Then the woman's face contorted into something between grimace and snarl. "After the Small Masters were sorted, I set about finalizing the deal to sell the Slave Legion to the Rags. A bit up front but mostly any booty taken after. Slaves are extra-valuable now since so many menials died to the Wretch Plague, but most of the damned Small Masters' people deserted after we killed their bosses so we were struggling to even keep them all fed. Who knew a cadre of bloated, self-important slavers could inspire so much loyalty in their people? Anyway, was everything we could do to keep all the slaves alive much less trying to sell them in small lots so Ijran and I settled on just handing the whole lot over to the Rags."

  Ghulen waved his finger in an onward-pointing motion. "Slave Legions, Mother of Exiles shows up to ruin the party with some destructive magic, etcetara. Yes, I heard all that. Less on your concerns, more on Hassani."

  The other slaves finally wrangled the body enough to slip it through the bars. It spun downstream in a cloud of viscera to lodge against the bars on the far side of the long cage.

  Fatma nodded. "I think the Mother of Exiles is the one who freed Hassani and she's working for the barbarian Dynast now."

  Ghulen's eyebrow quirked at the surprising assertion. "Justify."

  "I was in the Arena as the Rags were taking possession of the Slave Legions. Then, right as the Mother of Exiles made herself known and started wrecking everything, I spotted Hassani. That wily bitch somehow got free from where we'd stashed her-" she glanced up to the mostly-empty cages dangling like strange plant growths from the cliff faces above "-and showed up not far from the Mother. When the Mother used her Mon-spawned sorcery, I was knocked half-senseless. I wasn't fully conscious for awhile but when I became cognizant again Hassani was dragging me through Berujat with slaves running amok all around us."

  "And she brought you here right from the start?"

  Fatma shook her head. "No. At first she threw me to the cage I'd put her in up there. She demanded I tell her where her daughter is or she'd leave me there to starve."

  "So you gave her Avani?" Ghulen said, part of his mind attaching each little piece about Hassani onto the internal model he was building of her. He couldn't wait to meet her, orders or no.

  "No, I never actually had the kid," Fatma said, crossing her arms and slumping down. The chill water told her quickly that was a bad idea so she grabbed the overhead bars and pulled herself as far out of the water as possible. "I found a Pale little blond slave about the right age, powdered her to make her even more pale, and died her hair white. Enough that she could pass for the real thing from across a canyon."

  "And Hassani didn't believe you when you said you'd made her daughter up."

  "She didn't believe me."

  "Then she dragged you here to convince you to tell her the truth."

  Fatma pounded a fist against a bronze bar. "I told her that if she let me out I'd tell her exactly where my 'Avani' was stashed. She said she'd let me out when she returned from getting her."

  Ghulen smiled. "You never had her so she didn't get her and so she never returned. Didn't break her promise."

  The woman smoldered. "I told you everything. You promised you'd let me out."

  "Didn't learn the first time with Hassani I guess." He sighed. Tilting his head, Ghulen looked her up and down, assessing. "I only promised to think about it."

  "Damn you to..." she bit her lip hard enough it bled.

  "Ah, learning now. Excellent!" Ghulen said, clapping his hands. "I'll think about it harder if you can remember anything actually useful to me. So far you've given me past, but to find her I need future. I don't suppose she happened to mention where she was going by any chance?"

  Fatma glared at him with an absolutely-delightful look of pure hatred that Ghulen savored while it lasted. "After she locked me in here, she told the shaggy dude with the spear who is traveling with her that she would try to get a message by wyre to a friend of hers to see if he'd heard anything about her. The small joy I can take is how dejected and lost she must have been when she found out I never had her spawn."

  "Where was she wyring to?" Ghulen said.

  "Is that enough for you to let me out?" Fatma said, almost whining.

  Ghulen smiled indulgently. "It's certainly a step the right direction."

  She thought for a long moment, then slumped down. "Libriam."

  "Excellent. And did this friend in Libriam have a name?" Ghulen said, tilting his head.

  The woman bit her lip. "Are you actually going to let me out?"

  "That depends rather strongly on you."

  "I'm not giving you another word unless you let me out."

  Stolen content alert: this content belongs on Royal Road. Report any occurrences.

  Ghulen weighed it for a moment. Mostly deciding if he had the full measure of this slaver or if some twist or mystery remained to be worth prodding at. "What if I said I'd leave you here if you didn't give me the name?"

  "I'd say you're just as likely to leave me if I do. So let me out now."

  "Then all these others will fight to get out too. How do your kind usually get them to stay in while adding to the local population?"

  "Usually put them all in at once then wait to add more until the rains come and drown the last lot. If someone must be added, half-a-dozen guards with spears escorting them usually does the trick even if a few who were in here a while always choose to die on those spears rather than stay any longer."

  "So how do you propose we keep these others in if I open the cage?" Ghulen looked at said others, all watching and listening with intensity born in misery plus tiny scraps of hope that they might find some release from it.

  Fatma raised her voice to address all of them and talked half over her shoulder. "Because I promise to let them all out after we're done. Have your archer and Venger over their kill anyone who tries to get out now."

  "It shall be as you say," Ghulen said, looking down at the cage. "How do you open this?"

  "Opens here," Fatma said, wading over to the center of the cross-barred cage top. "Key goes in that big brass lock there then pull this bar to open it. Key is kept in an alcove just inside the tunnels there."

  "Kass," Ghulen shouted, turning to where the woman splashed water at a retreating Balmos. "Bring me the keys just inside there. Balmos, bring your axe and chop the hand off anyone who tries to climb out aside from our friend Fatma here."

  "Whatever you say, boss," Kass called back, joining him a short while later with an over-sized brass key. Balmos walked the bars gingerly, but hefted his still-bloody axe and spared a viscous grin for the prisoners. After twisting the key in the lock, it took Kass and Ghulen working together to push the bar and pry the cage's top hatch open.

  Fatma immediately grabbed the bars to pull herself up, struggling against the weight of water in her clothes, the slipperiness of the bars, and the tug of the current. Others gathered around sullenly, a couple visibly twitching with the desire to climb to freedom.

  "Shoot anyone else who comes out," Ghulen said.

  Kass nodded, walked carefully across the top bars to the walkway, and restrung her bow. Balmos tossed his axe from hand-to-hand and looked among the sodden people beneath him as if hoping, daring them to try something.

  Despite her desperate struggle to climb out, Fatma couldn't find enough purchase to pull herself free. Clinging to the bars, she glared at Ghulen. "Help me out."

  "I already did my part," Ghulen said, smiling benevolently.

  She stared hard at him for a moment, then turned to her fellow prisoners. "Lift me up and I swear on my life I'll help every one of you to get out of here after."

  That none of them did told Ghulen much about how little this woman was liked before all this and also how much they trusted her now. She repeated it as an order, then a plea. When none of them moved to help her, she struggled again until she trembled with exhaustion.

  Ghulen squatted down and tsked. "What's the matter? Don't have a dozen slaves to do it for you? Can't imagine you've used your arms to do anything more strenuous swing a lash."

  "You know nothing about me," Fatma snarled back. She turned and bared her shoulder, revealing the brand of a cage.

  "A slave turned slaver? The cruelest type of master, I hear, for they know exactly how to maximize their slave's suffering. Don't know how you could do such a thing after experiencing it yourself, but what would I know?" Ghulen said, nodding. "I stopped by your estate as I was tracking you down and see you've taken your former master's brand as your own. Very interesting. Whatever happened to the previous owner of that brand I wonder?"

  About her, her miserable occupants glanced between the opening, Ghulen, Balmos, and Kass standing casually on the bridge with an arrow nocked and ready at her bowstring.

  "You're welcome to try," Ghulen said, glancing among them. "If you worked together, perhaps one or two of you might make it out before an axe or arrow finds you."

  For a moment, he thought some of them might try, but then they all caved in and looked away. "Hm... disappointing."

  "Are you going to let me out?" Fatma said, her voice trembling with exhaustion.

  He gestured at the open hatch. "I thought I already did. What was this scribe's name?"

  She held her breath for a moment, then finally sank in defeat. "Goboro. Some scribe or minor bureaucrat I gathered. Please, let me out."

  Ghulen drew his knife, catching a glint of sunlight on the blade. "Would you cut your face or hew a breast off it meant I'd pull you up?"

  "What? I thought you..." she trailed off as he gave her his mildest smile.

  "Yes. I'll do it!" Fatma shouted. She strained against the bars, reaching for the knife. "I'll do it right now if it means I get free of this sewer. Please, whatever it takes."

  "Hm... you know, I think you would." Ghulen tapped the flat of the blade against his pursed lips. He looked at the dozen-odd other probably-slavers shivering around her. "New deal. If any one of you agrees to let the others kill you, I'll let the rest go free."

  "What?" they all said at once, suddenly alert. They looked among each other, some with fear, others desperation, still others calculation. Fatma was in the last camp, between shooting looks of burning hatred at Ghulen.

  "You have one hour," Ghulen said. "When I return, one of you will tell me they are willing to die, then the rest of you will kill them. Do so and I'll set the survivors free. Otherwise, I'll lock this again and leave you to whatever fate the Ascendant have decided for you."

  The hatch clanged as he tipped it shut, but he didn't re-lock it. He made his way carefully across the cage top and paused next to Kass, speaking loudly for the prisoners' benefit. "Shoot anyone who even touches the hatch."

  "You got it boss," she said, way over-loudly. "I'll feather them up until you think they're a duck if they try anything."

  He rolled his eyes as he walked the narrow walkway back to solid ground. The hour he'd given them wouldn't be wasted. Time to think, to plot out his next move while the prisoners weighed their dilemma. Hassani was close, so close he could almost smell her but rushing off without a plan was the action of an amateur.

  If she'd already left for Libriam, he'd be unlikely to get there before her with her head-start.

  However, the Vale Legions controlled most of the Thorns in Berujat so she'd have to either find a Thorn too remote for the Legions to consider strategic enough to bother protecting or hope to risk using her Inviolate status to bypass them against the likelihood that they were still on the lookout for her after what she'd pulled on Ziggurat. No, she was probably still in Berujat somewhere looking for a way out.

  If he moved quickly and precisely, he might be able to find this Goboro first. And with the scribe as bait...

  Next chapter: Aida meets the Directory on their home turf, with Sava's Vale Legion close on her heels.

  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. Killed by the Vale Legion in Berujat

  Wake: Dynast of Graves, marries even though they all die. Quintus. Isolate.

  White Spiral: an older Feral in Aida's service. Archer. Died protecting Aida in Jadeye

  36th Dynasty: A Dynasty the Anticores have met?.

  100th Dynasty: The Dynasty ruling the Book.

  Adventures of Bubo, The: popular kids story

  All, The: All the verses, even those beyond The Book.

  Ancients: a major Dynastic Chapter, an "elite number", "own Ziggurat" and "run the great bank that is Monopolis"

  Anchorites: individuals capable of creating anchor points affixed to nothing.

  Annalis compound: sprawling complex in Libriam, heart of The Book's bureaucracy. Arrivals 'Dirt' home to new dispatches, Archives 'Dust' storage for old material. Paths and Ways storage for 'nails. Burned to the ground by the Rags.

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

  Arborian: gardeners from Groves

  Arcers: a type of mancer able to summon blades of energy

  Ascen, The/The Ascendant: divinities "watching over every verse"?

  Assessor: census-taker

  Audits/"Diggers": Libriam internal affairs

  Autumn: verse rich in gold?

  Aze: swordmaker?

  Azure: An oceanic verse with blue beaches ruled by

  Berujat: "fleshmarkets"; primary seat of slave trade and home of most Lineage Masters, owned by Fraction.

  Black Court: a realm of pure darkness. Also, those who rule there. Where Partaking happens.

  Black Court Tribunal: localized Black Court authority?

  Blood, The: imbibed at Partaking, transforms one into a Dynast if they survive

  Book of Verses, The: the 1,000 verses ruled by the Dynasty. "The Kiloverse"

  Broadcliff, Tallmarket: cities in Stacks

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

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

  Canyon of Cages: cliff where slaves are held in Berujat

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

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

  Cerebrist: creator of slavants

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

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

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

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

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

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

  Commu: chewed drug/herb?

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

  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