Aida glanced at Wake. "Got any good ideas?"

  Aida glanced back at the Thorn in time to see tendril-like reach of the Thorn whip back to it usual position. The nauseating mirage-shimmer faded, leaving ranks-upon-ranks of Legionnaires. A sharp horn blasted and a thousand voices called out series of short shouts, each sound accompanied by a highly-drilled shift of men and weaponry. Shields interlocked, spears leveled, arrows nocked to bowstrings, and soldiers leapt atop armor-clad striders, readying lances and bows. Several distinctively-attired individuals peeled out from the flanks.

  "Legion combat mancers," Wake said, nodding at them. "Arcers, shifters, dusas, and Vengers most likely."

  Aida was grateful for the intervening several blocks of space between her and the phalanx they stared down. Looking at its dense pack of trained killers, gleaming armor, bristling spears, and interlocked shields, she had no wonder that formation had dominated battlefields for centuries back on Earth. That they'd apparently invented it separately here spoke even more to its efficiency.

  The Legion's arrival finally stirred the locals past their absurdly-high threshold of interest. The trodding foot traffic slowed to a halt, the city folk all standing mutely to stare at this invading army.

  "You led them here! Is this a trick?" the female voice of the Directory shouted. Maxem jogged back into view and, with a few curt commands, had their escort of cruder tank-knights clanking after her towards the still-jammed gate now swarming with what had to be engineers of some sort. The riflemen still manning the guard towards drew up and readied weapons.

  "No trick!" Aida said, raising her hands. "Rent us the use of a few hundred of your tank-knights or Keens or whatever you call them and we'll clean this mess off your doorstep."

  "We're not going to risk our neutrality by keeping you here," the male shouted. "Escort them to the gate!"

  "Touch me and you die!" Aida snapped at the nearest of the sleeker tank-knights as they lowered their welding-mask visors and approached. Her strings thrummed to life. Ghillie's needles appeared and Ryk moved to flank her on the other side. Eth, randomly, strolled off into the crowd. With no one to tend her, the Valeer moaned and crumpled to a disheveled heap.

  "Wake!" a female voice cried from the Legion. "Wake of Graves, Queen of Rags, I see you there."

  They turned to see a tall Dynast in full Legion armor walk to the front of the waiting phalanx, her armor steel instead of bronze. A squad of heavily-armored ferals flanked her. The woman pointed a steel-tipped spear in their direction.

  "Of all the Mon-spawned luck," Wake said. "Sava herself."

  "Sava who?" Aida said, glancing between them. It was a relief to have a pissed off Dynast pointing weapons at someone else for a change.

  "Dynast of Libriam," Wake said, unnecessarily as it turned out.

  "Wake!" Sava shouted, her voice amplified somehow to boom louder than if she held a police megaphone. The faint hint of distortion in the tone sounded familiar. With a shock of recognition, Aida realized Sava had to be wearing strings too.

  The Ancient Dynast continued. "You may have razed the Annalis and gotten all the menials of Libriam to rise in revolt with the Mother of Exile's name on their lips, but I captured a few of the freemancers and saboteurs you sent to burn my verse. I pried out that it was you who hired them, personally, before they died screaming."

  "Get them out of my city," the female member of the Directory screamed.

  Ryk stepped forward, light on his feet, his spear ready in his grip, and killing calm in his eyes as he regarded the nearest uber tank-knights. "Do you know what a Paragon is?"

  By the stillness and silence that followed, they apparently did.

  "They take another step towards us and I swear all of you will lie bleeding out on the unnatural stone of this street before I die."

  The super tank-knights looked back towards the parasol-shrouded figures then among themselves while several members of the Directory shouted orders at them.

  Royal Road is the home of this novel. Visit there to read the original and support the author.

  Wake grabbed Aida roughly by the arm, her voice hoarse with urgency."Repeat what I say, exactly as I say it. Through your strings. I need to talk with Sava."

  "Why me?" Aida said, trying unsuccessfully to peel off the woman's unnaturally strong grip. "You're bruising my arm."

  "She won't be able to hear me from here, but she can hear you through your strings." Her grip strength reduced from crushing to merely painful. "Say it."

  "Alright already, what?"

  Aida became Wake's voice, repeating Wake's words as soon as she heard them. As she spoke, she felt more like a puppet for someone else's whims than even Eth made her feel.

  "Sava of Libriam, Wake is indeed here beside me and she laughed to hear reports of the Annalis burning."

  "Come out here and fight me, one against one!" Sava shouted, pacing before her army and clanging her spear-haft against her breastplate.

  "Why should I demean myself to fight someone who isn't even legally a Dynast?" Aida-as-Wake called back, wondering at the words even as she spoke them. "We spent a special team to Annalis just to retrieve a few records you kept buried in the bowls of Dust before we burned it all. Birth records. Partaking records."

  "Lies. All lies. Why would we keep such records?" Sava called back, but Aida shouted over her, motivated by the pain in her bicep. If Wake gripped any tighter, she'd break Aida's arm, Dynast or no.

  "According to what we captured, your own age at Partaking wasn't the legally-required one-hundred years required to become a Dynast and rule a verse-"

  "Wake, stop talking now or I swear-"

  "-so why should I fight one-on-one against some up-jumped menial, illegally elevated to the Black Court?"

  "Vale Legion, make ready!" Sava called to her troops. Another horn blasted, the troops shouted, and shields stacked in angles to protect the troops from gunfire from the walls. Aida doubted shields would do much against bullets, but probably helped psychologically.

  "Not only that," Aida repeated as Wake whispered in her ear. "But we gathered the records for all the Ancients while we were there. You'd be surprised at how few of you are actually of age to be-"

  While she had been talking, a straining fraction of Aida's attention had been listening to Eth. The Imminent had climbed atop a stalled-out, rusting steel truck-like contraption that had been rattling on tank treads down the street but halted when the foot traffic about it stalled.

  Eth raised her arms towards the dumbfounded, still-mute crowds. "People of Ink! I know many of you have heard the stories of the Imminent meeting the first Vibrant before the Directory trapped you in these prison cities. They said the Mother would come and the Legion that followed would break the Directory."

  "Stop her!" cried one of the Directory bigwigs, pointing a finger towards her. Another of them started to repeat the command, but one of Ghillie's needles suddenly sprouted from his bicep and the man fell from under the parasol clutching his arm.

  The man wore sloppily-applied gray makeup. As he fell against the Directory member beside him, much smeared off, leaving half his face a dirty pinkish. These Directory members were fully-colored, fat, and healthy while all their people languished in enervated gray starvation?

  "Give the command again and I swear you all die before I do," Ryk promised. The uber-Keens who'd lurched into motion again froze, looking back at their leaders.

  "What you don't know is the Legion is just the tinder, you are the fire!" Eth cried to the staring crowds. At that moment, what had appeared to be bundles of sticks stacked upright on the tractor-truck-bed beside her shimmered into half-a-dozen wondrous men and women. Their flesh, hair, and clothing blended and shifted continually between every shade and hue of the rainbow.

  "The Scions of Vivid live!" they all cried at once. At that moment, musket fire erupted from buildings all about, clanging off of Keen armor all about them. The Keens split instantly split into groups, some rushing the buildings, others grabbing Directory members and bodily hauling them off, and a few remainders moving to surround Aida and her companions.

  "Not only that," Aida had boomed out to Sava just before the violence began and cut her off. "But we gathered the records for all the Ancients and you'd be surprised at how few of you are actually of age to be-"

  "Silence her. Kill them all!" Sava shouted. A horn blasted, arrows flew, musket fire rippled from towers, the Keen's half-cannons roared, and the crowds churned in all directions. Some attacked the soldiers and Keens with bare hands or hunks of concrete ripped from the streets while others tried to flee in every direction.

  Something like a Molotov cocktail winged from a nearby building and shattered against an uber-Keen, incidentally igniting the discarded Directory Parasols and sending the screaming Keen crashing into a nearby fellow.

  "What the hell do we do now?" Aida shouted over the commotion, her strings vibrating hard against her throat.

  Ryk shot her a quick, unreadable look as he sprinted off towards Eth. "Don't die."

  "Great," Aida said, staggering aside as Ghillie slammed into her. An uber-Keen cannon went off a split second later, blasting holes through or pieces off half-a-dozen innocent bystanders behind her. Aida's responding shout hurled the soldier armor-and-all off his feet and slammed them into another Keen with enough force to dent armor and crack limbs.

  "At least we don't ever have to worry about getting bored," she said as Ghillie pulled her to her feet.

  Ghillie's eye corners crinkled, the tiny woman patted her on the cheek, and then they turned and fought for their lives.

  Next chapter: 2.5 POVs collide, with deadly consequences.

  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