The fire felt warm over Nerluce's palms.

He smiled despite himself as the small flame came under his control. It hovered there, breathing with him before he pushed. It was a full-body push of flexing muscles and moving arms. Nerluce kept his eyes focused on the flame. He kept his breathing steady. If he stopped breathing it was very possible that the fire would go out as well.

With a final flex from his biceps, Nerluce pushed the fire away from his body and relinquished his control on it as Lyana snatched the fire's power. The exchange of control was a delicate matter and it had taken forever for Nerluce to master. Magick was a rather honor-bound energy and operated on a first-come, first-serve system. Two people could not control the same fire at the same time. They could not turn their enemy's fire against them.

Which was what made their current exercise so difficult and yet so practical.

The entire second-year flame Affinity students - or what was left of them at least - stood in a large circle, passing the flame from person to person. You couldn't steal control from the person before you. Lyana was, by far, the most powerful person in the class and yet she couldn't steal the fire that Nerluce controlled, the least powerful person in the class. She had to take control the moment that Nerluce relinquished it.

In the beginning, they'd done a lot of talking through it. Saying they were letting go so that the person next to them would be ready to take it. A moment's delay and the fire would go out. Fire was different from the other elements. If a student with a water Affinity missed a beat and let the water drop to the ground, they could gather it up again easily enough. Fire would go out and it couldn't be started again by anything short of a master.

None of them were even close to igniting on their own. Not even Lyana - the most powerful - or Aristide - the most magickally experienced. Which Nerluce admittedly was glad about. Yet, it would be a skill they'd learn before becoming Seraphs. It was one of the final tests and the third-years were frantically practicing it.

Nerluce wanted to talk to Taayir about getting a head start on learning that. He knew that even if he had a year to prepare and practice... he'd need more. He'd always needed more time than the average fire Affinity.

Because he wasn't a fire Affinity.

Nerluce shook his head. He needed to focus on the task at hand. It was hard, though. Nerluce kept drifting back to that night and everything he'd learned about himself. He wished he never had. He hated thinking about it. He hated making these excuses for himself. Because what if they didn't stop with his lackluster performance in fire magick? What if he kept making excuses and then he'd start excusing his behavior and then he'd slip into his father?

He shuddered at the thought. And then refocused on the fire. Which was what he should have been doing all along. Taayir would have his head if she noticed his distraction. She stood almost directly across from Nerluce in the circle, participating alongside them. She did it mainly to show that even the most experienced could make mistakes. She didn't make many. They'd been doing this exercise for almost two weeks straight and so far she'd only messed up once.

Nerluce felt he had messed up at least a thousand times. If not two thousand. He always misread Lyana on his left or Corbett on his right. It was easier taking control than relinquishing it and mainly the mess-ups on his right were Corbett's fault.

The flame flickered and went out. Nerluce was impressed it had managed to stay alight for as long as it had. They'd passed it around the circle almost three whole times. Yet it always caught on one person in particular. The only person who made even more mistakes than Nerluce in this exercise - and it really was only in this one exercise in particular - was Aristide.

"Sorry," Aristide said.

"No, no, Head Disciple. It was my fault!" the girl next to Aristide said, looking flustered. Nerluce had heard her gush about him before in the common room and she'd chosen the spot next to him in the circle specifically because she wanted to become closer to him. A pity because she really was one of the better members of their class and it really wasn't her fault.

Taayir clicked her tongue. "It isn't your fault," she said to the girl. "Aristide, how many times must I tell you? You're far too careless. You have to hold it. Wait." She shook her head. "Fire is valuable on the battlefield. Cradle it like it's more valuable than gold."

Aristide's lips thinned.

"That's enough for today," Taayir said, waving her hands. "Keep practicing with your roommates but don't burn the damn dorms down"

There was a chorus of affirmatives from Nerluce and his classmates as they gathered their things and prepared to leave. Nerluce stayed behind. Taayir had asked him to, today. She wanted to talk to him about something or other. Waving Lyana off, Nerluce sat at his desk. However, he wasn't the only one who lingered.

Aristide stayed firmly in his place. From the expression on Taayir's face, she hadn't asked him to stay as she had Nerluce.

"What is it, Aristide?" Taayir asked.

"Explain," Aristide said. "How to cradle the fire."

Taayir sighed, pinching the bridge of her nose. "Well, imagine it as a bag of gold. You want to keep it close to you when you're at the market, however, when you want to pay for something, you give it away," she said, using the same metaphor she had on the first day of class.

This didn't seem to ease Aristide's frustrations at all.

"That doesn't make sense," he said. "I do that with water and it always works. Fire doesn't."

"Well maybe you shouldn't be trying to learn an element you don't have an affinity for," Taayir said, rolling her eyes. "Face it, Aristide, you might be reaching your limit."

"No," Aristide said. "Explain it some other way."

Taayir narrowed her eyes. She was clearly at the end of her patience. Nerluce shifted, uneasily in his seat. He'd seen that look on other people's faces before. Usually, though, it was directed at him. Oddly enough, Taayir had never looked at him like that. She just seemed to get annoyed like this with Aristide.

"Alright," Taayir said, through gritted teeth. "Think back to the border. Now imagine the fire as a piece of bread-"

The room dropped in temperature.

Nerluce jumped up from his seat. This got the attention of both Taayir and Aristide as Nerluce's lifted his hands helplessly, putting on a hopeless grin. He'd defused countless fights in the dorm. This was the first time he'd tried to talk down either Aristide or Taayir, though. Still. The tension in the room was more than enough for Nerluce to tell that a fight was about to start and it wouldn't be pretty when it ended.

"Metaphors are stupid and don't help at all," Nerluce said, blurting out the first thing that came to his mind, regardless of how stupid it was. "Maybe use a simile every once in a while, yeah?" He laughed anxiously. "Hey, Angel, why did it suddenly get so cold? Don't tell me you froze the water in the air or something." Another nervous laugh.

Aristide turned and looked at Nerluce and instantly Nerluce realized that yes, that was exactly what Aristide had done. And it seemed he'd frozen more than just that. His impossibly long eyelashes were coated in a thin layer of frost so they seemed almost as white as Nerluce's own lashes.

"I apologize," Aristide said, softly.

"Damn right," Taayir said, shivering. "Did you really need to drop the temperature? It was just a joke."

"It was not," Aristide said before turning and walking out of the room.

Nerluce shivered as well but it wasn't just due to the cold.

"Shit," Taayir muttered under her breath. "Let's walk Nerluce. It's warmer outside than it is in here thanks to that ass."

Nerluce nodded mutely and did as his teacher asked.

The pair went out the door and into the warm summer air. Not that anything was very warm up here. Ethera seemed to exist in a perpetual state of cool to frigid. Even now it wasn't comfortable unless the sun was out and the wind wasn't blowing. Even after being here almost two years, Nerluce had to admit he wasn't comfortable with the climate.

Taayir seemed the same. She'd been here for... who knew how long, yet she was almost always wearing an extra layer of clothing and sticking close to the hearth no matter what season it was. Nerluce guessed that meant he would never adjust. The thought depressed him slightly before he realized how funny it was he was having it.

When he'd first come here, he didn't think he'd last a month. Now he was sad because he thought he'd be spending the rest of his life cold.

"You're doing well," Taayir said, starting their conversation with a bit of praise.

"But?" Nerluce questioned.

Taayir laughed. "No. No, but. Just... you're doing well. I'm glad." She nodded her approval and Nerluce felt his chest swell. He didn't know where this bit of praise had come from but he ate it up regardless. "I wanted to ask you a favor. You can say no. I wouldn't blame you. If it was asked of me, I think I'd probably say no. You have your academic studies and I know that you and Aristide don't particularly get along, however..."

"I like Aristide," Nerluce said.

"You do?" Taayir asked, raising a brow.

Nerluce nodded. "Yeah! He's smart and kind and good at magic. And with horses. We're having a competition to see which one of us can befriend the other's horse first. Or I am and he's just going with it. I think I'm growing on Lilith, though."

"Oh," Taayir said. "I thought..." She shook her head. "You call him that name so I just figured..."

"Angel?" Nerluce asked.

"Yes," Taayir said. "It's border slang, correct? I can speak some of it - you pick it up on the battlefront - so that's how I recognized it."

"It is," Nerluce asked, still not seeing how that connected with anything.

Taayir frowned as well, her brows furrowing. "So... why would you call him that if you admire him so much?"

"It-" Nerluce's eyes widened. "You don't know what I'm saying?"

"No?" Taayir said. "I'm not proficient in border slang but I thought it was a word used to refer to Tilicians..."

"No!" Nerluce exclaimed before bursting into laughs. "No, Taayir, I'm calling him an angel." He translated the word into high Itorohian, which caused Taayir's eyes to widen in surprise. "It's not an insult."

"Oh," Taayir said. And then she shoved her elbow into his ribs. "You little shit. Why call him something no one else can understand?"

Nerluce shrugged. "He spoke to me in the border slang. So..."

"Stupid kids," Taayir said, rubbing her temples as if she had an oncoming headache. "Alright, well I feel a bit better about asking this of you at least."

"Oh yeah," Nerluce said. "What's wrong?"

"Aristide," Taayir said. "He's... struggling right now. His primary Affinity is for water. His secondary is heat. He had a tertiary Affinity for something odd like mist or fog or frost. I'm not sure." She shook her head. "Heat is a branch of the Fire Affinity but it's the natural opposite of Water. So... Aristide is struggling and it's not like he has a surplus of people who can practice with him." Taayir closed her eyes. "So I wanted to ask you to help since you have a bit of experience with using your secondary Affinity."

Oh. Oh! Nerluce's expression brightened and he was nodding before he even really thought through what he was agreeing to. "Yes! I'd like to help! Besides, that means I'd get to practice more too and everyone in my dorm never wants to."

"What?" Taayir asked, narrowing her eyes.

"No, no!" Nerluce waved his hands, backtracking. "I mean, they do! They just don't want to do it as long as I want to."

"Stop overworking yourself, Nerluce," Taayir chided. "I'm not asking you to do this because I think you need more practice time. In fact, I think you need less of it. I'm asking you because you're the most qualified."

"You really think so?" Nerluce asked.

Taayir smiled and nodded. "Yeah, I do. You know what it's like to work hard and excel in an Affinity that's nothing like your primary one. I think that you'll be able to help Aristide figure this out. I believe in you."

Feeling better than he had in months, Nerluce nodded. If nothing else, at least his primary Affinity was good for helping him help his Angel.

That made it just a bit worth it, in Nerluce's opinion.