The velvet antler is soft in Jinshi 's palm.

It 's a strange texture in his hand 'a delicate velvet wrapped around the bone-hard core creates a strange contrast. It 's not like anything he has ever held before, though Jinshi has hunted deer many times, whenever he couldn 't get out of an imperially-sanctioned hunting trip. Those trips are more of an opportunity to make nice with various simpering ministers than actually hunt, though; anytime he was able to bring a deer down with a well-placed arrow, it was in fall, long after the antlers had shed all their velvet.