Ember Academy
"Again." Oren's voice carried flat across the practice yard, arms folded, eyes narrowed against the low afternoon sun. "This time, faster. You won't always get the luxury of a slow, careful reach."
"That's the third time you've said faster in the last ten minutes."
"Because you keep hesitating. Hesitation is where the fire finds room to make its own decisions." He nodded at the brazier. "Again."
Sera reached, and the flame answered quicker this time, a bright curling column rising clean out of the cold iron, and for a moment she let herself feel something close to pride in it, the fire obedient, steady, hers.