Virtuous Guardian of Flame

VIRTUOUS GUARDIAN OF FLAME
COST: 25 motes (5 committed)
TARGET: One Creature
The caster combines the Sign of Flame with the Sword-God Mudra to create an automaton servant in the form of a burning sword that floats before him. If the caster touches another being, the virtuous guardian of flame shrinks to the size of a torch-flame and obeys that being thereafter. The flame goes wherever the target bids it, but it must remain within three yards of her. Sorcerers protected by these spells are known for the burning headdresses they wear, for the holy flames that adorn their staves, or for their occult lanterns or burning censers.
When the target of the spell is attacked,the flame leaps to her defense. The automaton extends into a flaming sword to parry hand to hand attacks or into a burning shield that blocks ranged attacks. in either instance, it gives its owner a Parry DV of (the sorcerers [Wits + Occult + Essence]/2). this Parry DV explicitly may be used to parry any ranged attacks (including attacks as part of a spell), and it never suffers DV penalties from any source other than onslaught or coordinated attacks. If the guardian parries a barehanded or other natural attack, the attacker must resist environmental damage (Damage 4L, Trauma 2, see Exalted pg. 131) from the flame. The automaton itself never takes attack actions, though.
This Parry DV explicitly exists in addition to the recipient's normal DV's, and the recipient may choose which DV to use against a given attack, as normal. Coordinated attacks must choose either the automaton or its owner as the target of their tactics, they cannot choose both. The automation is easily tricked, however. Any attempt to reestablish surprise against the recipient automatically fools the automaton, as long as the attacker's player rolls at least one success. The automaton cannot defend against both ranged and hand to hand attacks at the same time. During the recipient's action, she may use a reflexive action to mentally order it to switch is form and defend against another kind of attack.
The virtuous guardian lasts until the sun crosses the horizon again, or until the sorcerer ceases committing the five motes for the spell. Any given creature. including the sorcerer herself, can bear just one guardian at a time, and the guardian can be destroyed only by countermagic.