Character
Alice Luther
Minor nobility, immense ambition, no mercy
The Luthers are a noble family almost no one knows. Alice lives in an attic room at the Academy, surrounded by luggage she has never been able to unpack, and intends to make others speak her name with respect. Her brother Lambert pursues the same goal.
She is the best shapeshifter in her class. A raven to watch, a black wolf to track, a snake to listen beneath a table and bite—her venom paralyzes for twenty-four hours, and her snakeskin resists a sword. She also transforms a single hand when a snake's head is enough to make someone talk. See Polymorph.
Alice says what others leave unspoken, openly despises commoners, and remains unmoved by slaughter. Her rule is never to play a card that might prove useful later. That is why she refuses to become Lucie's friend—in case she sleeps with Lucie's brother one day.