#ekthalion

There are a few things that don't add up. When we first see the blade near the beginning of Book 1, it is in its corrupted state and only slightly unsheathed. It can't harm Will (although we don't know that yet), and he is able to call the blade to him. We are led to believe that this is because the blade was corrupted with Will/Sarcean's blood, and that it is now a dark object, essentially that it has become his dark object.

HOWEVER: during that first scene, we see Will struggling to get the blade under control:

The boy was shaking. Curled over the sword, his eyes opened full of agonising struggle, as if it was taking everything he had to keep it sheathed. Just for a moment, he looked right at her. ‘I can’t hold it!’ he said to her. The sword was fighting him. ‘Go!’ ‘Throw it!’ she said. ‘Throw it into the river!’ ‘I can’t!’ said Will, the words forced out through pain. He looked like he was barely holding on. ‘Get everyone out!’

Near the end of the book, when Simon wields the blade, we only get two lines to describe how he handles it:

‘That’s where you’re wrong,’ said Simon, and pushed back his coat, reaching for the onyx hilt and in one smooth motion drawing the Corrupted Blade. ... The tearing power of it ripped at Will’s clothes, which were in tatters, and he flung up his hand uselessly, driven to his knees as Simon held the sword, barely controlling it as its black fire erupted, killing everything.

Ok, so Simon also struggles with the blade, but it kinda seems like it doesn't pose nearly the same difficulty for him, fully unsheathed, as it did for Will when it was only slightly unsheathed.

What's more, once the blade has been cleansed by Katherine, it no longer seems to pose any difficulty at all for Will. He's able to carry it around, unsheathe it, and even touch the surface of the blade with no ill effects right before he gives it to Violet in book 2.

So, if Ekthalion was forged specifically to kill Sarcean, why would it literally fight him while corrupted (supposedly with his own blood), yet do nothing to him once cleansed?

visander and elizabeth sketch in french, eventually colored during lunch