While he's tempted to dip out of the exit that Istredd holds open for him, Wilhelm knows that if he doesn't follow through today, it will be that much harder to work up the nerve tomorrow. He's already at the edge of the cliff, staring down into the water below: it's jump now, or jump never.

"I can start today," he forces himself to say. At his sides, his fingers pick at themselves. His eyes slide away from Istredd.

"Maybe...we could start with fire that's already there, instead of trying to make my own. I can control it a little bit."

And that half of his power doesn't seem to be entangled with the trauma that's blocking his fire. In Nott, he'd been able to bend the wall of flames away from his group a bit without his whole body rebelling. In the Horizon, too, when he'd accidentally landed in that burning monastery. Maybe it was just that he knew he couldn't possibly make either situation worse. Maybe it was because his fear flew outward instead of festering inward. He doesn't know.