The Throne I Left

The sun was warm on the back of his cloak as Johan walked through the market. The sky was bright blue with no clouds in sight. At noon the crowd was bustling, laughter in the air as people chatted and children played. The marked booths were packed together in neat rows in front of the tall, red buildings on either side of the street.

The smell of fish was strong as he made his way past the fishing booths by the docks, twirling the end of a red ribbon casually in the air while careful to dodge any of the diving seagulls looking for food lost on the ground. He duly noted that most of the booths to the right stood empty, a young woman had ducked behind one of them to escape the crowd and was comforting a screaming toddler in her arms.

Though it was only noon and the atmosphere was bright and cheerful, Johan was ready to go to bed. He had been awake doing a job for the past thirty hours and he was looking forward to finishing up so he could finally find a room for the night and pass out.

Yesterday was his first ever day in Solstad, a city famous for being built in the crook of a mountain, its golden palace built right up against it. He had crossed through the city gates, just a few steps in and taking in his first sight of the golden city when suddenly a giggling group of tiny fairies flew past holding a necklace between them, an old woman slowly chasing after them.

With enough distance between them one of the fairies dropped the necklace to make a rude gesture back at the old lady before doing a loop in the air and flying off with it’s friends. Johan snorted and had made no move to intercept them, instead he approached the old lady.

Having seen the fairies fly off through the gate, the old lady had stopped chasing and was trying to catch her breath, looking dejected. Johan sized her up and quickly noticed the elegant pink flowers embroidered on her dark dress.

He had sighed, a little regretful. He had hoped to get some sightseeing in before finding work.

"Hey!" He yelled to get her attention. "An old lady like you shouldn't be running around like that. What if you break something?"

"Young man, I'm a lifetime older than you. Don't you dare talk to this old lady like that." She stomped the ground and stared pointedly at him. In that moment she reminded him of a child throwing a tantrum, stomping on the ground and everything.

"Ah, sorry." He laughed. "I just meant you should have someone else do your dirty-work for you. Adventurers can easily take care of some mischievous fairies and get your stuff back for you, there's no need for chasing."

At that she sized him up, pausing her response. Johan knew what he looked like with his backpack and brown cloak. The old lady didn't seem convinced.

"Hm. And I guess you're one of them aren't you?" She hmph'd. "Go get it then, my locket is very valuable to me. I'll pay handsomely for it's return. I sell svele in the market, find me there if you can get it" She dared him, sending him a condescending look before turning and walking away.

And that's how he ended up spending his first day in the city tracking down and playing the fairies’ children's games all night before finally winning back the locket.

Despite common knowledge, fairies weren't actually that hard to deal with. Being the souls of dead children, they really just wanted attention and someone to play games with until they reached the age of adulthood and their souls entered into the reincarnation wheel like everyone else.

The only thing they really wanted was fun and attention. Playing a few games like hide and seek or ring around the rosie were simple, though time consuming, ways of dealing with them. They didn’t need to sleep and didn’t tire, so only one game was usually not enough.

Which was exactly why Johan had been doing it for the past twelve hours.

He looked down at the locket in his hand. A big tree was engraved into the metal, its branches spreading out around it, and runes were engraved around the edges of the oval cover. The metal seemed fairly high quality but the engraving was clearly done by someone without much experience. Despite the gold shine it was easy to see in the dark color of the engravings that it was only paint on the surface of the locket.

Not worth much, then. He would get more money from the wealthy old lady for returning it than by pawning it.

Humming silently under his breath he looked around aimlessly. The old lady said she sold svele so she was probably somewhere in the markeds. Maybe Johan would find something interesting on the way. The markeds in this city were famous for having everything you could ever want.

He walked up the street, absentmindedly looking around. The city was newly built in the last decade, so everything looked bright, stunning and expensive. Far in the distance was the big, gold palace, stretching up against the mountain wall, and behind him was the docks, filled with both huge and small ships with a constant stream of people bringing in new wares as well as customers waiting around to get the first pick.

He walked deep in thought when suddenly the shrill of a fele rang through the air. He looked ahead to see a large crowd surrounding what must be a street musician. The shrill quickly turned into the starting notes of a song, and Johan was about to go closer when suddenly he smelled it.

Baked goods!

He quickly walked past the crowd and almost immediately his eye caught her. A busy crowd surrounded the old lady's booth. Apparently selling svele really did bring in a fortune.

"Business is booming I see." Johan remarked as he made his way through the crowd, pushing people out of his way as he did. Some angry shouts followed him but he didn’t spare a look back, instead he watched as the old lady’s eyes widened in recognition.

"Oh, It's you! The adventurer! Do you have my locket?" She didn't look convinced.

Johan approached and looked over the booth. The old lady was surrounded by heated plates cooking fives sveles each. Two of them were on top of the booth with a big mixture of butter and sugar sitting next to them. A big bucket of batter stood in front of her and there were many more in the alley behind her, even a few empty ones as well.

"Are you the same person that scolded me for being so rude yesterday? Who knows if I have your locket, maybe I just came over to buy a svele." As he spoke he casually swung the locket from his hand. The old lady's eyes immediately latched onto it and she quickly tried to snatch it but Johan simply lifted it out of reach.

"Nah-ah. You said you would pay handsomely for it's return, didn't you?" Johan asked innocently and the old lady smiled, a complete one-eighty from their earlier interaction.

"Of course I will, this old lady never lies. My name is Erika, it's very nice to meet you, young man. Now that I've seen your skill for myself you better introduce yourself, so I know who to go to if this should happen again. Those damned fairies keep causing trouble lately." She fished in her cash box, getting a small pouch from under the table and filling it.

Johan counted quickly, surprised at the amount. Sentimental items were often paid very well for but that was even more than he usually got. Erika handed him the pouch and put her locket on, caressing it lovingly.

"I’m Johan, nice to meet you.” He said, pocketing the pouch. “I'm just passing through the area and thought to come see the city. I just arrived yesterday. So far it's really holding up to its reputation."

"Yesterday?!” Erika gasped. “No. Did you enter the city and turn right around just to help this old lady?"

Johan just smiled as she sent him a disapproving look. "So, maybe the best baker in the city can tell me a little about this place?”

She hmph’ed. "Of course, young man. I know everything there is to know about this city. There are two places that any visitor must see. First, the lighthouse. Our docks see some of the most extraordinary items, from rare jewels to food, we sell it all here, and it all starts with the docks. The lighthouse guides all the ships which is a very important job, not only that but it's made of white stone and lovely gold accents. It's absolutely beautiful. A sight worth to see!" She pointed to where you could see a gold top in the distance over the buildings on the other side of the street.

"And that over there" She pointed to a tower visible from the street they were standing in. In the opposite direction of the lighthouse. "Is one of the three towers connecting the Golden chateau. It's in the shape of a triangle." She told, making a triangle with her hands.

"Such fine buildings haven’t existed here for very long, you know. It's been here for just about a decade now, which is why it's still so nice and gold in color. I have been here much longer! For decades I’ve sold svele in these streets and it just recently became such a lucrative business, what with all the people moving here and all the tourists. Which is why I can pay a young man such as yourself to get me my locket back when such foul fairies steal it from me.“ She opened her locket and leaned closer.

“It's very sentimental for me, you see. Look, here's a picture of me and my late husband on the inside. This is from back in the day of course, he looked nothing like this when he finally died. And thank the Jotuns that he did before this whole thing started, I cannot imagine what I would do if I had to deal with a rotting husband everyday." The old lady babbled on, enthusiastically showing him the picture.

'This whole thing', huh, Johan thought with disdain. He bit his lip.

"Oh yeah, it's absolutely terrible." The old lady manning the neighbor booth added, apparently having listened to the whole conversation. "My husband, he's a good few years older than me, as you can see I’m still fairly young, and when all this started he was as good as dead. I bet he would only have lived another week. Maybe less! These days he never even leaves the house, his skin has started going a little bad and he feels self conscious about the smell but I say just spray a bit of perfume and nobody will notice. It's not like people will blame him either, it's the Jotuns’ fault in the first place."

Erika nodded, agreeing vehemently.

Johan suddenly felt nauseous, the image of a big weeping tree flashing before his eyes. He swallowed it down and forced a smile on his face.

"Thank you, ladies, I think I'll start by seeing the lighthouse." He said, hopeful to end the conversation there, and was mindful to not show anything on his face.

"Wait, young man! Here, take a couple svele on the house. For being considerate enough to help an old lady like me on your first day in the city.” Erika looked at him with a soft look. “Even if you're passing through, I assume you’ll be here for the festival happening tomorrow. It's a big celebration that only happens once a year. The parade people are already busy setting things up!"

Johan frowned. A big celebration? It was the first he’d heard about it, but if it was really that big of a deal he should probably leave soon.

Erika laughed and pushed the bag into his hand. "Now move along, you have better things to do than chat with an old hag."