All of them dead now,

  their endless waking walking workings stilled.

  Aj sensed the efficacy of its work;

  everything grinding gradually,

  inevitably,

  to a halt.

  In time, all would come apart

  and return

  to whence it came.

  As it always should have been.

  And might be again

  as ten billion

  unraveling threads

  wove back

  to one.

  Even knowing what he was, Hassani couldn't get the damnable Phero out of her mind. After two days of digging through unending heaps of dispatches, receipts, logs, and requisitions, unbidden memories of his scent and look distracted her enough to force several re-skimmings of any number of documents.

  Goboro entered the dim, dusty crypt of the archive where their last lead pointed. Hassani's stomach grumbled at the sight of two stacked, still-steaming wooden bowls he carried along with a small net full of dumplings. The smells of fresh dough and rich broth set her mouth watering.

  "It's worth spending time with you just to get the Black Court discount." Goboro carefully cleared a space among a heap of brailles at her table and plunked down a soup bowl. "Haven't eaten this good since that Monopolis Verser Prince came through with no idea what coins were worth. Paid old Marsali the cart worker so much for a bundle of buns the lucky woman walked away that moment and retired. While I was in line. Ate so many sticky buns it glued me to the latrine for two days after."

  Chuckling, he set her swirling black Inviolate amulet before her and heaved down beside her. The old bench groaned at his weight.

  "I sent you off a couple hours ago to Arrivals and you show up with dinner instead?"

  Goboro scratched his hip and grinned. "Fortunately your friend is Goboro, a man who never comes with just a meal. I bring also the name 'Huspara', the lady who managed to misplace the weapon shipment order in Dust. Also, this! Fresh from the transcription pile in Dirt."

  His meaty hand slapped onto the table. Lifting away revealed a crudely-brailled Skein transmission. Soup splashed from Hassani's bowl as she half-dropped it in her haste to snatch it up and read it.

  He sopped spilled soup with his shirt sleeve then sucked at it. "Just because I bring good things doesn't mean you can waste my soup."

  "This is the confirmation from Ziggurat." She stared out into the shelves. "So the weapons and their legion escort departed. I suppose it's too much to ask that you found a receipt confirmation from Sunset with it?"

  He flicked a hand at the moldering documents. "And waste all the time you've spent digging around down here? How could I do that to you and still call you my friend?"

  "I'd find some way to survive." As she reread the message, something Adonissian said troubled her. "Aside from it being urgent and going to Sunset, why did I get assigned to this anyway, and by whom?"

  He drained the last of his soup and sighed with satisfaction.

  "You're an Inviolate so I figured the Black Court sent you. You should really eat before it gets cold.”

  "Har, har, yes. But who is that? When you're there, even with the Echoseers you know where but not who or even really what is around you. Inro's weapon order reached the Black Court, Ziggurat sent them, yet someone from the Court dispatched me almost immediately afterwards, practically the moment I finished my training."

  Goboro filled his mouth with dumpling and talked around it. "Maybe its some accountability and oversight committee. Like Audits here in Libriam. Diggers we call 'em."

  She sighed and sipped. Some bitter local fish-and-root concoction she'd never developed a taste for no matter how good it smelled. "You can finish mine, I'll just have a dumpling."

  "If I must, Inviolate." Goboro gulped down her soup as though worried she might change her mind.

  "Sometimes I think you order things I won't like so you can have a double helping."

  "Me?" His best wide-eyed look. "Seriously, though, I never settle for less than a triple helping for what you put me through. It takes me weeks to get caught up on my regular duties after you leave."

  She smiled, then frowned and tapped her dumpling on the table. "The Chapters."

  Goboro gave her a blank look.

  "This is the Dynasty, right?" She waved the dumpling.

  He reached for it. "If anyone could fit the entire Dynasty in his mouth, it would be Goboro."

  She pulled it away and shredded it. "The Dynasts group themselves into Chapters: Isolates, Ancients, the Fractious Fraction-"

  "I prefer calling them the DissatisFaction." He grinned. "Yes, Chapters, go on."

  "Yes, so the Chapters. You saying 'triple helping' made me think it. What if the Chapters think Inro's making a play with the weapons?"

  The story has been illicitly taken; should you find it on Amazon, report the infringement.

  Goboro blinked. "I guess that could happen. Can do a lot with fifteen-thousand armed soldiers. That many armed anyone, really. But Inro? Inro the Ignorable?"

  Hassani frowned again. "Yes, that doesn't fit. He hasn't left Sunset since... when? The end of the Reconquest four-hundred-odd years ago? Why would he launch a coup now out of nowhere?"

  "Anyone powerful and paranoid enough would believe it." Goboro helped himself to another dumpling. "Describes a pretty good chunk of the Dynasty, I'd imagine."

  "Well, this is all speculation that doesn't get us anywhere." Hassani popped shredded dumpling bits into her mouth. Those at least proved as delicious as Goboro made them out to be. "Let's get back to it. I'll track down this Huspara you mentioned, you see if you can't make any more headway finding the receipt confirmation for Inro's weapons."

  She stood, stretched, and grabbed another dumpling for the road. Goboro examined the few remaining in the net, picked it up, and held it out. "You should take these. You've barely been eating. Or sleeping for that matter. This really that urgent or is something else going on?"

  "No," she lied, the memory of Avani's last look stabbing into her heart. She suddenly wanted desperately to be home, to feel her little tyke snuggled against her on the balcony watching the ships sail by. To wander through Tallmarket watching Avani delight at every shiny bit and bauble. "This is my first real task as Inviolate. I want to make sure I do it right. And you take them, I'm not very hungry."

  "If you say so." He shook the net. "So you don't mind if I finish these and get a bit of sleep?"

  "Whatever keeps you working your strange powers over paper and the people who tend it, Goboro." She picked up a glowing lambent lantern, smiling as she left.

  Pushing out into the hallway, she instantly sensed Adonissian's presence. Some primal part of her stirred as he moved in the shadows of the dark corridor. Even knowing why she reacted so to him, she could barely restrain herself. "Phero, bought servant of the Ancients."

  "Inviolate, ignorant servant of the DissatisFaction," he countered, stepping into the halo of light. "Hadn't heard that name for them before. Fitting."

  "If your skills peak out at eavesdropping, you're not much of a Phero."

  "If that was supposed to be secret, you're not much of an Inviolate. Any new orders from your masters?"

  "Any from yours? I'd think the Ancients would be more concerned with Inro than me."

  "The Ancients have anything Inro might attempt well in hand, don't you worry. Or anyone else for that matter." He extended a braille like a peace offering and she took it cautiously. "You can thank me any way you see fit."

  Her heart skipped a beat as her fingers brushed his. She backed off a safe distance, skimming the braille quickly. "The weapons arrived at Sunset. This is the receipt I spent all day looking for."

  "So all's well and good. You can return to whoever slipped your leash in the Black Court and get your pat on the head." He stepped closer. "Or I could do it instead if you prefer a more intimate touch."

  Breathing deeply for control, she put more space between them. "It still doesn't answer why he suddenly needed them."

  "Suit yourself." He shrugged, all nonchalance. "They decided you should work for them so eventually you will. Rega's a particularly persistent Dynast. It will be easier for all of us in the end if you toe the line now.

  "Easier for you is what you really mean."

  He flipped his hair casually, even that gesture producing an almost unbearable thrill of longing. "No. You have no idea how hard she can make things for you. Will make for you."

  "Was that a threat?" In spite of her wariness, an urge to grab him and pull his lips to hers overcame her. She was barely able to stop herself before she touched him.

  A smile quirked his lips as he watched her struggle. "I prefer promises to threats."

  He grabbed her hand, pulling them smoothly together. Ecstasy bubbled out as a moan in her throat and she gave in until his hand slid down her back to pull her closer.

  Thunder cracked in her mind, the memory of Denault's assault striking her like lightning. Her shove toppled Adonissian over and he gave a startled yelp. She turned and ran sobbing, colliding blindly with a startled Goboro as he stepped into the hallway.

  He held her, patting her back awkwardly as she wept into his long tunic. When he shifted his position, she lunged and planted her lips on his. He tasted of onions and bitter broth.

  It only lasted a moment before he pulled her away. "I'm sorry, lass. This can't be what you want. I'm practically old enough to be your grandfather."

  Embarrassed, aroused, sad, and confused all at once, she pulled away, slumped against the wall, and hugged her knees. She struggled to pull herself together amid an onslaught of conflicting feelings.

  "Was that the Phero you told me about again?" he rumbled, kneeling down next to her and patting her shoulder.

  "Yes, that was him." Her voice broke and quavered. She glanced down the corridor with hope and fear both.

  No Adonissian.

  "He's toying with you. They do that I've heard. Pheros I mean, not men. Well, some men."

  "What do you know about it?" she demanded, far more sharply than she'd intended.

  "I looked up his Lineage after you mentioned him the other day." Goboro flopped down beside her. "Can't help themselves. Something their Masters do to them makes them irresistible. Don't feel bad, lass. From what I've read, that Phero could have even old Goboro begging within a few minutes if he wanted and I've never had interest in any cock beyond my own pathetic endowment. Mine's why they call them peckers; a bird once thought it a worm while I pissed and tried to carry it off to its young."

  She laughed in spite of herself and leaned against Goboro's shoulder. "Thanks, Goboro. You always know the right thing to say."

  "Oh, well, you're welcome, but I thought we were just being honest. If you really want to laugh I'll tell you about the first time I showed it to a woman." He paused, then patted her fraternally on the knee. "I'm not what you want any more than that Phero is."

  "What do I want, Goboro?" She stared down the dark corridor, wondering if Adonissian lurked somewhere watching and listening for his Ancient masters. "I push so hard to do my duty, but sometimes I think that's only because it's easier to do what others want than figure out what I do."

  "I figure you want the same as everyone else does, deep down, even if it looks like they don't." He took a deep breath and breathed out a long sigh. "Love, respect, safety, trust, some place to call home, people who know you and you can rely on."

  "Plus a full belly of course, the fuller the better!" He slapped his generous gut with both hands.

  She laughed again, sniffling and wiping away tears.

  "In your case, though, I think your belly probably works best as is." He gestured towards the sword she'd adjusted so automatically she hadn't even noticed turning it out of the way. "If I swung one of those around it would look like a hog butchering itself!"

  "No belly for me," she agreed. "Pregnancy brought enough of that to last me a lifetime."

  The sadness returned as she pictured Avani's tiny, alabaster body cradled in her arms for the first time. A moment full of pain, blood, beauty, delight, and fear for the tiny thing she'd brought into a huge, dangerous sprawl of verses.

  "I think everyone also wants to know the immortals in charge aren't habitually misplacing enough weapons to raise several legions." Goboro heaved himself to his feet. "That's something we can't do on our own though; only you can do it."

  She rose with him, remembering the sheet Adonissian gave her and scanning the floor until she found it. "Maybe you can. Here. Turns out no mystery at all."

  Goboro extended a finger from the hand holding his lantern and skimmed, frowning.

  "Paper's right kind, sure, and scribbled like a Skeiner, but everything's too... complete."

  "What do you mean?" Hassani moved beside him to look.

  "Like here: Sunset and Ziggurat fully jotted out. Skeiners, especially here, they get hundreds of messages a day. Everything abbreviated as possible. This one'd take twice as long as any Skeiner I know would spend on a dispatch." He shook his head. "Even after the transcriptionist puts it down on something more durable for Dust, it probably wouldn't be this complete unless they thought it would become a historical document."

  Hassani took it back, feeling it again. "This is forged?"

  "Feels that way."

  "Then what in Ebon's name is going on? Where did that Legion go with the weapons?"

  "Guess we're not done yet." Goboro faked a sigh. "My belly thanks you but my poor overflowing desk sure won't."

  "You'll survive somehow." She collected her own lantern, shifting the shadows. She spun towards a hint of movement, hand on her sword. Could have sworn she saw a figure slipping back into the shadows.

  "Adonissian, that you?" she shouted, brandishing her lantern. "If you can hear me, you're a monster for doing this to people. You hear me? A monster!"

  "What? What's going on?" Goboro followed her, raising his own lantern.

  "Probably the Phero or his people." Hassani turned away. "Gone now whoever they were, scuttled back to tattle to their masters."

  "Then we'd best get on so you can tattle to yours."

  Hassani frowned at how much that sounded like Adonissian. A final glance at the empty hallway behind them and she followed Goboro's lead through the winding corridors.

  Things shifted in her mind. The purposeful, detail-oriented professional shifted back to the fore to drive all else away with a precise chain of thoughts. As much as Adonissian could ever be away, anyway. She wondered if one ever stopped wanting a Phero. Would she crave him for the rest of her life, like the old Stacks sailors who drowned themselves after too much exposure to pure watter from the deeps, endlessly thirsty for its taste and touch?

  Worry about forever when it arrived. A scribe to interrogate, a cover-up to uncover, all of it transpired in the last week. A fresh-but-fading trail. No more time to waste indulging herself.

  She walked faster to catch up to Goboro, touching his arm to cut off whatever story he'd been telling. "Goboro, about that scribe. Huspara, right? Where can I find her?"

  Next Chapter: an assassin and a soresearer

  doctor2794 and Maitri for my first reviews!

  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"

  Arca: chief of the tribe that "adopted" Inro

  Audits/"Diggers": Libriam internal affairs

  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.

  Eth: a young Imminent

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

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

  Fallon: Aida's Seneschal

  Hassani: Inviolate agent of the Black Court, sent by Fractious Fraction?

  Inro: Dynast formerly ruling Sunset

  Izbali: a silent tribal shaman

  Janali: Ocyl's elegant Seneschal

  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.

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

  Rega: Inro's sister, Dynast

  Rustrovan/"Rusty": Eth's old, gap-toothed skinscribe

  Ryk:?

  Sava: Dynast of Libriam

  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: ?

  Ancients: a major Dynastic Chapter, an "elite number"

  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"

  Fetalist: Imminent faction who believe the future is unchangeable

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

  Fractious Fraction/"DissatisFaction": a major Dynastic Chapter who "hate everyone including each other"

  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

  Imminent: seers?

  Inevitables; faction of Imminent who believe it is their sacred duty to ensure the future comes to pass as seen

  Ink: home verse of the Skeinry 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

  Isolates: a major Dynastic Chapter with a "unified stand for independence"

  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

  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: ?

  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: 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: priests?

  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

  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