"Look, Huspara, you aren't in trouble." Hassani leaned on the packed table belonging to the terrified, frazzled young scribe huddled in her creaking chair. "If you lie to an Inviolate though..."

  She let the unspoken threat hang in the air, but the woman shrank further into herself, her face slackening. This wasn't working.

  As a last gambit, she chunked her Inviolate Vial onto the desk. The woman cowered.

  Hassani pounded the desk and twisted away, pacing the two steps of open space in the tiny, cramped closet of an office. Scroll nooks covered every available handsbreath of wall, most packed to overflowing.

  "Change tactics," she muttered. Digging deep, she found a smile and wore it for a heartbeat before turning it on Huspara.

  "Look, I have a lot going on and this-" she waved the forged receipt from Sunset "-may lead to thousands of deaths, rebellion, civil war, who knows? Heard of the Sixth Tier Rebellion on Ziggurat when half the legions rose up? That's best-case."

  A blank, slack-jawed stare. Hassani wanted to slap the woman to see if she still was in there. "Look, this doesn't have to be all downside. I carry the power to make the lives of people in my way miserable as I'm sure you know. That spear points two ways, though."

  She sat on the corner of Huspara's desk; a friend stopping in for a moment to chat. "What do you want, Huspara? Promotion? Bigger office? Travel? Want to work in an Annalis sub-office in Heaven's Tread? Stacks? See the ice islands of Wades? The red-sand beaches of Azure?"

  Hassani gritted her teeth and waved her hand in the woman's face. "Hello?"

  The woman sucked in her breath, pulled back like a turtle retreating to its shell.

  Hassani chewed her lip. Rising from the desk she scanned the room for something, anything she might use to get this woman to talk. She debated drawing the knife concealed in her boot, but worried that would break the woman completely.

  Hoping to defray tension, she messed about on the woman's desk, lifting a small wooden diptych lying face-down and half-covered by skewed papers from Hassani's clearly too-aggressive initial approach.

  The crude painting showed a young man beside a small child. Hassani found herself talking.

  "I should have one of these made. I'm married you know, have a young one about this age." Hassani leaned against the desk, pointed at the kid in the picture, then pulled back her sleeve and rubbed Avani's braille. "Avani. We named her early, at three. She has the Pale, but I think it makes her all the more precious. So fragile yet so tough. Any time she's outside we have to bundle her up to keep the sun off or she turns red as raw meat. Yet I've seen her trip and fall a few stairs, brush herself off, and be running again before I can even ask if she's okay."

  Hassani smiled even though someone grabbed her heart and squeezed it. "By the Ascen, I miss her! Yet every time I go back I feel more distant, more disconnected. I don't know the person she's becoming and worry she'll grow up with a stranger for a mother."

  She ran a finger across the child's portrait, wiping tears against her sleeve. "I'm good at what I do. Really, really good. But the better I get, the more it pulls me away from her and that tears me up inside. I'm upholding the Dynasty, protecting the Book, and scraping at the corruption caked about the workings at every level, yet I only get to hold her a few times a year, can't protect her even from a few stairs, and sometimes I don't even think what I'm doing even makes a difference. The sheer power and reach of the people, the system I'm up against is unbelievable, you know?"

  Stolen from its rightful author, this tale is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings.

  She stood and set the diptych down facing Huspara, tears pattering on paper. After taking a deep breath, she shook her head. "Look, I get that-"

  "They told me to write it." The woman's surprisingly-deep alto quavered.

  Tear-streaks ran down the woman's face, the young scribe gripping the edge of her desk as though it held her up.

  "Who did?"

  "I don't know, he had one of those." She pointed at Hassani's amulet.

  "This?" Hassani raised it. "An Inviolate ordered you to falsify a document?"

  "Yes," Huspara whispered. "And told me to bury the other dispatches."

  "Dispatches? Multiple?"

  "Yes." Huspara found the strength to stand. "I sent one to Dirt and the other I kept after I realized someone might notice that. No one else would ever find it in all this."

  She gestured at the dusty cubbies, then dug around in one packed top to bottom with wadded papers. From its depths, she produced a crumpled black sheet and handed it to Hassani.

  Hassani snatched it and almost ripped it in her haste to unfold it. Her fingers raced over it. "Dynast Inro demands... where are weapons? Need reinforcements... send now or Sunset is lost... Aj..."

  The word lodged in her throat. "... awakened."

  "They told me to rip the transmission times off just in case. Not destroy them since that would be even more suspicious." Huspara babbled now. "I didn't know what else to do. I need this job. My husband's sight is gone. Can't work the nets anymore, drinks away whatever I make. My daughter barely-"

  "Your daughter?" Hassani thrust the dispatch at the women like a knife. "What about my daughter? What about everyone in Sunset, in Libriam, in the Book? What about their daughters?"

  Huspara shrank back, but Hassani pushed on. "By the ever-roaming gods, you're a damned scribe. Remember the Kiss? You had to know what this means. Do you even get what this means? Aj. Is. Awake."

  "The other Inviolate already made the Skeiner that took it down disappear and he said he'd cut Issana into pieces and... and eat her!" The woman's voice shrank to a terrified whisper. She hugged herself, rocking, tears and snot streaming down her face. "Said he'd make my husband swallow his own useless eyes. Said he'd give him useless hands too, use his fingers as fish bait! Said if we ran he would sniff us out, if I talked he'd... he'd-"

  "I understand." Hassani shrugged. "Better to let Aj kill everyone instead."

  "I thought it was a myth!" Huspara wailed, throwing her hands up. "Besides, Ghulen said Inro lied, he's lurked for centuries in Sunset, waiting, using Aj as an excuse. With the weapons he'd overthrow the Dynasty-"

  "He said Inro did this? We're talking about the same Inro, right? Inro the Immovable, Inro the Incorruptible?" Hassani turned away, unable to stomach the woman. "I grew up on stories of Inro's battles in the Reconquest, the horrible choices made to contain the Kiss. The entire verses he killed to stop its spread."

  She took a deep breath, trying to calm herself. "Avani's favorite story after 'The Adventures of Bubo' is 'Emperor of Everything', makes me tell it practically every time I'm home. I know it by heart from when I was her age. Remember that one, Inro's Nine Negations? When they kept trying to make him Emperor of the Book and he turned them down again and again, then crushed the Dynast they tried to elevate instead and annihilated everyone involved? That Inro?"

  She finally relented when she'd reduced the woman to a sobbing mess. Snarling, she stormed out, slamming into Goboro in the hall outside.

  "What?" she snapped, then saw his expression.

  "Dispatches... you need... know about," Goboro said, breathless and sweating as if he'd been running. A chill ran down Hassani's spine as he handed a moist wad of dispatches to her. In the years she'd known him, she'd never seen Goboro so much as jog.

  She smoothed out the first. "Is it Aj?"

  "What! Aj? Why would... think that?" Goboro's eyes widened. He shook his head, beads of perspiration flying. "No.. the last one though... its..."

  "Last one?" Hassani stopped skimming and looked up. "Just tell me."

  "Inoculists on Heaven's Tread... can't stop it... chants not working... maybe Monopolis... worries about here too... spreading..."

  "What? Innoculists? Take a breath man."

  "Last is... worst. From Denault."

  "Denault?"

  The others fluttered to the ground as she ran her fingers across the bottom braille, heart racing. She shook so badly she could barely read it.

  "Oh no." Hassani staggered back. If Goboro hadn't caught her she would have fallen. "Avani."

  "I know... have your things." Goboro turned and lifted her pack from where he dropped it when they'd collided. She slung it on her back and sprinted away, barely catching his last words as any scribe or bureaucrat in her path caught one look at her face and fell over each other to get out of her way.

  "There's... ConMach courier leaving... end of the hour! If you hurry you might-"

  By then Goboro passed from earshot as she sprinted all-out for the ConMach dockyard, running with every bit of speed she possessed.

  Her daughter's life depended on it.

  Next Chapter: Aida faces down an unruly mob

  Characters and terms

  Characters (alphabetical)

  Adonissian: a Phero who poses as a traveling 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"

  Aliasara: servant at Ocyl's villa who befriends Aida

  Arca: chief of the tribe that "adopted" Inro

  Avani: Hassani's daughter, an albino

  "Braid"; a thug who accosted Aida in Jadeye

  Broadaxe: large, axe-and-shield-wielding Feral protecting Aida

  Cairin: Arca's sister

  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

  Goldilocks: twitchy, spear-and-javelin carrying Feral guarding Aida

  Fallon: Aida's Seneschal

  Fetriene: Ocyl's soresearer

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

  Huspara: minor bureaucrat in Libriam

  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

  Riccaro: majordomo of Ocyl's estate

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

  Ryk:?

  Sava: Dynast of Libriam

  Stiller: serving boy at Ocyl's estate

  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)

  Adventures of Bubo, The: popular kids story

  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

  Audits/"Diggers": Libriam internal affairs

  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? courier?

  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"?

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

  Donative, The: Black Court taxes?

  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

  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"

  Fatalist: 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 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."

  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: 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

  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: "the thought realm"

  Machine Curse: ?

  Mancers: "no mancers arc (could) affect it"

  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. 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

  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

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

  Sixth Tier Rebellion: last major uprising, in Ziggurat a century ago when "half the legions rose up"

  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

  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.

  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

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

  Wiz of Berujat: multi-minded?

  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