It's been a year or so since I've read warbreaker. These might have been answered somewhere in the book, and my googling skills could be lacking also.
I have a few scenarios. If a rope was told to "hold things", and the person who invested the breath was killed, what would happen to the rope and the breath? Would the rope hold things for all eternity? Would the rope revert back to being a normal rope? Does the breath just disappear? Can someone else take in the breath?
In a similar scenario, what if the rope was destroyed? Does the breath return to the person that invested it, is the breath destroyed, is the breath just floating there for anyone to grab up, or is there another option?
My original thought was what would it take to turn Nightblood back into a normal sword, if it was even possible. Then I realized I was confused about breaths in general.