Markus was watching Dulce, but Em was watching Markus, and as he answered her, her brow furrowed. It made sense that he trusted it to hold the enchantment, considering he was preparing it for enchanting, but as he went on, Emily's expression went a little slack with puzzlement.
She thought she understood what he meant--he didn't need the enchantment to last too long since the shield wasn't permeable, but did that mean he was counting on the thing eventually breaking? But wasn't it sentimental? Then he began to talk about pewter itself, its manufacturing; how its quality was arbitrary, and that it was notably fragile and she looked even more troubled.
Preparing for eventual failure was one thing, but choosing to use subpar materials on purpose was just careless. If he wanted a test run, using a sentimental item wasn't the way to go. Her lips parted as she tried to work through a few responses to address all of what he said.
“Um...” she dithered, glancing over at Dulce. It wasn't a shy sound, just a perplexed one as she sorted her thoughts. She could tell him otherwise, but she wasn't certain he wanted to hear it after that. Thinking that perhaps she might be able to save him from himself, she tried a more direct approach than her initial question.
“So... the material does matter,” she said, her tone still mild, but straightforward. “You're pushing magic through it, so you want something sturdy. Also, if the quality is arbitrary, or it's fragile, doesn't that seem even riskier to you? If it breaks, well... Then you've broken something from your sister.” At best. Never mind whatever happened when the enchantment broke. Maybe nothing, maybe it blew his head off. Markus seemed to have a lot of information off the top of his head, but Emily wasn't certain what he meant to accomplish with it. Did he want to break his sister's gift?
She thought she understood what he meant--he didn't need the enchantment to last too long since the shield wasn't permeable, but did that mean he was counting on the thing eventually breaking? But wasn't it sentimental? Then he began to talk about pewter itself, its manufacturing; how its quality was arbitrary, and that it was notably fragile and she looked even more troubled.
Preparing for eventual failure was one thing, but choosing to use subpar materials on purpose was just careless. If he wanted a test run, using a sentimental item wasn't the way to go. Her lips parted as she tried to work through a few responses to address all of what he said.
“Um...” she dithered, glancing over at Dulce. It wasn't a shy sound, just a perplexed one as she sorted her thoughts. She could tell him otherwise, but she wasn't certain he wanted to hear it after that. Thinking that perhaps she might be able to save him from himself, she tried a more direct approach than her initial question.
“So... the material does matter,” she said, her tone still mild, but straightforward. “You're pushing magic through it, so you want something sturdy. Also, if the quality is arbitrary, or it's fragile, doesn't that seem even riskier to you? If it breaks, well... Then you've broken something from your sister.” At best. Never mind whatever happened when the enchantment broke. Maybe nothing, maybe it blew his head off. Markus seemed to have a lot of information off the top of his head, but Emily wasn't certain what he meant to accomplish with it. Did he want to break his sister's gift?