Anti-compulsion powder
A pinch of salt-like powder that holds the Wraithblade's pull off a man for a while
The Wraithblade does not only spread its affliction; it wants to be held, and men near it come to want to hold it. This powder blunts that. Dissolved in a drink it will keep the pull off a person for a while (at the price of being violently ill), and there is very little of it anywhere.
Garik gave Mikhail a single pinch during the riot in Haudh-Gwenn. He said his piece to Mikhail alone, gave Koa no more than a glance, and stepped outside to hand it over out of the room.
His instruction was to save it. Not for the fight but for the moment afterwards, when the sword is out of Beltran’s hands and somebody has to decide what to do with it. Have a beer before you go, he said. Talk to him a couple of minutes into the beer. Asked how long the dose would hold, he shrugged and said: not long enough.
It has never been used.