"That's sort of hard to say," Balthier says. He pulls his hand away from where it's cupped over the spot on his left arm. "The . . . nethicite in question was probably made for a sort of -" The terms are mostly all technical, in his mind. "Anti-hypothermia? That sort of thing. But, it's flawed."
He nudges the bread toward Shaun. Eat? "All nethicite drains your magic. The gear used for high ranking officials can make you basically unable to be magically healed until you take it off. It absorbs - ambient magic as well. The term for that would be Mist. You can tell someone's high ranking, because they'll have a shiny patch, like a burn -" He traces the general shape on his arm.