It didn't glow itself, instead, as he'd intended, the space around the hand holding the device glowed with a golden light so bright that it was kind of hard to look at. Tor wanted to make sure that the signal never got missed by mistake after all. If you sat in direct sunlight, it would be clearly visible. Good. He moved over the beef, holding the copper close to it, nearly touching, but the unit stopped responding, it was obviously the mashed potatoes then. Or the gravy. Either way, he wasn't going to eat it.

“I can't tell which part in particular is poisoned though, unless I separated them somehow, is that required for the test? I think it would make a bit of a mess and I don’t really want to touch poison, if I can help it.”

The older man smiled and shook his head, “No, I think knowing what not to consume is enough for now. Good to know it could be used to do that though. Knowing which part of a dish is tainted could help lead to who had access to the food for investigations. Please, continue.”

The next two plates were fine, but then he got to a fish dish that lit up. Again it had a sauce, this one some kind of fruit based thing. The eel, however unlikely that was, didn't make the device glow at all. Gross, but apparently it could be eaten and was even close enough to things he ate regularly to count as nutritious and wholesome. In all he found five plates of food that had been poisoned. The man nodded and clapped.

“Very good! One last test then…” The man clapped and a simple pot pie came out. The man indicated it with his head, telling Tor to test it.

Nothing happened.

Until he started to take the device away and it crossed the side of the ceramic baking dish. It obviously wasn't food, but the dish itself made the air light up. He didn't understand it, but Trice did.