After introducing the giants to the island, it tok surprisingly little time before they were all back to the usual, daily routine. The giants mostly kept to themselves, busy with making their new cave into a home, and were rarely seen in the village, unless they were invited for a feast or some other reason. Really, with everything, Johan felt like he had barely seen them at all.

So there they were, another beautiful day in Solstad, selling fish. The usual routine. At least they finished early this time, letting Johan wander through the city with Note while Signe had stayed behind to help move the crates back to the boats.

Johan looked around mindlessly. Honestly, the markets weren’t that diverse when he was there almost every day. The same charms, same clothes and same food. It got boring quickly and today Erika didn’t even have any chores to ask him to do.

Even the weather was boring. The same bright, blue sky as always. At least Molteholm had some variation, even though it was mostly gray clouds and rain.

“Is there anything you want to do?” Johan asked as they wandered down the street, people milling about the stands around them. Note just shook his head without a word.

Johan used to hate having freetime, back when he was alone. He was always looking for the next quest or job, earning money along the way. Now though, he just hated waiting. Things had changed and now he was a family kind-of-guy and couldn’t just uproot himself and go on adventures whenever he wanted to.

That was one of the few downsides to settling down. Yet he would choose this any day, it was all worth it to have people that cared about him.

He sighed. There really was nothing interesting in the city today. There wasn’t even a street performer in sight.

He was stuck on that thought, that he was just so bored.

And that’s when he saw it. The brightest orange he had ever seen, right in the very corner of his eye, it flashed by. His head whipped around to look but by then it was already gone.

A chill went down his spine.

He sucked in a breath, and took off running, ignoring Note’s alarmed yell after him. He got to the closest set of stairs, a short one leading into an apartment building, and searched the crowd for that familiar orange hair, praying it wasn’t who he thought it was.

Then his eyes found it again.

Oh jotun. They should have stayed home today.

What was a sin doing walking through the busy streets of Solstad?!

Johan cursed. Of all the sins they could run into, why did it have to be the most violent one?

Johan followed the orange hair with his eyes. She stood there by a booth, innocently browsing through different candy. In the hot sun she was wearing a brown leather cloak and tight black pants. Soon she turned around and, with her muscled arm, popped a lollipop into her mouth, a silver ring on her finger.

For a long moment all Johan could do was watch her, his limbs frozen as his thoughts raced and he tried to figure out what to do.

Signe, his mind finally supplied. He had to find Signe right away! Get both her and Note out of the city immediately without being seen, or it would get really bad. He scanned the docks with his eyes while cautiously keeping an eye on the orange hair slowly approaching the docks.

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The crowd cleared and finally he saw her. The small, green head appearing where she crouching down by the empty fish crates.

Then she turned her head. Johan froze when he saw her jaw drop and her eyes widen.

Still in the middle of the crowd, Wrath had stopped, her face paling quickly. She stared at Signe, hand frozen on the lollipop stick. Then she dropped it. Suddenly they both acted. Signe stood up in alarm as Wrath started moving towards her.

Shit.

Without a moment to spare Johan threw himself over the railing, landing softly on his feet and taking off towards the docks. He lost sight of both of them as soon as he entered the crowd and ran as fast as he could, pushing people left and right without a care of the angry voices yelling after him.

Finally he pushed past the last few people and the street opened up to the docks.

They weren’t there.

His heart dropped. Signe wasn’t there. She. Wasn’t. There.

Fuck. Where did they go?!

He looked around wildly, scanning the crowds for anything green or orange, anything that could be Signe, or even Wrath, but he got nothing.

“Johan!” Note yelled through loud pants and came to a stop beside him. Leaning heavily on his knees as he tried to regain his breath. “Where are you going?!

“Wrath is here.” Johan breathed and watched as Note’s face changed. He straightened up, chest still heaving from his run, and watched Johan for a long second in pure shock. Then he looked around, something like hope flickered in his eyes.

“She and Signe saw each other!” Johan added hurriedly and that got the expected reaction out of Note, his head reeling back at Johan, face clouded in horror.

“They what?!” Note hissed. “We have to stop them! Where did they go?!”

“I don’t know, I lost them.”

Note spun around, stretching himself as high as he could until finally-

“There. Come on!” Note started running and Johan quickly followed, ducking into the spaces he left behind in the crowd.

“You saw them?” Johan yelled, passing from the markeds and into a less busy area, now running side by side.

“Signe was just here.” Note stopped for a moment and looked around, then quickly set off again. Johan ran after him and followed his eyes out of the city gates just in time to see the flicker of green hair disappear into the forest. “Come on!”

How far were they going?! Weren’t they just going to fight?! Did it really matter where they tried to kill each other?! They definitely hadn’t cared about that before!

Johan and Note ran all the way through the forest without another sight of Signe, and when they came upon a path near the base of the mountain, leading up, they decided to follow it.

Johan cursed. Why was Signe like this?! Johan should have known something like this would happen! When she had said no to a new axe, he should have insisted. Even a dagger would be better than nothing. Now she was going unarmed into a fight with Wrath!

Johan tok a deep breath and tried to calm himself as they ran. Signe would be fine. She would be fine! Even against Wrath, and even without a weapon!

Then suddenly Johan’s eye caught on something and he faltered, then stopped. To the left of the path stood a single blue flower amongst the trees and bushes. The sheer vibrancy of it was enough to make him stop. He looked around but the only other thing he could see was the steep decline down the mountain on the other edge of the path, the view down to the city covered by trees.

He turned back to the flower.

“That looks…out of place.” Johan had never seen that type of flower before.

A little further ahead, Note had also stopped, realizing that Johan wasn’t following anymore. Both of them watched the flower. It swayed innocently in the wind.

“It doesn’t look natural.” Note slowly agreed. Johan looked up, but he could see nothing past the trees and bushes and- wait. “You don’t think..?”

Note’s voice followed him as he took a step forward, past the flower, then another, pushing a branch out of the way. His eyes widened.

“There’s a cave here!” Johan yelled back and hurried inside.

The cave opened up into a big room. The ground was completely covered in the same blue flowers, seemingly growing right out of the rock and unlike the one outside, these ones were glowing, the blue light lighting up the room as far as the field of flowers stretched on.

Johan looked up and the realization of where he was hit him like a ton of bricks. From the tall ceiling thousands if not tens of thousands of pearls hung, connected in links both long and short, and lighting up the cave along with the flowers.

“Those are..” Note trailed off, speechless as he looked around.

“Souls.” Johan finished for him. This was very bad. “This is Signe’s cave. The Cave of Resets.”