Olivia did not think it wise to leave the safety of the secluded stone house where Milo had so generously sheltered them, but the guilt was much stronger. She could not allow the boy to carry the full responsibility of helping them on his shoulders. So, when Milo later returned to the house with more food and news of the progress of their negotiations with the sailor who would help them hide in the ship's hold, Olivia offered to join him on his next errand so that together they could get the money more quickly.

At first she thought the boy would refuse as she herself had doubts about her own ability to help him due to her obvious lack of experience. So far her only work had been acting briefly in plays, apart from some small tasks of set design and costume arrangement that she had learned with Celestia and Elyssa.

However, the boy seemed enthusiastic about the idea of spending the whole day with Olivia, which warmed her heart because surely he was in need of companionship.

“What about me?” Silas growled.

“You'll stay and clean the house,” Milo replied indifferently.

The thought made the chimera squint even more.

“You know how to do it, don't you?” asked the child, skeptical.

“Of course I do,” answered Silas, although when Olivia asked him in secret if he really knew he told her that he had seen the castle maids at work.

The girl doubted that was enough to learn anything.

The next day they woke up early to start the first tasks of the day and Olivia soon realized that before then she didn't know what she was getting into.

“There are two of us this time, so today we'll make twice as much,” Milo assured her.

Their first job consisted of loading and unloading goods, something that at first seemed easy enough, though she didn't anticipate that her body was not sufficiently trained to withstand a long time of going back and forth with boxes, barrels or sacks of different products coming and going from the ships and the market. By the time they were done, she felt as if stones had been tied around her arms and her clothes had become soaked with sweat.

This was followed by several hours of delivering messages and more goods from the stores, in which Olivia could do little to help except follow Milo with a basket in her hand. She had to work hard not to fall behind. Milo moved swift as a fish in water, guiding her confidently through the crowded streets and the chaos of the port like the first day they met, waving endlessly at familiar faces as if he knew almost everyone. There were more than a few times he had to stop and wait for her although he never complained to her and that made the girl feel worse.

By the time they were done with the delivery, she sat in the middle of the street with her back against a wall and breathing heavily. Milo on the other hand looked cool as a cucumber, as if nothing he had done had taken any effort. Perhaps in the end she was nothing more than a hindrance.

“Tired?” Milo asked with a friendly smile.

Olivia didn't want to admit it but her expression gave her away.

“The next job will be easier. The tavern's owner has asked me to come and help him at lunchtime.”

“There's more?” Olivia sighed.

“Well... the day is just beginning.”

“Ah... but... how many coins do we have?”

Milo held out his hand to hand her the small bag in which he was collecting the day's profits.

“How much more do we need?” she blushed to ask such a silly question.

“Quite a bit... don't worry... as the hours pass you'll get used to it.”

But Olivia didn't get used to it. The work in the tavern was exhausting. The place was bursting at the seams. Between going back and forth with mugs and plates she had no free moment to sit down. Her back was killing her as if a sword had been thrust into the middle of her. She felt numb from all the shouts of customers demanding more drinks and her feet kept stepping on food falling from the tables as she tried to move between the tables and the people coming in and out of the place.

Milo on the other hand moved confidently and in between going back and forth talked to the customers who laughed at his jokes and before leaving tossed him a coin for his services.

Olivia had been afraid that the men would pick on her but then realized that her condition was so pitiful that no one seemed to notice her presence. She had kept her eyes down at all times and there were more than a few who mistook it for a boy. She didn't know whether to be relieved or offended.

Once they finished, the owner offered them something to eat and drink and soon after they returned to the street to continue with the same activities of the morning. At nightfall the small bag weighed a little more but according to Milo they were still far from their goal and perhaps they would need a couple more days to get the necessary amount.

“I'll think of something else that can give us more coins...” he apologized but Olivia reassured him that he had already done too much.

“I think I've done nothing but slow you down.”

“Not at all,” he said, though Olivia didn't believe him. “Besides, it's been fun.”

“Fun?” Olivia couldn't understand how all those tiring, repetitive tasks could be fun for him.

“Being with you is fun,” he said, looking down at the ground as they walked.

Before Olivia could answer him, a shrill voice interrupted them:

“Just look at that... Milo... so you have a girlfriend now. well done!”

She stopped at the sound of the voice but Milo continued walking as if he hadn't heard anything.

“Hey! Don't dare to play deaf! You know nothing good will happen if you ignore us!” shouted another high-pitched voice.

Turning her head in all directions, Olivia finally discovered the source of it when she looked up at the roof of a house. Right there stood two thin girls, wearing gray clothes although those appeared to be of good quality. They both appeared to be younger than Milo. One had short, messy hair, similar to a bird's nest, the other had her hair tied back in a ponytail and was watching them with a furious look on her face and her arms crossed.

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“Don't pay attention to them,” whispered Milo to Olivia, looking ahead. She followed behind him.

“We'll tell the boss about this!” shouted the girl with the ponytail.

To Olivia's bewilderment, Milo abruptly turned down a street going in the opposite direction of the stone house and then turned again several times until she lost track of where they were. They even managed to sneak through empty yards and down several alleys.

“They were following us. But I think they've tired of it,” Milo whispered at the sight of her confused face.

After a while of incessant walking in the dark, Milo finally picked up the path they should have followed in the first place. Olivia avoided asking about the two girls until they both crossed the threshold of the door.

There they found Silas pacing the room like a penned animal.

“What took you so long?” he asked annoyed, although Olivia knew he was worried.

“We had a little mishap, that's all,” Milo explained, studying the floor and the furniture. “I see you're not even good at cleaning.”

The floors were damp, with traces of mud in some places, there were still cobwebs in some corners of the ceiling, and the kitchen pots and pans, although they looked clean, emanated a suspicious smell. Considering that the chimera had never lived inside a house, except when inside the castle, he had at least made a try.

Silas ignored that last remark.

“What happened?”

“We ran into members of the Ghosts.”

“You mean the two girls?” Olivia asked.

Milo nodded.

“I think I've managed to lose them but just in case you shouldn't go out with me tomorrow.”

Olivia objected. While she might not have been much help, she didn't feel good about letting Milo take care of everything.

“I made a mistake,” the boy groaned. “I shouldn't have ignored them, but I didn't want them to ask too many questions either.”

“But... they're just little girls...”

“They're Ghosts...”

Olivia felt her skin crawl.

“They are dead?”

Milo let out a shrill laugh.

“No,” he said, wiping his eyes. “They're just part of a gang... but a real pain in the ass.”

As they fetched more water from a nearby well, since Silas had spent all there was, Milos explained that in order to survive the harsh conditions of life in the port, many of the children had banded together in small gangs. Among the best known were the Wandering Gulls, the Surf Wolves, the Stealth Dolphins and the Abyss Crabs. All of these were harmless and sought only to survive. Not all were orphans. Among its members there were also poor children who had to look for sustenance for their families and the quickest way to do it was joining a gang and take some of the profits that would later be divided.

Milo, however, although he respected the Children of the Port's code of honor and the sense of community among them, preferred to keep his distance. So far he had managed to get by on his own thanks to his wit, discretion and powers of observation and did not want to answer to any hierarchy.

Therefore, his relationship with the gangs was complicated, and he could not avoid his life being influenced by them, since the jobs he did often depended on the power dynamics of the gangs that they maintained with sailors and merchants, and there had been many times when he had to stay away from certain areas to avoid misunderstandings and confrontations.

Most of the gangs used to leave him alone but there was one that stood out among them all.

The Ghosts.

“We, the Children of the Port, tend to win the sympathy of the people with honest work,” said Milo shaking his head, “but they don't respect this rule and tarnish our reputation.”

“They are thieves,” Silas concluded.

Milo nodded.

“And very successful. No one has ever caught them. They appear and disappear out of nowhere. Hence their name. Their boss, Rufus, has long tried to pressure me to join them. But they'll never succeed...” the boy's eyes darkened. “Maybe tomorrow you'd better not go out, Olivia.”

“Nothing of the sort,” Olivia refused in a tone that brooked no argument. “We'll just be more careful.”

And besides, they were just children, though she didn't want to say that out loud so as not to offend Milo. What harm could they do to them?

The next day's routine was not so different from the previous one but it did feel worse. After a deep sleep, Olivia thought she would wake up more rested but every muscle in her body ached.

“You shouldn't...” Silas started to say but she gave him a fierce look. She was determined to help Milo and there was no pain to stop her.

They left Silas alone again, with directions from Milo to clean the house better this time. As they walked away, they both looked in all directions but there was no sign of anyone following them and neither did they come across the two girls or any of the gang as they went about their work on the docks.

The hours passed quietly as they went from one place to another fulfilling errands. As night fell again, just in case, Milo again took the longer way to reach the stone house but noticed nothing unusual as they proceeded through the darkened streets.

Relieved, they crossed the threshold of the door again, though this time they found Silas sitting on a chair, completely bound from head to toe.

“Shit...” growled Milo.

“Silas!” exclaimed Olivia stepping forward to free him but soon found herself surrounded by four children dressed in gray clothes, among them the two girls from the day before.

Silas stood with his head downcast and his long hair hiding his face.

“I couldn't do anything...” he said ashamedly without taking his eyes off the ground.

The oldest of the gang, a boy with ashy blond hair and cold, calculating eyes, stepped forward with a sneer. The rest stood behind him with their arms folded.

“Well, well, Milo... I didn't expect it from you. Does the old captain know you've taken over his house without his permission?”

“Rufus...”

The gang leader cocked his head to one side.

“I wonder also what Dhabeos Myrkan will think when he sees his honest, dear little boy going about doing things he shouldn't be doing.

“I have nothing to do with him.”

Rufus shrugged his shoulders.

“He is fond of you... If it were up to him, I think he would adopt you, and that's why you enjoy certain privileges that few of us have.”

Milo patted his forehead.

“Oh, right, that's why you hate me so much. You're jealous! Does poor little Rufus want someone to adopt him? I can talk to Dhabeos and I'm sure he'll take you to his wife's pathetic school to fill that empty head of yours.”

Rufus' grimace disappeared behind his tight lips. He took a step forward toward Milo and the two boys stood face to face with their noses almost touching.

“Say that again, and see what happens.”

Olivia cleared her throat and both children looked at her

“So...” she said uncomfortably, looking at the rest of them. “Are you the Ghosts?”

Despite everything Milo had told her about the Ghosts, in Olivia's eyes they seemed like nothing more than a bunch of little kids who were currently squabbling like grumpy puppies. She couldn't help but feel a mixture of tenderness and pity for them. If she could have, she would have adopted them all at that moment but unfortunately she had no home to which to take them now.

However, she began to reconsider as soon as Rufus gave her a steely cold look.

“So this is your girlfriend,” the gang leader said to Milo without taking his eyes off Olivia which made the girl suddenly feel shy. “You have strange tastes.”

“No, she's not!” said Milo with clenched fists.

“We've been watching you, you've been very busy... I wonder why. These two...” Rufus' eyes shifted from Olivia to Silas. “They're too old to be considered Children of the Port. I've never seen you help an outsider like this. Word on the street is that these last few days you have been slacking a lot.”

“And that matters to you?” mocked Milo.

“Milo, Milo. I care about your well-being. You should be flattered that I want you to join my gang.”

“Nothing you can say will change my mind.”

“You'll think again when you see that I've come to do you a favor.”

“This is a favor?”

“Finn...” without turning his head, Rufus spoke to one to the other boy. “Tell him what you heard.”

The black-haired boy came closer.

“The wizards are worried,” Finn said. “I heard them.”

No one said a word. Silas raised his head and Olivia's heart began to pump wildly.

“An urgent message has arrived from one of the western villages,” Finn continued. “But apparently it is secret information because only a few know its contents.”

“What does that have to do with us?” Olivia asked, trying to sound unconcerned.

A smile returned to Rufus' face.

“Oh, I think you know very well, Lady Olivia of Shadowrock.”