We humans were, to the best of my knowledge, the third to gain use of magic. Driven to desperation by the increasingly powerful beasts inhabiting our world, it was our perceptions of strength that shaped the evolution of our magical abilities.

Excerpt: A History of Magic – Galen Cletus

Sammath sat by one of the two fires Erin had started, shivering as he warmed his hands above the open flame. Erin stopped beside him, crouching down to feed the fire and Sammath seized the opportunity, “Thanks.”

Erin glanced over but continued tending the fire, “What for?”

Sammath shivered and moved closer to the fire, looking out towards the ocean as he did so. The day was cooling as the mid-afternoon sun was waning and, when combined with Sammath’s dripping clothes, Sammath was plagued by a bone-deep chill. Looking back to Erin, he lowered his voice, “We both know that you didn’t really need a fire. Even if your enhanced body isn’t able to deal with the cold, your Bloodline could handle temperatures well below freezing before you’d even have to put on an extra layer of clothes. The fire was just incentive for the rest of us so you can do… something. Fashion another pair of oars would be my guess, but I could be wrong?”

“Maybe you’re right. Maybe not.” Erin shrugged, “It doesn’t matter either way, though. I get what I want, and you get what you need. No need to thank me.” Erin stood up, “I’m going to go and get us all some dinner. Any orders?”

Sammath chuckled lightly and shook his head, “I’ll take the chef’s special.”

“Good news, you’re the chef tonight, so you can make yourself a special.”

Sammath grinned, even as he moved slightly closer to the fire, nearly touching it. Erin’s footsteps crunched away on the sand and Sammath didn’t look back, even as she disappeared into the forested hills behind him. After travelling for another few hours, trying to find a place to beach that wasn’t surrounded by sheer cliffs or had visible access into the mountain range, further inland, the sheer cliffs and rocky beaches had finally turned to small, sandy bays that the weary, sodden troupe could beach the boat on for the night, with some extremely large hills, blanketed in trees, that didn’t just completely surround the beach.

Sammath stared into the fire, touching on his Concept as he did so. Pain jolted through his brain and the headache that had been slowly fading since Sammath had been so rudely awoken by the ocean flooding his sinuses came rushing back. ‘Eeeuurrgghh.’ Sammath reached his hand up to his head and groaned, clearly getting not just one, but two expansions to his Concept was far too much for the span of a day, let alone a few minutes.

Ashe heard Sammath’s grunt and the younger boy looked over, concern written all over his face, but Sammath waved him off, “It’s just a headache. Don’t worry about it.”

“Are you sure?”

“I’m sure. I’ll be fine by tomorrow.” Sammath didn’t trust himself to nod without exacerbating the pain again. “How are you doing, though? Is Cab behaving?”

Ashe paused to think about the answer and Sammath could have sworn. Just what we need right now; a Demon King wanting food.

“Cab is beginning to push against me, but I should be good to hold off until we get to the city, tomorrow. After that, I don’t know how long I’ll be able to last.” Ashe looked down into the fire, staring vacantly into the flickering tongues of flame as he was lost in thought.

Sammath took a deep breath and sighed; a boy as young as Ashe shouldn’t have to deal with the moral conundrums and mental ramifications of feeding a demon that ate lives, but the world just wasn’t fair like that. “We’ll figure something out, alright? I’m sure Erin has an idea or two.”

Ashe looked to Sammath, his eyes lighting up, “You really think so?”

Sammath pursed his lips and pulled his eyebrows together, in the hope that he’d appear somewhat resolute, “I know so.” Luckily, his acting seemed to work, and Ashe seemed significantly less morose as he went back to warming himself up on the sand. “Now I just need to pull some Demon King treats out of my pocket.” Sammath muttered to himself.

Sammath lay back on the beach, feeling the loose sand shift underneath his weight and conform to his body. Sammath knew that it would stick to his clothes and skin, particularly the back of his head, but didn’t really care as he’d grown used to the feeling years ago.

Eventually, as the sun balanced on the edge of the horizon and stained the water, Erin returned with some butchered meat on some leaves. Setting them down next to Sammath, Erin sat down by the bald boy and spoke up, “Get cooking. You guys need the food.”

Not bothering to sit up as it would only worsen his headache, Sammath replied, “What about you?”

“What about me? Are you asking me to cook or saying that I need food?”

“You need food as well. It’s only fair.”

Erin shook her head, “No. I can go without it for a long time. I’ve been without food for weeks before for torture training, sometimes while also doing physical or weapons training. I’ll be fine.”

That made Sammath sit up, “That’s inhumane!” Sammath’s voice was on the verge of shouting and Erin’s glare made him lower it as everyone looked over. Sammath continued in a forceful whisper, “First off, that’s just cruel. No one should be forced to do that, let alone a child. Secondly, what about your health? Being starved as a child is a great way to improperly develop physically.”

Erin gave Sammath a tight, wan smile, “I never a child, though. I’m a Dawnblaze. As for my health, it didn’t matter. My Bloodline is too powerful and resilient for something so minor to actually affect my growth.”

“That’s just cruel!” Sammath exclaimed, his voice nearly rising again.

Erin shrugged, “It’s just how it was. I couldn’t change it then and I certainly can’t change it now. There’s no point in worrying about it.”

“Alright, then. I suppose we should probably get cooking.”

Erin just patted Sammath’s leg before standing up, “Yes. I have something to do. I’ll be back in probably about an hour.”

“Where are you going?”

Erin looked down the beach, to where the first cliffs started, “I’ll probably just climb to the top of that cliff. I need height to do it, but I don’t want to go too far.”

“Climb to the top of the cliff?! At this time, you’ll get yourself killed.”

Erin snorted lightly, “I mean I’ll climb up the hills to the top of the cliff, but thanks for worrying.”

“Oh.” Sammath felt… suitably chastened… and he could feel his face burning. Sammath was just glad that the darkening light would likely disguise some of his embarrassment, “Of course. Sorry.”

Erin walked away, her feet lightly crunching the sand as she moved back to the forest. Sammath, standing up slowly, managed to make it to his feet without getting a huge metal spike shoved into the back of his head, and he considered that a resounding victory.

Stolen novel; please report.

Within a few minutes, Ashe and Sammath had the birds and rabbits roasting over the flames and the sailors, smelling the food, made their way over. Engaging in some light talk while they waited for the skin of the meat to darken, Sammath found that Samor had a wife and two kids and home, while Talen had his fiancée waiting for him. Apparently, Talen’s fiancée had objected quite stridently to taking Sammath, Erin, and Ashe to Trillden city, given the presence of the Cored in the ocean, but he’d still answered the chief’s call.

“When I get back and tell her about this, she’ll probably slap me and tell me what an idiot I am then, well, what I hope will happen isn’t something I think should be said in front of the boy.”

“What do you mean? What’s going to happen?” Ashe asked, his mouth open and his brows furrowed.

Both fishermen had just laughed, the older one chiming in with his thoughts, “If you don’t know from that, boy, you’re too young to know yet.”

“No, I’m not,” Ashe protested, whirling to face Sammath, “Sam, what’s going to happen?”

That set off another round of chuckles, the puzzled Ashe poking Sammath to try and answer his questions, but they were interrupted as a large flare of uncontrolled fire erupted from the cliff at the end of the beach.

“Erin!” Ashe yelled, starting to his feet, but Sammath just held out his hand.

“Sit down, Ashe. If she can’t handle it, then we can’t do anything.”

“He’s right,” Samor chimed in, “She’s stronger than any of us folk so if she can’t fight it off, we stand as much chance as a bung-less skiff in a storm.”

Reluctantly, the boy listened to the others and sat back down on the sand, his gaze lingering on the cliff. Sammath tried to distract Ashe with conversation, but it was obvious that he wasn’t paying much attention so, when Erin returned without a scratch on her, the boy rushed over to her.

“What happened?” Ashe rushed over to Erin and immediately questioned the young woman.

“I was signalling Lu. His fight with the Cored will have ended by now so, if he hasn’t already headed back to the village, he will have been looking for us. A burst of fire in the darkness is quite an obvious signal.”

“Well don’t do it again without telling us. We were worried about you.”

Erin looked over to Sammath and raised her eyebrows. Sammath shook his head and nodded to Ashe. Erin looked down at Ashe, “I’ll try to keep you updated about what I’m doing, then.” Nodding in acceptance, Ashe made his way back to the fire as Erin moved over to Sammath, “How’s the food coming along?”

“It’s nearly ready. Just a few more minutes and I’ll serve it up.”

Taking Sammath at his word, Erin moved away from the fire to keep watch, or at least that’s what she told him, and set herself up just into the forest. Sammath focussed his attention back on the roasting food, listening to the small sizzles as fat and oils dripped off the cooking meat. After another two minutes, Sammath pulled the meat out from over the fire and called out softly to the fishermen and Ashe, “Dinner’s ready! Come get your forest meat.”

Looking at him strangely, the two fishermen thanked Sammath for their share of dinner and retired to the other fire. Ashe, however, remained by Sammath and tore into the meat with gusto. Sammath grinned as Ashe opened his mouth and started panting, fanning the food through his open mouth, “Ho- ho- ho- hot. My thung.” Steam coiled out of the bite that Ashe had taken, the lightly-browned meat far hotter than the air.

“Careful, it just came off the fire. You might wanna let is cool down a bit.”

Carefully chewing and swallowing, Ashe glared at Sammath, “You could have told me that before I bit into it and destroyed my mouth.” Ashe frowned as he poked his tongue out of his mouth and prodded it with his finger, “Now I can’t feel anything on my tongue.”

Sammath felt a smile spread across his face, “You just watched me take the meat off the fire. What were you expecting when you bit into it?”

“I…” Ashe hesitated, unable to answer the question, “Shut up. Stop being right.” Grinning, Sammath ruffled Ashe’s hair and bit into his own meat, feeling the heat nearly burn his tongue as he carefully chewed the food with his teeth. Biting into his own dinner again, Ashe was once again left panting and fanning his mouth as he glared at Sammath. Sammath felt a hearty chuckle bubble up through his chest but forced it back down as it would agitate his headache. Instead, he contented himself by grinning innocently at Ashe, “You!”

Ashe’s tone was accusing, and Sammath decided to play along. Widening his eyes and opening his mouth, he pointed to himself, “Me?”

“Yes, you. You did that on purpose.”

“What did I do, Ashe?”

“You bit into the meat, knowing that I would bite into it and burn myself again.”

“Why would I do that? I bit into the meat because mine was ready to eat. Yours just clearly wasn’t.”

Ashe glared at Sammath and poked his meat with his fingers but pulled away and shook his hand. Sammath carefully took another bite of the steaming beat, smiling as he saw that Ashe wasn’t going to fall for the trick again. After finishing his dinner in silence, Sammath told Ashe to finish his meal and stood up, wiggling his feet in the sand as he brushed himself down. While his clothes were still slightly damp, he still managed to wipe off a lot of sand, especially from his head. Sammath debated tapping into his Motion Sight, even as his head pulsed uncomfortably, but decided against it. Instead, Sammath trudged across the beach, sand shifting beneath his feet, to the forest.

“Erin.” Sammath called out softly, knowing that she’d be able to hear him. A soft thump came from the forest and the young woman walked out of the forest, her brown hair pulled back into a bun, though some streaks of red were beginning to show at the roots of her and Sammath figured the brown wasn’t natural. “Come on, I have something to talk to you and Ashe about.”

Erin followed Sammath back to the fire and sat down a metre away from him and Ashe. Nearly finished with his food, Ashe cocked his head at Sammath but continued to eat. “What did you want to talk about?”

“Well… I was thinking… and we need something to call ourselves. People need to know who took down that slave camp. Once we blow it up, I mean.”

“No one’s blowing up anything. That would kill all of the slaves and revealing the operative would defeat the purpose of a secret mission. As it is, my mission is already too public.”

“Only Ashe and I know, and we won’t say anything, will we Ashe?” Looking up at his name, Ashe shook his head earnestly and Erin sighed. “Besides, I think my point still stands. We need a name. Anyone have any ideas?”

Ashe shook his head, finishing up his meal and Erin pursed her lips, “I have the idea that this is stupid.”

“That doesn’t make sense and it’s certainly no name.” Sammath shot back, tapping his lips, “Ooh. I know. How about…” Sammath flourished his arms and drummed on the sand, trying to build up dramatic tension but failing miserably as the sand made faint thumps. Erin opened her canteen and began to drink, “The Terrible Threesome.”

Erin nearly choked, coughing and spluttering water everywhere. “No.” She glared at Sammath when she finally regained control of herself.

“Why not?” Sammath asked, trying to appear innocent, “We’re a group of three people and, unless I’m just wrong, terrible can be used to describe someone similarly to terrifying. Unless, of course, there’s some other meaning to the name.”

Erin continued glaring at Sammath, “If you decide on that, you can leave me out of it for good. As it is, I am still reticent about being associated with you in a group.”

“Oh, come on. It works, you know. Ashe is a kid, you’re a prude, and I’m… well I’m the fabulous me.”

“What do you mean I’m a kid? What other meaning is there?” Ashe tried to chime in, but Erin and Sammath ignored him.

“Firstly, I’m not a prude-”

“Have you slept with anyone?”

“Well, no.”

“Have you dated anyone?”

“No.”

“Have you even been on a date?”

“No, but-”

“Well, I don’t know how you do math in Arikar but that seems to add up to prude, if you ask me.”

Erin glared at Sammath even harder, somehow, and Sammath was sure that she was counting the number of ways she had on hand to kill him. “Secondly, no one will take us seriously.”

“That’s a great thing. If we turn up, hands on our hips and loudly proclaiming we’re a Terrible Threesome, they’ll either be laughing too hard to properly fight or they’ll underestimate us. It’s a win-win.”

“Think about public relations and marketing, though. That would be a nightmare.”

“What are those?” Sammath was genuinely confused; he’d never heard the terms before and figured they were related to capitalism, something he was completely unfamiliar with and which he didn’t really care to know about. Volkar, where everyone worked to supply the village with everything people needed was a far more effective system.

“It doesn’t matter. What matters is that people would think we were a joke and never take us seriously.”

“Fine,” Sammath frowned, thinking hard, “then what about The Fearless Three?”

“That’s… better,” Erin conceded, “but I still don’t really like it. I mean, sure, people could refer to us as Fearless and people would know who they mean, which is good, but the word ‘fearless’ just doesn’t seem… right. Being fearless is stupid. It’s very useful to be scared of things but be brave in spite of that fear. Not being afraid of anything is idiotic.”

“Fine, then how about Misfortune?”

“And why would we name ourselves misfortune?”

“Well, first of all, we’d be bringing bad luck to whoever messed with us. Secondly haven’t you heard what people say?”

“No, I haven’t.”

Sammath smiled, a surprisingly wicked grin considering all of his smiles were normally jovial, “People say that bad luck comes in threes.”

Erin’s mouth twitched into a smirk, “I think that that’s a name I can get behind.”

“Hey!” Ashe butted in, “Don’t I get any say in this.”

Looking at Erin’s eyes, Sammath knew that they’d reached a consensus. Turning to Ashe at the same time, they spoke in unison, “No.”

“Oh, come on. Why not?” A small, rare smile touched Erin’s face and Sammath found himself laughing, appreciating the moment. It wouldn’t last. Soon enough, they’d be back to fighting the slavers, but Sammath knew that and for now he didn’t care.