Heaven's Tread stunk.

  Fear, disease, desperation, hunger, all wafted on a breeze already thick with the stink of the sewage-laden canals. Ghulen walked the desolate streets, weaving between rotter-pulled carts hauling the Plague-dead to the Crowmen, dodging the rare merchant caravan, and fending off the odd beggar desperate enough to approach him despite his Inviolate black and the risk he might carry the Plague.

  He passed burned-out, collapsed tenements, markets half-empty and heavily-guarded by mercenaries and Versal troops liveried in white and green, skirted a smoky sun plaza from which Jadeye's light roared, and was forced to take a major detour around several streets clogged with the rotting, tree-trunk sized limbs of a dead reacher. Half the unnatural beasts in the city seemed to be dead, but the Sighted Way traffic far above ran so lean, it likely wasn't too much of an issue.

  After waving his Inviolate crystal about a few times at passing patrols of Ocyl's green-and-white liveried Versal troops to learn his whereabouts, he closed in on Ocyl's location. Abruptly, the worn clay-brick or packed-mud streets transitioned to paving stones coarse-brailled with prayers to the Ascen and local saints. Statues, engravings, and murals of the saints doing sometimes-bizarre saintly things. Fading prayer flags strung thickly enough across the seemingly endless street fronting countless shrines, temples, and monasteries to shift the feel more towards tunnel than road.

  Where most streets he'd passed held more corpses than people, he found this long Shrineway claustrophobically tight with menials of every type, variety, and condition. Some dragged their feet across the braillestones, others waved incense sticks, knelt in prayer, lit candles at shrines, overflowed across stairs and gardens fronting packed temples echoing with chants and holy songs. The more wealthy or foolhardy feverishly paid any passing monk, priest, swindler, madman, and cheat for blessings, wards, relics, flowers, or offerings to lay on altars and across shrines.

  It smelled equally of desperation and devotion laid in thick layers barely-masked by pungent incense, drifting candle smoke, and sweat-stink. Subtle hints of vomit and diarrhea told him many here already felt the touches of the Plague. He was fortunate to have been hit by a mild case while running important messages from Rega to Baka in Ziggurat a few weeks back. Only knocked him down for a few days even though it killed half the soldiers in the Legion barracks he'd been shuffled off to when it swept through.

  He found Ocyl not so much by locating the Dynast himself, but by spotting the gleaming white of his Porcelain Guard walling off a short, dead-end street. As he drew closer, he saw the street terminated in a heavy stone plinth supporting the worn statue of a bare-breasted woman holding a sharp-toothed lizard suckling at one breast and a bird of prey at the other.

  Flashing his Inviolate Vial didn't budge the Guard. Annoying. Only by reducing himself to jumping up and down, shouting Ocyl's name, and waving the Vial about his head did he finally garner the attention of Ocyl's elegant Seneschal.

  At her gesture, the Guard parted. He smelled the sweet, sharp hints of the watter that sustained them in their sweat, along with the pleasant scents of oiled leather and the slowly-tarnishing bronze of their weapons.

  "Inviolate Ghulen," the woman said, inclining her head. The pearls laced through her hair gleamed and he caught a whiff of roses and whatever oil she rubbed into her skin to make it gleam so richly.

  "Seneschal Janali," he replied, duplicating the gesture. He hid his surprise that she knew who he was, but he figured Ocyl hadn't survived over six centuries of Dynastic politicking because of luck. "I wish to speak to Ocyl."

  "Ocyl does not see many since the Plague. Keeping Heaven's Tread from falling apart consumes all of his time," she said, glancing towards where he stood staring up at the half-naked saint. "What is your purpose here?"

  "I will only take a few moments of his time. I'm looking for another Inviolate who came through here and was hoping he may have heard of her."

  "I can handle any sort of inquiry-" she began, before catching Ocyl's gaze as he turned towards them and motioned them over. "...or perhaps Ocyl will see you know."

  "Dynast Ocyl," he said, bowing deeply as he approached. He noticed a cage full of Ocyl's six-eyed specially Sect-bred dragonflies of which he'd seen several fluttering around since arriving in Heaven's Tread. Though he kept them specially for himself and so their full capabilities were unknown, it was said that devouring the head of one revealed flashes of what it had seen. Perhaps that was how Ocyl remained so shockingly aware of all that transpired within his domain.

  Unauthorized duplication: this narrative has been taken without consent. Report sightings.

  "Lapdog Ghulen," Ocyl said, bowing a touch deeper and causing the outermost layer of his many-flowered kimono to spill open to reveal an inner layer swarming with brightly-colored sewn serpents. A mocking smile twitched about his lips. "What can I do for the charming and loquacious Rega?"

  His voice reverberated strangely and, to Ghulen's surprise, he saw Ocyl wore strings. Not the implanted ones woven into Seneschal throats, but an external set dangling from a chain crown and worn as a tight choker. He'd have to dispatch the information to Rega from a Skeinry before he left Heaven's Tread.

  Ghulen hid his surprise at the strings and suppressed his irritation at Ocyl's flippancy. Though he'd never met the man, he know this Dynast delighted in throwing others off-balance. The man's smell proved especially distracting; perhaps because Ocyl was said to have undertaken a journey to visit every verse in the Book and not a few since lost or forbidden. His scent carried faint, random hints of aromas unique to a dozen different verses.

  "Since you clearly know everything and everyone that comes into your verse, I thought perhaps you might help me find another of my kind that passed through here a while back."

  "By 'your kind' do you mean another sniffer or another of Rega's lackey's? I'm unfortunately in short supply of the former and fortunately short on the latter at the moment, I'm afraid." As he spoke his voice subtly modulated and shifted in tone and pitch. Either the Dynast had found a new toy to keep his audiences off balance or he was just learning how the thing worked.

  Ghulen gritted his teeth. "An Inviolate. A woman. Blond. Carrying a sword."

  Ocyl's eyebrow quirked. "A pale Inviolate and Kin no less? I see why she has you so intrigued."

  "So you haven't seen her."

  "Not physically, no."

  "Sorry to have wasted your time then," Ghulen said, turning on his heel.

  "Though I may have heard a few things about her," Ocyl said, bending to grind a pinch of iode in a pestle. A burst of metallic-smelling flame flashed and sputtered long enough for him to light a pungent, sweet-smelling incense stick. He carefully placed it into a tiny hold likely bored into the statue's base just for that purpose. "Wasn't she the one who escaped Rega and Baka on Ziggurat? Even more reason to bring her to heel."

  Ghulen's training and experience told him to treat Dynasts with deference and take their abuse without reaction, but the impression he'd gleaned in their short time together combined with scraps of rumor and gossip about Ocyl told him it might be more productive if he tried a different tack. "Did you let me past your Porcelain Guard so you could impress me with how much you know? If so, could you have your lovely Seneschal bring me a chair and a drink so I can rest my tired feet while you astound me with the breadth of your intelligence apparatus?"

  Ocyl stared flatly for long enough that Ghulen wondered if he'd given into his instincts for the last time. Then Ocyl laughed: a cheerful, deep sound that titled even Ghulen's cynical core towards delight. "My apparatus wasn't deep enough to tell me why Rega will stand someone willing to throw a Dynast's arrogance back in their face. Well played, Inviolate. And indeed, let us have chairs and drinks, toast the end of the Book together at the feet of my favorite saint."

  His Seneschal swished away to realize Ocyl's capricious whim, leaving them staring up at said saint's statue.

  "Who is she? Must be quite the tale to whatever miracle is carved here."

  Ocyl chuckled and looked about surreptitiously, as though anyone other than a wall of mute Ferals stood anywhere within hearing range. "Quite the tale indeed, though the miracle part is far more dubious. Would you believe this was the first statue commissioned on the Shrineway all those centuries ago when the Blind Priests finally nagged me long enough to order the construction of their 'holy road'?"

  Ghulen looked at it again, noticing the wind-weathering, creeping lichen, and creeping cracks forming at joints. Saint or no the woman had been ugly when first carved and time had done nothing to improve her likeness.

  "An ancient tale then."

  "Are you calling me ancient, Ghulen?" Ocyl mock-frowned at him then extended his arm towards a gaggle of shockingly-beautiful redheaded serving women wrapped in sheer silk dresses carrying stools, silver trays, clay jugs, and a pair of crystal goblets laying on a lime-colored velvet cushion. As they placed one of the fine, gold-banded crystal goblets in Ocyl's hand, his frown shifted to a smile. "Admiring my servants? Quite fetching, aren't they? One advantage of the Dynast's Plague, doesn't disfigure like any of the poxes. End up with still-beautiful or dead, nothing between."

  "Wretch Plague," Ghulen said automatically as he accepted his goblet and sat upon one of the cushioned, vine-engraved stools. He sniffed at the drink suspiciously. It smelled of juniper, fermented barley, and a hint of fruit he couldn't identify. And, of course, alcohol. "I've never smelled a drink like this before. One from your legendary travels among the verses?"

  "Yes, one of my favorites from my more youthful adventures," Ocyl said, sipping and turning away from his open admiration of his women and back to the statue.

  "Youthful meaning only a couple hundred years old," Ghulen said dryly.

  "Indeed. Still a happily-ignorant youngster back then. Didn't know how good I had it." Ocyl said, raising his glass towards Ghulen. "Drinks are for drinking, not for smelling, even for your kind. No need to poison you with a small army of Ferals here who'd be all-to-happy to strangle you to death at my slightest whim."

  From most other Dynast, Ocyl's statement would have screamed threat, but from Ocyl it read as mere statement of fact.

  Next chapter: Same chapter. Ghulen pries out Hassani's whereabouts plus other scraps of intel.

  Pro Amateur tip: if you trade cryptocurrencies on-chain, record what you're doing as you go so you don't have to manually sift through almost 6000 transactions across 5 chains plus a hundred more spread across 3 2 CEXs (RIP FTX) to find the taxable trades. (And yes, I spent literal weeks trying to get the several of the ones that are supposed to all that for you to work before discarding them for doing it manually).

  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

  Das: Rega's Immanent

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

  Denault: Hassani's husband. Shipwright, Kin.

  Eonora: a Legion officer in Ziggurat

  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.

  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

  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

  Sava: Dynast of Libriam

  Savalius: Grand Quartermaster of the Legions

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

  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

  "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: A verse?

  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

  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"

  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 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