Bloodless Device

The Bloodless is an artificing device developed by Kvothe during his time at the University. Its purpose is to protect travelers by sympathetically stopping arrows shot by highwaymen. It resembles an eight-sided all-metal lantern.

The device was named by Elodin.

Operation

The device utilizes sygaldry that binds with any incoming piece of iron, obsidian, glass, or thin cylindrical piece of wood. When such an object is within range of the device and traveling at a sufficient velocity, a bear trap spring triggers, deflecting or negating the momentum from the incoming object. The Bloodless can stop eight arrows before the springs need to be reset. As there is only one spring on each face of the lantern, the device hangs on a pivot ring enabling it to stop multiple arrows shot from a single direction - the energy of an incoming arrow tends to swing the device around to the nearest untriggered spring, similar to how a weathervane points into the wind. The device is sold for eight talents each.