Book 4. Chapter 24
The sparring grounds were somewhat crowded, and two from Brin’s Lance were already there, Aeron and Meredydd. At first he was impressed that they were already back here and practicing after their extremely difficult day, but they weren’t sparring. They seemed more interested in chatting with the other [Knights] than actually getting any training done. Neither looked keen to talk to Brin, so he left them to it.
The sparring area was pretty full, with people waiting in line, but the targets set up for archery were completely open, which suited Brin perfectly. He hung the piece of armor that Meaty had given him on a dummy and then backed up to give himself room to work.
First, he launched some of his pre-summoned marbles at the dummy, pressing more magic into them than was strictly necessary in order to harden them so they wouldn’t crack or break against the metal. They probably wouldn’t have broken anyway, but he wanted to get a feel for the interplay between his magic and the hardening enchantments on the armor.
It didn’t work very well, because he could only feel the interaction in the Wyrd for a tiny instant before the marble bounced off. He tried again with one, and instead of throwing it he pressed it into the metal and held it there.
This time, he felt his connection to the magic powering the marble cut out, and it fell to the floor.
Good. He tried again. He charged the marble with as much Mana as it could hold without shattering and then pressed it against the metal. This time he felt it connect, and felt the conflict in the Wyrd.
The metal’s argument was strong. It wasn’t even an argument; it was a statement of fact. I am armor. I don’t bend or break. I defend my wearer. Short and simple, and it gave Brin nothing to work with. One of the weaknesses of the Wyrd was that you had to believe your own arguments. Brin couldn’t say, “You aren’t armor” or “You shouldn’t protect your wearer” and the armor wouldn’t budge even if he could. The best he could manage would be something like You are armor but I will break you anyway. At that point, knowledge of the Wyrd wasn’t changing anything at all.
Still pumping in Mana to keep his grasp on the marble, he tried using it to nudge the metal to the side.
He gasped as the Mana draining from his pool increased tenfold, and cut the connection before the armor could pull it all away. It had obviously been enchanted against someone trying to move it with magic.