adrienne levine

Once he had been reduced to kindling, Noah pulled him out of the resulting puddle and stabbed him with the second tool, a metal spike wrapping him in smokeless fire. The magic flames worked quickly, reducing him and his clothes to ash in less than a minute. Minus his metal belt buckle and a few shards of bone, all of the trace evidence was removed, and Noah swept the remains into the broom closet. No one would ever know what happened to Reiss, but at least his killer suffered for what he did.

“Something like this.” Noah sealed the chandelier in his ring and conjured a magic tool, looking like a flashlight, but with a rune-engraved diamond instead of a bulb or glass lens. “This is called an ultraviolet light, or a UV light for short. It can be used to illuminate things the human eye can’t see, like fluids at a murder scene, and in this case, it damages Profane flesh and energy.”“You mean like holy light?”

Watching him work, the expertise at his fingertips, it was like watching a masterful performance. Even the act of dissection was artful. He was so knowledgeable, so capable, and he would explain how he used these techniques in the past to help people. My fear quickly turned to admiration, and I realized that Lord Noah could not be judged by such terms as good or evil. He is neither black nor white, but gray at both its darkest and brightest, a gray as deep as the ocean.