Life was easy after the village found out about them, and everything quickly fell into place. They were accepted much easier than Johan could have ever imagined. At first the villagers had been excited, then as the novelty wore off they were accepted into the family. Slowly their house became clean and lived in and during that time Astrid steadily grew bigger and bigger. The village became their village too. Their home.

And just like that, half a year passed at the blink of an eye.

Everyday was peaceful, and selling fish in Solstad a couple days a week became the new normal. It turned out that between the three of them, Johan did the best job of selling. And Signe was quickly deemed useless with the customers, she didn’t have the patience and was instead much happier moving big boxes of fish from the boats to the booths, and while Note’s handsome yet intimidating face deterred people from buying directly from him, it did draw a lot of business even when he just stood in the back and prepared the fish.

It was easy, fun and familiar. There were no worries, no need to hunt for the next job, no need to keep moving from place to place or to sleep on the cold ground outside. It was amazing.

But just like everything that was good, it reached an end. They couldn’t run from their problems forever.

It was the end of the day and sellers were packing up as the customers started dwindling. Erika had been talking about some new antique seller and as Johan had finished earlier than normal, he went to take a look while the others finished up.

And that’s exactly how he ended up there.

He swallowed, hands clenched into clammy fists.

It couldn’t be-

But it was.

He took a deep breath and his hands mechanically reached for the ripped papers on the stand. With shaky hands he held them up in front of him. The paper at the top of the pile had a drawing on it. A throne room, two people laying on the floor and seven people standing spread around them.

To anyone else it would have just seemed like any old drawing. But Johan had seen that scene before.

He quickly flipped to the next paper. Writing. Beautiful, inked letters in old cursive. What stood out to him though, was the handwriting. Old Fate’s handwriting.

They were ripped pages from his father’s journal.

Johan sucked in a breath.

It wasn’t possible. It couldn’t be. His things were all lost, weren’t they? Greed wouldn’t have let anyone take them, but then how could they be right here in his hands?

He took a deep breath.

He had to stay calm.

He forced his hands to relax, straining against the urge to scrunch up the papers even as he shivered.

Instead his eyes zeroed in on the seller.

“Where did you get these?” He asked, schooling his expression into a smile and shaking the papers lightly. “You know stealing isn’t a good career choice.”

The seller paused his sale with a customer, both of them turning to Johan. The seller's jaw dropped and for a long moment he gawked stupidly at the papers before finally an affronted expression settled on his face, but it was too little, too late. The would-be-customer quickly walked off as the seller started stuttering.

“I have no idea what you are talking about! I have never stolen anything in my life, how dare you accuse me of such things?!” The seller yelled, trying to defend himself in panic but the customers around Johan just kept leaving.

When it was just the two of them left Johan let his smile fall as the angry seller once again turned to him. “I have lived too long for young rascals to accuse me of thievery! You just cost me a lot of customers, how are you going to make up for it?!”

Johan rolled up one sleeve and the ribbon fell.

He wasn’t playing the game. Not this time.

Just before the ribbon hit the ground Johan tok control. He threw it out.

The seller cowered back as it passed by his head, but it wasn’t done yet. It went around a pipe in the alley behind the booth before coming right back at the seller. Within a second Johan had it wrapped around the man’s neck and just as his eyes widened, Johan pulled. The seller flew backwards into the alley, hanging.

Johan followed, jumping over the booth in a fluid motion.

“Are you ready to tell the truth now?” Johan asked, a real smile finding its way onto his face as he approached the struggling man.

This text was taken from Royal Road. Help the author by reading the original version there.

He would get his answers one way or another.

But the man continued struggling, giving no reaction to Johan. He released the ribbon, letting him fall to the ground in a lump, coughing and gasping for air.

Pathetic.

The seller tried to get away, but a light kick was enough to push the man right back down as Johan knelt down next to him.

“Where did you get them?” Johan waved the pages gently, reminding the seller.

“D-don’t hurt me-” The seller started, big eyes filling with tears.

“Where.” Johan repeated and the seller jerked back at the interruption.

“I-I just- someone-” Johan raised his eyebrows at the words. “I got them- someone gave them- sold them to me.”

“So someone sold them to you?” He asked and the seller quickly nodded in relief. Johan lifted his hand and a light flashed in the air, a familiar weight settling in his hand. The seller squealed at the sight of the dagger. “That doesn’t sound very likely.”

“No-no, you’re right,” The man stammered, before realizing what he said. “No, I mean- I’m-I’m right- someone gave them to me.”

“Hm.” Johan sat back on his toes, giving the man some breathing room.

“They told me to sell them here- in Solstad.” The seller quickly continued. “That they’re worth a lot to someone and he paid me a lot to- and I-”

“He?” Johan interrupted. “Who is he?”

“A tall, dark skinned man with a lot of gold-” That was familiar.

“Was he beautiful?” Johan cut in. The man stared at him for a second, his stuttering paused.

“Uhm, yes...he was very...beautiful.” Johan inhaled sharply and stood up. Fists white, muscles tensed and eyes wide with anger.

Lust. That piece of-

Johan was going to kill him. He was going to kill them all. All the sins. They wanted him back in Heaven, why else would Lust give his dad’s journal pages to some random seller? Not only that, he even paid the seller to take them. How dare they use his dad’s memory just to lure Johan to Heaven.

Well. It was working. If they wanted him there, fine, he would go to Heaven.

He left without another word.

-

Thoughts raced through his mind as he ran through the forest. The rope bridge must still be there, he just had to get to it!

His dad had written down everything in the journal. Every vision, every mission or journey. Everything from important- to everyday events. Everything in that book was important, especially to Johan.

He had to get that journal. Who knows what else was in it? He had to get it back!

No, that wasn’t right. He didn’t need the journal, Greed would have already seen everything in it. He wanted it back!

He couldn’t remember the exact path Frey had shown him, but it should be around somewhere, he just had to look harder!

Suddenly a brute force hit him, and he jerked forward, only to come to a stop as something wrapped around his waist, pulling him back.

His breath was pushed out of him and for a second the world spun, the blue sky and the green grass merged as he doubled over. Then something wrapped around his chest too, pulling him straight and everything went silent as Johan breathed heavily, quickly realizing what was going on.

He gritted his teeth and thrashed around.

“Let me go, Note!” He hissed. Damn it, if he was here then Signe would be too. Goddamn it. They would ruin his plans. There was no way they would come with him to Heaven. They hadn’t even met Johan’s dad, they wouldn’t go back to the place they died just for him!

“Stop moving!” Note’s tired voice hissed next to his ear but Johan only increased his struggle.

“Leave me alone!” The arms around him faltered for a second and Johan almost managed to get out before Note realized and tightened his hold, pulling him right back.

Johan wheezed at the force. Barely able to breathe in the tight hold, but still he didn’t stop moving. He couldn’t do much with his hands, but his legs were free. He stomped them into the ground, trying to throw Note back.

“Never!” Note hissed. “What is going on?! You can’t just leave like that!”

“You can’t stop me.” Johan panted through gritted teeth. “I’m getting my dad’s journal! I don’t care what I have to do!”

“Johan, shut up.” Signe suddenly stood in front of him. “We’re going but you need to calm down first!”

Johan stopped, heart beating like a hammer in his chest.

“We?” He breathed.

“Of course.” Signe huffed and crossed her arms. “We are family.”

“I need to go to Heaven.” Johan tried.

“And we are coming with you.” Note said sternly, slowly letting go of him not that he stopped fighting.

“Heaven, huh? We need a plan, we can’t storm in there or...” Signe gestured then shrugged. “Well, we’ll die again.”

Johan swallowed, mind racing.

“Are you okay?” Note asked gently.

Johan just nodded jerkily and tried unsuccessfully to calm himself down.

“Really?” He asked weakly.

“Yes.” Note said gently.

“Are you sure?” Johan asked, turning to see Note’s face.

“Yes.” Note smiled.

“But-”

“You’re ours.” Signe interrupted with a soft smile. Johan breathes shakily as she reached up and ruffled his hair. She laughed. “We’re not leaving you alone. We can handle Heaven, and the deities can’t do anything to us anyways! We’ll just come right back!”

Her hand lingered on his cheek for a second and somehow from her short height she managed to smile down at him. Despite the ominous words, for some reason they were comforting.

They were coming with him.

“You didn’t know him though.” Johan said, feeling faint. To them it would just be any old journal.

“Your family is our family. It doesn’t matter that we didn’t get to meet him.” Note added. “Family is family. Yours or mine, it carries over.”

“Family.” Johan breathed. They were family.

“So, a plan?” Signe asked, raising an eyebrow in question.

Johan thought for a second.

“I have a lead.” Johan said and laughed. Bright and freely, the burden that had rested on his shoulders for the past four and a half years was finally removed.

Ahh. Frey was actually going to kill him.