Arca proved true both in loyalty and combat prowess. The chieftain and his son's lifeless bodies hit the ruddy dirt before any of their followers could do more than gape in shock.

  With the Libwe's leadership literally and metaphorically decapitated, Arca quickly delivered Inro's speech and, with their Limn faded and Arca's tribe scattered in their midst, the remainder of the Libwe followed in shocked compliance. Arca now stood at the head of two tribes.

  In the days after, a few Libwe challenges, assassination attempts, and protests they put down quickly and brutally with sword and spear, leaving no uncertainty as to who was in charge. Their messengers raced to the other six tribes with offers of amnesty and peace should they join Arca's "One Tribe".

  Inro breathed deep, relieved he didn't have to care about any of it anymore. Soon, the inconsequential squabbles of this verse would fall behind him and allow him return to what actually mattered. That all assuming, of course, that the Libwe's liberal application of Limn leading up to the "Eight Tribes' Battle" left enough of the preciously rare clay for him to use.

  Pain shot up Inro's leg with each step as he followed a gang of young Libwe warriors up the steep switchbacks towards promised overlooks above the Limn bed. Given the meager, rapidly-depleted proportions of the few, rare Limn beds he'd ever heard of, he expected anticlimax, but humored the savages a while longer. No point in making things unnecessarily harder right before he made his escape.

  Arca marched up the rocky trail behind Inro, adjusting the crude eye patch Inro made him. "When clay get, Inro leave?"

  "Yes, Inro leave. Get a pot of Limn, find a cave, and enter the Subterrane like the Saga. From there, make my way to Ziggurat, mobilize every Legion even if I have to kill Baka to do so, track down Aj, and destroy it. Whatever's left, Arca can use with his new One Tribe and conquer this entire verse." Conquer this desolate wasteland and all its backwards peoples more like.

  The youths whooped and hollered as they scrambled a last bit of scree and crested a rise.

  "What of promises?" Arca didn't try to hide the bitterness in his tone. "Arca told Libwe Inro lead to other world. World beyond count. What happen Inro leave?"

  As they reached the top, Inro leaned against a weathered rock formation to catch his breath. Until his wounded knee regenerated, every step was pain and effort.

  "Tell them I-"

  His breath caught as he looked over the vast river canyon stretching out before them. His escorts laughed and joked among themselves at his reaction, but at the moment he couldn't care less.

  The river barely deserved the name: a narrow channel cut through the vast clay bed surrounding it. Limn clay, stretching as far as the eye could see, gleaming faintly with its own inner light. More than he'd ever seen. More than he ever imagined. More than Ebon herself likely dreamed.

  "Not what expect?" Arca raised his hand to shield his eye from the sun.

  "No." Inro's mind reeled. This changed everything. "Very much not."

  "Not enough? Inro not leave?"

  "Not enough?" Inro surprised Arca by laughing and clapping him on the shoulder. "There's more here than every other verse in the Book combined. A hundred times that. A thousand. More. Enough to enter the Subterrane ten-thousand times. To armor a hundred tribes for a hundred battles. To..."

  Arca looked over the radiant canyon with newfound appreciation. "To...?"

  "To rout every Legion, crush every Mancer they send at us, conquer Ziggurat, break the Black Court, reopen the Gates, and confront Aj directly." He turned and looked the other direction, eyes tracing the horizon. "How many tribes live in this desolate verse?"

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  "How know?" Arca shrugged. "Stone Walkers in colds far away from sun, Cave Dwellers under stone like lizards, Shore Striders toward sun in wet lands, Green People low places where plants thick, more Lizard Hunters-" he thumped his chest "-all about."

  Inro lowered himself painfully to dangle his legs over the cliff edge, staring unseeing at the stark beauty before him. After a moment, Arca joined him.

  The Libwe youths grew bored, joking and jostling one another as they moved on to scale a rocky bluff.

  "I didn't lie to the Libwe," Inro said after a timeless span soaking warm sunlight touched by a cool breeze, his mind soaring with the view and what it contained.

  Arca stirred from his own reverie. "No?"

  "We will lead them to another verse, a dozen, a hundred. I swear it will be done. But not yet."

  "Not go?"

  Inro groaned and pushed back to his feet, leaning heavily on his good leg. "If we go now, we lead warriors in the dozens, perhaps hundreds. That's not enough, not nearly enough."

  Arca grinned. "Inro breed more warriors? Maybe life-lay with sister Cairin? Much time need."

  Inro smiled back. "Not breed. Conquer."

  No fool, Arca understood immediately. His expression grew solemn, thoughtful.

  Inro turned his back on the Limn and slung his arm over Arca's shoulder. "We will travel through the Subterrane, bring the Dynasty to its senses, and destroy Aj as planned. But not yet. First we shall make Arca Warchief of all the Lizard Hunters, Shore Striders, Stone Walkers, Green People, and Cave Dwellers."

  Arca shook his head. "Lizard Hunters fewest of peoples. Green People breed beyond counting, fat on fruits. Shore Striders walk into great waters and eat things from there to fill. Stone Walkers not many, but fierce and climb like Lizards."

  A look out across the vast wealth of Limn gave Inro pause. "Do they have this?"

  Arca frowned, shook his head. "Not that Arca know, except Cave Dwellers. They use to keep from caves but only they. Shaman like Izbali come from them: they wear and make sure no other do. Forbidden until the Return."

  Inro hobbled closer to the cliff, squinting to the far horizons. A distant pinnacle of rock seemed to move. Belatedly, he realized it was no rock, but some crustacean-like god wearing a cliff-tall shell slowly trundling across the far horizon. Arca spotted it too and prostrated himself in the dirt, mumbling some sort of chant and rubbing gravel through his hair. Inro turned away before rolling his eyes.

  "What is this "Return" you speak of?"

  It took a frustratingly-long time for Arca to finish and blood trickled down his neck and forehead from the vigor of his ablutions. "Long ago, great warrior arise and conquer all Tribes, like Inro say. She take much Limn and lead most away to Holy Caves where Stone Dwellers live. All us who stay behind she say 'guard and preserve holy clay until my Kin return'. Shaman make keep word all this time."

  The hair rose on Inro's neck. "She? It can't be. Was her name..."

  He and Arca said the name at the same time. "Ebon."

  They stared at one another for a long moment, their silence interrupted only by whistling wind and a carried shout from one of the lads.

  "This is Origin, the First Verse..." Inro looked around at the wastes with newfound appreciation and wonder. "From here and with this Limn, Ebon made the great Cities Below and from them found the way into the Subterrane. This is where it began, Arca, this is the first page of The Book, birthplace of the Dynasty."

  Where he'd once held this place and its people with impatience, disgust, and annoyance, he now felt the closest he'd ever felt to reverence. He fell to his knees and kissed the rock face then touched Arca's painted leg. "I apologize for I did not know. Here I am, child of Ebon with her blood churning within and you all are her brothers and sisters. Forgive me."

  Arca pulled him up, laughing and shaking his head. "No special, Lizard Walkers. No special, Arca. Same is people, all brother and sister."

  Tears ran down Inro's face and he hugged the lanky chieftain tightly until Arca laughed and pushed him away again. "Arca like Inro, but not allowed man to man or woman to woman like Shaman do. They holy, Arca just man."

  "And here you just said 'same is people'," Inro said without the usual harsh bite he would normally have put into his words. Wonder and elation, those feelings he'd only heard of and never experienced, lightened the whole world in color and weight both. For the first time since Aj came at the end of the Kiss all those centuries ago, Inro felt hope.

  "Come, people wait to hear Inro and Arca words," Arca said, tugging Inro back towards the trail. "Many change for One Tribe. Much to tell."

  "Much indeed," Inro muttered, placing an arm across Arca's shoulder for support and companionship both.

  Turning a few switchbacks revealed their camp's rough sprawl below but in Inro's mind's-eye, he saw it overflowing with many-colored dwellings teeming with hardy, Limn-swirled warriors. They marched into a broad cave mouth and from there into the Book, striking without warning to cut out the Black Court's corrupt, blackened heart, rallying the bickering Dynasts under one banner and dispatching the Aj once and for all.

  He swept his hand broadly in front of them, as though pushing aside the veil blocking their view of the future. "I said Arca and Lizard Walkers would enter the Book, but when Arca's name is writ in it's pages it will be at the head of warriors not in the dozens, but the thousands and tens-of-thousands. And together, my friend, we'll rewrite the rest."

  Next chapter: The "god" of a new religion meets her First Disciple

  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?

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

  Cairin: Arca's sister, slinger

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

  Denault: Hassani's husband. Shipwright, Kin.

  Eth: a young Imminent

  Ghillie: a 3rd Feral who wears a primitive Ghillie suit. Carries cross between kunai and acupuncture needles

  Ghulen: Rega's "pet monster", an Inviolate

  Goboro: a fat, amiable scribe friend of Hassani's in Libriam

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

  Fallon: Aida's Seneschal

  Fetriene: Ocyl's soresearer

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

  Huspara: minor bureaucrat in Libriam

  Inro: Dynast formerly ruling Sunset

  Izbali: a silent tribal shaman

  Janali: Ocyl's elegant Seneschal

  Jaxe: Dynast of Stacks. "Young" (Secounds), wealthy. Also has "the Pale" (an Albino). Ancient.

  Kass/Kassenia: mercenary attached to Adonissian. 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

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

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

  Sava: Dynast of Libriam

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

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

  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

  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."

  Donative, The: Black Court taxes, taken by Legion if not offered. Don't pay, no Partaking every century.

  Dusa: people with manipulable hair of silver wire, from Gears

  Dynast: individual given rule of a verse if they survive Partaking. Ageless and hard to kill. Regenerative. Sustained by "the Blood"; no food or water necessary.

  Dynasty: the Dynasts who rule the Book

  Ebon: founder of the Dynasty and Black Court

  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?

  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

  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"

  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:a verse?

  Thorn: huge, curling thorns which Valeers can use as gateways to the Vale, doorways between verses. Grow into verses over centuries

  Thrum: guide in the Black Court

  Twine: "one soul threaded through two bodies"

  Unkillable Swordsman: a Paragon killed by Deia long ago

  Vale: "The Place Between". A realm of high-contrast black and white full of thorns and Thorns.

  Vale Walkers: discoverers of verses

  Valeer: people capable of activating Thorns, barely functional of anything else

  Valeer's 'nail: crystals containing wafers that allow travel within the Vale to specific verses without a Valeer

  Venger: muscle man?

  Verse: a pocket universe or world

  Verser Lord/Lady: agents of an individual Dynast who rule part of a verse at the whim of their Dynast

  Vibrant: color-changing individuals from Ink?

  Watter: an energetic liquid. "Currence melts to watter. Watter's current dissipates over time, leaving water."

  Weeping Falls: Jadeye Iris flowing with waterfalls

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

  Wiz of Berujat: multi-minded?

  World Spear: an immense stack on Stacks

  Wretch: untouchables forced to walk on all fours, "the human refuse that cleans up the literal waste piles"

  Wretch Plague: the flu. A horrific disease spread by Wretches.

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

  Ziggurat: the verse basing the Legions