"Come, lad. Let's see if we can find a scrap of food in this mess and some place to sleep," Semon said, glancing at the burning sprawl awaiting them onshore. Most of the Annalis structure nearby lay crumpled and blackened, though farther reaches of the sprawling complex still blazed. The squat, ugly shape of the Skeinry hunched a stretch away from the huge, shattered doors fronting the Annalis. It looked intact, at least, so perhaps it might provide refuge.

  By the bloat and reek of the bodies floating nearby and scattering streets and stairs, the sacking of this place transpired several days ago. Recently enough that the worst of the danger probably lay behind, but not enough that looters or scavenging beasts were sure to be done and moved on.

  "Nothing will ever be the same," Sadar said to the dark waters. "This always is true, yet we humans build our cities, our cultures, our verses such that we forget this over and over again until the forgetting seems more real than the truth."

  "Tell me or yourself or Ocyl or whomever you're talking to wile we search the ruins," Semon said, motioning for the boy to come.

  Perhaps it was his imagination, weariness, or a rapidly-falling dark lit only by the ruddy light of the Book's bureaucracy ablaze, but Semon thought the Twine actually looked at him as he stood. "The Mother is indeed the only hope. Whatever lies beyond the All, she is the only one who can take us there."

  "Mother be praised," Semon said.

  "Mother be absent. If she-" Sadar's words ended in a grunt and he staggered back a few steps then plunked down on the tail-end of the boat.

  As Semon stared at the boy trying to figure out what was going on, he vaguely recalled a whooshing whistle as something had flown past him. Strygen released the boat and raced up the dock, his hair whipping about in a frenzy.

  "If one body dies, what does the other..." Sadar muttered, then toppled over backwards into the water. In the setting sunlight, Semon caught a brief glimpse of an arrow buried up to the fletchings in the boy's rib cage.

  Where dock met land, Strygen's hair spun and thrashed, knocking aside another arrow as it whistled from of a burned-out building nearby. As the dusa charged the building, a huge man with vivid snake tattoos and a huge axe rushed from its shadows to greet him with a roar.

  Having seen the unassuming Strygen kill bandits, versal troops, and even the odd Legionnaire with shocking ferocity and surprising ease, he expected the dusa's axe-wielding opponent to go down quickly. The man, however, moved with surprising grace for his size and ducked, twisted, and parried Strygen's spear-like thrusts of braided strands with the ease of an actor marking out the steps of a staged fight during a play.

  Then the unmistakable press of steel against Semon's throat turned his attention away from the fight.

  "Who do we have here?" a soft, male voice whispered at his ear. "You have the reek of a dozen verses and the deaths of ten times that many people about you.

  Figuring the man was merely feigning ignorance judging by his knowing statement, Semon dispensed with any pretense at subterfuge. "I am Semon, First Disciple of the Mother."

  "Ah. Fascinating," the man practically hissed. As the knife pulled away from his throat, Semon rubbed at his throat instinctually, feeling for blood. By its lack combined plus the controlled swings the huge warrior used to push Strygen onto the defensive, this man and his crew were professionals. That and arrow after arrow whizzing out from the shadow of this ruin and that half-burned hut, each growing closer to striking the dusa than the last.

  Smon forced himself to look away from Strygen's increasingly-desperate battle and towards the man who stood nearby, lounging against one of the sturdier-looking posts rising along the dock.

  What first struck him was the man's Inviolate uniform; not at all what he was expecting. The next thing that landed was how ordinary the man was. Nothing about him beyond his attire was at all striking. He would have fit in equally standing upon a wharf pulling in a net, carrying a spear in some versal guard unit, serving luncheon at a Dynast's table, or shoveling strider shit in a stable.

  "Tell me," the man said. "How does one become the First Disciple?"

  "When the Prophet of the Mother is brutally slain by Dynastic assassins," Semon said, automatically.

  "Indeed. Ghulen, by the way," the Inviolate said, touching his chest and happening to bump the Inviolate vial consuming all light that touched his sternum.

  "Pleasure," Semon said, liking his lips. He hazarded a glance at Strygen, hoping the ferocious dusa had managed to deal with the dual threat somehow and was coming to his rescue. Instead, the dusa limped from the arrow piercing through his thigh. His tunic front clung to his chest from a combination of sweat and fresh blood. The axe-wielding monster grinned as he stalked towards the retreating dusa while a short-haired, heavily-scarred woman with a short bow circled around Strygen's flank.

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  "We surrender," Semon said, turning back to Ghulen. "No need to kill Strygen."

  "Which Dynast?" the man said, his eyes piercing into Semon's as if reading Truth from his soul.

  "Which... what?" Semon said, shaking his head to clear the haze of fatigue that even this close proximity to agents of death was failing to keep at bay.

  "You said Dynastic assassins were sent to kill the Martyred Prophet. The only Dynast authorized to do so in Heaven's Tread would by Ocyl and he seems unfortunately aligned with the Mother for some unknown and unknowable reason."

  "I... I don't..." Semon blinked rapidly and rubbed his forehead. He'd been telling that story so long, he almost couldn't remember what really happened. Wretch heads. Vomit. A young woman pinned down to a bed, dying to his knife with fresh hope in her eyes and desperate pleas on her lips.

  He'd buried the memory with the woman and its sudden re-emergence ripped apart the foundations of the structure of lies he'd built a religion upon. "I... she... there were..."

  "What did the assassin look like?"

  "What? He looked like... tall. Large. A huge man."

  "And he jumped out of several-story high window after? I heard descriptions of the place where she died from one of the raving fanatics you spawned and it wasn't a ground-floor room the assassin leapt out of. I even visited the area on my way out of town. All the tenements in the area are build the same. Pretty small windows for a 'huge assassin'."

  "Well, he contorted and..." Semon's usually agile tongue floundered, as though wounded as badly as Strygen and just as outmatched.

  "How do you know a Dynast hired him? If he was a professional assassin, why was he afraid of a few stray cultists? What sort of axe did he hew the prophet with?" The questions came at him as fast and unexpected as the archer's arrows.

  "He shouted something that... we outnumbered him by several... the axe was..."

  "So it was an axe? How did you get such shallow, long scars from an axe?" The man no longer leaned on the post, but advanced towards Semon slightly with each question. With the sun setting at his back, the Inviolate became a brightly-silhouetted shadow wearing the darkest shadow possible on his chest. Dark as the Aj.

  Semon rubbed at the self-inflicted scars on his forearm. "I wrestled the axe from him and took these while-"

  "You wrestled and axe from a huge, professionally-trained, Dynasty-hired assassin?" Ghulen said, now almost within arm's reach. "Why did he flee and leave you as a witness?"

  "He must have wanted... there were others who came and..."

  "All the stories I heard said the assassin carried a 'wickedly evil knife' or the like? Did you like all this time?"

  "No, I just misspoke. Tired from my travels and..."

  Ghulen stood close enough to skewer Semon's good eye on the long knife he toyed with. So close was the man, even the setting sun casting his face in shadow didn't veil the hot intensity of the man's gaze.

  "I killed her!" Semon cried, the burst of emotion accompanying the admission surprising even him.

  Strygen cried out in pain at the same moment and Semon whirled, shaking and streaming tears. While Strygen's hair entangled the tattooed warrior's axe and seemed about to overwhelm him, an arrow had struck Strygen in the lower back. The dusa fell down as his knees buckled. A moment later the giant with the axe yanked it free from the increasingly-feeble wave of Strygen's hair.

  "Spare him!" Semon cried. "I'll tell you everything. Anything! Just don't let anyone else die because of me."

  The man with the axe kicked Strygen over and glanced at Ghulen. Semon turned to see Ghulen staring down into him.

  "How did she die?" he said softly, almost comfortingly.

  "I cut her throat. Slit it while others held her down, helpless," Semon said, barely able to form words as his chest heaved and guilty sobs wracked him. "I've sacrificed everything since to make her sacrifice worth it, given everything so the hopeful message she birthed would not die with her! Spare Strygen and the others, they're innocent."

  "No one's innocent," Ghulen muttered, nodding to his man.

  "No! Spare him!" Semon jerked his attention back just as Strygen made a final desperate lunge towards the man. As before, the warrior seemed to sense it coming and sidestepped easily. The woman fired an arrow into Strygen's ribs with a desultory motion as the axe swung and separated the dusa's head from his shoulders.

  The ever-stirring silver hair fell still for the first and last time.

  Semon sobbed on his knees, mourning the Prophet, the countless menials who had died for the faith he'd convinced himself to believe in, for Sadar and Strygen and child-like Hue probably lying in a pile of ash with an arrow in his throat. He tried to pray, but the faith he'd professed to the Mother and worn like a garment since he began her faith fell away like an ancient robe unraveling after one-too-many washings. Prayers to the Ascen caught in his throat, feeling shallow and perhaps heretical.

  "Interesting," Ghulen whispered, his voice intent and almost reverent. "Thank you."

  The man with the axe lifted Strygen's head by the hair and spat on his face while the woman sauntered over his corpse to cut her arrows free from his dead flesh.

  "I'm so sorry, Strygen. So sorry," Semon sobbed.

  "You murdered the Prophet of your religion and blamed a Dynastic assassin like me?" Ghulen whispered from behind him.

  "Yes. Yes, I killed her. I slit her throat when all she wanted to do was repent for the deaths she caused. All those Wretches..."

  "And you likewise repent?" the man whispered, close enough that Semon felt Ghulen's breath stirring on his ear.

  "More than anything."

  "This is poetic, then," Ghulen said.

  Before Semon could process the man's words, the sharpened bronze of Ghulen's knife slashed through flesh, tendon, and trachea. Semon clutched at his throat as he rolled on the ground, gurgling and drowning in his own hot blood.

  "One more lose thread neatly knotted," Semon heard Ghulen mutter as the man squatted over him, watching him die with the mild curiosity of a child pulling the legs off another insect. "Rega will be pleased."

  "Only a few final threads left to tie." He stood and walked away, leaving Semon to die alone.

  Semon felt his life force fade with each slowing beat of his heart. When had it grown so cold?

  As the sun finished setting, his last sight was the corpse of the dead god lying in the marsh.

  Poetic indeed, he thought detatchedly before darkness came for him. At least my end comes close to the end of everything.

  Next chapter: A four-way battle in Ink as Aida and company try to flee.

  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.

  Balmos: Venger working for Ghulen

  "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.

  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. Killed by Kass in Libriam.

  Sava: Dynast of Libriam

  Savalius: Grand Quartermaster of the Legions

  Semon "Goldtongue": white-haired, one-eyed master of cults. First Disciple of the Mother. Killed by Ghulen in Libriam.

  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. Killed by Kass and Balmos in Libriam.

  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