This was going to be more difficult than controlling the line of fire.

Vanessa was still at the entrance of the training zone with her arms crossed, looking at me as if she had just caught me committing an administrative crime inside the agency.

First she looked at my soaked t-shirt, then at Nora, then at the distance between the two of us, and finally back at me directly in the eyes.

It was not a look of absolute fury. Vanessa was not shouting or disappearing to hit someone, which was a huge improvement compared to our first encounter.

But her gray eyes had that dangerous calm of a person who had not yet decided whether she was going to ask or draw conclusions on her own.

“I am sweating because I was training” I said calmly, raising my hands a little to show that there was nothing weird. “It is a quite well-known activity for generating sweat in living people.”

Nora let out a small laugh beside me.

That sound did not help.

Vanessa barely moved her gaze toward her. “And you need to train this close?”

Nora adjusted the towel over her shoulders and smiled with that calmness of someone who knew exactly what she was doing. “When someone is learning fine control, yes. I cannot correct the angle of his wrist from the other side of the room.”

“You could also use words.”

“I did” Nora took a step toward me without touching me, but close enough to make it clear that she could if she wanted to. “Oliver learns fast when things are explained well.”

Great.

The phrase was not a direct attack.

But the atmosphere of the training became heavier than a superhuman gym weight.

I looked toward the yellow line on the ground, where there was still a small heat mark from my last attempt.

It had taken me several fails to make a decent line of fire and now the challenge was not to set an uncomfortable conversation on fire between two women with powers and very different personalities.

“I learned because Nora knows how to teach and because I am an exceptionally profitable student” I said, trying to cut the tension before it grew. “Do not forget the profitable part. Sarah said that the most profitable products eat better and I support any philosophy that ends with food.”

Nora smiled more.

Vanessa did not.

Well, you cannot win everything in life.

“One thing is training in a safe room” Vanessa said, finally entering the area. Her steps were calm, but she kept looking at the fire marks on the ground. “Another thing is moving in a real mission, with civilians running, screams, cameras, and someone trying to break your face.”

“I know that too” I said.

Vanessa looked at me again. Not with annoyance this time, but as if she was measuring how much of that answer was pride and how much was truth.

The answer was half and half.

Nora crossed her arms. “That is why we train before throwing him back into a mission. No one is born knowing how to use their gift without ruining an emergency exit.”

“He already acted under pressure” Vanessa answered. “And he did not freeze.”

I stayed still for a second. I did not expect Vanessa to say that. Much less in front of Nora.

There was a huge difference between someone defending you out of obligation and someone recognizing something you did well. Vanessa did not say it with sweetness or with a smile, but she said it. That was enough.

“Thanks” I said. Vanessa looked away for an instant. “I did not say it to inflate your ego.”

“Too late. It already grew a little.”

Nora let out another laugh.

Vanessa sighed and walked until she was a few meters from us. “I am only saying do not treat him like he has not done anything. He was in a jewelry store with civilians, a villainess, and zero training. He survived and helped.”

“I am not denying that” Nora said, this time with less mockery. “Precisely because of that Sarah sent him to me. He has instinct, but instinct without control ends up costing money.”

“Everything ends up costing money” I murmured.

Nora pointed at the yellow line again. “Do it again.”

“Now?”

“Yes. With distraction.”

I looked at both of them.

I understood.

“This feels like a work trap” I said while positioning myself at the marked point.

“Welcome to the agency” Nora answered.

I extended my hand toward the ground and breathed. Do not push the fire as if you were fighting, I thought. Let it fall. Low, stable, visible. Not enough for someone to think they are going to die.

The heat rose from my stomach to my arm. The sensation was no longer as strange as the first days, although it was still weird to feel that my body had an internal stove.

The flame came out of my fingers and touched the ground.

At first it was stable.

Then I heard Vanessa speak behind me.

“It is more controlled than yesterday.”

The flame rose a little.

Not too much, but Nora saw it.

“Interesting” she said.

“What?” I asked without moving my hand.

“It moved.”

“Of course it moved, it is fire.”

“Not like that.”

I tried to stabilize it. I lowered my breathing, relaxed my shoulders, and stopped thinking about the two of them watching me. The line went back down until it became thin, clean, and followed the yellow mark.

[Acceptable control.]

The room notification appeared on a side screen.

It was not from the Fireman System. It was from the agency.

Nora walked around the line, observing it as if she was checking a badly made signature. “Again.”

“How many times?”

“Until it stops reacting when you talk.”

“Then we should train in a library.”

Vanessa let out a very short laugh that she tried to hide by turning her head.

I saw it.

That also counted as a victory.

I repeated the exercise several times. In some the line came out too high. In others it went down so much that it looked like a sad candle. But each attempt was better than the previous one.

The strange thing was that when Vanessa spoke, the fire changed before I could think about it properly. When Nora corrected me up close, it also reacted. It was not total loss of control, but it was a response that was too fast.

As if my power was listening before I did.

That idea did not please me much.

Nora stopped smiling completely after the sixth attempt. She did not seem worried, but she was focused. Vanessa also noticed because she stopped making comments and stayed looking in silence.

The last attempt came out perfect.

The line advanced low, stable, and clean until it surrounded three fake figures without touching them. The civilian drones followed the safe route and no alarm sounded.

[Acceptable control.]

This time I did not say anything right away.

I just lowered my hand and let the fire go out.

The silence was strange, because for the first time Nora did not throw out a quick joke.

“That was good” Vanessa said.

I looked toward her. “Only good?”

“Do not get used to it.”

“I am going to take it as excellent.”

Nora went to the console and checked the room data. Her fingers moved fast on the screen. I tried to look, but from my position I could only see lines, numbers, and graphs that seemed made to remind me that I had not studied superpower engineering.

“We are done for now” Nora said.

“Does that mean I can eat?”

“Yes.”

The word yes almost excited me more than the acceptable control notification.

Vanessa looked me up and down and then pointed at the exit with her head. “Let us go. If Sarah leaves you training longer you are going to start biting the walls.”

“That would depend on whether the walls have protein.”

Nora shook her head, but she was smiling. “Go. I have to check something.”

Vanessa did not ask what thing. I did want to ask, but my stomach decided to growl at that moment with an unworthy force.

GRRRRRR.

The two seconds of silence that followed were humiliating, but not on a deep emotional level. Only on a digestive level.

“It was the ventilation” I said.

Vanessa walked toward the exit. “Sure, Oliver.”

I followed her without arguing because arguing while hungry was an elegant way to waste time.

***

Nora waited until Oliver and Vanessa left the training area to look at the screen again.

She repeated the fire recording three times.

In the first one, the line rose when Vanessa spoke. In the second, it stabilized when Oliver breathed. In the third, the fire corrected the intensity before the movement of his hand changed completely.

It was not impossible.

But it was also not normal for someone with so few days of active use.

Nora touched the console communicator.

“Sarah.”

The answer came almost immediately. “Tell me he did not burn anything expensive.”

“He did not burn anything expensive” Nora looked at the data again. “But I think you should see this.”

There was a short pause on the other side.

“What happened?”

Nora stayed looking at the last line of fire frozen on the screen. Low, stable, precise.

Too precise.

“Oliver is growing faster than he should” she said. “And I think we need to test him in a real controlled situation.”