Every novice at the Academy took Basic Armor because one of the Paths of the Witchblade is War; and in order to fight and to command, a Witchblade must understand how to stay alive when the Dance is brightest.
Kamiéra had been a fairly typical boy of his time in the life he barely even thought about any more, which is to say, he played a lot of video games that involved killing people; and a lot of those involved armor in some way. It was not, however, a subject that interested him very much because guns made most kinds of armor obsolete or constantly on the wrong end of the Strategic Dilemma 400 years before his birth.
So if not for the way he had discovered everything about his new life infinitely more interesting, important, and real than the one before, he'd have blown off Basic Armor as he had everything in his old life. Of course, now he wanted to be a Witchblade with all his heart, and so he cared about Armor and Armor Theory intensely.
One thing that had briefly piqued his interest in those hazy, largely-forgotten times, however, was metallurgy. It hadn't held his interest forever, but it was what had partially motivated him to consider being an architect. And at the exact time he'd cared, his barely-remembered world had made a rare, huge leap in it.
The First Rule of Armor is that no armor can stop every attack; and the Second Rule is that the closer the Warrior comes to invulnerability, the less she can move, and so becomes vulnerable and useless, both in other ways. Starmetal, quite aside from its receptiveness to both Wind and Flame, would solve this but for the fact that there was barely enough of it at any time to arm the Gifted, let alone coat their bodies in it. Steel, adopted not long after the Empire embraced Patrianism and Matrianism -- and arguably because the Father and Mother revealed it to Cleosine I before he began his Reconquest -- was lighter, more durable, and more malleable during forging than iron alone, but was still fairly heavy, especially for a woman. Where a man could (clumsily) stride the battlefield practically coated in it, a woman, even a Gifted, would tire quickly.
For this reason, Witchspear armor had been, for thousands of Seasons, a compromise that protected vital regions while maintaining lightness and flexibility, to be augmented by the Gifted's Will. The midsection, lower arms, and lower legs were therefore covered by soft leather that would serve as a simple Focus for the Will; thus, Wind, harder than steel but more flexible than cloth, would cover these secondary areas in battle.
But even one as Gifted as Kamiéra with the Will and the Wind could not harness that much focus indefinitely and perfectly while steel was singing around his head, and his sisters were not as Gifted as he.
But what if steel could be lighter, thinner, stronger, and more flexible? Some of the same concerns would apply, but because the First Rule of Armor was as much a guide as a warning, knowing how to use it best would help along every line.
Kamiéra's grin as he held up the cloth made of small rings of superheated and supercooled steel, bound through soft, tough goatskin leather was so contagious that even Jelaris caught it. "Father send me to the Chasm, cousin," he said, trying and failing to hide his grin behind a gigantic paw. He put down the broadsword he'd swing against the steel cloth, which was now nicked to match the rings' dents. "And all it took was to exhaust everyone watching it."
Every single member of Kamiéra's Company was snoring loudly behind them, not even slightly disturbed by the pounding and ringing of steel on steel. No one had ever tried what Kamiéra had suggested before, and so a great deal of energy was wasted as they tried and erred their way to success. Even Kamiéra and Jelaris were trembling, but in a euphoric way.
"The Mother brings bounty to those who follow Her ways," the younger Gifted recited from the Hymn of Entry, a triumphant statement and a clear truth. For what could it have been but the Mother's Grace that brought him here to make life so much better for the Empire's Gifted, and therefore the Empire itself?
The older man laughed dryly. "Things of earth and flame usually belong to the Father, cousin," he replied. "But I won't quibble over theology." He clearly couldn't help himself from smiling. "So who gets the first suit of the newer armor?"
Kamiéra only paused for a moment. "Amaso," he said, sitting as he did. "She's the slightest of us. If she can use it, we all can. If she can't, we will keep working on the design until it's right."
His cousin turned to take hold of the armor dummy and some sketching chalk. "Good thinking, girl," he said as he turned, and then saw that his young cousin had fallen asleep where she sat. He shook his head and started gathering forge blankets to put over the young women now occupying over half the floor of his forge.
He put on Kamiéra's last. "The man you allow to marry you will be the luckiest of his generation," he said with a smile, and strode off to write her mother, one of his closest cousins, as long a missive as his cramping hand would allow.
With plans for the new steel to go to his House and hers.
