Word of the troubles on Gavdos had spreadly quickly, so the three travellers learned on their journey. Roaming between the island's settlements was not unheard of, as merchants frequently sought new ports for their wares and, as Gavdos was not capable of producing many things for itself, the island's populace was constantly in need of supplies and food from the islands to the north. Travellers were generally greeted warmly by those they passed, so long as they kept moving along and stuck to their affairs.

Yet on their venture, Damon, Timon, and Haimon found themselves the recipients of suspicious stares and hostile faces among the small, agrarian homesteads which they found sporadically along the road through the hills. Three men advancing toward the problematic areas of Gavdos was of little appeal to the farmers. The locals' eyes lingered upon Damon's blade, which he kept quite visible to ward off any opportunists, and their thoughts rested on the possibility of scouts seeking to find new areas for plunder. The three men moved off down the road, out of sight, and, the residents hoped, gone forever.

From Nissos had spawned the present-day island. There, the first islanders banded together to forge a permanent existence on this island, one which the Cretans had deemed worthless for inclusion in their empire. While offering little in terms of resources and wealth, the small island was beyond the authority of a greater power, and therefore it provided a certain amount of free determination which did not exist elsewhere among the southern islands. A community developed at Nissos, at the island's heart, and vessels began to arrive with supplies upon which a stable life could be made. A distant harbor was established to the east, facing Crete, where the village and harbor of Aghioi now stood. Taverns were erected here, and the pirates were granted a haven on Gavdos, a place where they could pass a few days free from the sea and surrounded by houses of drink and pleasure. In return, vessels bringing goods to and from Gavdos were spared seizure upon the seas.

The merchants in Nissos and the harbor's tavern keepers became wealthy off the bounty-ladened plunderers, and this wealth trickled down to the island's other inhabitants. The countryside around Nissos became dotted with small farms where enough food was gradually yielded to support the town's populace. The island found itself on a path to success.

Yet the dangers had also become too many. Word of Gavdos spread among the pirates and soon its harbor was saturated with ruffians. Crete became increasingly relied upon for supplies and food to aid the small, overwhelmed island. Unbeknownst to the island's leaders in Nissos, the Cretans had come to note the island's activity and grwoth, recognizing the wealth which was mounting on the island and the sanctuary it was providing to the pirates who plagued the Cretan trade. Fighting grew in multitude at the harbor as competing bands of pirates sought to eliminate their competition, and there was speculation that the Cretans had offered compensation to those who went to Gavdos and generated trouble.

The island's merchants, who had recently completed the construction of estates in Nissos feared that their homes, were at risk from pirates and sat defenseless against them. The wealth of Nissos was mustered from all inhabitatns to fund the erecting of a wall around the town. When the structure was a third completed the harbor was largely burned following a particularly animated fight between visiting pirates. When the last section of the wall was undertaken, bands of pirates swept straight into Nissos and raided the town, apparently angered by the town's failure to properly rebuild the harbor while they had built a wall to keep the pirates out. The townspeople successfully fought off the pirates, indeed to so fiercely that several vessels were left without owners in the aftermath. Yet enough devastation had been done. With the wealth of Nissos spent, residents began to abandon the town and together they founded the four villages which existed today. The merchants in Nissos fled to Crete or claimed the vessels in harbor and proposed that piracy was the means to return what had been lost.

When the travellers arrived at Nissos the sky had become grey with the day's light receeding behind the sea. The land was overtaken by shadow and cool air. The passed through the stone wall, which had never properly defended the town and was subsequently reduced in height from a man's nose to a man's waist, and, in some places, lower still. Numerous stone blocks had been removed by the town's remaning residents in the months after the raid. With these they repaired or rebuilt what had been damaged or destroyed. However, reflective of the town's state, the once busy marketplace at the town's center, was now a tavern whose appearance was duller than Xinka's. Damon, Timon, and Haimon immediatedly made toward the tavern, which Damon and Haimon had visited years before. As Damon had hoped, Itos, the Nissos Captain, sat prominently inside, a mug of brew in hand.