Jebel didn't see the exact place to strike, but the sword knew it.

"The sword just knows now that I'm the better fighter," she said, sounding sincere.

Besides, knowing how these mage-purposed things work, I would say that the sword might well have known where it was going.

As if the sword as well as Del knew she had come home at last.

It's part of the Binding ritual; the sword must know its master.

Having imagination, I wondered also whether the sword knew that after its long sleep it had come forth again to drink the blood of foes.

'The sword knows why it was made,' Will said.

The free swords knew how such things should he done.

And there was pain in every direction but one: as the sword had known the way to its own source, his senses did.

Also known as gassan-hada after the name of a school which usually produced swords of this type.