I manage to get home without anyone seeing me. I step inside and immediately go to find my master. He's waiting for me, I wonder if he already knows what happened. I guess my appearance is kind of a giveaway. I've got several burns on my arms and clothes. Yeah, he definitely knows.

He must have been watching me from the table. When Lily started her turn, he did something. He spoke to me through my brain. I always knew he could do this, but he's never done it much. The only times I remember are when I was young and misbehaved he would do it as a punishment and to remind me that he knew. Every time it does happen I can feel it. I feel something like a headache that disappears as soon as he stops. He told me to control Lily. He said to control her powers to make her win the fight.

I tried. This time I tried to reach in quickly and aggressively like I did with Rivka one time. For once I managed to get in and grab onto her powers. The second I did I felt something like my entire head being set on fire. I struggled to keep my eyes open and forced them to focus just as a ball of fire hits me hard. It hurt more than anything I've ever experienced and for a brief moment I swear I tasted blood.

"Her powers are growing," he says.

"I don't know what happened," I say.

"Did you manage to reach her powers?"

"I did but, as soon as I did it felt like my whole head was set on fire. I tried to hold on but..."

Wait, a minute. I did hold on! I still had a grip on her powers until I saw the fireball coming! Wow! As bad as this is that still makes me feel a lot better. Maybe I can learn to do this.

"I never would have expected it to grow that fast. I saw little to no growth in abilities like that before, but as soon as you started trying to control them they were almost at full power. It knew you had her powers and tried to turn against you to make you let go. Amazing."

"I didn't know she could do that," I admit.

"You have improved my child," he continues.

"W-what?"

Stuttering. I need to stop stuttering.

"Yes, you must have held onto her powers after the burning started or the fireball never would have hit you. You must have had a firm grip too if it was big enough to do that kind of damage. You merely didn't have time to stop it from backfiring, nor were you or I expecting what would happen. I suppose you could say I'm proud of you."

"Thank you master."

Yes! He's actually proud of me! I just need to learn to stop the fireball as soon as I get her powers and I'll be able to control her completely! Not that I want to control her of course. But, it will make my master proud of me! I mean it's not like I'm making her do anything she doesn't already want to. As long as I don't force her into something she doesn't want to, I guess it's probably okay.

"Now that you expect it it will likely get easier to stop it before you get blasted again," my master continues, "You'll need to keep practicing but, be careful so she doesn't find out what you're doing. We don't need her being able to actively block you, especially with her powers growing the way they are. She would certainly master it quickly."

"Yes master. I won't disappoint you."

"I know my child. Now you should fix those burns. Do you remember how to heal yourself?"

"Yes master."

At least I think I do. He's happy with me right now, I don't want to admit I can't do something.

"Good, now go do that and change out of those burnt clothes."

"Yes master."

I go to my room and change. Now how did self-healing work again? I check the book quickly. I focus on the burns and what they would normally look and feel like. This isn't exactly the way I'm supposed to do it, but it still works, and it's easier than the real way.

I wonder if Lily's okay. She passed out after her power exploded. It was probably just from using too much all at once. She was also doing it in a way she's never done before. I wonder if she has any idea what even happened. She probably doesn't unless Ayana said something to her about my being able to control people. She probably didn't, and she wouldn't know it could cause anything like that, anyway.

I leave my room to go find my master. I find him in the room with the table that shows you people. He's looking at Lily. She's waking up now. That's good, she seems to be fine, just a bit shaken.

She asks if I'm okay. That's sweet. I wish I could go and tell her I'm fine, but I probably shouldn't go back out until Monday. People will probably be suspicious to see my burns gone already if I just went home.

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It's the next day now, and I've brought Rivka here for training. Now I have to go get Lily. I use the button to reach the front door of her house and knock three times like I always do.

She comes to the door and before I know what's happening wraps me in the tightest hug, I've ever felt. Actually, I think this is the only hug I've ever had. It catches me off guard, but I hug her back.  It's still kind of nice though.

"I'm so glad you're okay!" she says, "I was so worried."

"I'm fine," I say, "It wasn't that bad."

"I hit you with a ball of fire."

"My master taught me a bit of self-healing when I was younger. I fixed all the burns fairly easily."

"That's good," she says, "I don't know what happened. I've lost control before but never like this."

"Lily-"

"Usually it just sort of explodes around me."

"Lily-"

"But this time it was just targeting you."

"Lily."

"I don't know why it did that."

"Lily!"

"Or why it was targeting you of all people!"

"Lillyana will you stop talking and listen to me?!"

She stops talking and looks at me.

"Look, I'm fine. See? You didn't do anything permanent or even that serious okay. Are you okay? I saw you collapse after it happened,"

"I'm fine."

"Okay good, now shall we finish this conversation back at my house?"

"Okay."

I take out the button and say, "Home, both of us."

"Right away Castiel," the button says, "Right away Castiel's girlfriend."

Wait, but the button calls everyone Castiel, it can't tell people apart. I'll have to ask my master about it later.

We get back, and I'm grateful that Rivka's already inside.

"I thought the button couldn't tell people apart," Lily says.

"I know, I'll ask my master about it later," I say.

"Do you have any idea why the fire targeted you?"

"No, I don't," I lied, "It might have been because you know me and you looked at me right before it. Maybe the fact that you were thinking of me made it target me."

"I guess that makes sense, but it's never done anything like that before."

"Maybe it's just a sign that your powers are growing," I say, "You just need to learn to control them better to stop that from happening."

"Yeah," she says, "You're probably right. You know Vincent, even if I can't tell anyone about what we're doing, I'm glad I have you to talk to about this stuff. It's nice to have someone I can depend on to tell me the truth."

"Yeah, that's me."

Oh, I can't wait until I'm allowed to tell her the truth about my abilities. I hate lying to her like this. Ugh! I barely know this girl! Why does her saying that make me feel so bad?! I want to tell her the truth but, if she knows she could try to block it. I can't let her do that. If she turns on us, it could ruin the mission completely.

"Let's go inside," I say, "Rivka's probably getting tired of waiting for us."

I use the bookmark and we enter. Lily's gotten a little more used to it but, I can still see a bit of amazement on her face. Sure enough, Rivka is still standing in the entrance waiting for us.

"Finally," Rivka says annoyed, "What took you guys so long?"

"We just had some stuff to talk about," I say.

She rolls her eyes, "Whatever, let's just go."

The training session passes as it would on any normal day. Lily seems a little more hesitant with using her fire than usual. There's a lot less power in it than she usually gives. It's not as hot and is disappears a lot more quickly. 

Rivka is improving with her powers and it's letting her focus more on using her heightened perception to see the attacks coming and find weaknesses in her opponent. She can turn into darkness and create fear a lot more quickly than she could before. It's getting harder and harder for me or anyone else to deliver an attack on her without her noticing long before it could be at all dangerous. Sometimes it seems like she knows what I'm going to do before I even start to do it.

That's good. It's going to help her and us when the time comes for the mission. I wonder how much longer that's going to be. I hope it's not too much longer. I want to do it and get it over with so we can start choosing which of us will rule and my master can take back his rightful place. I've been preparing for it for most of my life. I just want to have it happen already. I can't believe I'm so close to it actually happening.

Finally it ends and I send the girls home. I walk back in and go to my master.

"Master, can I ask you a question?" I ask.

"It would seem you already have. You shouldn't ask questions you already know the answers to," he says.

"Earlier today when I went to get Lillyana, I used the button and instead of just saying 'Right away Castiel' like it usually does, it said 'Right away Castiel', and then it said 'Right away Castiel's girlfriend'. I thought it couldn't tell people apart. Why did it know I had a girl with me, much less know that she wasn't Castiel?"

"Well, my child, Castiel did have a girlfriend at a certain point. She was one of the redheads and she looked and acted a lot like Lillyana. She was the only person other than him who could use the button. When I enchanted the button, I made it so it would think that anyone who used it was its owner. However, it seems to have retained some of its memory. It knows Castiel had a girlfriend who could also use it so that's who it decided Lillyana is. Even if it can't remember her name, it still knows she was there."

"Oh, thank you for explaining that master."

"That is my job child. We are done with lessons for today. You are dismissed to your room until I call you back."

"Yes master. Thank you master."