"She made a shadow lattice. Noctyrr's limb was severed from its body…" Kael continued, voice low with lingering disbelief. "And it did not grow back."
Theron's eyes narrowed at once. "It did not grow back?"
The monster had resisted everything they had thrown at it. Silver. Wood. Garlic-laced silver. Blessed steel. Sage. Every weapon and ward known to hurt those creatures had failed to do more than anger it. They had never been able to get deep enough, never been able to determine what truly killed it.
And Aveline had torn through it like that?
"She did not even use a rune," Kael added.
That, more than anything, was the part that unsettled Theron. He stayed silent for a beat, taking it in.
"She never studied runes," Theron said.
She had never had the chance. And yet she had done what trained mages struggled to achieve. What did that mean? How could she wield power without the structure of runes, without the discipline everyone else needed to shape magic into anything useful?
