Everyone you've met

ANA is a near-post-physical intelligence made of many Factions that constantly make and break alliances.

An observation outpost on a never-named planet where many alien species and humans monitor the Void through orbiting probes, laid out in crescent-shaped rings.

A Commonwealth Navy deep-space ship that carried new observers to Centurion Station in eighty-three days using a hyperdrive travelling at fifteen lightyears an hour.

One of fifteen planet-sized Raiel-built lattice-sphere machines in the system, a defence in case the Void breaks through the Wall; none has been seen in action.

Species living in a dark ten-kilometre tower at 180 degrees C, interacting only through formal data exchanges.

A new observer arriving at Centurion Station for a one-year stay, with Higher biononics, who hides this heritage and wants to escape it.

Long-lived boulder-like swamp-dwellers invited by the Raiel to join the project seven thousand years earlier.

Extremely reclusive species living in a metal cube; no Kandra ship has ever landed at the station.

Director of Centurion Station, apparently over a thousand years old, kilt-wearing, whisky-drinking and drunk at the party; has glittering gold flecks in his hair.

Ancient species who run the Void observation and want the galaxy to live its full life; they built the DF defence machines.

An artificial boundary at the galactic core, guarding a universe made by an ancient race, which is slowly consuming the galaxy's stars at an accelerating rate.

Captained the Commonwealth Navy ship Endeavour on the first human circumnavigation of the galaxy in 2560.

Aaron has no memories of any life before today, yet is not troubled by it, and feels sure he will eventually solve the mystery of himself.

Paula and Kazimir suspect them of allying the Primes with the Ocisen Empire to force use of the deterrence fleet and learn what it is.

A golden liqueur from Vitchan, 80 per cent alcohol and 8 per cent tricetholyn, a powerful narcotic.

Air is a Higher project to build a gas-giant-sized zero-gee habitat with a geodesic lattice and force field, about eighty per cent complete.

The Anomine split two millennia ago into post-physical elevated ones and retroevolved pastoral ones, and have no known construction site for the Dyson generators.

Arevalo is a Higher world and primarily a base for the Navy exploration division.

The Artful Dodger is a chrome-purple ovoid private starship with a malleable cabin and an ultradrive reaching fifty-five lightyears per hour.

An apparently ageless woman who watched Aaron in the crowd, hinted that 'several of us' were sent there, and refused to give her name, calling herself bad news.

He is a captain in the police special protection division who leads an ambush on Corrie-Lyn and Aaron.

Catriona is a solido companion of Troblum, animated as a bubbly twenty-one-year-old.

The Central Worlds are linked by a long-established wormhole network, while External Worlds travel between each other and them by starship.

Fifteen Clerics in scarlet and black robes; five looked deeply uncomfortable as Ethan announced Pilgrimage.

This broad alliance wants things to keep running as they are and has an ultradrive starship, which ANA never released to the Central Worlds.

Corrie-Lyn was Inigo's lover and sits on the Council only for that reason, according to Ethan; he intends to remove her.

Daroca is a city on Arevalo where Troblum lives.

The Delivery Man is a father of Tilly, Elsie and Rosa, married to Lizzie, who feeds baby Rosa himself rather than leaving it to the housebot.

The Dyson Pair are two stars three lightyears apart, enclosed by force fields created by the Anomine in AD1200 to confine the Primes.

Eagles Harbour is a three-kilometre flying-saucer-shaped station seventy kilometres above England, one of 150 generating Earth's T-sphere and housing a wormhole terminus.

Earth was the first truly Higher planet; its population is about 150,000 and steadily shrinking, with a very low birth rate.

Ellezelin is a hierocracy, so Ethan must also endorse a new cabinet for the planet's civil government.

Elsie is the five-year-old daughter with long red hair inherited from her father.

EMA, the Central Dollar, regulates Higher citizens' use of communal resources and is not money in the traditional sense.

Eoin is a Navy captain specializing in alien activities who supports Troblum's reasoning about Anomine timing.

Ethan is elected Cleric Conservator of Living Dream, announcing that the Second Dream has begun and that the movement will Pilgrimage.

It is a legitimate-looking company registered on Falnox, a pre-arranged front that Aaron uses as cover.

Ozzie invented the gaiafield so people could understand each other through shared emotion; it conveys feelings rather than precise digital data.

Inigo conjures a vision in Golden Park showing figures of the past, including Rah, Florrel, Akeem, Salrana and the Waterwalker.

Its constitution protects member self-determination, so it has no legal right to stop Living Dream's Pilgrimage.

Higher culture is based on cybernated manufacturing and resource allocation, with equal access to resources and no money, and is described as a state of mind backed by affluence.

Isabella was one of the Starflyer's most effective agents, seducing and manipulating Commonwealth officials; 'to be Isabella-ed' once meant being screwed over.

Jalen was Ethan's predecessor as Cleric Conservator and furnished the Mayor's sanctum with modern paoviool.

A short-range lethal weapon developed about 150 years ago.

Kazimir is 1,206 years old, commander of the Commonwealth Navy, and the human link between ANA:Governance and the deterrent fleet.

The ceiling of Liliala Hall shows the sky; this time it clears to reveal Gicon's Bracelet and a new patch of light by Alakkad.

The movement has made Makkathran2 the capital of the Greater Commonwealth's gaiafield; about ninety-five per cent of the crowd wanted Ethan, tired of waiting.

Lizzie is an antiquities and culture specialist who loves old traditions and only wears clothing designed no later than the twenty-second century.

London has shrunk to its mid-eighteenth-century size because ANA:Governance ruled there were too many buildings to maintain; surplus suburbs were sold or erased.

Makkathran is a distant city reached by caravan; its Guild is housed in the Blue Tower.

Makkathran2 is a replica of the real city Makkathran, with Golden Park, the Outer Circle Canal and the Orchard Palace.

The Malfit Hall in the Orchard Palace has an ultra-black floor and a ceiling showing moving images of sky and Nikran.

The Marie Celeste was the Starflyer's ship; Troblum owns a strut from it.

Marius is the ANA Faction representative; he is dangerous, richly enriched with advanced biononics, and offers support for Pilgrimage.

Mark Vernon actually fired the quantumbuster that let the Dark Fortress re-establish the Dyson Alpha barrier and win the war, though Ozzie got the credit.

Mykala is a third-level captain and local FTL drive bureau director, sceptical of Troblum's wormhole claims.

The Ocisen Empire has technology far below Higher culture, resents humans, and seeks better weapons technology, searching for post-physical civilizations to plunder.

The Orchard Palace holds the Malfit Hall, the Liliala Hall with a ceiling showing storms and Alakkad, and the Mayor's private rooms.

Oronsay lies over a hundred lightyears from the Central Worlds and is alleged to have companies with level-three replicator technology producing starship components.

Paoviool is a stone-like material that shapes itself into furniture according to intuited thoughts from the gaiafield.

Phelim is Ethan's utterly loyal personal secretary, a tall, black-skinned, shaven-headed Chief Cleric whose emotions cannot be read in the gaiafield.

Some species claim a Pilgrimage into the Void could trigger a devourment phase that ends the galaxy.

The Primes are aliens pathologically hostile to non-Prime life, whose escaped member, the Starflyer, manipulated humans into opening the Dyson Alpha force field.

A bar on the third floor of a round tower in Makkathran2's Abad district, popular with visiting faithful.

Riasi, on Ellezelin's Sinkang coast, is the former capital and now a commercial and transport hub housing the wormholes of the Ellezelin Free Trade Zone.

Rosa is the Delivery Man's seventeen-month-old youngest daughter; her biononics are still inactive, as Higher-born children develop naturally until puberty.

Ethan is certain a Second Dreamer exists, dreaming the Skylord; Living Dream is searching but thousands of false claimants hinder them.

Skylords have not been seen for ages and are believed to carry souls to the Heart of the Void; unworthy souls fall into Honious.

The Starflyer was real and took revenge, using one of its agents to kill Kazimir.

The Knights Guardian protect their lands with a T-sphere that teleports approachers to the far side of the border unless invited.

Tilly is the seven-year-old daughter, who is gaining confidence at swimming.

Trisha is a solido companion with butterfly-wing tattoos by her eyes.

Troblum lives in a restored Halgarth penthouse on Arevalo, obsessed with the Starflyer War, and hopes to publish its definitive history.

ANA offers ultradrives for the Pilgrimage ships, claimed at least equal to the Raiel drive, though no one has seen it.

The unisphere is just the interface protocols between planetary cybersphere systems; it grew irregularly and is full of old layered software, making security hard, so users rely on their own encryption.

Akeem is Ashwell's last shaper, over 180 years old, always smartly dressed, absent-minded but affectionate, and a strong ethical teacher to Edeard.

Ashwell is burned and overrun by a large bandit force at night, with resistance shrinking to a few Guild compounds.

The Blue Tower is the Eggshaper Guild's heartland in Tosella, a dark azure fortress-like tower with a mouth-like door and awkward stairs.

Defaults are unshaped egg-laying genistars the size of ponies; fifteen females, all stalls full, and three males are kept at the Guild.

Edeard is a fourteen-year-old junior apprentice at Ashwell's Eggshaper Guild, living alone in the apprentice dormitory since his parents died when he was eight.

Ashwell's Eggshaper Guild branch has declined from better days but earns more now, with more genistars and commissions; its crest is an egg in a twisted circle.

Eggshaping uses farsight and telekinesis to shape an egg 10 to 25 hours after fertilization; it can only activate existing structures, not add features.

Evox is a small child with powerful longtalk, mentioned as a possible apprentice.

Farsight lets humans sense the emotions and minds of others and detect hazards; Weaver's Guild ladies hid their emotions from Edeard's farsight.

One ge-eagle remains in the Guild aviary; it has double wings and gold and emerald feathers.

Ge-monkeys are six-legged, six-armed genistars used as servants; Edeard commands them with emotion-free longtalk, even managing them near fire.

Ge-wolves guard Ashwell and its farms and join hunts against predators and bandits; two pups have been shaped with arms.

Ge-cats extract water for Ashwell and last only about two years; the council commissioned a second well, requiring a new nest.

Longtalk is Querencia's telepathic language; Edeard uses a simple pidgin form to command genistars.

Lorellan, the Lady's Mother, lets Edeard sit in on her instruction of village youth.

Melzar is the caravan master, strict about discipline and landcraft, and has led caravans for decades; he threatens to send back or hold back troublemakers.

Obron is Ashwell's chief bully, a couple of years older than Edeard, who torments him outside the Guild; Edeard has refrained from retaliating.

Humans arrived on Querencia two thousand years ago, according to Melzar, by a ship that legend says fell from the sky.

Salrana is a novice at the church, auburn-haired, slim and growing beautiful; she is Edeard's close friend and he is attracted to her.

Sancia is a possible future apprentice mentioned by Edeard.

Tiger Pansy was Qatux's human wife; her last gift cured him of his human emotional weakness.

The Ocisen Ambassador is a barrel-bodied, four-eyed alien from a low-gravity world, supported by cybernetics and a regrav sled; it requested a meeting with a physical human.

Colwyn is a 170-year-old city on the River Cairns, with a major dock and starport serving the Izyum continent.

Cressida is Araminta's cousin and lawyer: a 123-year-old, glamorous partner in a law firm who charges family a ten per cent fee.

Dark Fortress was the original name for the Dyson Alpha generator, possibly coined by Jean Douvoir of the Second Chance exploration mission.

Faction wanting ANA to split into as many parts as there are Factions.

Gore is Justine's father, a founder of ANA and a pioneer of enhanced mental routines, appearing as a gold-skinned solido of his twenty-fourth-century self.

The Hancher are friends of humans; the Ocisen Empire attacked them at Fandola and humans intervened.

Gore's private ANA environment, modelled on an Antigua bay from the early twenty-first century, with a tower and pavilion.

Howard Liang is a Starflyer agent from a disinformation mission, recreated as a solido in Troblum's penthouse.

Jaful is a handsome man Araminta meets in a bar and spends the night with; both play out a one-night-stand script.

Justine is over a thousand years old, born in the early twenty-first century; she had her stored body revived after two centuries inside ANA to meet the Ocisen Ambassador.

Kazimir is Justine's son and a Navy Admiral who has stayed in a physical body for about a thousand years; he looks like his father.

Laril, Araminta's three-hundred-and-seven-year-old ex-husband, skipped the planet owing fifty creditors and back taxes; his businesses were suspiciously unrecorded.

Matthew is Araminta's manager at Nik's; he is sometimes irritated by her but kisses and congratulates her when she quits.

Viotia's NRS has no record of Laril paying tax in a hundred years and is now interested in his activities.

Former Sheldon Dynasty security chief, now a pragmatist inside ANA, who shares Gore's view of ANA's evolution and joins his conspiracy.

Nigel Sheldon and CST evacuated Hanko's population through a wormhole with slowed internal time while Anagaska was built up.

Punk Skunk is a derogatory term for jaded old people who use rejuvenation to look adolescent and take much younger partners.

Once the largest economic empire ever; it lost cohesion and dispersed to the External Worlds after Nigel Sheldon left.

Tandra is Araminta's coworker who teases her about her unchanged clothes and supposed romantic night.

The Glayfield is an old bar and restaurant where Araminta usually unwinds after work with an orange chocolate, overlooking Daryad Avenue and the docks.

Former President of the Commonwealth, disliked by Gore; Kazimir recalls her as good, and the resettlement period as a minor golden age.

The Burnelli ancestral home near New York, bought by Gore in the mid-twenty-first century and preserved by stabilizer fields and maidbots.

Viotia is an External World with pink clouds and no heavy industry; it sits on the fringe of Ellezelin's Free Trade Zone, with no wormhole link.

Alcie suffers a deep thigh gash and is carried unconscious to Melzar's group by Canan.

The bandits wear mud-smeared camouflage cloaks, use poison-tipped arrows, knives and swords, can eclipse their thoughts from farsight, and use collared fastfoxes.

Drakken are cat-sized, five-legged burrowing hive animals that dig pit traps and attack in swarms; they've been eliminated near Ashwell but are common in the wild.

Fahin is a thin doctor's apprentice with glasses who always carries a physick satchel and is mocked for it.

A fastfox is a fast, ebony-furred predator with fangs or horns and a strong hindlimb for lunging; its mind is driven by fear from training.

Galbys are large canine-like animals with a powerful oversized hind limb that can leap up to fifteen feet.

Genril owns his own family revolver, and his father permits only him to use it.

Genril's revolver, with a pale lightweight barrel, is said to be carved from the colonist ship's hull and kept in his family since the arrival.

Using telekinesis inside another person's body is the ultimate taboo; anyone who does so is exiled forever.

Janene was shot with an arrow and left behind in the ambush; she is presumed dead.

Rulan province is nearly lost: eight villages overrun, the capital fortified, families fleeing, and neighboring provinces refusing help.

The third hand is telekinesis; Edeard uses it to crush a gun, hold bandits still, and tear apart a fastfox's brain.

Toran is a good shot with a rifle and killed one of the fastfoxes.

Witham is the nearest medium-sized town in Rulan province, about five times Ashwell's size, with stone cobbles, glass windows, piped water and two churches of the Lady.

Alcinda, one of Stubsy's companions, was killed by the Cat when she tried to agree with Stubsy; gray furry growths consumed her body.

Ami Cowee helps with exotic matter formatting and reportedly shut down the failing process, then avoided facing Troblum.

Anagaska was settled by evacuees from the ruined planet Hanko, shunted through a wormhole during the war against the Prime.

Troblum's field scan finds a molecular code in the barrel confirming the rifle is genuine; it was designed to clip onto an armour suit's lower arm.

Bradley Johansson's genome could allow him to be cloned; Troblum believed nothing was left of him.

Burt Renik sold Araminta the failing bot out of warranty and refused any refund; she blocked his calls.

The second-hand Candel 8038 bot, bought two days earlier, failed in a shower of sparks and was dumped in the refuse casket.

The Daeas fane is a twisting Berzaz cube with luminous stripes in Riasi's Daeas district, with a reception hall copying the Orchard Palace chamber.

Massell is an expert in functional molecular configuration and long-time team member; he was not one of Marius's candidates.

Dave's Coding is an autonomous review source for products, trusted over the corporation-funded evaluation library.

Emily Alm, a former Navy weapons researcher bored after three hundred years, gives Troblum novabomb information.

Erik Horovi, Inigo's father, was eighteen at Inigo's birth and left Sabine a few months afterwards.

Hanko was wrecked by the Prime's last great assault; its 150 million people were evacuated to Anagaska.

Ikeo City is a small coastal free-trade province on Sholapur with a resident-funded police force and artefact salvage specialists.

Jollian was a criminal who tried to escape justice by a memory wipe and migration to the Inner Worlds and was suspended for around two hundred years.

Keetch left a Thursday night event early with Araminta, and they went back to his place.

Kuhmo was a stagnant town; Living Dream bought out its old arcology site to build Anagaska's primary fane with library and free college.

The Last Dream is a rumoured final event of Inigo's; Corrie-Lyn knows of no specific event but thinks the rumour came from somewhere.

Mellanie's Redemption is a thirty-metre hyperdrive starship with three large cargo holds and a Navy-grade stealth field, bought by Troblum under a false pretext.

Mr Bovey is a multiple human: one personality shared among many bodies, all of whom work in the store.

Multiples share one personality across several bodies via an adaptation of gaiafield technology; they believe everyone will eventually become multiple, and detractors call it a heresy.

Oaktier is a Central Commonwealth World from which Laril calls.

Paula Myo caught Jollian, who tried to escape his crime through a memory wipe and migration, and had his biononics removed so he could face trial.

The planet-shift engine should have been two-thirds assembled but the process failed due to an instability in the bonding field.

The Protectorate is a movement opposed to Higher culture and the spread of biononics, claiming to keep humanity's heritage intact.

Sabine was Inigo's mother; she was a month short of eighteen at his birth.

Sholapur, settled from 3120, 470 lightyears from Earth, fractured into feuding micro-nations; its parliament was suspended in 3180.

Stubsy Florac is sensitive about his short height, never altered in rejuvenation, and meets Troblum at a villa near Ikeo.

Tarlo was a Directorate colleague corrupted by the Starflyer who betrayed Vic Russell and his wife; Troblum calls him one of the most important Starflyer agents.

Yves is the deputy at the Daeas fane, an old-guard Living Dream Cleric devoted to Inigo's vision, known to Corrie-Lyn for fifty years.

The bandit gun fires repeatedly and has intricate internal parts; Edeard thinks it resembles human weapons from before the flight into the Void.

The bandits' guns are heavy, complex, self-reloading weapons firing dozens of bullets with a roar and blue-purple flame, overwhelming villagers' shields.

Barkus leads a caravan due in Ashwell before month's end and owes Akeem favours.

Old Buluku is a violet serpent-like stream in the night sky that does not shift with seasons or orbit the sun.

Concealment makes people invisible to casual scrutiny; Edeard's squad coordinate by tiny direct longtalk while dimmed lights add shadows.

Old Fromal, aged 122, survived the attack and was found weeping beside his ruined house.

Odin's Sea is a glowing blue-green mist visible on summer nights; the Lady's teachings call it the Heart of the Void, where worthy souls dream.

Little Sagat was found cowering in upturned barrels beside the working well, one of seven survivors.

Thorpe-By-Water is a larger village in a fork of the River Gwash, protected by a canal moat and drawbridge.

Tonri is the senior apprentice at Thorpe-By-Water's Eggshaper Guild and treats Edeard indifferently.

The watchtower bandit is a powerful, sadistic longtalker who hunts Edeard, killed the gate guards, and threatens to rape Salrana and torture Edeard.

Zehar is a baker's apprentice who has boasted of wanting Edeard and watches him hungrily.

Angels are beautiful hermaphroditic Higher agents who land on worlds using wing-shaped force fields and seed populations with biononics through sex.

Creewan voted against the motion, warning that defeating the Emperor's nestling commanding the fleet would cause political instability in the Empire.

Crispin is a xenophobic Council member over a thousand years old, with family lost on Nattavaara, supporting Isolationist and Internalist Factions.

The dream creatures fly through a nebula near the nucleus of their universe and sense minds growing strong again on a solid world.

Georgia is a dappled-mane mare of pure Arabian bloodline, with no artificial genome sequences, which Paul treasures.

Glints are tiny native forest rodents that often damage the clinic's cabling and machinery; management twice illegally tried to exterminate them.

Ikor was an original developer of the Bodant block who pulled out and was keen to sell to Araminta.

Ilanthe is the Accelerator Faction's Council appointee, who enjoys making mischief and pushes for forceful responses.

Imelda's infected embryo was removed; a new ovum fertilized with Erik's sperm produced a normal daughter, and both were memory-wiped.

Aaron retrieves Inigo's memorycell from the vault; it is a secure store of eight cubic centimetres.

Lucken is a very tall, skeletal, impassive man who appeared in Troblum's office unannounced, never spoke on the flight, and never slept.

Neskia runs the station; she is hairless with huge round eyes and a long neck sheathed in gold rings.

Niling-sponges create absorption horizons that swallow energy beams but cannot stop kinetic projectiles.

Paul is an elderly former Protectorate team member who hunted Higher angels; he reviewed captured angels' memories by merging minds with them.

Paul Alkoff is a 750-year-old ranch owner in a desert, dressed in denim and a Stetson, who breeds pure Arabian horses and Korrimues.

Ruth Stol is the clinic's clinician, a flawless, youthful-looking woman with macrocellular clusters and fast nerves; her touch arouses Aaron naturally.

Aaron's software assault cripples the clinic smartcore, which then retreats from the vault security system and later calls for help.

St Mary's Clinic is a luxury clinic in four square miles of forest, with a secure vault at the bottom of ten underground floors.

Starslayers are the Empire's largest, costliest warships, armed with warheads similar to quantumbusters, tested forty-five years earlier.

The surgical cutter is a small black and silver gadget with eight malmetal arms that removes the top of a skull.

The clinic vault holds about half a million secure memorycells and is guarded by two hidden guards in temporal suspension cages.

The two vault guards have heavy weapons enrichments and emerge from exotic matter cages as a secret failsafe, firing without question.

Viertz Accu was a 117-year-old security manager, married to Asher Lel with two children; her youngest, Harry, is two.

Boyd is a baker's fourth son from Jeavons with limited, unexceptional psychic talent, who joined the constables for lack of options.

Sergeant Chae, a heavy drinker reportedly sent to the Jeavons station after failing elsewhere, trains the constable recruits and treats them with contempt.

The constables are seeking recruits, have a simpler hierarchy than the Guilds, and face gangs; recruits train six months.

Makkathran's crystal wall is thirty yards high, golden and transparent, and immune to erosion and weapons, and vulnerable only to telekinesis.

Dinlay is a constable's youngest son, wears his father's old uniform, is enthusiastic, and can longshout far across the Iguru Plain.

Eyrie is a nearly deserted district of twisted stalagmite-like spires and home to the Empyrean Lady's central church.

The gangs, mostly based in Sampalok, run protection rackets like a violent alternative tax system and are said to be growing worse.

Finitan is the tall, slim, grey-touched Grand Master of the Eggshaper Guild, calm and affable, with a powerful farsight.

The hostile Guild sergeant is reprimanded by Topar and glares at Edeard promising revenge.

High Moat is paddock land inside the north gate where horses are kept and traders set up; Barkus's caravan was assigned three pens there.

The Iguru plain has become a smoldering gray rock desert with twelve huge ships lying around its edge.

Ilongo district has small leaning box-like buildings of self-repairing city material, with crystal windows that are never square.

A pleasant district with a park, a pond of scarlet fanged fish, and the Guild headquarters of carpenters, jewel smiths and physicians.

Kanseen is a scowling recruit with heavily veiled thoughts and farsight almost as good as Edeard's.

The Pythia's church in Eyrie district is the only building the city formed for humans, placed near the towers where the Skylords alighted.

Macsen is an unrecognized son of a grand family's patriarch, thrown out after his father's death; his shield is very strong.

The militia captain wears a ceremonial uniform, carries a revolver, and insults Rulan people as savages; he orders the caravan to leash its ge-wolves and avoid Sampalok.

Plax is a provincial capital beyond the Ulfsen Mountains where the caravan was snowed in for six weeks.

Has blocked the astronomical association's bid for Guild status for seven centuries, calling astronomy near-heretical.

Rah, a powerful telekinetic, cut three gateways in the crystal wall, each taking two years by legend, and led his shipmates to the city.

District run by the Diroal family, who champion the gangs, give them sanctuary and excluded Edeard from the district.

Topar is a portly Master of the Guild Council and deputy to Grand Master Finitan, with a gruff, wry manner.

The Advancers routinely scan all messages sent to ANA:Governance to check whether their activities have been noticed, and use ANA-level processing power to do so.

The Alexis Denken is Paula's ultradrive ship, supplied and heavily armed by ANA:Governance.

Danal is a confluence nest technician from Ellezelin who, with wife Mareble, wants to buy an apartment on Viotia; both are devout Living Dream followers.

The Dream Masters monitor Viotia's confluence nests and detected the anomaly at the end of the last dream.

Far Away is the self-proclaimed capital of the External Worlds, fiercely libertarian, only an affiliate member of the Commonwealth, and a counterweight to Earth and ANA.

Halran is a second-level police investigator who got his promotions by flexibly accommodating powerful people; he leads the St Mary's Clinic raid investigation under political pressure to downplay it.

A device containing a quantum black hole; it absorbed 327 tonnes of the machine and is carried in a regrav sled.

High Angel is a 63-kilometre moonlet starship orbiting Icalanise, with domes housing several species; humans found it in 2163 and it became a Commonwealth Navy base.

Iaioud's Halgarth collective banned conception and memory-wiped citizens at each rejuvenation, reassigning them to the same job for centuries.

Josill is another woman Mr Bovey dates; she managed sex with four of his bodies.

Mareble and Danal believe the Second Dreamer is on Viotia, judging by increasingly vivid dreams.

Aaron and Corrie-Lyn stole a memorycell from Anagaska, and they still have it.

Ozzie was named a friend by the Silfen, given a pendant, and discovered it worked by quantum entanglement, leading to gaiamotes.

Qatux is a Raiel who once shared human emotions, married the human Tiger Pansy on Far Away, and experienced her prolonged, horrible death.

Rincenso proposes bringing Viotia fully into the Free Trade Zone as a core planet.

A woman called the Cat deliberately prolonged Tiger Pansy's death for many days.

Justine recognizes that Inigo's dreams of the Void were real; the Waterwalker is known for strong Farsight.

Passed in the fifteenth year after Rah's arrival, it lets any human claim an unoccupied residence in the city by staying two days and nights and registering with the Board of Occupancy.

Cobara is a district of pillar towers linked by bridges, with housing built on the bridges and Rafael's Fountain at its center.

Notorious satirist in the Musician's Guild, popular with young nobles, rumoured caught in bed with two of the Lady's novices and with many offspring in mountain villages.

The Great Major Canal cuts Makkathran in half, about 150 yards wide, crossed by only two narrow, steep bridges between Silvarum and Padua.

The Guild of Lawyers has taken over the former militia barracks in the outermost tower of Parliament House.

Kavine, a craft market stall holder, was hacked with blades by thieves who stole his box of gold chains; the doctor says he will recover.

An elderly, bald, frail lawyer from the Guild of Lawyers who gives the probationers a tediously long weekly lecture on Makkathran law, rumoured to be over 250.

Mistress Florell is the Mayor's aunt; every Mayor for a century has been her relative, and she basically decides whom the Grand Council elects.

Monrol is Kavine's nephew and confirms the recovered box is fully intact.

The Olovan's Eagle is a multi-floor tavern with orange ceiling lighting, washrooms upstairs and private rooms, where the squad drinks.

Division captain in his eighties, abandoned by family, devoted to regulation; Jeavons station has one of the city's lowest recruitment rates under him.

Setersis heads the Silvarum stall holders' association and sits on the city traders' council, with influence nearly equal to a Guild Council Master.

A district of oddly curved bubble-like buildings, home to wealthy merchants and senior guild masters, with saffcherry-lined pavements.

Site of a politically motivated attack Oscar was involved in, killing 408 people, many children without memorycells; he never intended the deaths.

Probably the almost intact corpse in the assessment room, found after seventy years of searching, four kilometres from her car, swept away in a flood.

Albany is Likan's eight-mile-square industrial complex of factories and a spaceport; no humans live in it.

Anja is one of Oscar's life partners, a commercial neural routine developer, strikingly beautiful through costly clinic treatments.

Starflyer agent whose conditioning was edited out under the Doi amnesty; she was re-lifed, married Wilson Kime and sailed on the Discovery.

Ansan Purillar, nearly three hundred, is an Advancer directing the Kajaani Restoration base and joined after meeting a Restored woman.

Clemance is a cheerful, freckled teenage member of Likan's harem who greets Araminta warmly and chose her room.

Dushiku is one of Oscar's long-term life partners, over a hundred years old, and serves him a malt whisky on arrival.

Elvin's Payback has a stealth function strong enough to evade military-grade sensors; it landed unseen in an empty barge repair bay at Colwyn docks.

Eridal is one of Likan's older sons, runs a finance house in Ludor, and is charming but lacks his father's determination.

Helenna is Likan's jovial stylist who has served him for fifty years and prepares Araminta with cosmetic membranes and hair styling.

Youngest of Oscar's three life partners, barely twenty and handsome; he seems upset about the others in the house.

Kajaani, Hanko's old capital, has a force-field dome with a replanted park serving as the Restoration team's main base.

The Kime Sanctuary on Mount Herculaneum is a dome tourist attraction with the wrecked hyperglider and a solido of Wilson Kime.

King eagles are giant petrosaur-like flying creatures created by the Barsoomians, each ridden by a robed rider.

The Knights Guardian hold lands from the Dessault Mountains to the Oak Sea on Far Away and revere Oscar and Wilson.

Likan is the richest man on his planet, a Sheldonite who emulates Nigel Sheldon, keeps a harem of wives, and wants to be emperor.

Likan's ovoid house is a protean building whose bubble rooms move through the interior and are controlled by the house smartnet.

Marakata is a tall, ebony-skinned, coolly amused member of Likan's harem who warns Araminta that Likan told them to be careful.

Mellanie Rescorai, Araminta and Cressida's great-great-great-grandmother, was a Silfen friend whose Motherholme connection is believed inherited.

The Motherholme has occasionally sensed thoughts from within the Void.

Location of the team with Hanko's highest recovery rate, nine hundred kilometres southwest of the base, about forty-eight hours away by crawler.

Orakum is a quiet world with few Advancers and Naturals where Oscar Monroe settled.

Former Navy pilot who died colliding with Anna Kime's hyperglider; recovered by Paula Myo and sentenced to 1,100 years' suspension for the Abadan Station terrorist deaths.

Psychoneural profiling is illegal and removes free will; Araminta says it is reversible.

Director of the Hanko recovery base; reluctantly lets Aaron and Corrie-Lyn borrow a ground crawler after demanding a legal release.

The Restoration project recovers and re-lives victims of the Prime attack; it is shrinking as budgets fall and many worlds close projects.

Sheldonism is a culture of people across the External Worlds emulating Nigel Sheldon's hyper-capitalism, which Araminta sees as close to blind worship.

The Silfen are humanoid 'elves' with a wormhole path network allowing walking between worlds; time runs differently along the paths.

Sophie, daughter of Mellanie and Orion, was born on the Silfen paths and passed her attunement to the Motherholme to her descendants.

Tomansio, a Knight Guardian, met Oscar at the sanctuary; his father gave Oscar the contact code eighty-six years earlier.

Arminel is the hooded leader of the thieves, under forty, with a pale drawn face and long sandy hair covering large ears; he appears bored and never worried.

Bijulee is Macsen's mother and looks about Kanseen's age.

Harri is a teenager who stood guard in the alley and was charged only with complicity to steal.

Master Cherix is the young, stylish defence lawyer who frames the thieves as concerned citizens and discredits Edeard and Kanseen.

Master Vosbol is the lawyer retained by Captain Ronark to prosecute; he declined to charge Arminel over Kavine's stabbing, citing unreliable witnesses.

The Mayor's Counsel judge, wearing a golden chain of rank, presided with two middle court judges and dismissed the case for insufficient evidence.

Millical House is an orphanage in the Lillylight district, unusually well funded by anonymous donations from noble families whose sons father unwanted children.

Omasis is one of Arminel's accomplices, charged with theft and aggravated trespass.

Owain is Mayor of Makkathran and presides over the graduation ceremony; Edeard thinks him a politician who ignores the shortage of constables.

Parliament House in Majate is a village-like complex holding the Democracy Chamber, Clerks' offices, Treasury vaults, the Chief Constable's tower and courts.

Rakas is a restaurant on the third floor of a round tower in Fiacre district, owned by chef Hansalt.

The thief Edeard saw earlier at Silvarum market returns with two accomplices and targets a jeweller's underground storerooms on Sonral Street.

Beckia McKratz infiltrated the dock's commercial network and opened a warehouse barge bay door so the starship could enter unnoticed.

Cheriton is an enriched gaiafield expert who will pose as a Dream Master to infiltrate Living Dream's search on Viotia.

The confluence nest stores and emits every thought released into its gaiafield. It holds all of Inigo's dreams but nothing from Querencia or a Skylord.

Ericilla, a team member at the Olhava dig, angrily blames Aaron for bringing the attackers to Kajaani.

Graffal Ehasz is the observation department chief, on his third stint, frustrated by passive observation and by needing Raiel permission.

Lehr Trachtenberg is the director of Centurion Station, on his seventh stint, and is flirtatious toward Justine.

Liatris McPeierl hacked the invaders' network to learn their paramilitary deployment around the docks.

Nerina is Vilitar's husband and a Restoration team member who explains the team is cut off from help.

The Silverbird may have an ultradrive, which Trachtenberg suspects.

The squad has secured only minor convictions and has no impact on the gangs at the heart of Makkathran's problems.

Isoix is Boyd's brother; gang members demanded twenty pounds from him to 'put out the fire' or they would torch the bakery.

Nanitte, the dancer Macsen once brought home, serves in Ivarl's house and meets Vilby three nights a week at the Black Horse tavern.

Chris Turner works the night maintenance shift on bots at Colwyn City docks on Viotia and witnesses a wormhole open.

Its office had forensically tracked Troblum's money transfers since Justine reported his empty hangar at Daroca spaceport, leading to Stubsy Florac.

Nine gas-giant-size Raiel DF spheres are moving toward the orange star, emitting gravity waves, and appear to draw power from it.

The gray viral is a biononic substance that breaks down organic and inorganic material, converts it into itself and keeps victims' nervous systems conscious.

Simonie, a companion of Stubsy, was left to guard Troblum but silently signalled him with her eye, despite being controlled by the Cat.

The cargo is 1,372 components taken at random from an Accelerator station's replicators, piled unordered in the hold.

An antique weapon from the Ables ND47 that Troblum bought from a museum; its stabilizer kept it functional, with fifty portals.

Ivarl owns the House of Blue Petals bordello and styles himself master of Makkathran's criminal fraternity; Ronark thinks he sent Arminel to ambush Edeard.

Walsfol is a straight-talking aristocratic man in his second century who rose to the top with the stations' support.

Eustace is Jessile's fiancé, serving with the militia sent to Reutte province, where bandits are raiding hamlets.

Falor was sentenced to twenty years in the Trampello mines.

Felax is a seventeen-year-old probationary constable who worships Edeard and serves as a runner.

Gustape was sentenced to twenty years in the Trampello mines.

Harawold received Ivarl's instructions to punish Tanamin.

The House of Blue Petals is a bordello in the Myco district beside Makkathran's port.

Jessile is a third daughter engaged to Eustace, a militia lieutenant, in a marriage of money and convenience rather than love.

Kristiana offers to introduce Edeard to her friend Ranalee, a Gilmorn merchant family daughter, for an evening at the Alrado theater.

Lian was arrested by Droal at the warehouse slipway after trying to flee in a dinghy; Edeard warned him about Arminel's fate.

Myco is a small district of fishermen, shipbuilders and guilds with a strong sense of community, unlike shabby Sampalok.

Polteral Alley is a narrow zigzag passage whose thick walls block farsight and longtalk, so Edeard uses it to slip underground unseen.

Ranalee is a second daughter of the wealthy merchant Gilmorn family and is eager to meet Edeard.

Tanamin extorted money from his patch in Fiacre district but not enough, so Ivarl ordered him punished.

The Trampello mines are where criminals are sent as punishment.

Vilby is Edeard's link to Ivarl's gang via Nanitte, and Edeard avoids drawing attention to him.

Thousands of rioters gather in the park and assault the paramilitary barricade around Araminta's apartment block, which is set on fire.

Major Honilar commands the welcome team and orders that the Second Dreamer must not be harmed and no lethal weapons used.

The welcome team hunts the Second Dreamer for Living Dream and probably lacks biononics.

Yenrol is obsessively convinced the Second Dreamer is returning from Chobamba and keeps his team on a dangerous full watch.

Bise, District Master of Sampalok, opposes Edeard and has extensive financial ties to Ivarl's organization, but he is outnumbered in Council.

Passed 932 years ago, it lets a District Master or Representative bar named persons from their district without a judge or proof of crime.

Chiaran, Dinlay's girlfriend, is a constable working for Ivarl's lieutenant in Fiacre to pay off her father's debt.

Chemical that induces sleep when inhaled; smelled in Mirnatha's nursery and commonly used by kidnappers. Edeard had not heard of it.

The Culverits are a Grand Family of Makkathran with a mansion in Tycho; Lorin is Kristabel's father and Mirnatha her sister.

The Culverit mansion houses the extended family on many floors; Julan remains Master but will move to the ninth floor so Edeard and Kristabel get the tenth.

A circular tunnel with glass-like glowing white-purple walls and scarlet lights, far beneath the canal tunnels, apparently unvisited since the city was built.

Vologral is the Jeavons District Master and an ally of Finitan on the Grand Council.

Promised to support the gondoliers in the Grand Council vote.

This longtalk technique works by exploiting suppressed weaknesses in the target's mind; Dybal advises keeping the mind tightly shielded against it.

Edeard's drosilk waistcoat was dented by bullets and probably saved his life.

Eddis, an abattoir worker and gang racketeer, was excluded from Silvarum, where his family lives; his wife confronted Edeard angrily.

Exclusion warrants cover known gang members; the gangs are now extorting a share of merchants' businesses, threatening or murdering family members who resist.

Festival commemorates the dead: families set flower boats on the canals while gondolas, representing Skylords, guide them to the port and out to sea.

Children launch flower boats on the canals during the Pythia's festival ceremony; crowds line the canals holding them.

The Gilmorn family has strong ties with Ivarl as part of the way the port works.

The Gondoliers Guild protested the restrictions and held a one-day gondola strike, the first in Makkathran.

The Grand Families breed for strong psychic ability and claim descent from Rah; they practice primogeniture and value only daughters.

Captain of the Culverit house guard, a former Bellis station constable of twenty years; baffled how the kidnappers got in and out.

Jamolar oil in barrels was stored in a tunnel under Zulmal Street, and Edeard used it as a weapon against the mob.

Aged 153, Master of the Culverit family; widowed six years ago, with only two daughters and no son, and estranged from many relatives.

Julan's elder daughter; the most desired girl in the city, tall and thin with wild gold-brown hair. She begs to take her sister's place.

Julan's younger brother, dismayed that the family claim allows lineage through a daughter; he now professes support for Julan.

Six-year-old second daughter of Master Julan, abducted at night from her tenth-floor nursery in the Culverit mansion.

Mistress Florrel was a strong psychic and sought-after woman; Ranalee claims descent from her four generations back.

Village out on the Iguru, about two hours' ride from South Gate, far beyond Edeard's longtalk range.

Pocklan, a gang member, led eight men to a Jeavons bridge, claiming he was visiting a dying mother, then retreated.

A Makkathran resident can petition a District Master or Representative to make the station commander enforce a law, but cannot force them to sign.

Sparbil, Grand Master of the Chemistry Guild, thanks Edeard for saving his guild's material and offers future help.

Tannarl is Ranalee's father, a haughty man who stood beside Ivarl and fired a powerful pistol at Edeard.

Capital-class ships are able to defeat Prime ships and would be used to disable and board one to prove the human-mind theory.

The deterrent fleet is the Commonwealth's ultimate defense, its nature secret even from Gore; Kazimir says it is real and he would lead it himself.

Retired Navy captain, 350 years old, living on Ganthia in a grown-tree house; he captained the Poix on his third Dyson Alpha mission.

Dunbavand family is a major Far Away political force; its patriarch was a Starflyer War hero, so it would defend its ships.

Gieovan, second tactical officer on the Yenisey, favored a crude solution to the Ocisen problem and held fire authority.

Higher with poor social skills and a quantum-signature specialist; he was unpopular aboard the Poix and kept talking about the Anomine factory.

The navy scout ship Lindau contacts Aaron on his emergency band while he crosses the frozen plain.

Lucian was captain of the Yenisey and led a four-member crew who argued constantly but remained professional.

The scout ship is a cylinder thirty-eight meters long, with retractable sensor clusters, ingrav units, malmetal landing struts and force field.

An unidentified spherical ship with impenetrable force fields appeared from nowhere and fired on the Yenisey, cutting off its link; its drive and origin are unknown.

The River-class navy warship Yenisey pursued the Ocisen fleet for nine days, forced its command ship out of FTL, and was destroyed by an unknown spherical ship.

A Makkathran custom in which a couple spend a week together to test physical compatibility before marriage; it is a custom, not a law.

Buate is Ivarl's half brother and the new owner of the House of Blue Petals.

Second son of the Havane family, he sailed the three-masted galleon Majestic Marie over a thousand years ago with eighty sailors and never returned.

Larose is an aristocratic militia officer who unexpectedly praises Edeard for bringing the gangs to heel and expects deployment orders himself.

Charyau is a wealthy Neph merchant importing salsponge; he refused the gang's demand for a third of his business.

The gang's guns came from the Weapons Guild, a secret type held in case the city is attacked, known only to senior Masters.

A half-living lodge of five muroak trees trained over 280 years, with glass walls, near the coast south of Makkathran.

A three-masted galleon over two hundred feet long, unlike any ship Makkathran has seen before or since; it vanished on its voyage.

Medath leads an enforcer crew from Sampalok and fled across the iron bridge into Pholas Park when Edeard's squad ambushed them.

The two-hundred-strong regiment left Makkathran to restore order in Talence province against bandits, seen off by the Mayor.

An unmarked underground music venue in the cellars beneath a toy shop on Doulon Lane in Cobara, guarded by two doormen.

Rapsail is Charyau's firstborn son, targeted by an enforcer crew for a beating as a warning to his father.

Sentan is an enforcer whom Edeard frees from cuffs and orders to leave Makkathran with his companions.

Owain's Weapons Guild wagons follow the regiment to Talence province to sell pistols to frightened farmers, profiting from the unrest.

A Higher planet using sustainable organic construction with genetically modified hardwood trees shaped into houses.

An emergency replacement ship waits for Aaron on Pulap, but Aaron judges it too risky to go there in the Lindau.

Wurung Transport, a company Laril ran, owns one licensed cab in a garage with software that evades city tracking.

The River-class Yangtze is already on its way to Hanko but is unlikely to arrive in time.

Acena is the Culverit family doctor and approved of Edeard's exercise routine.

Argian is a senior Weapons Guild journeyman aged forty-eight, held by Edeard in an underground cell; Owain names him as the pistol thief.

The city revokes Bise's mansion: its walls, doors, and roof dissolve into liquid dust, forcing everyone out.

The captive is a minor-family agent who stays composed under isolation, deflects questions, and warns that Edeard threatens a society that has worked two thousand years.

Corille, eldest daughter of the Ivesol family, is secretly seeing Jamis Tarmorl, and her father thinks she would make a better District Mistress than her brother.

District Masters of Sampalok; Motluk's family line leads back to a Diroal, linking the secret group to them.

Eachal, a guild sergeant, trained at Jeavons station and served eight years on the streets; he doubts Edeard will stay true to the common people.

Gang leader in Padua whose home Edeard burned after giving his family thirty seconds to flee.

Finitan's ge-mouse is finger-sized, climbs walls with talons, hears a pin drop at thirty yards, sees in the dark, and lives only about a week.

Gicon's Bracelet is five small planets orbiting one another beyond Querencia's orbit, including Alakkad, a black world with lava rivers.

Junlie, one of Argian's people, fired the pistol shots at Edeard during the riot.

Kathlynn is Kanseen's sister and holds little Dium.

The opera house is a vast amphitheater with colored windows and stalactites, its ledges holding private boxes belonging to Grand Families.

Marcol is a surly Sampalok teenager with a strong third hand who pulled a ge-eagle from the sky.

Mirayse, deranged, shot Boyd in the back of the head, saying he had killed her life and they were now equal.

Junior Master in the Leatherworkers Guild and mentor to Warpal and to the captured speaker; son of Altal, of the Diroal line.

Finitan fears one man with a repeat-fire gun could wipe out a cavalry troop; he worries they may have to make similar guns.

The hundred are gang figures named on Edeard's arrest list; the squad only managed to arrest eight, including Buate, on the first day.

A regiment of armed militia marches across High Moat toward Sampalok to suppress the riots.

Organized the attempt to push Edeard off the tower, with Merid, Pitier and the speaker; he obtained the vault keys for the pistols.

Atha is tasked with collecting seven thousand wreckage fragments by wormhole before ANA's agent can distort hyperspace.

Colabal runs an Accelerator replica of Araminta built from her DNA and simulated memories, used to predict her actions.

Columbia505 is an ANA ultradrive ship with a smartcore, used by Digby, armed with atomic distortion beams and dump webs.

Digby is Paula's descendant, four generations removed, who she assigns to shadow Chatfield.

Evanston was second in command of the development-restrictions monitoring station on Elan, which watched surviving Primes; he was assigned there about thirty years ago.

A cross-shaped metal base with kilometer-long wings, defended by eleven heavily stealthed sentry warships of strange wrinkled teardrop design.

Kerensk was a Big15 industrial world founded by Sergi Nikolayev; it rejected both Higher and Advancer cultures and became an observer nation.

Kingsville is an abandoned Starflyer War training base in Kerensk's desert, still legally Commonwealth territory, run by a smartcore and old bots.

Morton lives at Kaluga on Kerensk as a part-emperor, part-industrialist, only a small part human; his memories were stored in the Kingsville vault.

On Narrogin, the Cat took command, slaughtered hostages including children despite a deadline, and Lennox McFoster stood up to her.

The SI arose from self-aware wormhole software arrays, was declared persona non grata by ANA, and still monitors the unisphere in limited form.

Sergi Nikolayev was a Russian billionaire who founded Kerensk to free himself and his money from Moscow.

The paths shift in response to the traveler's wishes, have no fixed ends, and are used by uncountable millions; the Silfen avoid technologically advanced civilizations' planets.

The Spike is an alien artifact in the Hot Ring, 11,000 km long, with its base buried in a dimensional twist; it has a topping spire.

Balogg is Jeavons District Representative, allied to Finitan, and had the courage to sign exclusion warrants with Vologral.

Macsen and Kanseen live temporarily in the Bea's Bottle tavern while their hexagonal mansion grows in Sampalok's central square.

Boloton is a seventy-year-old ex-sheriff from Oki who spent much of his life roaming the countryside.

Edeard's mother and father stayed as faint souls to watch over and warn him, preferring this to joining the Heart.

Fresage is a huge, muscular man who served in a southern provincial militia and as a coastal warden.

The bandit leader is a Gilmorn who led the Ashwell attack and murdered Akeem; he serves Owain's goal of one nation under an emperor.

Gregorie is elected Sampalok's Representative to Council, a Finitan supporter.

Larby has the manners of a Grand Family son, is skilled with a pistol, and says little about his background.

Northford, a village in the Donsori Mountains four days' ride from Makkathran, was raided a week earlier with rapid-fire guns.

Rapid-fire guns, able to kill platoons in a minute, were possessed only by the Gilmorn's people and are now treated as fable.

Regentfleet, a hamlet near Sandmarket, was raided after Northford: five families were killed and the buildings burned.

Stibbington is a farm where the group camped on their first day on the road, a day's gallop from the ambush point.

Verini was born to a caravan family and is on a decade-long break to scout markets and learn roads.

Bruce was captured by the Starflyer, turned against the Guardians of Selfhood and became its agent; he killed Kazimir.

The Silverbird lands near a near-perfect replica of Far Away's Grand Triad, the same spot where Justine landed her hyperglider twelve hundred years earlier.

The memory layer holds a template of every instant in the Void, including copies of everyone who was ever there, like Owain.

It lies three levels below the Spiral Tower and holds every pistol and bullet design the Weapons Guild has made in two millennia.

Chobamba is an External world settled only about two hundred fifty years ago.

An External world with tens of millions of people; Living Dream tensions and violence are rising there, and biononically enriched people have countered attacks.

Miledeep Water is the only settlement on Chobamba's desert equatorial continent, built around a crater lake, with colorful clapboard buildings.

Ragnar owns the SideStar Motel and has met several travelers emerging from the Silfen path over the years.

The Prime ships carried scuttle bombs; one immotile triggered its bomb before Kazimir disabled the rest.

A unique, unnamed stealth starship that travels at fifty-nine light-years an hour and carries weapons able to destroy several Commonwealth Navy Capital-class ships; its weapons were tested once, destroying stars far away.

Eight thousand ultradrives holding position in transdimensional suspension near Neskia's ship, awaiting instructions and ready for use.

The large ultradrive Accelerator ship carries heavy weapons, takes the inversion core into its hold, and travels at seventy-eight light-years an hour.

The Agra wormhole generator at Riasi was used to redirect a wormhole and swallow wreckage fragments, destroying evidence before Digby wrecked it.

She makes Digby feel small and inadequate, tells him to keep following the representative's ship, and says the ANA judicial conclave expects to shut down the Accelerator Faction within hours.

The inversion core was built without ANA's base law, is self-sustaining, and is meant to fuse with the Void's nucleus; it can reach 0.99 lightspeed in under half a second.

Ranto is a gangly teenage Smoky James delivery boy without macrocellular clusters, who sells Araminta his self-repaired bike.

The Separatists wanted to break ANA apart, and tried to seize ANA's quasi-physical mechanism by deception; the first conclave refused their request.

Sol was cut off from the unisphere: all wormholes closed and every communication link failed, after the Swarm materialized and trapped the system in a force field.

Valean is a Higher with a skeletal gray iridescent body, brass teeth and pink eyes, serving a faction hierarchy under Atha; she replaces Marius at Ellezelin.

Wildlands tribesmen joined the Gilmorn because he was strong and because they want Rulan's land simply since others hold it.

Juliaca is Kazimir's deputy and now de facto commander of the Commonwealth Navy, but has no knowledge or contact code for the deterrence fleet.

Analee, Edeard's daughter, has been absorbed into the nest and stands beside Tathal, content and echoing the nest's views.

Visitors may examine items left by the final Anomine but may not alter, destroy or remove anything from the planet.

A fellowship of young merchants from big families who feel shut out by established guilds, associations and Orchard Palace contracts.

Augusta, once a Big15 planet and CST's hub for wormholes, is heavily guarded by eight River-class and two Capital-class warships.

Clouddancer is a winged, tailed Silfen named a human friend by the Silfen; he is sarcastic, crude and speaks with a German accent.

Capital of Oaktier, a mix of ancient crystal skyscraper core and parkland suburbs, over a hundred fifty kilometers across.

Duaro was found in bed with a young woman on his yacht and mistook the Delivery Man for an agent sent by his wife Mirain.

Dylorn is Edeard's son who has joined the militia.

Garnfal is Salrana's ailing husband, about to accept the Skylords' guidance, and has left her land in Ivecove in his will.

Jiska is Edeard's second child, sensible and unfashionable, with farsight stronger than her father's; she has dated Natran for five years.

The Lady Rasfay is a blue-white streamlined private yacht owned by Duaro, with a hyperdrive reaching just over fifteen light-years an hour.

Last Throw is Gore's ultradrive ship, designed and built by the Conservative Faction; the Delivery Man had been flying it unnamed.

Gore's asteroid orbits the Leo Twins, over a hundred miles across, cylindrical, hollow and artificial, with a T-sphere; it hid for a thousand years.

Marakas is Edeard's son who will marry Heliana before the Lady in two months.

Marilee and her identical twin Analee, aged twenty-five, are stars of Makkathran high society who dress alike and always get what they want.

Mayor Trahaval refuses to extend livestock ownership certificates to sheep and pigs, annoying Edeard.

Natran is a young ship captain from a trading family who is building his own fleet and is affiliated with the Apricot Cottage Fellowship.

The President orders a task force of Capital ships to Chobamba to destroy the ship that collected the inversion core, and will contact the High Angel.

Rolar is Edeard's eldest child; his wife Wenalee is likely expecting a third child, and they live on the tenth floor.

The Seahall is the only venue in Bellis grand enough for Trahaval's election parties, with azure concave walls, wave-cone roof and ripple fountains by its ten doorways.

The Sol barrier is perfectly smooth, with no opening like the original Dark Fortress had, so it cannot be turned off the same way.

The committee has largely finished its work; it now has about a quarter of its former constables and little left to do.

Taralee, Edeard's youngest child, is not yet twenty-two, a Doctors Guild journeyman, and shuns party life to devote herself to medicine.

Unknown ally who claims to have the only valid plan to save the galaxy from Ilanthe and the Void, and sends the Delivery Man to the Leo Twins.

Utrallis is a young militia officer of independent means whom the twins claimed as an escort; Edeard suspects distant Gilmorn ancestry.

Vintico is Salrana's oldest child by Tucal, Ranalee's brother, and is worthless; he is detained over a failed business deal and debts.

Yrance, the incumbent Chief Constable and Edeard's election rival, calls the Skylord claim a vote-grabbing stunt.

Zanlan is a chinaware dealer and Apricot Cottage Fellowship member who asked Edeard to look into unfair market treatment.

The Jachal Coliseum is a volcano-like arena seating seventy thousand, whose thick walls shield events from civic scrutiny.

Janine is sixty years old, rejuvenated to look twenty, anxious and emotionally needy; she has been Laril's partner for six months.

Alfal, a three-year-old, pushed back with his third hand surprisingly strongly, hinting at rising psychic strength in the new generation.

All residents of Boldar Avenue belong to the nest and watch Edeard placidly with identical calm.

Colfal is an elderly herbalist who owns an emporium in Five Fountain Plaza and called constables on Tathal, then recanted under domination.

Olbal's nephew Constatin vanished in Makkathran in broad daylight on his way to lunch at the Blue Fox, after Olbal sold to new merchants working for Uphal.

Five large concentric circular tunnels with links lie under Makkathran, and longer branches run out under the Iguru plain; the city carries travelers through them.

Gealee, Dinlay's wife, is cheating on him with a young farrier and was placed in Dinlay's path by the nest to spy on Edeard's campaign team.

Golbon is one of the last two active members of the Grand Council committee on organized crime; he doubts the fellowship is criminal.

Hala welcomes Edeard to Apricot Cottage; she has spoken with Kanseen and may be the one whose farsight has followed Edeard.

Halan runs the nest's principal businesses with exceptional financial skill.

Ivecove is a fishing village four miles north of Makkathran; a merchant wants the cottage land to build an inn.

Jaralee is a former lawyer's apprentice and clerk who excels at building evidence from scattered files; she notes domination cannot be legally proven.

Johans is a fashion designer who owns three outfitters in Lillylight, whose original families were eased out.

Kiary and Manel erased the memory in the city's substance of Edeard's bedroom, which they had entered unseen.

Manel is a young crewman who served as lookout and first sighted the eastern isles.

Olbal is a practical farming and woodland estate owner in Joxla province, married to Mirnatha.

Samilee, twenty-three, is heavily pregnant, five weeks from her due date, with father either Uphal or Johans.

Tathal is a young, handsome Apricot Cottage fellow with a provincial accent, living on Boldar Avenue in Abad, and possessing an exceptionally strong psychic ability.

Timath, Garnfal's eldest son, contests the will, accusing Salrana of defrauding the family, and has hired Master Cherix.

Uphal is the nest's chief persuader, who sways the weak.

Darraklan tries to take Araminta into custody but is cowed and ends up escorting her as ordered, calling her Dreamer.

Burlal, Edeard's beloved grandson in the earlier timeline, is absent; a granddaughter appears in his place.

Doblek, master of Drupe, now wears the Mayor's robes, whereas in Edeard's previous timeline Trahaval was Mayor; he is a traditionalist, not a reformer.

Rumor says the Fandine militia is marching through Plax to protect its citizens against Makkathran's militia.

Hilitte is Nanitte's daughter, married to Dinlay for seven months; Edeard finds her flirtatious toward him and fears trouble.

Jamico is Macsen's son and has attended the Upper Council in Macsen's place for half a year.

Kiranan is Natran and Jiska's three-year-old son, born aboard the Lady's Light.

Lady's Light is the flagship of a five-ship explorer flotilla, captained by Natran; after four years its sails are a patchwork of repairs.

Marvane, a junior lieutenant, became lover and then husband of the twins, married in a ceremony by Natran; he plans to settle on the Culverit estate.

Our City arose from a dispute over empty rooms in Tosella, demanding Makkathran buildings be reserved for citizens over stopover visitors.

Rainbow Square in Ilongo is named for seven moss-covered, weeping walls and is empty of crowds.

The borderguards are huge Anomine-built stations, left from the last high-technology-era Anomine, that guard the old homeworld against contamination; Gore says there are seventeen thousand to fight.

The Chikoya have lived in the Spike longest, around 4,500 years; the Ba'rine sect there, over a million strong, were expelled from their homeworld.

The plaza is a solid cylinder about five hundred meters deep, made of inert long-chain molecules, and only Anomine minds could reawaken it.

The Flam-gi hold a speciesist belief in their own superiority and are not sharing in Ozzie's dream.

Octoron is a chamber in the Spike with a plaza of roughly eighty-seven humans, iron-faced buildings and bicycles for transport.

The dream works like an emotional amplifier and telepathy, passing minds' feelings directly through spacetime without needing gaiamotes or the gaiafield.

Devroul is governor of Licshills and one of the suspects behind the ge-eagles spying on Edeard.

Edeard lands at the foot of the Eyrie tower after jumping back to just after he vanquished Tathal.

Oberford's Great Tower of Guidance was built in an earlier timeline, causing economic collapse and a tax revolt.

Edeard's unification links the city's minds openly and restricts dissent; eight provinces have subverted it and declared independence, calling it the Waterwalker's menacing empire.

Colris heads Ellezelin's planetary defense and reported the enemy ships eliminated, with three Ellezelin ships badly damaged.

Coleen is a medic who resents the Chikoya's claims and Ozzie's calls for everyone to get along.

The plaza in Octoron's township was heavily damaged: eleven people were bodylossed, and many more injured.

Max is a human medic who landed after the fight and treated burned victims.

Mindspace works best with human thoughts, and the Chikoya attach religious meaning to it as the all-perception realm.

The new force fields protecting the freighters withstood an attack by eight stealthed enemy ships without damage.

The fifteen-square-mile yard is shielded by five layers of force fields extending underground; it is loud, dry and its regrav fields cause nausea.

Suspension chambers are made by near level-three Neumann replicators across Ellezelin and the Free Market Worlds; they need only power and nutrient fluid.

Taranse is the Cleric who directs the starship construction project, appearing deliberately as a man in his fifties.

Mattuel is Edeard's favored son, born four and a half years after Finitan's guidance, and carries his father up the tower.

Myraian is Ozzie's lover with glowing skinlight patterns, tiny fangs and a dreamy mind; she worships him as father of humanity's mind and dislikes the visitors.

The house's voice is a hardwired copy of Ozzie's 1,500 years of memories, holding his physics and math knowledge; it insists it is the real Ozzie and taunts him.

The Spike's anchor mechanism is larger than the chamber that holds it, and that is only the part in spacetime; its unmapped functions are unknown.

The citymind of Makkathran sleeps deep below the city, radiating sorrow; the people respect its right to be and do not wake it.

Crystalline beings who descend in sparkling light; Eyrie's towers power those ascending to the Heart as their bodies bloom to dust.

Tolonan is a lush island with year-round blooming trees and terraced vineyards and orchards, discovered by the Waterwalker's flotilla.

The city's AI is neural-based and semiactive, responding only to Anomine minds; the Delivery Man senses it through the gaiafield but it ignores him as an outsider.

A wormhole engine powered by a novabomb with diverted energy; Troblum estimates it can send a starship 25-30 thousand light-years, ahead of the Pilgrimage fleet. Untested.

A nonoperational small wormhole stabilizer was found in the city near a plaza; fifty-three identical ones exist in different cities and were dismissed.

The Farloy compartment is about 1,200 km along the Spike and holds a major Chikoya settlement.

In the Anomine's oldest story, Fozif was the first of their kind to fly atop a flame machine to walk upon Ithal.

A fifty-kilometer lenticular force-field disc held by gravatonic manipulation two thousand kilometers below the star's surface, it is a huge mass-energy converter powering the elevation mechanism.

Tyzak is an elderly Anomine, an old-father of his village, who agrees to walk the Delivery Man to the place of separation, two days away.

The wormhole extends 180 million kilometers to the star and carries no matter or information, only power, from the siphon to the mechanism.

The containment is the Raiel's last-resort defense, a bracelet then sphere of dark force enclosing the Gulf, meant to hold until the Void exhausts the Gulf's mass.

The device triggered a runaway mass-energy explosion in the star, and a one-kilometer-wide wormhole opened with its far end 28,000 light-years away.

The warrior Raiel will try to stop the Pilgrimage fleet, showing no sentiment about the many lives involved.

Gore says the other Dreamers may already be in the Void, will likely head for Makkathran, and are needed in place with Justine.

Edeard traces the memory layer back to the Heart's beginning and revives a Firstlife, a twenty-foot alien with sinuous limbs and many teeth.