-Aj / 102-

  There.

  That being

  deep within the verse.

  'Aida' they call it.

  That is the one.'

  -Da / 1n-

  'The one come

  from beyond

  The All?'

  -Aj / 102-

  'Yes.

  It was she

  who awakened me

  to the way out

  of our growing doom.'

  -Da / 1n-

  'So.

  It is true.

  There is a place

  beyond The All

  as we've long thought.'

  -Aj / 102-

  'Yes.

  The place from which

  the Construct endlessly drains

  energy

  space

  time

  from

  a finite place.'

  -Da / 1n-

  'I will explore

  the pathway from which

  she entered.

  To see what hope lies

  beyond The All.'

  Aida's heart broke as the knelt at the Professor's side. Someone had taken machetes to a living tree a kilometer into the Tangle and cut it to a point at the height of a man's head. She wasn't sure how they gotten him up on it, but the Professor lay impaled at the base of it, his blood and viscera staining its length.

  She was no doctor, but even with 'modern medicine' on Earth she doubted there was much they would be able to do for him. Here, he was absolutely doomed. Tears streamed freely from her eyes as she pushed through the quiet ring of Wretches gathered around him, each extending a hand to touch him and lend comfort. Aida prostrated herself on the ground as he had done when she'd stood up to protect them back in the villa in Jadeye.

  Taken from Royal Road, this narrative should be reported if found on Amazon.

  "I'm so sorry," she said. She looked up as he rested a hand on her head, shocked to see him manage a bloody, pained smile.

  "There is no sorry," he said, his deep voice now strained and faltering. "I am grateful to have been able to serve you and... see you walk the road that will lead... my people from our long trial. In spite of all the hate and suffering... we've faced since the birth of the Dynasty when Ebon... condemned us to this fate, we've held out hope that someday... someday we would be free. You are that freedom."

  "I will do all that I can to live up to my promises," Aida said, clutching his hand tightly. Remembering something she'd learned from Aliasara, she unbuckled her sword belt, crawled forward, and lay it across his chest.

  He looked surprised as he feebly laid a hand across it. "What is this?"

  "Professor," she said, rising to full height and thrumming her voice to near-maximum volume that the Wretches and the gathering crowd that trailed them from the Shanties might hear. "I here proclaim you Kin and First Verser Lord of the One-eighth. I do this out of gratitude for your unquestioning, unflinching service to me and my people."

  A tear ran down his cheek even though he'd been dry-eyed through what had to have been agonizing pain that he lay in. He reached out his hand and she knelt again to take it, pressing it against her chest.

  "In all my days... never would I have thought it." He smiled again. "A Wretch as Kin."

  "You deserve it and ten times as much besides. I wish I could have given you more." She rose and turned to all gathered, tears running freely. "I wish I could give you all more! I wish I had food and medicine, shoes and shirts, tools and shelter and everything that I offer you. If it was in my power to give, I would give it now and I promise I will try harder to provide what you came here hoping for. I failed you in... I didn't... couldn't..."

  She broke down, fighting back sobs. The Wretches clustered about her, touching her as they did the Professor as they led him back to his side. His face was turning gray and his breaths growing more shallow.

  "More than. Enough," he whispered, his breaths rasping. "You gave us... freedom."

  "I can give you one more thing," Aida said, face hardening. "Tell me who did this."

  "I forgive... forgive them," he said, his eyes fluttering.

  "I don't. I won't!" she said, grabbing his shoulders and lifting his head. "Tell me who did this!"

  "Forgive them," he said, his hand cupping her cheek. She wasn't sure if it was a confirmation or an order.

  With a last, pained, rattling breath, he fell still.

  "Goddammit," Aida cursed as she launched to her feet. She stormed a dozen paces into the Tangle, knocking spores lose from a massive fern and almost stepping on a small, brightly-banded snake. The thrum in her throat had started without her noticing but amplified rapidly to a deafening ring. She unleashed it in a tidal wave of sound that ripped an amphitheater-sized chunk of jungle to leafy shreds in an instant.

  The outburst served to rapidly deforest a decent bit of acreage and relieve some of Aida's anguish at the same time. With the edge taken off sorrow, a bright core of anger lay uncovered and burning in her chest. Storming back, she found Alerestro with his head bowed among the Wretches as Ghillie closed the Professor's eyes. When he saw her coming in, he rose to something like attention. "I can tell you have use for me."

  "Yes," she said, scanning the still-growing crowd and the Tangle beyond as though she might somehow pick out the perpetrator with a single sweeping glance. "I want to you find anyone who knows anything about who did this. Who saw the Professor last. Who was with him. Who said anything to anyone. I'm going to find whoever did this. I think they might be the first exception to my exile-as-capital-punishment rule."

  He nodded his head and bowed slightly. "It shall be as you wish."

  "It better be." She turned to the gathered crowd. Glanced at the Wretches huddled about the Professor, their mourning quiet and somehow refined. As hard as The Book was for and on most people, no one knew suffering quite like the Wretches.

  "Everyone gathered here, know this and tell everyone you see hereafter what I'm about to say." Turning slowly, she looked hard at every individual in turn as if staring into their souls. The intensity of her stare made some flinch and most looked away after even a second of direct eye contact.

  "After those first few Wretch murders in the chaotic days when we first got here, I thought I made it clear: murderers would be exiled to the Tangle and killed on sight upon their return. I thought we were beyond such petty games of blame; a luxury for a verse already rooted in civilization but a liability out here where we hang by a thread."

  As she continued the scan of her audience, she met a few gazes that didn't drop, their expressions hard and eyes filled with anger, hate, defiance, or some combination. She made mental notes about these individuals, especially a vaguely-familiar one standing front-and-center with his long black hair draping down across his crossed arms.

  "This one, however, takes the cake. Not only did someone kill another Wretch, but in a horrific manner befitting what I've heard about how Dynasts are killing my worshipers." Not that she especially liked that they were worshiping her or thought it made any sense at all, but Aliasara had convinced her it gave people hope, purpose, and a sense of unity so she did her best to simply not think about it. "So congratulations, you're becoming the people you hate. And beyond that, not only did you kill a Wretch, but you killed the Professor. A dear, personal friend of mine."

  She almost wiped at the tears filling her eyes, but stopped herself and let them fall. Maybe it would help her people to see she was still a person and not just some Dynast robot monster. "This death is a fate I wouldn't wish on anyone but I see someone not only wanted the Professor dead, they wanted it to be personal. Well, good news for you whoever you are: it's personal."

  Ghillie broke from where she'd stood amid the Wretches to stand beside Aida as she walked towards them. Aida shook her head. "Ghillie, stand down. If someone wants me, now's their chance to take a shot."

  With feet planted wide, shoulders back, head high, and arms held wide, she stood. "Bring it. If one or ten or any number of you out there have beef with me, now's your chance. Come at me. No one else will interfere, just you and me."

  A long pause. Volcanoes rumbled. Critters chirped. A terrtle crawled through the Tangle. Wind tugged at hair and clothing tinged in an acrid perfume of sulfur and green growth. She kept the hum in her strings at low resonance, ready to amplify or unleash as needed for whatever happened next. "Anyone?"

  Most wouldn't even attempt to look at her. Even those who'd glared back before found something else to look at when her gaze swept them. The handsome man in the front, however, stepped forward a few paces. Her heart rate climbed and she began to amplify the low hum, but after those few steps, he wheeled about and turned to face the crowd. With one hand tucked into his shirt like some wanna-be Napoleon, he cut and thrust with the other. Wanna-be Napoleon meets wanna-be Hitler.

  "Ever-suffering people of the Shithole, we've been duped and lied to. That woman there-" he spared her a quick glanced as he pointed at her, the pure hatred and fury that contorted his expression and voice making Aida take an involuntary step back. What had she done to this man? "-she promises paradise and delivers hell. She rewards loyalty with death as she charges from chaos to catastrophe, dragging pain and suffering in her wake."

  Aida's temper flared, but a swell of guilt and shame undercut the anger. What this man was shouting for all to hear she'd heard endlessly repeated in her own mind since before she even got back to the One-eighth.

  "She claims that all here are equal regardless of what you've done in the past, whatever your bloodline, whatever the color of your skin. Yet who is in charge here? She is, yet another Dynast!"

  He clearly struck a chord with his audience as well; the shared grief and pity she'd seen written on their body language and faces quickly morphing them towards imitations of this malcontent's mien as the heat in his words boiled buried resentments and sloshed them to the surface.

  "Say something," Alerestro whispered sharply in her ear as Ghillie stepped up protectively on her other side.

  "What?" she hissed back. "It's all true."

  The handsome, hateful man continued. "... so everyone here is equal, she says? Is that right? If so, then sure, we're all equally laid in squalor, filth, and starvation. Everyone but her, our great savior. All equal except for one."

  "Truth is irrelevant," Alerestro said softly but urgently in her ear. "Truth kills and poisons as often as it saves and cures. It is a tool or a weapon, not a law. Do you think the sort of truth he's sharing is what will help your people most right now?"

  She looked at their faces, feeling sick, hurt, and despondent at how quickly they were turning against her after all she'd done to try to help them.

  "...and if we were back in our homes and villages, our leaders would be chosen from the eldest and wisest among us, not decided for us by the Black Court. If we're truly equal, why would we listen to her shouting orders we can't refuse for fear of being blasted apart by her dark Dynastic magics? I thought we followed her to be free of the Black Court's reign of oppression and terror." He gestured to the flattened and mangled swath of jungle she'd razed. "Yet here we are. We didn't abandon everything we knew and held dear just to watch those we love die all about us in this cursed death verse while she profits by selling us to the Crowmen. When she's done, she'll not be the Mother of Exiles, but the Queen of Rotters."

  "If you won't say anything, at least let me speak on your behalf. This cannot be allowed to continue." Alerestro said, glancing at the increasingly-agitated crowd. Fists and angry gestures waved her direction. Sensing the mood, the Wretches hunched down around the Professor's corpse like abused dogs trying to avoid the gaze of their violent masters.

  Next chapter: Same chapter. Aida makes a decision that changes everything.

  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.

  Avani: Hassani's daughter, an albino

  Baka: Dynast of Ziggurat. Huge, massively strong. Tertius.

  "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. Died of Wretch Plague?

  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

  Sava: Dynast of Libriam

  Savalius: Grand Quartermaster of the Legions

  Semon "Goldtongue": white-haired, one-eyed master of cults. First Disciple of the Mother.

  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

  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

  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.

  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.

  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

  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"

  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 verse of the Skeinry, Keens, Directory, and "the Faded People"

  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?

  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"

  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: "Gates End", 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

  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