Archive of Our Own ^beta

Astrid always says it with the same smirk on her face. A private joke between the three of them.  It's a lie, of course.  They will not go easy, as it stands, because that means failure on their part. And Master Ikithon does not abide failure.  And maybe it's a bit gauche, but it makes Bren smile when she says it, because it's something just for the three of them; him and Astrid and Wulf.

Astrid's always been the most efficient at this, of the three of them.  She knows how to use her words as well as her magic.  Wulf is better with blades and fists.  He has the muscle that Bren and Astrid have always lacked.  Bren, well, he is best at spellcraft and not much else.  He stumbles over himself half the time.  Smart, brilliant, even, but not very good at speaking without fumbling.  Astrid has a silver tongue and an iron spine.  Bren, when he needs to use his words, sometimes pretends to be her.  Channels her cold, calculating aura.  It works.  Master Ikithon is impressed.

Astrid is clever, good at people and words and many other things, as master of the social sphere in a way Bren has to work hard at.  She is like Master Ikithon, and she knows it.  Bren thinks that if the three of them were not lovers, then she and Wulf might resent their Master's clear favoritism.  It makes his skin prickle, even as much as it pleases him.  But he knows they will get far, the three of them, because he would not be half as successful without them.  When his and Astrid's hands shake too much to change his bandages, wracked with pain, it was Wulf's larger ones that took over.  When Astrid's monthly bleeding happens, Wulf casts Burning Hands at a low enough level so that it doesn't hurt her and Bren buys her chocolate with the meager money his parents send.  When Bren gets a migraine or his wrist aches from copying spells, Wulf is there to massage the aches away and Astrid copies his hand writing because she's clever like that.  When Wulf throws up after interrogations, Bren rubs his back and Astrid reminds the both of them why they are doing this in low, soothing tones.

And when they go home for the final time, they hold his hand in the carriage.  And when he breaks and cries, they don't go easy on him.