“There are more ways to encourage a pet than by beating it,” Rega said, her half-lidded gaze shifting slightly to take Asta in. “Have you perhaps tried offering rewards for his capture?”

  “Rewards? To menials?” Asta said, aghast. “Do you have any idea what sort of precedent that would set? Even if it worked, what would they expect of us next? Payment to work our farms and tend our villas? It was a mistake to ever let them touch coin in the first place much less encourage it further now.”

  “I don't care how or how many of your menials you kill. What matters more is learning how this First Disciple spreading word of these Martyrs you're creating. Every one you kill inside Silk raises ten more outside.” Rega's head tilted slightly, her version of a head shake. “How can he travel so far so quickly and to so many different verses? Could the Mother of Exiles provided him with a Valeer somehow? And are you not controlling your Thorns?”

  "The damned Wretch Plague has my Versal troops spending most of their time taking care of the sick or hauling corpses to the Crowmen. Besides, it's an old verse; dozens of Thorns grown into it that we know of, who knows how many others we haven't found yet."

  “Doesn't matter. We'll have everything in hand soon enough,” Baka said, dropping heavily back down into his seat. “Despite the significance of our losses to the Wretch Plague, I've put most of the Legions to work building fortifications and kill zones around every Thorn in every Ancient verse to prevent mishaps like from happening further. Give me a couple months as the Clock-priests measure it and anyone trying to use a Thorn in one of our Verses will need their own Vale Legion. Fraction, Isolate, Mother, Last Disciple, First Disciple, whoever.”

  “Please,” Jaxe said, “the Fractions and Isolates are one faction now. Call them by their self-proclaimed new name: 'Resistance Against the Grievous Ancient Coup'.”

  “Name like that, no wonder they keep fracturing,” Tyrs said, making a throwing-away motion. "Doubt we need to even fight them: just fortify our holdings, sit back, and let the malcontents grate against each other until they wipe themselves out for us."

  “We've started calling them 'Rags' whenever possible before their name changes to something more inspiring,” Jaxe said. "Fits their general wealth profiles besides."

  “Whatever you call them, even if they have their own Vale Legions training Thorn assault day in and out like we do, they'll get massacred around any Thorn they stir if they wait much longer to make their move.” Baka smashed his fist into his hand with a meaty clap. "Blind Priests are angry, of course, since I had all that stone and timber stockpiled to 'build a new temple to the Ascen in every Ancient verse'. We've now unfortunately had to divert all that material we never got around to using to fortify. I'm sure they'll eventually agree it's better to keep the rabble out of the verses than give them fine new temples to loot when they inevitably show up."

  “Yes, Baka. But what about the Mon?” Rega whispered. All fell silent. A stink of fear saturated the air about Ghulen at the mention and, by the hints of urine in the air, some of the menials actually pissed themselves at the mention. He rolled his eyes.

  Jaxe laughed. “Please, you don't really believe that do you? A couple scared menials from a couple remote verses cry 'monster' and suddenly it's the Mon themselves? Believe that rubbish and you're playing straight into your brother's hands.”

  “I don't think so,” Rega said. “It's too elaborate for one of his ruses. Too thorough, too finessed. The only thing Inro hated more than Aj was politics. He may be a strategist, but his ways are a spear from the right when you expect an arrow from the left, not a snake in your bed before the battle's started or poison in your wine after it's over. He'd never resort to such indirect tactics and even they are a step less refined than wars of words.”

  “Should I dispatch the Mon Legion to confirm?” Baka said, glancing at their watching retinue in a way he probably figured was sly. "If the Mon are somehow breaking through in numbers, we can't be too careful."

  Jaxe stood, leaning on the table as he stared at Rega in disbelief. “Come to your senses, Rega. Inro just took the Sunset Legions rogue after centuries of playing warden to the mythical Aj. He pulls that off then vanishes without a trace and you still believe he's above massacring the menials in a few scattered, new-bound, half-populated Rag verses to strike the fear of Mon into The Book? Is your legendary ability to penetrate scheme and ruse just a deception on scale with your brother's?”

  This content has been misappropriated from Royal Road; report any instances of this story if found elsewhere.

  Seconds stretched in silence before Rega tilted her head in a barely-perceptible nod. “As you say, Jaxe. I likely give Inro too little credit. He is my brother after all. If he can make even me believe the Mon capable of butchering entire verses - or even killing gods as they now proclaim - then we may as well surrender to him now.”

  She turned to Baka. “Keep the Mon Legion in reserve. Or better, perhaps, have them hunt down the Rogue Legion before it can reach the Rags or throw in with the 'Mother of Shitholes', as Jaxe so elegantly proclaimed her.”

  Baka wheeled and punched his chair apart, sending flinders of dark wood hurtling into his startled Ferals, attendants, and Legionnaires. “That bitch, Eodora. I'll pay her weight in gold jars to anyone who drags her corpse to me! If Jaxe can have his rotter toy, then I claim her as mine. I'll tear her into pieces too small for even a Master gonist to find use for.”

  Tyrs grinned and leaned forward. "Bring her to Foundry Row on Forge. I've come up with any number of creatively-slow deaths by tongs, hammers, and heat."

  "Fantasize about murdering menials some other time," Rega said. Her gaze shifted to Jaxe. "If you want the Mother and her special Sliver Feral dead so much, you can take your Versal troops and hunt her down. I'll even provide a Valeer who has her Verse's location slavanted in to aid you."

  "The Imminent Prophecy calls her 'Ender of Verses'," Jaxe said, half-rising from his chair. "You want to wait for her to find a way to make that true?"

  Baka snorted. "It also calls her the 'Savior of Dynasties', though what exactly she's supposed to save us from is questionable. Even more so is how she flips from her current rebellious attitude and finds some sanity. Since we're the legitimate fragment of the short-lived fracturing the Book is enduring, it sounds to me like she'll end up helping us. Maybe it's only Rag verses she burns."

  "What's left of the Imminent pursue their own inscrutable ends, so let us not get too caught up in their vague prophesies and prognostications," Rega said, eyes flicking to where 'her own' Imminent, Das, stood watching from the front of her retinue. "Our history says they helped create the Dynasty, but the survivors of the wars against the Pale that forged it were written under their direct scrutiny and subject to century after century of their editorials. My long experience proclaims they serve to protect it, yet if I am correct and that is their true goal, why did they let this schism come to pass at all? Or, as some claim, set their hands into ensuring it happened."

  All eyes turned to Das. He straightened slightly. "When this period of strife ends, the Ancients shall have sole possession of the Book. When this comes to pass, no one - Dynast or otherwise - shall challenge their rule until the end of time. This is known by the Imminent."

  Murmurs ran through the crowd. Had an Imminent ever made such a public proclamation before in the history of the Dynasty? Ghulen smelled the relief flooding the plaza, washing away the sweet stench of fear.

  "Ahah, I knew it," Baka said, grinning ferociously. "Let the Dynasty break into pieces and then the strongest shall devour the weakest in remaking it. Only the strong shall remain when all is done. There's your answer, Rega."

  Tyrs nodded and ran a finger up his rings. "If a tool or weapon becomes too broken, its bronze needs to be melted down, reforged, and repurposed. So too with the Book it would seem."

  "And war is the forge-heat," Baka said, leaning on the table. "Let the bronze of our civilization be broken down, remade, and placed in our rightful hands!"

  "Then we are resolved," Rega said. She glanced at the various Ancients she mentioned in turn as she spoke. "Baka shall disperse the Main Legions to finish the Thorn fortifications while the Mon Legions hunt the rogue Legions. The Vale Legions shall gather strength for our eventual attack on Rag verses. The First Disciple shall be put down by any means necessary - including a bounty for delivery of his head - for he would appear to be a far greater threat than the rebellious, rabble-rousing Dynast he endlessly spews on about. Not discussed here, but I think a worthy task: our Versal troops shall hunt the Wretches to extinction if needs be to end their Plague. Tyrs shall double production of weapons in Forge to allow us to expand the Legions for the war the Rags' plots started. And the Mother of Exiles shall be Jaxe's personal problem to deal with. Anything missed?"

  Though Jaxe looked unhappy, everyone else seemed satisfied. All the Dynasts except Rega stood and, with no formal ending to the meeting, joined their retinues in heading off towards various Thorns. In a surprisingly-short time, the massive forum stood empty aside from himself, Rega, a couple of Rega's ostentatiously steel-clad Ferals, and black-haired, no-nonsense Taesal, one of Rega's other Inviolates.

  Ghulen waited until Rega finished giving the woman orders, then nodded to her in passing as she departed and he walked to get his orders from Rega.

  "Messenger girl," he said, bowing slightly.

  "Rat catcher," she growled out of the side of mouth as she passed. The other side of her mouth didn't work due to the scar that by all rights should have killed her.

  "May you catch the next axe swung your way with your forehead, not your face."

  "May you catch the next escaped slave you're sent to retrieve onboard a sinking ship in Stacks."

  After walking slowly and deliberately up the stairs, he chose Asta's silver chair out of curiosity. Surprisingly sturdy, he found as he plunked down into it. Pleasant mulberry hints of her personal aroma still clung to the metal. Where most human's unique scents tasted something akin like variously-flavored watered-down beer, each Dynast's boquet carried the distinctiveness of wine taken from different verses, vineyards, and vintages.

  "Ghulen. Tell me your thoughts."

  Next chapter: Broke this chapter up, so same chapter!

  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

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

  Fatma: slaver?

  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

  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.

  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. Rendered mute by psychological or head-trauma

  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

  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?

  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".

  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?

  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