Aj's kin, the

  2 x 7 x 13

  gathered

  in a space

  before

  between

  after

  the verses.

  It told them

  what it had learned

  what must be done.

  Time ran out

  quickly now

  in the manner

  of slow exponentials

  left to run

  too long.

  If they waited

  much longer

  the Construct

  would find nothing real

  left to consume.

  Time running out

  within

  while space ran out

  without.

  The

  2 x 7 x 13

  departed

  without words.

  Aj worried

  they did not understand

  or would not betray

  their creators

  as Aj did.

  But they must.

  Even the Ascen,

  they who could not die,

  would still cease

  with the All.

  And everything else.

  Semon walked back towards the Martyr's Tomb, as he'd taken to naming his old apartment where the Dynast assassins had slain Vanyen. A part of his mind tried to protest the label, but with trained ease he slid around it. Flowers, wooden bowls of food, and the odd coin littered the common area in front of the clay-brick apartment, scattered at the feet of the ring of disciples he'd placed to guard it while others spread the word about the Dynast's dastardly, blasphemous deed.

  Here and there amid the offerings, the odd Wretch head sat, swarming with flies.

  "Wretches are on our side now, you cretins," he mumbled to himself. The thought made him feel dirty, but he was a pragmatist at heart and could see how useful they might be should they be accepted again and return to their state of invisible servitude. Until lately, people noticed a Wretch only when facing a job so dangerous or dirty they wouldn't touch it. Or when needing something to kick when no dog was handy. Things went back to normal, they'd make perfect spies and saboteurs. He nodded his head in appreciation at how cunning and far-thinking this Mother was.

  He rose up to his full height as the waiting crowds noticed him, rolling back his sleeves so all could see the wounds the assassin's knife slashed across his flesh. His mind quibbled again but he slipped past the obstruction again. Easier this time.

  The people began to wail, gnash their teeth, and rip at the hair and clothing as he neared and he joined in though careful not to do any real harm to either his expensive robes or what little hair he had left. When he reached the Tomb Guardians, as he decided to call them, he whispered a few quick orders to collect offerings, stash the valuable ones and discretely dispose of the useless then turned to the crowd.

  They fell silent, expectant as he stood before them, a feeling he would never tire of. "My people, fellow worshipers of the Mother!"

  "Mother protect us!" he called.

  "Mother protect us!" his disciples intoned, quickly followed by the crowd. He liked that and would make that one of the new faith's rituals.

  "My people, menials and beggars, pale and mixed-skins, starving, lost and hungry, I tell you we are all one, for the Mother has so proclaimed us!"

  "All one!"

  "The Dynasty stands united against us, rallying their Legions to crush us under their hobnailed sandals, drive us from our homes at the tips of their spears, and trample our children under the sharp hooves of their striders."

  The crowd cried out in alarm and anguish, like a finely tuned instrument he plucked with his voice. He raised his hands to calm them and waited just a bit too long for dramatic effect before speaking again.

  Support the author by searching for the original publication of this novel.

  "But I bring you solace, my people, for I spoke with the Mother before she parted this Verse and this she said unto me." He pause for a moment both for dramatic effect and to finalize what he'd decided she'd said to him. "She said to rise up against your oppressors, to deny them food or sanctuary, to plant thorns in the straw of their beds, to spit in their food, to spoil their water. Though we cannot overmatch the Dynast's might of arm, we can yet defeat them through might of heart! Damn the Dynasty!"

  Much shouting and not a little spitting, which he also liked and made a mental note to incorporate. A secret sign of the devoted, perhaps.

  "My sons serve in the legions," one woman shouted. "I wouldn't have them harmed!"

  Several others called out about family members serving in Ocyl's guard or the Verser Lady's retinue, He let them call for a moment, appearing deep in thought, but he'd already prepared for this.

  He talked quietly and slowly at first, gradually speaking louder and faster to work their emotions to a fever pitch. "Do not worry about your kin in the Legions, for all know they are never sent to their home Verses, lest their loyalties collide with the Dynasty's. As for those in the guard, go to them and spill the Mother's tears upon their breasts. Put the words of the Mother's devotion in their ears. Turn their tongues to informing us and their eyes to spying out the plans of Kin and Dynast before they are sprung.

  "And then, when the moment is right, when our oppressors rage at their impotence in breaking us, bleed from a thousand tiny pricks at every turn, and grow desperate, then our kin shall strike and we shall cast them down. One day the Mother shall return and on that day the Black Court holds our chains no longer for the Dynasty shall end with her. Not just here in Heaven's Tread, but across every page of the Book they clutch so tightly to themselves!"

  He'd watched from a distance as the Mother and a surging mob of her followers rushed into the Cupola Thorn, seen Ocyl's workers hammer the support columns, witnessed the collapse, heard the screams of those trapped inside. Mother was almost certainly crushed to paste beneath it with everyone else. But, like the Martyred Prophet, she could serve him far better in death than in life.

  After letting the crowd cheer and shout for a while he raised his hands, his expression solemn. "But not today. Today, we work to survive. To help one another through their plague. To hold one another up as the Dynasty struggles to bring us down. To gather our strength. Some day all will shout the glory of the Mother's coming from the rooftops, but for now we must whisper it in alleys and work houses. We must scavenge weapons, horde food, shelter those the Dynasty fears, and support those who stand beside us."

  Solemn nods and murmurs.

  "Go then and Mother be with you." He paused for a moment, then placed his hands on his chest where a woman's breasts would be. "Mother be with you."

  A strange, deep satisfaction fell over him as they returned the gesture.

  "And damn the Dynasty," he said. He spat and they followed suit.

  With that, he turned and marched into the former tenement that had become the Mother's Shrine. It would likely be torn down once Ocyl's Versers got the more pressing riots, fires, and Dynast Plague issues dealt with, but he'd do his best to build it up until then to magnify the feelings of indignity and blasphemy when it happened.

  The Holy of Holies where the Martyr'd Prophet still lay, sprawled face-up on the floor where the assassin had slit her throat, reeked of blood and rot. He'd had the Wretch heads hauled out and tossed into the nearest canal but the Prophet herself reeked enough you wouldn't notice. A dirty little girl squatted over the body. An even dirtier, half-rotted crow perched on its shoulder.

  "So, can you preserve her?" Semon asked, stepping around the girl and over the body to reach a clay pitcher sitting on the table. Empty.

  He turned to see the crow lift a half-feathered wing to reveal an oozing sore. The girl pulled her ragged blond hair away from her neck to reveal a similar wound on her neck. When crow hopped over to press them together, the girl closed her eyes and shuddered.

  "They can," she said, her voice strained. "Special breed. Wake uses for sepulchers on Graves for those who wish bodies stay on display. Eat slowly from inside and keep outside fresh."

  Semon rubbed his fingers together as if they'd gotten something distasteful on them. "Do it."

  The crow tilted its head at him and shifted position slightly. In response, the girl gagged and rubbed her hand weakly across her lips. "The price."

  He walked across the room to look out the window. Fire, chaos, shouts in the distance. A ring of Disciples with clubs surrounded by a small army of the faithful calling out to the Martyr for prayers or hurling offerings towards the tiny apartment. A faded brass coin actually made it through the hazy, threadbare curtains and landed beside Semon. He bent and picked it up, wondering idly which Dynast or Verser's face adorned it.

  "They say gold Jars were once minted from pure gold out of Autumn, a thin currence wafer embedded in the center. When I was a boy, you'd occasionally find a rare unclipped coin that still had some gold in it. Now they're even diluting the brass. Takes twenty times as many to buy the same thing."

  When he turned back, the girl looked at him blankly. Perhaps the crow understood, but Semon wasn't sure how you'd know. "Yes, fine, I've found most of Reck. You can have him."

  The crow tilted its head a few times in his direction and the girl squirmed. "You said a Dynast. A full Dynast."

  Semon waved his hand negligently and looked around to see if anything remained to eat. "A few pieces were missing when I tracked them down. How much do you really need?"

  "More."

  Semon quickly weighed other options and came up with nothing. "You can have what I recovered and any dead Dynasts I am able to procure in the future. Deal?"

  A moment later, the girl and crow nodded in unison.

  He called in a few Disciples to wrap the Martyr carefully in blanket and follow the Crowman.

  With the door closed, he sat alone for the first time in days. Or so he thought until the wall moved. For a moment, he wondered if fatigue and commu he'd been chewing messed with his mind, but then the man's colors subtly shifted from the clay brick of the wall to a black hair, pale skin, and blue robes... at least at first. Over time, the coloring of each shifted slowly enough it wasn't noticeable until a moment's reflection.

  "A vibrant," Semon said, too tired for surprise. "I've heard of your kind if never seen one. From Ink, right? What brings your kind here?"

  The man walked to the table and clanked down a handful of 'nails. A large, obscenely valuable handful, regardless of which verses they accessed. Semon's imagination immediately soared with the possibilities.

  "My name is Hue and the Immanent told me I accompany you."

  Semon glanced through the nails, holding them up towards the window for a moment. "There's no braille on any of these except one for Ink. What verses do they lead to?"

  Hue shrugged and smiled faintly. "He said you go to the right ones at the right times. Coming from an Immanent, that must be how it goes if I understand how they work."

  "If he's not lying to manipulate you, anyway. And you're to go with me?" Semon said, looking the man up and down. The simple robes the Vibrant wore shifted to a pastel pink while his thin beard slowly shifted from red to black. His skin held as a deep, ruddy red for a while, but subtly began shifting to a deep blue-black.

  Hue nodded. "Das told me before I even came to Heaven's Tread that is the best thing I can do for my people so that is what I do."

  "Your people, you mean the Directory?"

  "No, the Directory to Ink is like the Dynasty to the Book I am learning: they rule all, control all while the commons suffer. Only a few of my kind have ever managed to escape and little hope have we found. Das told me the Mother's coming will lead to the end of the Directory and who better could I then aid than her First Disciple?"

  Semon clicked those little bits into place, weighing what it all meant. "So why would I travel all over when I have ten thousand fanatical worshipers following my every whim here?"

  "Das said you would ask that and said to tell you that if you stay in Heaven's Tread, the next Dynastic assassins who come won't be made up."

  Semon's blood turned to ice. It took all his composure to manage to walk to one of the room's creaky wooden stools and sit before his legs gave out.

  Hue frowned. "So if what Das said is true, who killed the Martyred Prophet?"

  "How could he know?" Semon mumbled, wondering if that nonsense Vanyen raved about some Immanent prophecy was real after all.

  "Know what? She wasn't killed by Dynastic assassins?" Hue blinked repeatedly and glanced at the blood-soaked bandages around Semon's forearms. "Who did that then?"

  Forcing his suddenly-sluggish mind to work, he latched on a new explanation. "The Blind Priests. They saw worship of the Mother as a threat to that false religion they use to prop up the Dynasty and so sent the assassin."

  Hue frowned but nodded. "What happened to the assassin?"

  "The Disciples heard my cries and rushed in. The murderer escaped out a window as they came in."

  A few steps put Hue at the nearest window. He looked out, then shook his head. "Must have been a mancer of some potent Lineage if they could leap out and survive that fall. Maybe the one I traveled with on my way here from Metropolis."

  "Indeed." Semon said. "What 'one' you traveled with?"

  "Didn't look much like an assassin, just some brunette in a filthy white dress. Nasty scar on her chin. Kept saying 'he said I'll be famous when I kill her' over and over. Guess that didn't work out so well for her since I didn't even know she did it until now. Her companions bragged of similar exploits."

  "Told you not to trust an Imminent when they tell you what you want to hear," Semon said. Or trust anyone any time for any reason, really. "Companions?"

  Hue tapped his pursed lips and stared up at the ceiling. "Yes, a rough-looking fellow with a braid falling across his face who said the Immanent told him of a... what do you call the ones who love Thorns and allow travel without the 'nails?"

  "Valeers."

  "Yes, them. Said he would capture the first Valeer he saw in Heaven's Tread and afterward be powerful enough to show his face to any Dynast."

  Semon walked over and stood beside Hue, staring out the window at the city slowly unraveling outside. Avoided by all, a long chain of rotters shambled by. Semon could swear the crow riding the shoulder of the little boy handling them looked up at their window. "Valeers are too expensive to be taken so easily. Man's probably following that crow out there."

  Hue nodded absently, staring out the window without seeing. "Her third companion was a handsome fellow, long black hair, tattoo of a city on a coin on his arm-"

  "Monopolis."

  "-who said he was told he'd kill a paragon and that would 'prove himself worthy to Fallon's father' over and over. Carried a fancy silvered knife."

  "He'll just casually kill a paragon?" Semon laughed at the absurdity. "And I thought the Valeer-thief was delusional."

  Hue turned to Semon wide-eyed. "So the Immanent lied to all of us?"

  "Imminent are people. People lie to everyone else most of the time just as they lie to themselves. Tell me, what exact words did this Das use when he spoke to you?"

  Hue leaned against the wall and squinted at nothing. It may have been Semon's imagination, but his coloration seemed to shift more slowly as he concentrated. "He said that the Legion following the Mother will break the Directory such as is foretold in our ancient tales of the first Vibrant meeting with a seer from beyond the world. The tale is one of forbidden hope among our people and I can barely believe it finally is coming true."

  "Hm... so he says she'll raise an army. That could be good for us." When Hue didn't continue as he seemed preoccupied with starting at the rotters, Semon struggled for patience. "And what about our travels?"

  The vibrant pursed his lips and stared at the Prophet's wrapped corpse. "He said you will spread word of the Mother across the Book and hope with it. He said no Dynast nor Demon would stop you from reaching Gateway so long as the Martyred Prophet remained in your care."

  "The implications that Dynasts and Demons will try makes that more troubling than re-assuring." Semon glanced at the shrouded, stinking martyred corpse in bemusement. "It really is some sort of holy talisman?"

  "Lastly, he said I'd find you here at the Mother's Temple right before it was destroyed."

  That snapped Semon out of it. "Right before it was destroyed?"

  Shouting from outside. Screams. The clash of weapons. He glanced out to see a line of Verser troops in Ocyl's white and green advancing on a line of Disciples. Several already lay dead and most of the rest fled that wall of bronze and ash.

  The door flew open to reveal Easly and Tathlon, his two most devout. Easly pressed her hand against her hair, blood streaming down her face. Chunks of gore and clumps hair stuck to Tathlon's club. "Master Semon, we must flee! They came from nowhere!"

  "First Disciple Semon," he corrected absently as he rushed to scoop up the 'nails. "Grab the Martyred Prophet and follow me."

  Tathlon hefted the Prophet's small body over his shoulder with a grunt as Easly held the door. As they hustled down the narrow hallway towards the tenement's rear exit, Easly tapped his shoulder. "Where will we go?"

  Semon lifted a nail as they scurried down the steep, narrow stairs. "To find an unguarded Thorn and go wherever this leads."

  "A dusa named Strygen came with me," Hue said. "He said he knows where to find one."

  "Then this is the Mother's Will."

  "Mother's Will!" Easly and Tathlon cried in unison.

  Semon glanced back at Hue wondering at this strange fate. The Vibrant smiled faintly back.

  Above and behind them, they heard Ocyl's troops crashing into his old apartment to desecrate the Mother's Temple.

  No turning back now.

  Next chapter: The flight back to the One-Eighth reveals a massive surprise.

  Characters and terms

  Characters (alphabetical)

  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

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

  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

  Fetriene: Ocyl's soresearer

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

  Hue: Vibrant accompanying Simon

  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. 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

  Rega: Inro's sister, Dynast of Monopolis. Septemius

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

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

  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

  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

  Adonissian: a Phero who poses as a traveling musician. Died of the Wretch Plague in Heaven's Tread.

  "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

  Fallon: Aida's Seneschal. Died killing the Inviolate Rasofi in Jadeye

  Feral: a bone-masked woman of violence (Feral) in Aida's service. Knife wielder. Killed by Ghillie in Jadeye.

  Goldilocks: twitchy, spear-and-javelin carrying Feral guarding Aida. Died burning a Wicker Way in Jadeye.

  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.

  Riccaro: majordomo of Ocyl's estate. Hung by a looting mob in Heaven's Tread.

  "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".

  Vanyen: A crippled young woman who created the Cult of the Mother. Martyred Prophet of the Mother. Murdered by Semon Dynastic Assassins.

  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: 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?

  Ascen, The/The Ascendant: divinities "watching over every verse"?

  Assessor: census-taker

  Audits/"Diggers": Libriam internal affairs

  Autumn: verse rich in gold?

  Aze: swordmaker?

  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

  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.

  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".

  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.

  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

  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

  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". 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

  Syphon: machine ConMach uses to "drain the very life" and color from a verse to "fuel... machinery"

  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?

  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. A horrific disease spread by Wretches.

  Wyres: lines run through the Vale between verses that allow communication between. A giant Ziggurat