They roamed between the verses,

  dwelling in a non-place beyond its reach,

  futilely seeking a way in.

  Not so their spawn.

  Aj returned to slow-fading Sunset.

  With compassion

  to save them from a slow death

  Aj killed

  everyone it found.

  All except

  a lone Valeer.

  Aj found the ancient,

  rusting iron prison

  where the Dynasty

  sealed away

  the demons

  that it could not kill.

  Aj studied the heavy, imposing gate

  and shattered it.

  Inro limped from the corpse-strewn battlefield, deafening himself to the cries of the maimed an dying. Even the Libwe suffered significant losses as the brutal end of the conflict wore down and flaked off much of their thickly-painted coatings of Limn. By the end, it provided little more protection than the crude paint their opponents adorned themselves with.

  It didn't matter. They won.

  Battered Libwe warriors and the remnant's of Arca's tribe gathered at the base of the rise leading up out of the camp. They leaned against one another, too tired to do more than stare across the swath of burned shelters, sprawled bodies, moaning wounded, and the fragments of six other tribes coalescing around the edges of the desolation to weep for their dead.

  Though Arca's people took the brunt of the tribe's vengeance and barely a man or woman among them stood unbloodied, Arca forbade them to yet mourn their losses or tend their wounds. A hurled stone had mangled Arca's right eye, leaving it an ugly ruin amid a discolored swath of bruise. They'd made a deal with the Libwe, but Inro's centuries of Dynastic politics made him wary.

  Bertali, the Libwe Warchief, loomed over them. No one could accuse Inro of being short, yet Bertali stood almost a head taller, the man's adult son close at his flank and matching him in height if not yet width of shoulder or mass of thigh.

  The Warchief stopped close enough to punch Inro, the swirls of paint masking his face running in smears on his neck and chest with the sweat of battle. A deep voice rumbled from his broad chest as he slowly took Inro's measure.

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  Arca translated. "Libwe chief say victory as we promise, more fight at end than promise."

  Bertali examined Arca then looked back at Inro with a look of something like contempt as he spoke again. The pause before Arca spoke translated told Inro much. "Don't make his words pretty, Arca. Tell me exactly what he said."

  "Bertali say man not speak One People tongue and only is lizard wear man skin."

  Judging by the size of the lizard skin and skull cap that Bertali wore, Inro didn't take that entirely as an insult. He'd seen enough bite and claw scars on the tribal warriors to know those headdresses never came easy. But it didn't matter what this barbarian thought of him. If the Ebon Saga told true, Inro only needed enough Limn to paint a doorway into the Subterrane and maybe one out again. Then he could forget these wasteland savages completely.

  "Tell Bertali lizards have teeth that bit his enemies. Lizards climb cliffs and they might have stolen victory had we not warned Bertali in advance. Tell Bertali our people paid full price for how the battle ended and we deserve our reward."

  Inro shifted his weight to take pressure off the bloody spear wound in the back of his knee and watched the Libwe intently as Arca spoke. The Warchief carried a flaw Inro had found often among strong leaders: Bertali held little value for subtlety and disdained those who hid how they felt. No need for a strong man to govern his words or expression for who would dare challenge him if they didn't like it?

  Before Arca even began to translate, Inro knew the man wanted more than their initial bargain. By the undisguised greed with which the man regarded Inro's weapons, he knew exactly what the man wanted. Powerful status symbols should he wear them. Beyond that, he'd seen Inro used them on the battlefield and likely assumed he could be as formidable. Inro wore steel armor and had trained with the sword for centuries; this savage would likely cut himself open the first swing he made.

  As Inro turned to Arca for the translation Inro made a big show of reacting angrily. Arca caught on instantly and stepped close to Inro as though counseling him to give in.

  "What you did when first met, do again?" Arca mimed draw-and-slice motion. "You kill Arca chief met, now Libwe kill same?"

  Inro glared at Bertali as though yielding to Arca's pressure, but resenting it. "I'm not sure how it will interact with the Limn. The paint has clearly lost vibrancy; see where it fades, dries, cracks, or smears? I will have to focus entirely on him to be sure he goes down. What happens if he dies?"

  Arca stomped around cursing as though rebuffed by Inro. He returned and thrust his finger in Inro's face. "His son order kill Inro."

  "Then you must kill the son as I kill Bertali. Can you do this?"

  Brief hesitation, then a nod.

  Inro wondered if this would work again. He supposed greed was the same whatever the verse or situation, so maybe they had a chance. Hopefully stories of Inro's first use of the play hadn't spread yet beyond Arca's tribe. "Good. If we pull this off, put your back to mine as soon as they are dead and tell the rest loudly exactly what I'll tell you now..."

  A minute later, Arca shoved him. Inro wailed, pulled at his hair, gnashed his teeth, then tore at his sword belt. Bertali stepped back and raised his hands, shouting some command.

  "What now?" Inro hissed, hands frozen on his belt buckle.

  "He want make official to Great Walkers. Inro, Arca people serve Libwe," Arca said, voice strained. "Make all swear."

  "I'll mumble whatever gibberish gets me closest to his throat," Inro growled.

  Arca clearly felt more conflicted, turning as Izbali pushed forward, the shaman looking fiercely-grotesque with her new necklace of human innards. Dark blood smeared across her cheeks. As the two conversed, Arca's look became increasingly pained.

  Inro walked over quickly before Arca made the wrong decision. "What's going on?"

  Tears ran from Arca's good eye, more than fell when he'd lost the other one. "Arca cannot break Great Walker oath."

  "Rotter's balls you can." Inro pointed up to the towering pinnacle where they'd met the tribal leaders before the battle. "You swore an oath up there and broke it without flinching."

  "Oath to men. Men break oaths for Arca people all time." Arca shook his head. "Not Great Walker oath."

  Inro wished he could kill them all. Instead, he gritted his teeth, mind racing.

  Then it clicked. "Great Walkers. Gods?"

  Arca gave him a blank look.

  "Giant creatures like walking mountains? Huge beasts?"

  Arca looked astonished. "How Inro know Great Walkers?"

  "You know how the place I come from consists of verses in the hundreds?"

  "Yes."

  Bertali bellowed with impatience.

  Inro spoke as fast as he could without overwhelming Arca's impressive-yet-still-limited grasp of Ebon's tongue. "Every verse has its own Great Walkers, they aren't unique to yours. They even build cities on a few. Some worship them, yes, but most see them as little more precious than that lizard you wear to war. Would those lizards still be holy just for rising as large as that bluff over there?"

  As Arca wavered, Izbali muttered something. Inro glared at the shaman and spoke even faster.

  "Even if the gods are displeased, you can come with me when I leave. You know I told you to tell them that, but I meant it." He hadn't, actually, but the beauty of words lay in their malleability. "Flee to someplace they can't touch, find new gods to worship, or be free of them entirely."

  This time Bertali's son yelled with his father.

  Inro stood. "I'm going to swear the oath and kill Bertali no matter what you decide. The Aj may already stalk through The All waist deep in rivers of blood bobbing with corpses. Rivers growing deeper every heartbeat I waste here. Make up your mind. Stay true to your lizard-oaths, watch me die, and live a slave to Bertali's son. Or fight beside me, leave this place behind, and become Warchief of not a tribe, a valley, or even a verse, but a hundred verses."

  Turning his back on the agonized Arca, he knelt before Bertali. A moment later, Arca knelt beside him, his face tight. Arca spoke the gibberish words for Inro to repeat. He spoke them like a mantra to prepare himself for battle.

  Whatever Arca decided, Inro was committed. If Arca acted with him, they might forge a way out. If not, Inro would take as many of these menial savages with him as he could when he died.

  The words complete and the gloating Bertali satisfied, Inro unbuckled his belt. Extended it before him. As the Libwe chief reached for them, Inro spotted a patch below the man's ribs where the Limn paint wore especially thin.

  A deep breath. A moment of peace as time seemed to slow. His weapons slid free. A calm fell upon him as he launched towards his fate.

  Next Chapter: Short on allies, Aida makes a hasty bargain with the Directory

  Characters and terms

  Characters (alphabetical)

  Adonissian: a Phero who poses as a traveling musician

  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"

  Aliasara: servant at Ocyl's villa who befriends Aida

  Arca: chief of the tribe that "adopted" Inro

  Avani: Hassani's daughter, an albino

  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

  Ghulen: Rega's "pet monster"

  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" (Secounds), wealthy. Also has "the Pale" (an Albino). Ancient.

  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". Paranoid, Fractious Fraction. Tertius.

  Rega: Inro's sister, Dynast

  Riccaro: majordomo of Ocyl's estate

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

  Ryk: "the most beautiful man Aida had ever seen", a Paragon

  Sava: Dynast of Libriam

  Semon "Goldtongue": white-haired, one-eyed master of cults

  Stiller: serving boy at Ocyl's estate

  Vanyen: crippled young woman striving to create a cult

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

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

  The Fallen

  "Braid"; a thug who accosted Aida in Jadeye. His face gifted to Aida by Ocyl.

  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", "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.

  Anticore: Sect creature which "wears convincing human skins" with "swarming insects... beneath the skin"

  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.

  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

  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

  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"? "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."

  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.

  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"

  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"/"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: ?

  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".

  Groves: a forest verse

  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?

  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 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" 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

  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

  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: ?

  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: "the Outsiders". "exist only to destroy the Book" with their "demonic and monstrous children" from "the Hells beyond"

  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"

  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

  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

  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" 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

  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. "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?

  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: the flu.

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

  Ziggurat: the verse basing the Legions