"I think," she said, "you give yourselves too much credit. Because I can promise you this. However long you've been doing it? We here have been doing it longer. The order has existed for over two hundred years. And I'm not vain enough to tell you there have been no casualties along the way." Her hand drifted to the necklace with the emerald, the one Adam had given each of his daughters. "But I will tell you that that time has allowed us to see many unaffiliated hunters and the way they operate. Eventually, all of them end up hearing voices. And one day, they finally listen to those voices."

She leaned back again, her focus going soft as she examined the boy. "When I look at your nature, I see a Penitent. You do everything you can to deny your darker impulses, or at least to channel them into some productive, virtuous enterprise." Her hand swept out toward the library. "Is this not productive?"