“Nothing alive, and nothing that is part of the living. Hair is dead tissue. Nails too. Once they're shed, they're like anything else — dirt, rocks. I can use your blood as a focus — or um, I could use mine, I don't like to, it's dark — but I cannot change the blood itself. It's just um, like a conduit. I can't change its temperature or what it's made of. I can turn a rock into gold. Not a rabbit.”
It's so odd to talk about this so casually, like it's not this terrible dark thing. Like people aren't afraid of it. Like last week they didn't stab some kind of monster from another dimension in the heart with an iron knife, like they only use it to make charms and amulets.