"You," said Daphne.
I held up my hand and put a Barrier over it, a flat pane about the size of a plate.
She looked at it the way she had looked at my wrist.
"Where does it go?"
"Where does what go?"
"When something hits it."
"Some of it goes sideways. I tip it." I tilted the pane to show her. "The rest I eat."
"Eat."
"Pay for. Stamina. Mana, if it's a big one."
"After it hits."
"It's a barrier," I said. "After is when things hit."
Daphne looked at the drop post.
The weight was already up, sitting in the catch at the top. I slid a clay tile underneath, stretched out on my side next to it, and set a Barrier over the tile, angled a little.
Daphne took the cord.
"Ready."
"Mm."
She pulled.
The weight fell the way weights fall, fast and flat and without any interest in anyone's opinion. It hit the Barrier with a dull, solid sound. The pane held, tipped, and the weight slid off it into the sand beside the tile. The tile didn't so much as rattle.
