Terminus Est

The executioner's sword that Severian carries for much of the Cycle. He describes her thus:

"Her bitter blade was an ell in length, straight and square-pointed as such a sword's should be. Man-edge and woman-edge could part a hair to within a span of the guard, which was of thick silver with a carven head at either end. Her grip was onyx bound with silver bands, two spans log and terminated with an opal. Art had been lavished upon her; but it is the function of art to render attractive and significant those things that without it would not be so, and so art had nothing to give her. The words Terminus Est had been engraved upon her blade in curious and beautiful letters, and I had learned enough of ancient languages since leaving the Atrium of Time to know that they meant This is the Line of Division.

..."'There is a channel in the spine of her blade, and in it runs a river of hydrargyrum--a metal heavier than iron, though it flows like water.'"

(Shadow of the Torturer, chapter XIV)

function:RenderStopWatch