the Sighted Path in Jadeye

  Reconquest: time four-hundred years ago when Inro "drove [tribals] back into civilization's fold at spear point"

  Rotters: sack-clothed, crudely-masked 'zombies' uses as pack-beasts and simple laborers. Created/sold by Crowmen.

  Royal Strider: giant striders which carry carriages of the wealthy slung underneath them

  Sect, The: breeders of useful insectoid- and/or sauroid-like creatures

  Seericide: seers capable of Knowing everything as they die

  Seneschal: chief servant of a Dynast, bear permanent strings allowing them to speak and understand any language

  Shale: a verse famous for its expensive stone

  Shore Striders: tribes that live along the oceans of Caves

  Shackle Pens: slave pens near Master's Market in Berujat?

  Shrineway: religious section of Jadeye "brailled prayers along the walls ... [and] cobblestones"

  Sighted Path: the zero-g road down the center of Heaven's Tread

  Silk: verse owned by Asta where all of verse's silk originates

  Sixth Tier Rebellion: last major uprising, in Ziggurat a century ago when "half the legions rose up". Put down by Baka

  Skeinry: iron-plated communication centers where Skeiners translate vibrations sent by wyre from other verses

  Skin/Hollow: animate skin of a molt able to move, talk, and share snatches of its experience with its molt

  Skinlife: living tattoos

  Skinscribe: individuals brailled with lore, walking libraries

  Slavant: an individual who "loses much" to be implanted with an ability

  Soresearer: individuals capable of "healing" by cauterizing wounds with their hands

  Stacks: An ocean verse comprised of tall pillars jutting up from the seas. Trolleys run on long ropes between them "affixed by Anchorites to airy nothing"

  Striders: "stilt-legged gray-skinned insect-lizard"s used as fast mounts, large enough to carry several riders

  Strings: worn or implanted wire devices that translate speech

  Stone Walkers: tribes that live in the cold of Origin

  Subterrane, The: inter-verse travel route accessed by Ebon via Limn

  Sunset: the verse where Aj was 'contained', formerly protected by Dynast Inro. The "Prison of Prisons" holds mad Dynasts, monsters and demons... vaults of dangerous relics.

  Sunset Legions/Vault Legions: Inro's Legions, wiped out by Aj in Sunset

  Surgon: person able to remove organs

  Swirl: A verse. "The pleasure barges of Swirl"

  Syphon: machine ConMach uses to "drain the very life" and color from a verse to "fuel... machinery"

  Tangle, The: the jungles of the One-Eighth

  Terminus: the verse from which the Gates all opened, hub of the Book before The Kiss and now mostly abandoned.

  Thorn: huge, curling thorns which Valeers can use as gateways to the Vale, doorways between verses. Grow into verses over centuries

  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