"As with many painful experiences, the anticipation was worse than the event itself."

"...there's a tier of magical items above ordinary ones, known as 'artifacts', made by economicmagicusers of extraordinary power or with aid from 'gods'; once made 'artifacts' are very nearly indestructible and so they accumulate through the ages.  An ordinary antimagic field could not suppress their function, even if it was powerful enough to operate against every lesser magic."

"Cheliax does not have that many artifacts, and many of those that do exist are weapons or destructive or have some ill-effect on their users.  The one I am wearing is in fact about as close to purely beneficial as any 'artifact' can be."

"That it has become this much of a part of myself and is now incredibly unpleasant to remove, might perhaps be considered a downside.  But it is not something that you wearing it for two seconds would do."

The antimagic around Merrin is at the divine level - possibly beyond that, it cannot be ruled out, but definitely at least at the divine level.  This did not seem like the work of any mortal wizard to begin with; but now that has been ruled out essentially entirely.  Antimagic fields of the known type - which would admittedly not have any elemental vulnerabilities - would not be able to suppress the function of any artifact, let alone that one.

"As with many painful experiences, the anticipation was worse than the event itself."

"...there's a tier of magical items above ordinary ones, known as 'artifacts', made by economicmagicusers of extraordinary power or with aid from 'gods'; once made 'artifacts' are very nearly indestructible and so they accumulate through the ages.  An ordinary antimagic field could not suppress their function, even if it was powerful enough to operate against every lesser magic."

"Cheliax does not have that many artifacts, and many of those that do exist are weapons or destructive or have some ill-effect on their users.  The one I am wearing is in fact about as close to purely beneficial as any 'artifact' can be."

"That it has become this much of a part of myself and is now incredibly unpleasant to remove, might perhaps be considered a downside.  But that is not something that you wearing it for two seconds would do."

The antimagic around Merrin is at the divine level - possibly beyond that, it cannot be ruled out, but definitely at least at the divine level.  This did not seem like the work of any mortal wizard to begin with; but now that has been ruled out essentially entirely.  Antimagic fields of the known type - which would admittedly not have any elemental vulnerabilities - would not be able to suppress the function of any artifact, let alone that one.

"As with many painful experiences, the anticipation was worse than the event itself."

"...there's a tier of magical items above ordinary ones, known as 'artifacts', made by economicmagicusers of extraordinary power or with aid from 'gods'; once made 'artifacts' are very nearly indestructible and so they accumulate through the ages.  An ordinary antimagic field could not suppress their function, even if it was powerful enough to operate against every lesser magic."

"Cheliax does not have that many 'artifacts', and many of those that do exist are weapons or destructive or have some ill-effect on their users.  The one I am wearing is in fact about as close to purely beneficial as any 'artifact' can be."

"That it has become this much of a part of myself and is now incredibly unpleasant to remove, might perhaps be considered a downside.  But that is not something that you wearing it for two seconds would do."

The antimagic around Merrin is at the divine level - possibly beyond that, it cannot be ruled out, but definitely at least at the divine level.  This did not seem like the work of any mortal wizard to begin with; but now that has been ruled out essentially entirely.  Antimagic fields of the known type - which would admittedly not have any elemental vulnerabilities - would not be able to suppress the function of any artifact, let alone that one.

"As with many painful experiences, the anticipation was worse than the event itself."

"...there's a tier of magical items above ordinary ones, known as 'artifacts', made by economicmagicusers of extraordinary power or with aid from 'gods'; once made 'artifacts' are very nearly indestructible and so they accumulate through the ages.  An ordinary antimagic field could not suppress their function, even if it was powerful enough to operate against every lesser magic."

"Cheliax does not have that many 'artifacts', and many of those that do exist are weapons or destructive or have some ill-effect on their users.  The one I am wearing is in fact about as close to purely beneficial as any 'artifact' can be."

"That it has become this much a part of myself and is now incredibly unpleasant to remove, might perhaps be considered a downside.  But that is not something that you wearing it for two seconds would do."

The antimagic around Merrin is at the divine level - possibly beyond that, it cannot be ruled out, but definitely at least at the divine level.  This did not seem like the work of any mortal wizard to begin with; but now that has been ruled out essentially entirely.  Antimagic fields of the known type - which would admittedly not have any elemental vulnerabilities - would not be able to suppress the function of any artifact, let alone that one.

"As with many painful experiences, the anticipation was worse than the event itself."

"...there's a tier of magical items above ordinary ones, known as 'artifacts', made by economicmagicusers of extraordinary power or with aid from 'gods'; once made 'artifacts' are very nearly indestructible and so they accumulate through the ages.  An ordinary antimagic field could not suppress their function, even if it was powerful enough to operate against every lesser magic."

"Cheliax does not have that many 'artifacts', and many of those that do exist are weapons or destructive or have some ill-effect on their users.  The one I am wearing is in fact about as close to purely beneficial as any 'artifact' can be."

"That it has become this much a part of myself and is now incredibly unpleasant to remove, might perhaps be considered a downside.  But that is not something that you wearing it for two seconds would do."

The antimagic around Merrin is at the divine level - possibly beyond that, it cannot be ruled out, but definitely at least at the divine level.  This did not seem like the work of any mortal wizard to begin with; but now that has been ruled out essentially entirely.  Even if an antimagic field had been cast at ninth-circle power, in some newly-researched form that conformed exactly to a person, that spell - which would notably not have any elemental vulnerabilities - would not be able to suppress the function of any artifact, let alone that one.