Just like that. [He might have toyed with it briefly. He had asked the bullet-crafter a good hundred or so questions while she had worked about the powder, the bullets, when and how the things were invented.]

Called it a pistol. Dumb name. I would have called it a- [He stares down his broken crossbow bolt, rubbing the burnt wick between his fingers with one eye shut and the other squinting.] Handcannon. No- A boomshot.

[He sounds gleeful about it, like a kid naming off collected sweets. No one should ever put him in charge of naming anything.]

Anyway this stuff is explosive and it burns big, but it burns too fast and too hot. The timing's a beast to deal with.