23 Control

The students stood along the wall with the entrance to the control classroom. The opposite wall of the classroom was lined with doors and windows that lead to individual practice rooms.

Kyrie half-heartedly covered a yawn and asked, "Which class is this?"

"Kyrie," James glanced from the practice room doors to the entrance of the classroom. "You might want to skip this class."

Corson scoffed as he stopped in front of James and Kyrie, "Yeah. He wouldn't want to help me become better than him. He might just lose the title of hero."

Corson looked from Kyrie to James. "I thought you knew better than to hang out with this," Corson spat on the ground and spoke with unbridled disgust, "Legend."

Kyrie grimaced internally but appeared impassive. He could practically hear his father voice saying, "Shh, Kyrie it's okay," as his father wrapped him in his arms. "I know you. You aren't a legend. You're my little boy and one of gentlest souls I know."

In contrast to Kyrie's more relaxed stance, James was glaring at Corson and lunged for his shirt.

James felt a gentle touch on his shoulder. A touch that gave him pause. He glanced down at Kyrie who shook his head once.

"It's okay." Kyrie turned to Corson, his hand still resting on James' shoulder. "I thought we had come to an understanding, but it appears not. You can believe what you want but I will always do everything within my power to save another's life. Calling me a legend won't change that."

The tension that betrayed James' want for a peaceful solution eased. A sign that he believed in Kyrie, even if being in Kyrie's presence made his heart ache.

Corson rolled his eyes, "Yeah? Did they teach you to parrot that in hero school?"

"I quite admire your control, Mr. Say. I certainly wouldn't take someone belittling me as well as you."

Kyrie frowned at this new professor's reference to himself.

And James was grinning as Corson spun to find Professor Florence standing behind him. Andray smiled, his mom was the best, a real badass.

"What's your name, young man?" Professor Florence said.

Corson gulped a bit and managed to say, "Corson Livence."

Professor Florence smiled, "There might be just enough time to turn you into a fine young man Corson."

Professor Florence patted Corson's shoulder and moved to stand with her hands clasped behind her back in front of the practice rooms. "Students, welcome. Every Tuesday we'll be holding a joint class on Control."

James glanced at Kyrie, who was frowning and holding his left wrist as he watched Professor Florence.

James sighed and gently grabbed Kyrie's arm. Kyrie glanced at him and James gave him a very sad looking smile. He wasn't ready to try and prevent one of Kyrie's panic attacks. Or to stay by his side after it was over.

Kyrie gave a weak smile in return, nodded, and focused on Professor Florence. James may not have done much but he reacted quickly and that in itself was enough.

"I'd like to start today by having some from the upperclassmen, who has demonstrated exceptional control, share their techniques for achieving it. Miss. Perdita would you please tell us how you've achieved your exquisite level of control," Professor Florence said with a smile.

Ren smiled and walked to the front of the room, she pivoted to face the class and her skirt twirled as she moved. Ren watched her classmates for a moment before she spoke, "The main part of learning control is to practice. You should practice a lot, in different ways, situations, and with different goals. You've probably heard that bit before, but it still bears repeating." Ren paused as she glanced around the room. When she made eye contact with Caleb she smiled and continued, "For those of you who don't know my ability is aura manipulation. When I was first learning to use my ability, I found it easier to use it by channeling aura through objects. Of course, some materials are easier to channel it through than others. For example, it's much easier to channel my ability through wood than metal, like my sword.

"When I first started using my ability, I pictured it like I was pulling or pushing different sized rocks." Ren looked at Amity who stood next to Rick. "Eventually Amity suggested I try thinking of something more versatile like water, which helped a lot. By changing the image I used to control my ability, things got a lot harder to control for a while but eventually, I was able to do a lot more with it."

"Thank you for your explanation. Miss Perdita is also working as my teaching assistant so if you're having trouble feel free to seek help from her or myself. DJ if you would please come forward and share your unusual method of controlling your ability," Professor Florence said.

DJ grinned and placed a hand on James and Liza's shoulders. He did a fist-bumped with Kyrie before heading over to Andray's mother.

"Hi everybody! My ability is Dominion. It's tied to my emotions, so I use music to help me control it. Something relaxing or boring to keep me calm and something with aggression or hype for combat. Or just whatever song or part of a song seems right for the occasion. That's about it… Oh yeah! I DJ at Club 58 so come by sometime."

"Thank you, DJ… I'm sure Caleb's father apricates the advertising." Professor Florence locked eye gazes with Kyrie who started shaking his head. "Kyrie would you please come tell us how you control your ability."

Corson smirked when Kyrie glanced at him. While Caleb watched Kyrie with a mixture of concern and curiosity. Why did he not want to go?

And Syra watched James whisper, "You don't have to," into Kyrie's ear.

Syra wanted to know when things had changed – how they'd changed. When did James go from hating Kyrie's guts to acting worried about him? Didn't James feel the same as her? Sure, he was decent during the healing thing and… Okay, he definitely has a bad past but that shouldn't have changed anything between Kyrie and James. And it definitely shouldn't have changed how Syra thought of Kyrie… But then again, she wasn't nearly as mad about James whispering something to Kyrie as she thought she would be. As she would have been just 24 hours before.

Kyrie was watching Corson as he debated on what to do. He reached for the ribbon on his wrist as DJ spoke, "Come on up Kyrie."

Kyrie looked at DJ who was giving him a reassuring smile. He dropped his hand to his side and walked to the front of the room. Kyrie watched his fellow classmates as he tried to think of how to start and what to say. "Umm hi…"

James silently groaned this was not going to go well.

Kyrie once again reached for the ribbon on his wrist. He'd figured out what to talk about but getting the words out was a different problem. A problem that stemmed from an instinctive want to shy away from the topic. "Umm I, uh…" Kyrie trailed off and spoke quietly, "A door."

Professor Florence gave Kyrie an encouraging smile and said, "Mr. Say could you speak louder."

Kyrie grimaced, let the ribbon fall against his wrist, and snapped, "I'm not Mr. Say, that's my father. And I said a door. I picture a door. Most of the time it's closed. When it's open – I've screwed up, okay?"

Kyrie was watching the door leading out of the classroom as he ran one hand through his hair. He wanted to leave. He wanted the ribbons gone. Kyrie wanted to walk out the door with only Taru and his canteen. He wanted to walk out into the wilderness of the land reclaimed by the legends. Through the trees and into the dangers that lurked there. Away from the dangers that lurked in his mind and memories. The dangers found in words that made him think of his parents and things that made him recall the horrors of his past. But he was a hero.

DJ slung an arm around Kyrie's shoulder and said, "A door huh. Sounds good. Though maybe I can help you try to find something more versatile to picture."

Kyrie glanced up at DJ both of them could hear the words DJ hadn't voiced, the words he'd left out, "Maybe something less related to your nightmares."