It could be said that Jack was not born into the best of circumstances. His father had died before he could have known him and though his mother was a hard worker, the two of them often found themselves destitute.

But for what his mother could not give him in fortune, she tried to make up for it with heart. All her efforts went to the boy’s happiness and from time to time, it could be said that they were indeed happy.

Often, after returning from a hard day's work, Jack's mother would tell him a story before bed. Of the stories that she told him, his favorite was the story of the king who ruled their country. Just like Jack, the king had grown up a poor commoner. To get where he was now, he had to trade his family’s cow for magic beans that would grow into a giant beanstalk that could touch a giant’s castle.

Crafty young man that the king was, he took amazing riches from the man-eating giant and ended up killing him at the cost of his magic beanstalk. With the fortune he obtained, the future king went on to form an army to fight against fey and other magical creatures that were invading the lands. For his service to Arland, he was granted the status of a noble and eventually married the crown princess.

Jack didn’t quite have the words for it back then, but what he liked most about the tale—even more than the fact that the king shared his name—was the fact that the king was able to take his riches rather than having to work hard for them. After all, it sounded much better to him than working himself to the bone like his mother was and if the king could get those riches while he was poor like him, then why couldn't Jack do it too?

But Jack wasn't exactly like the king now, was he? For even when the king's family had nothing else, they still had a cow. "Jack, go down to the market and sell the cow." Those were words that he’d never hear.

That's why when his mother collapsed from having worked herself to the bone, he wasn't exactly sure of what he should do. He was still young, much younger than the king was. Younger than most would accept for work. Still, he had to do something, and so he set out to the market looking for work that would hold over him and his mother until she could recover.

Lucky for him that day—or so he thought—Jack met a man who was more than willing to employ him. The man just needed help recovering his stolen coin pouch, you see. All Jack needed to do was snatch it from the thief's waist while the man had him distracted.

Jack did it just as his new boss had told him, and for his efforts, he received more coin than he had ever seen his mother bring home in his whole life. He rushed home to her with the good news and at first she was happy to hear, but once she learned why exactly had been paid so much, she wasn't happy at all. “You didn’t take back the man’s pouch,” she told her son, “He tricked you into stealing one for him.”

Jack’s mother would have returned the coins, but the man they had been stolen from had been a stranger and she was not sure if they could find him. On top of that, there was the fact that her son could get in trouble for her honesty and the fact that she did believe that they needed the money, guiding her towards keeping it.

They did end up keeping the money, but Jack’s mother told him that he should never do such a thing again.

Now Jack was still a good enough boy back then to have listened, but his mother's condition only worsened and the only thing the alchemist had done with the money they had given him was help them run out of it faster. Once they were almost out, Jack went back to the market to look for work again. He wasn’t there for long before the man who had hired him last time found him.

Jack knew that his mother didn’t want him stealing, but she never said anything about not taking work from his boss. As long as the man gave him a job where he wouldn’t steal, it would be fine.

Well, this time, the man hiring Jack guaranteed him that their target was definitely a thief. Said thief had the stolen pouch tied tight to his belt this time, though, so Jack was going to have to cut it loose. To prepare him for the job, Jack’s boss gave him a knife and had him practice cutting string. The training was a success and Jack's finesse with the knife did impress as he walked away with much more money than he had had from the time before.

Unfortunately, even with such a sum, the medicine needed to treat his mother was still out of reach. She died not long after he had finished his second job. With nowhere else to go, Jack went to the man who had already hired him twice before. The man took Jack in and introduced the boy to his band of thieves. Together, they'd all go out stealing from those who weren’t so watchful and when too many people started recognizing them, they'd move on to the next town disguised as merchants. Though they didn’t often kill those they robbed in the city, that was not the case on the road. Coin with no one left to look for it was the best coin, after all.

Jack knew the things they were doing were wrong, but he didn't care. He’d learned that less work was something to be strived towards. All the honest work that had been the death of his mother had paid her far less and when compared to that all of this was easy. So what if he was hurting others along the way? Rather they be hurt, than he.

Over time, the boss taught Jack many things about being a thief. Often, it would annoy Jack and he’d say that it was more work than he had initially agreed to, but when he got like that, his boss would remind him that much more work than this went into their victims making the coin than the work they put into stealing it.

And so while seeing many things and learning many things, Jack grew. He couldn't do the child's work anymore, but the work of grown bandits came more naturally to him than most. Still, he was diligent in his own way and he never let his guard down. He'd seen what had happened to those who became lazy or lacked the required cunning. Lashes were the most lenient punishment offered to them by the just and that alone was enough to keep him aware.

Despite his attentiveness, however, Jack was a part of a group and quite a few of his fellows put little thought in beyond the basics. Such slacking was fine enough in the times when the lawmen were lax, but while Jack grew, so too did the attentiveness of the lawmen grow towards his group’s like his. The pressure brought on by the failings of the lesser bandits in the band became so great that when the giants came and took control of the border territories in which they resided, the whole group rejoiced.

Well, the whole group except for Jack. They were safe from the kingdom for now, but they wouldn't be for long once the giants had finished getting their control over the captured lands organized. It didn't take meeting a giant for him to know that they weren't the type to be fond of tiny thieves.

As good of an opportunist as any Jack was, Jack thought this was a chance for those who were competent to leave behind the dead weight and let them find out what it was like under the giant’s foot the hard way. They were supposed to be living the easy life, after all. Whoever got in the way of that should be forsaken.

With such thoughts in mind, Jack approached his boss and mentor, Jericho, but when the conversation came to the subject of letting go of deadweight, he was having none of it.

“No one gets to desert,” Jericho said. “Not even us.”

“I wouldn’t call us kicking them out of the group deserting,” Jack said.

“Without telling them?”

“Would you rather us kill them?” Jericho furrowed his brow at that, but Jack continued. “’It’s better not to leave loose ends.’ That’s what you taught me when we were killing travelers along the roads.”

“We have code,” Jericho countered. He was arguing obligations while Jack was arguing for practicality.

Seeing that he was getting nowhere but in trouble with the man, Jack dropped the subject. He didn't show it to Jericho, but he was very angry with him. The man who had been the father he never met, who had promised him the easy life, was now choosing some fool’s morals over their promise made longer than a decade ago. What good were morals to the pursuit of an easy life? Jack thought.

Still, no matter how angry Jack was, he was no fool. A haphazard desertion from the band would mean his death. He’d wait for the right chance to escape, even if that meant years. Lucky for him, it meant only days.

Just as he had met a fateful person back when he was young, Jack met another in his time of need. For perhaps, something was off in the air or maybe his sour mood had thrown him off. Whatever the case, the Jack who had never been too lax on the job before, just this once, was.

In the alley he had escaped to, a witness called out to him. “You’re quite good at that,” the witness said.

Jack turned around. He saw a man who looked like a merchant, but something was odd about him. People from east of the Fey Border rarely crossed over, but this man’s clothes reminded Jack of the few easterners he had seen.

“Good at what?” Jack asked. He was only suspicious that the man was a witness, not sure, and even if he was, the man had addressed him far off from where he had left his mark unaware.

“No good to hold on to dirty money,” the man said, ignoring Jack’s question. “Better to get rid of it sooner rather than later.”

The man held out his palm, revealing a few dull, green beans of a darker shade. “Your coins for the magic beans? It’ll relieve you of the trouble.”

To that Jack grunted. Now he understood the man’s game. Only fools spent good money buying magic beans. The only times he had ever gotten any, were when some of the more witless bandits bought them as a gift for him as a joke.

Jesters and fools, those were the customers of the common bean merchant. That was for the common ones, though. Easterners were known to have to deal with witches, magic, and fey running about throughout their lands. Even crossing the borders between kingdoms could be dangerous without the protection of charms. Which meant that anyone crossing the Fey Border from the east was probably familiar with magic in general. For that reason a magic bean merchant from the east would have a chance of tempting those with a little more intelligence. The man had likely bought the wears off an easterner knowing that.

“Do I look like a fool to you?” Jack asked.

“No, Jack,” the man said. “Not a fool at all.”

Jack showed no reaction, but the man’s death was on his mind. He wondered which idiot had told the man his name or if he just called all the people he tried conning Jack.

“Just someone who looks like they could use some magic beans.”

“Very well,” Jack said. He couldn’t kill him right there, but he could afford to play along. He handed the merchant his stolen coin pouch and took the beans. “I’ll come back for you if you’re lying about these beans.”

The man kept his smile. “I’d hope that you’d come back to me either way.”

“Hmph.” After Jack left the alley, he went to the bandit who had distracted his earlier mark and told him to watch the merchant and then headed out of town for the day. Before he got back to the troop’s hideout, he planted the beans where he thought his fellow thieves wouldn’t find them.

The next day, early in the morning, Jack went out to where he had planted the beans. It wasn’t that he was expecting them to actually grow in that time, checking was just a formality. He just wanted an excuse to go back to town to rob and murder the merchant. His conversation with the boss still had him upset, so he thought this would be a good chance to focus on something else.

When he arrived where he had planted the beans and saw their fully grown stalks, needless to say, Jack was shocked. The pods on the beanstalks were small and each one only had one bean contained inside. Instead of the dull dark green he’d seen before, the offspring of the beans Jack planted were a dark red and sparkled with crimson stars along the surface.

As soon as Jack picked one of the beans, he felt the urge to squeeze it ever so softly and when he did, its edges lit up with a red light. Now, that slight urge to squeeze became a slight urge to throw. Thinking he was just a bit spooked, Jack held on at first, but every passing moment that urge became stronger. He hadn’t taken two breaths before that urge became desperation.

Almost beginning to sweat, Jack spotted a chirping bird and threw the bean at it. As it flew through the air, the bean erupted into flames, consuming the bird and the branch it sat on. He looked for any trace of either in the surroundings once the flames had disappeared, but the only sign either had been there was the scorched end of where the branch had been connected to the trunk.

Realizing what he had, Jack smiled. He hadn’t been granted a giant’s treasure horde, but he had been granted power and the freedom that came with it. His fellow thieves could no longer tie him down.