Choke

Breathe.

"I'm not sure if I can do it," I said. I wasn't going to lie to him.

    "Yes, yes you can. Stop doubting and show me," Alexei said firmly.

    I breathed out and concentrated on the dry log of wood in front of me.

    I can do this. I can try.

    "Concentrate. Align yourself," he coached.

    This would be so much easier if Elder wasn't watching, but I don't want to embarrass Alexei in front of Elder either.

    I closed my eyes and held my hands six inches above the log and moved them slowly in pattern to harvest the air around it.

    Steady...

    Balance...

    Manipulate...

    I felt my heart skip a beat when I sensed the small barrier of air I created get thicker. I smelled the smoke too.

    Okay, now I just have to contain it and direct it.

    I exhaled and kept the sequence up. The smoke didn't progress. Crap, it's still too loose.

    I made the one mistake that Alexei always told me not to do. I peeked at my progress.

    I saw the outside of the log begin to grey, but there was no spark. It was just a byproduct of the smoke that I managed to harvest.

    Fuck!

    They're watching!

    "There's no point of letting him do the demo. You should have just let me handle it," I heard Solomon, my training mate, whisper to Alexei with malice.

    We didn't see eye to eye most times, and he progresses faster than I do.

    "Hush," Alexei bit at him.

    He's not wrong though. He can harvest fire way faster than I can, and he can contain it. He's more stable than I can manage. If they were letting him do the demo, they would have let him do it outside with no fear what so ever.

    Here we are, in the near catacombs of the Citadel in a stone room, just in case I did manage to ignite the log but lost control.

    "C'mon, Mikhail," I heard Alexei sigh under his breath. He's losing patience.

    He's done with me, and honestly, I'm not surprised.

    When they assigned me to him as his apprentice, I honestly felt bad for the guy. That's the second reassignment that I had since I started my career as an agent.

    I met all the physical and combat requirements, but it's just harvesting my powers that was the trouble. According to my seal, I'm a pyromancer, but since I was a kid, I was never able to fully control my powers, so I stopped trying to use it when I was ten. Fast forward 9 long years later, and here we are.

    When you do the physical hunt and retrieve test when you're going through academy, using your powers isn't a requirement, so I was able to pass solely on combat skills.

    When I had my first lead, she didn't focus on my powers, but when she got injured and had to retire, they passed me on to another lead.

    He really wasn't too fond of me since I couldn't use my abilities, no matter how well I did in combat. Needless to say, he got fed up with me and dropped me as an apprentice.

    I was given to another lead, but this lead knew my last one and didn't hear too many good things about me. That was fine and fair since I didn't perform up to his standards. Those remarks were called for. This lead, though, often put me in situations that almost gets me injured or killed during training. It was as if she wanted to get rid of me, for good.