Forged Destiny [Book 9: Ch. 3, Ch. 6]

Ironwood was, for lack of a better term, porous.

I wasn't sure why that mattered but it did. The exterior, the bark – if one could call it bark when it was smooth, metallic and the whole structure was just as hard – was solid, but the inside, the core, was rivetted with hundreds of tiny little holes, tubes and pores, many so small you couldn't see them with the naked eye, but there. I could feel them in the way the heat dissipated through it, how even the slightest application of Stoke the Forge caused heat to spread through the Ironwood far quicker than any other metal.

That ought to have made it quicker to melt, but it wasn't. The heat spread evenly across whatever I was working with, meaning the whole thing maintained a uniform temperature. That would have been a serious problem for any other Blacksmith. Where were you supposed to hold it? How could you hammer and shape one end while the whole thing was soft?

For me, with my Passive, I was able to grip and mould it with my bare hands.

[...]

"The fact Ironwood is porous must have something to do with how easily Mages can channel their magic through it," I said, trusting Penny to keep mental notes for the Archmage's sake. "The closest I can think of is that the magic flows down the channels, though knowing absolutely nothing about how magic works, that's a guess at best."

—Forged Destiny [Book 9: Ch. 3]



Bringing the rapier up before her, still a little awkward due to her poor grip, Weiss whispered something and stabbed it forward.

A veritable gale of ice and wind poured forth from the tip of the blade, swirling over grass and freezing it solid, chilling the air to the point that even I shivered. The ice continued to pour from her sword until, with a look of absolute amazement, Weiss cut it to the side, breaking the spell. The ice in the air faded and tinkled down to the grass, coating it in a layer of permafrost.

"It's perfect," she breathed, cradling it to her chest. "I've never felt the magic flow so freely. I've never felt so powerful. Iron, steel, everything else feels like I'm forcing the magic through. There's a reason Mages use staves and wands made of living material. It's so much easier."

The words reminded me uncomfortably of my own thoughts using Stoke the Forge on the Ironwood. It had been easier. So much so.

"I'd be interested in seeing if something similar happens with a knife," Blake said.

"Yes!" Weiss rounded on us with eyes wide open. "We must test it! Blake's shadow abilities, Ruby's waves of energy, Yang's fire punches and even Pyrrha's techniques. All of those could be enhanced."

—Forged Destiny [Book 9: Ch. 6]