Alloy-Hilted Daggers

The dagger Violet finds on Lilith's desk has an alloy-infused hilt and what appears to be a Tyrrish rune in the handle.

Lilith Sorrengail keeps an alloy-infused, rune-marked dagger on her desk, where Violet first notices it among Lilith’s papers.

Xaden carries one of the black-handled alloy daggers and gives it to Violet before she continues to Athebyne, making it part of her own defenses.

Xaden says alloy was put into daggers shortly before the rebellion rather than from the beginning of the ward system. After Sgaeyl chose him, his group began smuggling small numbers of the daggers to friendly drifts.

The covert supply reaches Syrena’s drift when Xaden delivers two bags holding twenty-three alloy-hilted daggers, while keeping one dagger back for himself.

Aretia’s production expands enough to equip every rider there with multiple daggers. Brennan’s one-for-one supply rule also reserves dagger output for allied drifts, so the weapons support both rider and flier forces.

Suniva’s fallen armory gives the venin a large captured supply: six crates of freshly delivered alloy-hilted daggers meant for distribution to other cities the next morning.

At Draithus, the defenders have only two cases of alloy-hilted daggers or similar forge weapons, not enough for the battle. Imogen’s plan requires riders inside the walls to bring their alloy weapons to Felix’s building and disarm there, because the collected weapons are the defenders’ realistic chance of survival.

Alloy-hilted daggers are confirmed in the Athebyne battle plan as the only practical way to kill venin. Their usefulness comes with a severe tactical limit: dagger kills require riders to get close, and throwing away one of the few weapons can leave a fighter defenseless unless the aim is certain.

Producing the weapons requires smelting alloy with dragonfire intense enough for the work, which is why Brennan says the revolution needs a luminary. He treats forged daggers as the practical means of continuing the war while searching for whatever older weapon or method ended venin during the Great War.

Daggers stored at outposts also help power ward defenses, so sending them out in covert shipments risks weakening those wards.

A dagger thrown into a venin disguised as a scribe kills him and leaves his body shriveled. After that strike, Violet notices the alloy’s hum is dimmer and can only hope the weapon still has enough power for another killing blow.

An alloy-hilted dagger can also kill a dragon when driven between the scales. Berwyn uses two such daggers in the canyon fight, and one stabbed into Panchek’s netted dragon desiccates the dragon into a husk, shocking Xaden because the weapon has killed the dragon rather than only a venin.

At Resson, Liam uses a runed dagger to slit a venin rider's throat after landing on a wyvern.

In Tecarus’s arena, Violet rejects Mira’s ordinary dagger as useless against a venin and relies on alloy-hilted blades instead. Xaden throws more of them into the arena, Brennan retrieves one, and Violet uses two to pin the venin before electrifying the water around him.

At Basgiath, Carr uses an alloy-hilted dagger as the immediate execution weapon against a cadet revealed or believed to be turning venin. He drives the blade through her back into her heart after Panchek orders him to act, killing her instantly.

During the battle at Draithus, alloy-hilted daggers circulate as essential anti-venin weapons even though the defenders do not have enough. Dain uses one to kill a crimson-clad dark wielder on the wall, while Imogen reaches the point of carrying her last alloy-hilted dagger.

At the canyon mouth, Xaden carries two alloy-hilted daggers at his thighs and uses shadow to drive them into the chests of two venin guards.