Semon rose early, slipping on his yellow robe and rising quietly so as not to wake Hue or Sadar. Strygen had never come home the night before, the dusa engrossed with examining the elaborate silk looms in the Seamery at the heart of the village.

  Sliding the wooden screen open on the small elder's house they'd been granted near the edge of the village, Semon crept out and slid the door closed behind him.

  Misty streamers rose from the rice paddies stretching out in irregular terraced ponds down the mountainside. A few fishermen strode the ponds with spears, wading slowly and deliberately in hunt of the gleaming golden fish swimming among the rice stalks. A mountain breeze rippled through the bamboo and mulberry trees sussurantly, as though the verse whispered a poem to him as he sat staring out at the rustic beauty.

  Sitting cross-legged on the simple plank deck fronting the house - the only dwelling made of wood and not a simple woven reed hut - he crossed his legs and sat in meditation. He wished he could stay here forever, especially after what all they'd been through since Heaven's Tread. A cool breeze ruffled his beard, hair, and robe like a playful big brother tousling a sibling.

  Here in this place, he could almost forget.

  Fire and blood. Screams. Horrors stalking the night: things of naked sinew and gleaming beak, mangy red fur and bladed talons, undulating flesh and misshapen eyes. All-hunting, all-killing. Last night was the first night since they'd escaped from the butchery at Halforth that he hadn't awoken in a cold sweat, peering into the darkness and expecting a demon to claw through the roof, ensnare him with a hooked tentacle, and pull him screaming out into the night.

  "What're you thinking about?" a child's voice said from his knee.

  He opened his eyes and smiled.

  Half-a-dozen children huddled around, all too young to have reached their first Namedays. Gaunt, dirty, stunted little things who, if they wore anything at all, wrapped themselves in insufficient, shapeless clothing made from rough flax. Ironic given the fine silk spools of silk hauled from the village by the wagon-full. A few wore miniature versions of the crude, vaguely-conical rice-stalk weavings the locals called hats. Most hung back, afraid to get too close to him, but a little trio squatted close enough to touch. "I was thinking about the Mother."

  "My amma died," one little girl said, looking down at her dirty toes. "The big eel god in the paddies ate her."

  "The Ascendant Priests say that's a very holy death," Semon said, wondering if anyone actually believed it.

  The girl, whom he spontaneously named God Girl, looked up at him and frowned. "If they're holy people, why don't they go get eaten up by gods then?"

  Semon laughed and patted her on the head. "An excellent question. I'll ask the next Ascendant Priest I see. The good news is you have a new Mother now."

  "Is she bringing food? I'm hungry a lot."

  "Wherever she goes, the Dynasts and Verser Lords no longer feast while the rest of us starve." True in part, at least. If she showed up at some populated verse, the feasting would definitely end and the fighting start. From what he'd heard, however, the Mother's overcrowded One-Eighth hosted about as many feasts as this nameless village likely did. He gazed off into the distance reverently, as though looking through the mist for her. Several of the kids stood and squinted that direction hopefully as well.

  Another little boy stood up and shook his head, talking around a mouthful of mud. "She shouldn't come that way. She'll get eaten by the god. I saw it swimming in the inner terraces yesterday. She doesn't need to be any more holy, does she?"

  "No," Semon said. "The Mother is the holiest person in the Book, perhaps even the All."

  The tiniest girl there looked at him wide-eyed, reminding him of his first daughter who'd died not much older than she. "Wassa diffence tween ta Book and ta All?"

  "Everyone knows that stupid," Mud-mouth said. "You're stupid as a Wretch."

  Semon had only been in the village for two days, had learned the locals delayed their children's Namedays until their seventh years to avoid bad luck. Most of these young ones had nicknames at best. Any older kids who survived to earn names waded the paddies harvesting rice, picked cocoons with their parents in the mulberry groves, or spun silk in the sprawling Seamery.

  This story originates from a different website. Ensure the author gets the support they deserve by reading it there.

  Though she clearly fought to hold it in, the little girl's lip began to quiver and her eyes to water. Semon scooped her up and set her on his knee. "The Mother says no one is useless or unworthy. Not a Wretch. Not a poor, pale menial child in the far reaches of Silk. No one. And to answer your very good question, the Book is the part of the All that the 100th Dynasty rules."

  Tiny, as he dubbed her, smiled as he complimented her question. She squirmed off his knee to snuggle up against him. Surprised and unused to the affection, he almost pulled her away. Then he reminded himself he did the Mother's work. If that meant giving some small comfort to this smaller menial then that was his path. He gently rubbed her back and she nestled in tighter.

  "Not Wretches?" God Girl said. "You making that up? My adda says only thing that we've got is at least we're not Wretches."

  "Perhaps that's all you had until now, but now you have the Mother."

  "Where?" Mud-mouth said, looking out towards the paddies again. "Is she bringing food?"

  "He already answered that, Muddy," God Girl said, shaking her head. "My adda says if you eat too much mud and your insides turn to mud."

  "Hungry," he grunted.

  "Mud isn't food."

  "Makes me feel full."

  "You're the Wretch, not her." God Girl pointed at Tiny.

  "Wretches are just regular people," Semon said, surprising himself slightly. He'd been working on smothering his old beliefs with the Mother's for months, but he'd expected it would have taken longer to overcome such entrenched feelings of revulsion, distaste, and superiority over the Wretches. Interesting. He was making progress. "They only have to crawl because the evil Blind Priests and Dynasts force them to do so. Same reason they make us go hungry."

  "But the Mother's going to make the bad people crawl and give us their food?" God Girl said, looking up at the small Ascendant Temple perched on a rocky spire in the hills above the village. A small Versal barracks clustered at its base.

  "Exactly."

  "Is that her just showed up on the striders?" Mud-mouth said, pointing at the barracks.

  Semon stood so quickly he forgot Tiny clinging to his robes and almost fell over. He wrapped an arm around her and squinted through the mist to try to make out who rode the striders. A man Inviolate black. A woman whose limbs looked almost as stretched as the striders'. Some sort of Mancer almost certainly. Lastly, a short, grubby, disheveled figure in sack cloth. A slave? Some captured menial?

  Regardless, bad news.

  "Tell your parents it is now time to do all that we talked of late into the nights when we first arrived," he said softly. "Tell them the time comes faster than we feared. Hurry children, for the evil ones are coming."

  He rushed into the house, his old joints aching and legs stiff from the endless traveling, running, hiding. Too many close escapes, too many Disciples cut down or that they'd been forced to leave behind as they fled.

  Hue sat up, rubbing at his eyes and yawning. "Morning already?"

  "That Inviolate we heard Rega sent is already here," he hissed. He grabbed his good traveling cloak, walking stick, and small pack from beside the heap of thin blankets that had been his bed. "Have you seen Strygen?"

  Hue blinked and looked about, still stretching. That the Vibrant seemed to posses no sense of fear or haste certainly proved calming when no danger lurked, but in times like this the man could be an infuriating liability. "Dunno. Maybe out fishing or taking apart a loom again. Maybe off to find that god. I want to try to find it and the locals said it follows lanterns-"

  By the time Semon managed to get the babbling Hue dressed and outside, fires already cracked in the Seamery

  "Mother preserve you," he said, the blessing doing nothing to ease the weight of what he'd asked the people to do. However poor they were, how much worse would it be when the looms, rice stashes, and groves they worked, and what pittance they could claim as their own lay in ash? He'd heard of the horrors Asta and the other Dynasts inflicted on any who dared to revolt so it always shocked him when people listened to his words, gave them shelter, and rose up again and again in the Mother's name. "I pray to the Mother that word of your courage escapes with us to a hundred other verses and brings meaning to your sacrifices."

  "We should probably look for Strygen," Hue said, yawning again and squinting into the drifting mists the sun had just barely begun to burn away. He started shouting out over the rice paddies. "Strygen. Hey Stregen! You there?"

  "Strygen can take care of himself. We have to leave."

  "But Strygen is the one who knows where the Thorn is."

  "Damn you to a Feral, you're right," Semon cursed, looking about for the damn dusa. "He'll have to find us later, we have to-"

  Too late.

  Three striders trotted into town, one bearing archers, a second bearing a lancer plus a few heavy Versal warriors armored in bronze helms, breastplates, and greaves while bearing long spears and round shields. The third carried the Inviolate and a few more warriors. A ragged line of lighter troops rushed towards the Seamery with leveled spears. Shouts and cries of pain called out, followed by curses. The fires exploded higher.

  Semon turned to run, but the woman with the unnaturally long legs loped down a trail leading from the bamboo groves fronting the rice paddies. So much for the only other way out of the village.

  She grinned, her jaw distending to reveal too-many, too-sharp, needle-like teeth. When Semon turned back, Hue had vanished. Of course.

  "Hue, where are you?" He looked about frantically, but he'd discovered the Vibrant could be anywhere or look like anything. Unless Hue wanted to be seen, he wouldn't be. Semon was alone.

  A weary sigh escaped Semon's lips. He fell to his knees, head bowed. No Disciples remained to sacrifice themselves for him, no fanatical mobs thronged to defend him, no more menials stood ready and armed to throw themselves between him and danger. There would be no escaping this time.

  Next chapter: Same chapter, as Semon meets his fate.

  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

  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

  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