The Wind's Work
The sky shield is the work of the Vantari, and the Vantari are the only ones who make it, because the Vantari are the only ones who know how to carry weight the way the wind carries weight. It is the shape of a kite shield grown from the light wood of the roost and a face of stretched Hide, and the whole argument fits in its weight: light as the wind is light, and the wind is the one that does not stop. The fighter who carries the sky shield is the fighter who is already moving — the sky shield is not for the line, the sky shield is for the flight of it, the step of it, the way of it.
A journeyman sky shield is a frame of light wood and a face of hide, and the making is the lightness: every rivet counted, every board thinned until the thinned is the strong. A master sky shield has the face of the Vantari's own working, and the working is not a ward — the working is the shape of a step, and the step is the one the fighter keeps. A masterwork sky shield is a story event, and the story has written the one that flies.
In the Hand
The sky shield is the first stance, made light: brace, moving. It covers the hand to the knee the way the round does, but it does not cost the step, and the step is the whole of the argument. The fighter behind it takes the blunt wound into the frame instead of the body, and takes the step with the frame, and the frame is the one that is hit — the way the wind is the one that is hit, and the wind does not stop for the hit.
"A heavy shield is a promise you carry. A sky shield is a promise that carries you." — Zahlia