Aida felt hot, uncomfortable, and horny as a teenager all at once. "I'm overdressed."

  "A situation far more easily rectified than being underdressed I find." Ocyl shed his robe completely, standing unselfconsciously to survey the room.

  An stunning redheaded servant rushed to gather the garment, collecting it in her arms the moment it stopped fluttering down. A liveried little girl who could very well have been the servant's daughter hustled over to trade the discarded clothing for a tied bundle. Ocyl seemed oblivious as the servant untied silken cords and laid out a fresh, nearly-identical garment. She took great pains to ensure it fell just the way the first one had.

  It bothered her that kids were present, but at least they were fully clothed and excluded from the... activities. Aida shook her head and glanced at Ocyl. Damn did he cut a fine figure, sipping at a goblet of wine while a servant rubbed him with oil until he shone. He gestured languidly at the spectacle.

  “Shall we?”

  "What about birth control?" Aida said, stalling for time while she tried to get her wits about her. When another servant approached with a glass of something presumably alcoholic, she took it gratefully and downed it in one go.

  He looked her up and down. "Do you carry a child?"

  "No, it's been decades since I've had s... had to worry about that. Now my body's young again though so..."

  A dismissive, waving gesture. "A Dynast's body is harmful to anything which tries to live within it. Or even near it, often, as you'll certainly learn. Only the heartiest babes reach full term and you'll want those few to fill out your Kin."

  She mouthed "Kin?" but his attention drifted elsewhere.

  He grinned and pointed out a trio launching up, laughing, in a long swirl of silk. "That is Sava, Dynast of Libriam, a verse of moldering paperwork and endless swamps. Or is it the other way around? Either way, she spends as much time not there as possible."

  "So there isn't birth control? I might get pregnant again?" The idea came as both a shock and strange relief. Having another child was a scary thought even the realization made her feel alive and vibrant again in a way she couldn't verbalize even to herself.

  "Your menses will come rarely and unpredictably so little worry of a man's seed congealing the blood into a child."

  "That's, um, not quite how that works."

  If he heard, he didn't show. "Most female Dynasts do as they will with whom they will yet conceive rarely more than once a decade."

  He gestured to a tumbling pair near the apex. "That short, wide, uniquely white one is Jaxe of the Stacks. Palest Dynast you'll meet though his parents made onyx look light. A real up-and-comer. At the moment literally, as you can see. His verse's barely older than he yet already it supplies an impressive share of the Book's water."

  There was water again, pronounced just off with implications it meant something else. "Water?"

  He looked at her like she was an idiot. "Every livable verse has to have water. No, water."

  "Thanks, so helpful," she grumbled and changed the subject. "Do Dynasts not marry?"

  This content has been unlawfully taken from Royal Road; report any instances of this story if found elsewhere.

  Ocyl floated down onto a heap of cushions as though standing suddenly became too much effort. Looking away as the servant or slave oiling him worked towards Ocyl's groin did little to ease the sexual tension since his guests performed erotic deeds everywhere she looked.

  "Dynasts rarely marry. Gets tiresome burying your betrothed after the first few times and marrying immortals makes 'together forever' a fearsome potentiality. Wake over there, she persists though. That man with her is her seventeenth husband. Nineteenth? I lose track."

  "Wake? She rules a verse too?"

  "Indeed. Graves, the boneyard at the end of the Book. 'Made of the dead by the dead for the dead' they'll recite at you any time they get a chance. Some suspect she marries just so she can bury them and luxuriate in a few years of widow's grief. Doesn't even bother to marry Kin who might live a few decades longer. I think she enjoys funerals even more than weddings."

  He grinned, rubbing a hand down his gleaming torso. "Not that I'm one to judge. When you live eternally you do as you must to avoid the creeping sense of repetition and sameness soaking into your very bones as the decades and centuries pile on their tarnish."

  "I know something about the weight of age too, just so you know." She glanced at the myriad groups drifting through the air or sprawled across cushions. "Does every Dynast passing through gain access to your... festivities or did you make an exception to your guest list by allowing the Dynast of One-Eighth Shithole?"

  An intoxicating rush of laughter. "At least you named yours honestly. Poor Reck over there's Partaking gift holds nothing but an endless, sheer cliff face of pure chalk. He named it 'Vistas.' Seems cleverly ironic, but he's not witty enough to be clever and takes himself too seriously to be ironic. Everyone usually calls it 'Chalk' to annoy him."

  "Don't know if I'd really call someone who personally owns a universe poor."

  Finished with oiling Ocyl down, the masseur approached Aida with his oil basin, a thin wrap of silk barely concealing the man's body. Seeing her notice the man, Ocyl threw an arm to encompass all the attendants scattered amid the cushions. "They're all mine and all available should you take a fancy to anyone... or two or three. Well, not the Ferals, of course. They're a bit pointy in several unhelpful ways."

  "I was told to leave my Feral behind." Aida debated waving the masseur off as he slipped the shoulder of her dress down to work at knots in her shoulder she hadn't known were there.

  Ocyl waggled a finger at her. "First rule of being a Dynast: never leave your Ferals behind. Even if you feel perfectly safe, they grow restless. Next thing you know they're tearing down anything between them and you out of paranoia. Can be such a hassle to smooth everything out with the local Dynast, gather replacement Ferals, compensate for all the damages, and hassle with disposing of all the corpses afterwards."

  "Unless you're good friends with Wake there, I suppose." Aida held her dress against her chest as the masseur slid the other shoulder down to work the muscles there.

  "Yes, very good." Ocyl raised his glass to her with a grin. "You catch on quickly. Will you be joining in?"

  "I... I haven't decided yet." Part of her writhed in indignant horror while the other screamed at her to let the masseur work his art further down.

  "Well, if you prefer to watch or do it yourself, we've plenty of gons jars. All freshly collected and unused. Take some home if you like." He swayed to his feet. After throwing away his empty glass he bounded off to intercept a foursome landing nearby. A group of servants rushed in with armloads of cushions, gathering up all that he laid upon and replacing them with seemingly-identical duplicates.

  "Gons?" She glanced about. A servant anticipated her need, the vaguely Oriental-looking woman smiling as she opened the lid to reveal living sex toys: a throbbing heap of genitals indistinguishable from the real thing except that these somehow lived independently of their hosts. With great effort, she directed her mind away from wondering about their origins.

  "I'm... I'm good, thank you." The contents of the jar disturbed and aroused in unsettlingly equal measure.

  The masseur moved to her calf, gradually working his way towards her knee while the female servant set the gons jar down and set to massaging her hand.

  Trembling, Aida finished her glass and motioned for another. The masseur lifted the hem of her dress higher to work her thigh.

  Aida sighed. The tension fell away all over as she made up her mind. "Would be impolite to turn him down in his own house."

  Jaxe, the squat but brawny albino Dynast, spotted her. Winked. She waved and he launched towards her trailing a comet's tail of green silk.

  "When in Rome." She stood, drained her drink, slipped from her dress, and threw herself to meet him.

  Next chapter: Inro and Arca plan for battle

  Characters and terms

  Characters (alphabetical)

  Adonissian: a Phero who poses as a travelling musician

  Aida: MC.

  Aj: a long-slumbering, powerful being which annihilated Inro's Sunset Legions. Also "almost destroyed the Dynasty single-handedly six-and-some centuries ago"

  Avani: Hassani's daughter, an albino

  "Braid"; a thug who accosted Aida in Jadeye

  Deai: Hassani's swordmaster, renowned for killing a Paragon

  Denault: Hassani's husband. Shipwright, Kin.

  Ghillie: a 3rd Feral who wears a primitive Ghillie suit. Carries cross between kunai and acupuncture needles

  Goboro: a fat scribe friend of Hassani's in Libriam

  Fallon: Aida's Seneschal

  Hassani: Inviolate agent of the Black Court

  Inro: Dynast formerly ruling Sunset

  Jaxe: Dynast of Stacks. "Young", wealthy. Also has "the Pale" (an Albino)

  Kass/Kassenia: mercenary attached to Adonissian

  Ocyl: Dynast of Heaven's Tread, powerful and unpredictable

  Parathas: Aida's skinscribe. Also a mountaineer.

  Sava: Dynast of Libriam

  Reck: Dynast of Chalk, "not witty enough to be clever and takes himself too seriously to be ironic"

  Rega: Inro's sister, Dynast

  Venner: Grandmaster of Optimimes in Jadeye, "best in the entire Book"

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

  The Fallen

  Feral: a bone-masked woman of violence (Feral) in Aida's service. Knife wielder. Killed by Ghillie in Jadeye.

  "Toothy": leader of a group of thugs who accosted Aida in Heaven's Tread. Killed by Feral in Jadeye

  Valeer: a mentally challenged, unkempt individual able to manipulate Thorns. Died in Jadeye to "Braid".

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

  Terms (alphabetical)

  All, The: ?

  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.

  Arborian: gardeners from Groves?

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

  Assessor: census-taker

  Aze: swordmaker?

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

  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. "Kiloverse"

  Broadcliff, Tallmarket: cities in Stacks

  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 Innoculation: chant supposed to protect against disease

  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?

  ConMach: convoy?

  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?

  Current: some form of energy that powers "artifices"?

  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.

  Dynasty: the Dynasts who rule the Book

  Ebon: founder of the Dynasty and Black Court

  Ebonese: the language of the Book

  Echoseer shells: devices to allow one to "see" in the Black Court

  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"

  First Thread/Primus: a fresh Dynast/the first luminescent silver thread etched into their foreheads.

  Gates, The: ?

  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

  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".

  Heaven's Tread: a verse "inside a hollow rolling pin", host to Jadeye, the largest city in the Book

  High Parser: officials from Ink

  Ink: home verse of the Skeinry and Keens

  Innoculist: doctors?

  Inviolate: agents of the black court who "serve the Black Court, protect the Dynasty, uphold the Chant, root out corruption."

  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

  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

  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?

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

  Kin: descendants of a Dynast

  Kiss, The: ?

  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

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

  Lineage: ?

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

  Logos: ?

  Machine Curse: ?

  Mancers: ?

  Menial: common folk

  Molt: person able to shed skins (see skins)

  Mon, The: ?

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

  Mune: someone from the Collective on Dost?

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

  Optomime: gadgeteer?

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

  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: individuals whose scent creates overwhelming attraction

  'pillar: fuzzy Sect-bred giant caterpillar pet

  Porcelain Guard: Ocyl's white-masked Ferals

  Pure Priest of the Ascen: priests?

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

  Reconquest: time 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

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

  Sixth Tier Rebellion: last major uprising, in Ziggurat a century ago

  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: ?

  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

  Subterrane, The: travel route accessed by Ebon via Limn?

  Sunset: the verse where Aj was 'contained', formerly protected by Dynast Inro. The "Prison of Prisons"

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

  Surgon: person able to remove organs

  Terminus:a verse?

  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

  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.

  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

  Wicker Way: towers of stone, wood, and rope that connect opposite far sides of Jadeye

  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"

  Wyres: lines run through the Vale between verses that allow communication between

  Ziggurat: the verse basing the Legions