Forged Destiny [Book 9: Ch. 2]

"Weiss knows nothing of it either," Winter said with an amused smile. "But I appreciate you trying to cover for her. I won't go into the specifics, but Ironwood is a material that somehow crossed between both wood and metal, hence the name. It has numerous anomalous properties, but one of those properties is that it is, in some small way, alive."

I didn't miss the implication. "He created life!?"

"Possibly." Winter said the word with an odd lilt. "It's no more alive than a tree is. We expect it is alive but not sentient, and tests performed on it seem to agree. Simply put, if it is alive then it's no more `living` than a plank of wood. But that is still a matter of importance for the Constructs. They are formed with a core of Ironwood, and it is this that Mages can channel magic through."

—Forged Destiny [Book 9: Ch. 2]