"Hazai," Arthur said quietly, looking at the flame rather than at Nero. "The first incantation I learned. Fire is a poor starting point — the energy cost is disproportionate and the applications in combat are narrow — but it is visually instructive." He closed his fingers slowly and the flame compressed, compacted, and went out without smoke. "Magic carries no inherent morality. It does not care who holds it. The Grigori understood that, which is why they taught it to humanity rather than hoarding it — they believed knowledge without a guardian eventually finds its own hands."
"Corruption itself," he continued, and his voice had gone thoughtful now, slightly distant, as though he were working through an idea he had been sitting with for some time, "may operate on a similar principle. The Church calls it pure evil. But I have sometimes wondered whether—"
"That is enough."
