I stared at the light reflected in his eyes, the light of the small flame he held between his fingers. This was always the way we began. Or the way I did, at least. I looked down at his hands and brought mine slightly above his, cupped and with fingers spread slightly as if I were holding a ball. The breath I exhaled made the flame quiver slightly as I focused my attention on it.

Slowly, the light it gave out dimmed, the bright yellow glow turning deep red. The outline of the fire itself didn't change in size, and neither did the heat it gave off; it just continued to flicker as it grew darker, until the light went out completely.

But it was still there. I could feel the heat against my palms, and if I moved to close them I knew I would get burned. I also knew that he wouldn't let it. Or, at least I hoped he wouldn't.

This thought made my concentration waver just a bit, but it was enough for the the light of the fire to come rushing back. The soft glow illuminated his face, and his brow furrowed slightly.

"Something wrong?", John asked.

I shook my head. "Just... something that crossed my mind," I replied. "Let me try again."

Another breath from me shook the flame he held, as I made another attempt to drain the light from it. I moved my hands slightly closer this time, though it wasn't really necessary. Maybe I wanted to test my earlier assumption. I put that thought aside, and once more aimed my focus on the fire, dampening its glow bit by bit. Again it had turned completely invisible, radiating only heat without light.

The room we were in had its own lighting down very low to facilitate our exercise. I brought down my right hand, moved my left behind John's fire, and let light out from it. The outline of the unseen flame was visible, and within it the image of my hand shimmered; the heat of his fire refracted the light coming through it.

It was something I hadn't yet quite learned to overcome. I had absolutely no trouble with more mundane flames, and I don't know whether it was the nature of our abilities or my own lacking mastery that was to blame. Certainly John had had more experience than me, since he'd been at this a bit longer.  Whatever the reason, testing myself against him was a good way to hone my skills.

And a nice excuse to be this close to each other.

I released my hold on the light, and moved my hands to either side of it again. This time its light expanded as I teased it out into a sphere, turning it into a miniature sun in image, if not in temperature. Once again the outline of the actual flame at its heart flickered and wavered, hinting at its true form.

"The sun, huh?" John stared at it.

"Did you ever try to get that hot? Uh, I mean," I tried to scramble up the edge of the verbal cliff. "The surface, at least, is only a few thousand degrees."

His face was unreadable. "I guess I could try."

"Not... not right now though," I said, a tiny hint of concern creeping into my voice.

"Yeah." He drew out the syllable. "I never got hit with it, but I don't think fire retardant foam is any fun."

I looked at the ceiling. There were normal-looking sprinklers hanging from it, and they didn't suggest they would spray anything but water. "Does this room even have any? It's just for low-level training." There was also a manual fire extinguisher in one of the corners, looking rather new, but I doubted that that was what he meant.

"They got 'em down in higher security levels."

I decided this was a good time to end this exercise. I pulled my hands away, and the image of the sun disappeared. He did the same, and extinguished his flame. "Turn up the light to half, please?", I asked John.

"Okay." He moved to the dimmer switch by the door. This wasn't standard to all the rooms of this level; like the exercises I do, this was tailored specifically to my skill set. The room we used held a metal table and four matching chairs, and I sat down at one of them. I placed my arms on the table.

He turned the dial, and the room brightened. I attuned myself to the level of light the bulb was giving off, and stared at it. "Turn it up, slowly."

He did. The light grew a tiny bit at the start, but I quickly brought down back to its previous level. My focus was on maintaining the same amount of light it emitted and dampening the excess. Creating light wasn't much of an issue for me anymore, and I had reached the point of my abilities where the absence of something was more important to cultivate.

The light in the room got a little darker. "Hey!" John had dialed down the light and I was draining too much of it. I quickly matched the previous level again.

"Just keeping you on your toes," he said with a smile. True, fine control was important, but sometimes it seemed he like to tease me more than he should. And not for the reasons I hoped.

"Yeah, yeah, you're just a little..." I mumbled to myself.

"Hm?" He stared at me with his eyebrows raised.

"You're probably right," I said, this time loud enough for him to hear properly.

"Hey, you admit it!" He looked back up at the light bulb, and turned the dial up again. I maintained the intensity as he did so. "Blackout?" he asked.

I nodded. The light winked out, and the whole room plunged into darkness. A small glow came from John's direction, as he conjured another small flame in his hand. Holding it out, he walked to the table and sat diagonally across from me. Again it dimmed, as I expanded my reach towards it as well. The two of us sat in the dark, with a small comfortable warmth between us.

I maintained my hold on the two light sources for about a minute, after which I could sense that he'd put out his flame before I could feel the lack of heat. I let the room's bulb shine again, and John's arms were folded as he stared at the light. After a few seconds, he turned to look at me. "You hungry?"

"Not really," I answered, "but I guess I could eat."