The song of the world…does not bear on this sword.<br/><br/>It is not a thing of this world.<br/><br/>It doesn't feel harmful to the world, in the same way that the Bugs (for instance) do; it doesn't disrupt the world's song; the song flows on around it, ignoring it. (Does William try to attract the world's attention to it?)<br/><br/>As for craftsmanship, it is exquisite and alien. It's not an abstract sword-object, as one would expect a sword to be that was made by someone's thoughts; it is very definitely physical. However, it wasn't made in separate forms and fused together—one can see the knife in the sword, or the sword in the knife, if one knows how to look. William's best guess is that the forging process created the shifting blade directly, as a shifting object, by some means he does not understand. Someone who was used to blades of some other country, or even some other world, than Ken is could will it into those forms, and it would still be the same, hand-crafted weapon.<br/><br/>The hallmark on the blade is not from any Earthly craftsman of whom William has ever heard, either. It is an ouroboros encircling an ideogram in some foreign yet strangely familiar language. Looking at it does something to William's brain—kicks something open, like a concealed safe being unlocked. A faculty or sense begins to rouse that was already there, but dormant. It isn't awake yet, quite, though.