Being roasted alive was not a clean way to exit the world. In an enclosed room, smoke inhalation played its part, but there was plenty of oxygen outside. The brain had to endure every nerve ending being set alight with untold levels of searing pain. The screams of those burned at the stake, long ago, still echoed through the ages.
It was not a pleasant way to go.
Elfleda might have said something, presented options to chose from, had this not been his course of action. One could term it impulsive, but also decisive. The figure standing before him did not judge, only observed.
And listened, as the flames continued to lap at their victim's clothing and flesh.
"Yes, Noah... I can show you a path to power. I can show many such paths. But you need company if you intention is to travel far down them."
She had yet to look back to him. Her gaze was locked upon his victim and, with a subtle inclining of head, the shadows nearest where Carl had fallen began to blacken and expand. Something growled behind them and she slowly smiled, turning back to Noah's attention.
As something lunged, faster than the eye could see, to snatch the burning corpse away.
"Every time you burn, you sacrifice," the stranger advised. Her own flaming dress covered the ground ground it took to close in on him. "You've been stoking the embers longer than most... But now you've begun to truly be tested."
Her head tilted in greeting.
"Lady Elfleda. Emissary of the Black Light. And there are others needed to stoke these embers, Noah." That's when her smiled curved much more viciously and she took his hands in her own. Black irises shimmered with a glistening of possibilities and it felt, for a moment, as if they were somehow shielded from the outside world. "The hunter made you change heart, didn't she? Tell me... If she could be at your mercy, as had the vampire, would you relish the opportunity of inflicting discipline upon her? Or do you feel respect for showing you honesty?"