“This is all your fault,” Silas told her as soon as they managed to be alone in one of the rooms of the inn.

“My fault?” Olivia protested, although deep down she understood what he meant.

“Yours and your friend's.”

“She's not my friend!”

“Well, you seemed very comfortable talking to each other while leaving me out of the conversation.”

“I have no control over what's happening to me, Silas! You think I don't understand you but I really do. Since we left the lake I understand very well what it's like to lose control of my body. It's you who doesn't understand me.”

Silas sat on the edge of a bed and frowned even more thoughtfully. It seemed as if the idea that they had something in common also bothered him. There was no way to please him, Olivia thought.

“So... you and I...” as she said this she felt uncomfortable but she needed to ask him. “Are we good?”

Silas avoided her gaze, but this time he answered.

“Yes, we're good," he grunted.”

Olivia sighed in relief that at least they had made peace.

“Don't lose hope, Silas, we're so close.”

“What if the wizard is right?” he asked suddenly.

It took Olivia a while to understand that he was referring to the absence of magical power in his body.

“Of course not, it must have been the talisman,” she was convinced of that.

“What if it wasn't the talisman, what if the sirenians played a trick on me just to take away my power?”

“Don't be silly. The sirenians are not that powerful,” or so she thought, “and I don't think they had bad intentions.”

Silas was not convinced.

“I only know that they weren't very pleased to help me.”

“But in the end they did.”

“Thalassa told me something but I don't know what to believe anymore.”

“What did she tell you?”

Silas then went on to explain about the knot that the sirenian had mentioned to him, and that was apparently preventing him from controlling his transformations.

“A knot... Maybe that's it,” the only thing Olivia knew about knots was that they consisted of an obstruction in the channels through which magical energy flowed. The existence of a knot could mean that the carrier suffered weakening, pain or an imbalance as seemed to be the case with Silas

“Is that real?” Silas asked when she told him what she knew.

“Yes. Even wizards can be affected by one.”

“Does it have a cure?”

“Yes... but...”

“Is it something like a seal?” insisted Silas whose voice seemed to mix relief and anxiety.

“No, the seals can be removed by the carrier himself if he had enough power or by another wizard or magical being who could decode the mechanism. A knot... is a bit more complex... It's not something that can be removed...”

Silas looked at her suspiciously.

“But you said...”

“A seal is like a foreign object inside the carrier... but a knot is part of the Code. It is your own power that has bound itself. You cannot remove it... but untie it... and by your own means.Olivia bit her lips as she watched the gleam in Silas' eyes seem to fade.”

“Only I can untie the knot... as Thalassa said.”

“Exactly.”

“What should I do?”

Olivia swallowed.

“Ah... well... I don't know... I never got to study the techniques... it wasn't something I was interested in at the time. Besides, Eldrin...”

He lowered his head and shook it.

“I figured as much but I had to ask.”

Seeing him like this Olivia was flooded with renewed determination. She rested her hands on his shoulders so that their faces were very close when she spoke to him.

“I can't help you untie the knot but I'm not going to let you give up, do you hear me? We'll get to the island any way we can. I promise you.”

He stirred uncomfortably as he felt her hands on him and, Olivia, becoming aware of the closeness between their bodies, suddenly released him.

At some point she had wanted to ask him why he had reacted to the wizard in that way when he put his arm around her shoulders in such a possessive gesture, but then dismissed it, thinking that he had only wanted to make the man angry. The same thing had happened when they danced together. They were only pretending because she had put him in that situation by telling everyone they had eloped together.

Once the discussion was over, they both agreed to act more cautiously, so from that day on Olivia refused to participate in the plays, using as an excuse the discomfort she felt at the idea of being watched from the audience by that wizard who had behaved so disgustingly towards her.

Elyssa and Celestia did not hide their discontent. That was part of their job, they could not avoid the men's thoughts, and if any of them upset any member of the group, as had already happened thousands of times, they could beat them or ask for help.

But she stood her ground, and their protests were of no avail. Finally, Deema interceded to leave her alone. If Olivia didn't feel like acting, they couldn't force her to, so from then on she helped with other activities such as mending costumes, something she had been learning little by little since she had never sewn a button in her life, although not without suffering a few punctures and spending some time with bandaged fingers.

She never wandered away from the group again, she was always accompanied by someone and kept as far away from the Town Hall as possible. It was not that she was afraid of that man, but if he became too interested in her he was capable of investigating her identity, and he could end up discovering how they had come to be part of The Walking Dreamers.

The only time she dared to go out alone was when she decided to get the map she needed so badly. The coins Gorwan had given her were enough not only for that, but also to buy a new saddlebag and a canteen. She would have liked to buy men's clothes but that would draw too much attention, so she decided to make her own outfit from some old costumes that Alder no longer wore and that would suit her perfectly since he was not very big. She was sick of dresses. They were impractical for traveling and reminded her of her life in the castle. Her hair was growing back, perhaps faster than it should due to Daephennya's magic, and she couldn't wait to cut it.

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Meanwhile, Silas continued to work with Meldo, so as not to arouse further suspicion. They had keep pretending that everything was normal for them and that the rumor of that strange energy that the wizards had perceived did not affect them in the least.

Aside from the change in Olivia's behavior, the group's routine continued in a steady rhythm, very similar to the previous town. They would get up early, eat breakfast, take their walks through the market, eat lunch, prepare everything for the performances until it was time to go on stage. For somes days this went on without any further surprises. Elyssa and Celestia ended up accepting Olivia's decision but made her promise to resume acting when they settled in the next town, which would be the last stop before Olivia and Silas continued their journey on their own to Stormbrace.In fact, both girls, as well as Alder, didn't miss the chance to talk to Olivia again to convince her to continue traveling with them.

“Why do you want to go with that aunt of yours?” asked Celestia.

“How are you so sure that she will accept you in her home?” added Elyssa.

Neither of them were convinced by Olivia's alleged plans to move to Stormbrace with her relatives. It seemed like a depressing destination. The port had a reputation for being battered by severe storms and fierce winds, hence, of course, its name. It was, therefore, a grim place of dark buildings and crumbling docks, crowded with decrepit sailors, pirates and outlaws.

Olivia was warned that she would find nothing but misery there and that if she and Silas decided to settle there they would find themselves in appalling conditions and perhaps their relationship could not survive. On the other hand, if they joined The Walking Dreamers, they were assured of fun and warmth by all its members.

And if Silas didn't agree, he could go to Stormbrace by himself and let Olivia go free. When they said that, Alder, who also joined them sometimes, opened his eyes like a dog waiting for a bone. He hadn't spoken to her since everyone thought she and Silas had reconciled, which to some extent wasn't far from the truth, though not in the way they thought.

As they continued to describe the harbor in the worst possible way to change her mind, Olivia was becoming more and more moved by the wishes of those affectionate people she would have to leave at some point. She would have liked to tell them that they could write to each other but that constituted a vile lie. Once they parted, it was very likely that their paths would never cross again. It was for the best. Until she learned to master her power, she would be a danger to any human. She already was to Silas, and she felt guilty about it, but their fates were now intertwined in a way that there was no turning back

Besides, she concluded, the sad reality was that she couldn't consider them friends either. They knew nothing about her, only details she had been able to mingle among so many lies. Everything that made her who she was was hidden, partly to protect them but also to protect herself from them.

The only one who perhaps really knew her, she realized, not without surprise, was Silas.

Silas was her friend, although she couldn't be sure that the feeling was mutual, and she preferred to be struck by lightning rather than ask him directly to clear the doubt. Every now and then she was overcome by a certain nostalgia for those first days walking through the forest when they were just the two of them alone with the promise of a wonderful destiny. Now she could not wait to get back on the road as they had started.

Meanwhile, in that town the days passed in the same routine to which she had become so accustomed. They were halfway through their stay, although Olivia preferred not to count the days so as not to become even more anxious. Everything seemed to be going smoothly. They hadn't run into the annoying wizard again, nor had they heard any more rumors about the strange energy of the last few days. The rest of the group seemed to have forgotten about it, and found themselves absorbed as usual in their own tasks.

One afternoon, Deema asked her to accompany her to a store where they sold some special spices that she would use later to add flavor to the camp meals. It seemed to her that Olivia would want to rest a bit after spending so much work with the wardrobe that was constantly suffering from all kinds of accidents and breakages. The girl agreed and the two of them wandering for a while in the streets until they reached a place where they were greeted by an old woman who led them to a storage room.

While Deema chatted with the woman, Olivia went ahead to browse through the barrels there. She knew nothing about cooking so everything they said held little interest for her.Their voices could still be heard behind her back when suddenly she felt as if something fell on her and crushed her to the floor. She tried to get up, but found she could not move. She screamed for help. Someone behind her grabbed her arms and positioned them behind her back to place chains around her wrists. Her breathing quickened. She could feel the pounding of her heart drumming on the stone floor.

Someone turned her around and to her horror she found the face of the wizard who had made that outrageous proposal. To her growing disgust, he was staring at her pursing his lips like someone about to taste a feast. Olivia's dismay worsened when she saw that Deema was standing behind him with an anguished expression and tightly clutching the bag she had brought for her groceries.

“Deema!” Olivia groaned as she realized she had been set up.

She closed her eyes.

“I can't say I'm sorry. I didn't mean to do this but...”

“Why?” that question sounded almost like a sob, not because of the situation she was in, but because of the betrayal of that woman who had treated her like another one of her children.

“My children,” replied Deema with some harshness. “You... did something to them that night.... Mothers know when something is not right.... Maybe you didn't hurt them but something strange happened.... Their condition was not normal... Later I found out about that strange energy.... I estimated the days and guessed it might have been that same night you knocked them out.... Besides... your story... everything fits...”

“No, Deema, no...”

“It can't be a coincidence... Besides, this man... he said that...”

“Other reports have come in,” the wizard interrupted her. “Not only from this area, but also from the gulf, not so far from Misty Dream, just where this woman told me she found you and that pathetic boy with no magic lying on the beach as if you had suffered a shipwreck.”

“What are you saying?” Olivia raised her voice, trying to hide her panic.

“And what a coincidence that a few days before that, the lake attack happened,” the wizard continued. “They also told me that you don't look like a commoner, besides the fact that your magical power is somewhat higher than normal.”

“Olivia... you... Are you running away from the Council? Did you have anything to do with what happened at the lake?” with each word Deema sounded even more desperate until the last question sounded like an affirmation. “You attacked all those people too!”

“No, I didn't!” Olivia's eyes flooded with tears of guilt. “I didn't do it. I didn't do it. I didn't do it.”

Rather than telling that to Deema, she seemed to be telling it to herself.

“We rescued you, we fed you, you traveled with us, we gave you our food, we let you be a part of our plays, you became friends with my children... and all this time... you and that... whatever he is... you were deceiving us... All this time thinking that you were an innocent girl blinded by love and in reality...” Deema pressed her lips together tightly.

The wizard turned to her.

“A regrettable situation. Your services will be rewarded.”

“Just take them away from my family.”

“Silas! Where is Silas?”, shouted Olivia.

“Gorwan and Meldo have already taken care of him,” Deema replied and turned to leave.

“No, no! It's not like you think, Deema! Don't go! I didn't mean to trick you!” Olivia was crying on her back on the floor, feeling that the tears could drown her. The wizard made her get up, and she began to shake violently to try to kick him.

“As you have noticed,” said the wizard. “I have put magical nullification chains on you. It's no use resisting.”

Olivia hadn't even tried to use magic because she had no idea how to do it in those situations. She was a pathetic wizard. Since she had left the castle she had done nothing but receive help. Eldrin removed the shields, Barthra and the Elementals kept her away from the soldiers, Daephennya helped her hide with another face, her father made her safe from the wizards, Numi gave her the chance to travel along with Silas, and the actors allowed them to travel with them.

She had done nothing, just as she could do nothing now.

At least, on her own.

“Please,” whispered Olivia.

“It's no use,” said the wizard thinking she was talking to him.

“Help, please.”

“Help?” laughed the wizard. “Well, if you ask me like this... maybe we can come to an agreement before the Control Division comes looking for you. I hear they're a scary bunch...”

“Help, please.”

“I'm afraid I'll have to shut you up, I can't risk anyone listening to you," the wizard, ran his fingers over Olivia's lips, which magically closed as if someone had sewn them together.

Help, help, help, help, help, Olivia begged to herself as the wizard dragged her out of the shop and into a wagon.

“Now you want help?” a deep voice asked.

Olivia's heart stopped. She recognized that voice. It was neither Dawn nor Clover.

Yes, I need help. I have to save Silas.

“You know who I am, don't you?” the voice asked.

Yes, Olivia knew who she was.

You're the one who attacked the lake.

“And you still want my help?”

Maybe Clover or Dawn...

“They're not here now, only me. Spark. I'm the only one who can help you right now. I'm asking you again. Do you want my help?”

Yes.

“There is something you must know first. Something the others haven't told you. Every time we use your body a part of it is consumed. That's why you lose consciousness, and if one of us overdoes it, you can even die.”

You didn't ask my permission the first time.

“As you know, I don't have much patience. Knowing this, do you want to...?”

I said yes.

“You're not very patient either,” Olivia couldn't see her face, but it seemed to her that the witch was smiling as her consciousness was dissolving into the blackness of a starless night.