Da interrupted

  as Aj continued

  its terrible labors.

  Beside the coiled corpse

  of a freshly-killed god

  they spoke.

  -Da / 1n-

  Da has spoken

  with our Creators

  and the Mon.

  Both.

  Neither

  can stop it.

  -Aj / 102-

  Stop the Construct?

  -Da / 1n-

  Indeed.

  I have learned

  many things.

  Such as:

  the Ascen and the Mon

  were once the same.

  When the Mon realized

  what we are just coming

  to truly understand

  - that the Construct endlessly unravels

  the 'real' reality

  to weave

  our endless verses -

  the Mon tried to destroy it.

  -Aj / 102-

  And so the Ascen

  ordered the Construct

  to keep the Mon out.

  -Da / 1n-

  Yes.

  The Mon and Ascen

  differed only in belief,

  not in form.

  The Construct

  couldn't tell the difference.

  So the Ascen found themselves

  also locked outside

  their creation:

  the All.

  -Aj / 102-

  Much now makes sense

  that did not before.

  When did this happen?

  -Da / 1n-

  When the Ascen collected

  their last Dynasties

  from the Real.

  Approximately

  12,000 years ago

  when they collected

  the portion of your

  102 Dynasty

  which they call The Pale.

  They also

  You might be reading a stolen copy. Visit Royal Road for the authentic version.

  accidentally

  collected the 2√3 Dynasty

  which your Dynasty call

  Thorns.

  -Aj / 102-

  Aj thought

  the Ascen

  created the Thorns.

  -Da / 1n-

  Indeed.

  As the Ascen

  focused on these Thorns

  sending roots

  through the substrate

  of the All

  that was when

  the Mon attacked.

  The Ascen gave the order

  to the Construct

  to block them.

  Both factions became exiles

  from these

  mini-universes

  they created.

  The Construct

  now drives

  endlessly

  mindlessly

  unstoppably

  dismantling the Real

  upon which the All is built.

  Endlessly opening

  new black holes

  to convert ever more

  of the Real's

  matter

  energy

  time

  into their dark forms

  out of which

  the All is built.

  Inverted.

  Perverted.

  Apocalyptic.

  -Aj / 102-

  So I was right

  it must be stopped.

  -Da / 1n-

  Indeed.

  For when the 5%

  of the Real

  which remains

  is gone

  both

  will unravel.

  Ink felt like an echo of the Vale but with the contrast turned down low enough to allow infinite shades of black, white, and gray. While the Vale muted smells almost to oblivion, they were merely diminished here. Mostly of what remained came as a sooty tinge to the air that matched the dark streams of smoke billowing up from a thousand chimneys to blacken the sky.

  Aida kept thinking she was asleep, caught up in some bizarre dream like the ones she used to have of being stuck in a black-and-white movie. Unlike those dreams, however, she, her companions, and their clothing retained their full color. She'd been called a colored person many times in her life, but this time she couldn't refute that she was, indeed, colored.

  She rose to her feet from the Thorn transition discombobulation. Before heading here, they'd sent the remaining freed slaves, followers, and other survivors of the harrowing flight from Berujat off to the One-Eighth with Parathas. In the chaos around the Thorn, the skinscribe had somehow found his wife and two adorable little boys. Aida had given him 'nail and sent him to lead the way back home while Aida took a different path.

  She'd seen no sight of Alerestro since Vivian's death.

  Her few remaining companions pulled themselves up about her as the Thorn-mirage faded.

  A high wall loomed over the flat stony area from which the Thorn sprouted, the bulwark stretching as far as she could see into the tangled branches of a dark forest on either side. Its rusting steel fluttered with countless paper strips, each illustrated with a vaguely-geometric tangle of runes. Some form of magic?

  What might have been a gate rose not far from the Thorn. The two jutting guard towers next to it sprouted multiple platforms which were rapidly filling with gray-uniformed riflemen looking much like Confederate soldiers from the Civil War, just cursed with skin as gray as their uniforms.

  Staring up at ranks of musket barrels aimed their way, Aida began to doubt her decision to come here. Her voice still croaked from overusing her strings back in Berujat. "Um... they don't have shoot-on-sight rules or something you forgot to tell me about this place before we came, right?"

  "No one is usually allowed here without an express invite from the Directory, but they are savvy enough to avoid doing anything too rash. Most of the time anyway. Advantages of them being ruled by a bureaucracy." Wake said, shaking her head as she looked at the grim verse with distaste. She walked to a nearby tree and broke off a branch. It crumbled as much as broke. "They have been fiercely protective of their neutrality since they fought Ebon to a standstill before the Black Court was even founded. Doubt they are going to change their minds any time soon."

  "Well, I guess we're here neutrally-ish. We'll see what happens if those Legions follow us here..."

  The gate creaked and groaned, then began to roll open sideways with painful slowness. A couple dozen tank-knights waited on the other side, wielding weapons crossed somewhere between small cannons and large muskets. Those industrial-looking meat-cleaver polearm things jutted diagonally across their backs. None other than Maxem herself stood at their center, her expression as tired as always. She trudged forward, feet dragging in the inch of mottled gray ash and black soot that drifted down endlessly in dust-fine motes to leave layers and drifts coating everything.

  Beyond her, a grim, industrial-looking city of coarse concrete and rough-hewn wood sprawled. Trolleys clanked along on narrow-gauged railroads or ran suspended from the underside of elevated tracks. Smoke-stacks and chimneys roiled with dark smoke while countless people in ragged clothes fit for a Soviet Gulag shuffled with heads bowed along congested, dirty streets. In the distance, a ten-story tall, ugly, square building loomed over a city exeplifying brutalism in a way the Soviets would have envied.

  "What are you doing here?" Maxim said by way of greeting as she approached, her voice flat and uninflected in what passed for the Ink accent.

  "Came for more pants," Aida shot back, gesturing at her own blood-stained, ripped, and worn pair. She winced. "I mean, good to see you too."

  The woman's eyes shifted among Aida's companions incuriously, as if merely counting their number not trying to determine why a rebel Dynast, a leader of the Rags, a Paragon, an Imminent, a skinscrbe, a Feral, and a Valeer stood arrayed in front of her gates in full color. Aida looked at them, seeing them for a moment as Maxem might and realizing again how much had changed in her life. Less than a year ago, she'd have been bragging to Nancy about winning bingo again as Gloria wheeled her into the cafeteria.

  "Why are you here?" Maxem said again, managing enough inflection this time to put a question mark at the end of the sentence.

  "We came to sell you some verses," Aida said, ignoring Wakes' glare.

  "Verses." Maxem repeated, as impressed as if Aida had said 'potatoes'.

  "Yes. Plural. Can we come in? It's chilly out here."

  "It's chilly everywhere," Maxem said, but turned and walked back towards the imposing rank of rusting tank-knights. With her gesture, they parted. The riflemen on the towers above lowered their weapons but didn't leave.

  Aida followed as they walked the cracked and potholed concrete streets. The Directory apparently had a directive to pave everything; not a single patch of grass, tree, or even weed grew inside the walls. A few people among the hundreds looked up as they walked by inside a ring of tank-knights, and even those rare individuals who took the effort to lift their heads mustered scant curiosity. It was as though they looked their way only because Aida, retinue, and escorts were traffic-blocks slowing their travels, not providing any sort of contrast to the suffocating dreariness of their city. Those eyes that did follow them sat deep in sunken sockets over cheekbones scaffolding skin drawn tight with starvation.

  "My god," Aida said softly to Ryk as he happened to draw up beside her. "This place manages to be just as bad as Berujat, but in an entirely different way."

  "People are endlessly creative in ways to crush the life and happiness form their fellows so it's not surprising," Ryk grunted, shifting his spear to drape across his opposite shoulder. "But it all dies anyway so what's really the point?"

  "What's going on with you?" she said, grabbing his elbow. "It's like you're a completely different person these last few days."

  "And it's like I barely know you at all," he shot back, pulling his arm from her grasp.

  "I haven't really changed," Aida said, wondering even as she said it if it was true. "Is this about me giving up the One-Eighth?"

  "I could care less about anything like that," Ryk said. He suddenly turned towards her, struggling to mask raw fear. The desperation in his eyes made her heart ache. "Were we worth it?"

  "Worth what?" Aida said as they walked slowly through the chilly, sooty breeze cutting through the city. Everyone here moved slowly, as if it took every calorie of energy everyone had just to move; nothing left even to look around. Like an industrialized Nazi concentration camp. "Of course we were. We are. I never thought I would feel alive again like I did... like I do when we're together. You've said the same so many times I can't believe you're asking me now. Were you lying?"

  Next chapter: Same chapter. The Vale Legion arrives.

  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"

  Construct: some great machine draining reality via black holes to create the All.

  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 verses of the Skeinry, Keens, Directory, and "the Faded People". Drained of color and drained.

  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". The same race as the Ascen but objectors to the creation of the All.

  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. The 2√3 Dynasty.

  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