That was the plan, anyway. Instead, the ship was sunk by rival corsairs in the employ of the Sultan of Khayyar, the survivors of its crew and passengers held to ransom. This was not likely to be forthcoming for any of them, since the crew were (as expected) disavowed by the Ascorran government and Queen Kal'mâk does not play ball with that kind of business, even for a family member's sake. So things were looking pretty grim for all concerned.

While they were sitting around the dungeons in Murada (the Khayyaran capital), waiting for Sultan Omar to get sick of waiting for tribute that was never going to get paid and have them all executed, Velsik sought out Nemo, whom he had heard was plotting an escape, and asked him his price to include Velsik. Nemo would have taken him for free—the whole point was for them all to get away together—but he was young and pleased to be flippant, so he made some offhanded remark to the effect of, "Oh, I think your firstborn should about cover it."

Prince Velsik was trained as a diplomat, so he understands about other cultures, and anyway, khavar are no strangers to sarcasm and flippancy themselves. He knew it was a joke. (Besides which, he did not yet have a firstborn.) On the other hand, when a wizard (however youthful and untempered) makes a joke, it makes people think.

At any rate, the escape came off and the survivors of the Star of Ascorro absconded from Khayyar in good order. Upon their return to Ostvia, Nemo went home to Ktaadia, Velsik made his way west to Niúvac, and all was well. When Velsik arrived, he discovered that he did in fact have a firstborn child: Norah, who had been born while he was in Khayyar.

Most people, hearing this much of the story (not that many people ever do hear this much of the story), jump to the conclusion that Velsik raised his daughter to pay his debt to the young wizard out east, teaching her from an early age that she had an obligation to fulfill. This is not the case. Velsik knew Nemo's remark was intended as a joke. However, he did mention it once, when Norah was just old enough to understand that she almost never met her father... at which point she pretty much decided it was her life's destiny.

Her parents, tutors, younger siblings, pretty much everybody assumed for the first few years that it was a Phase, one of those cute childhood obsessions that are amusingly embarrassing in hindsight. It proved to be anything but. Velsik, the Queen (whose given name is Kliru), and more or less everybody else tried to talk her out of it, but she wasn't budging, and ultimately they decided well, khetrenage is out of fashion in Niúvac these days, but it's an old and honored tradition, and they have no one to blame but themselves if they raised a daughter who heard the call of the ancient code so clearly.

Nemo, hardly an expert in outdated customs among the khavar of the West, was... nonplussed to be summoned to Niúvac toward the end of Norah's 16th year in order to be witness to her final vows and the fitting of her khetra, but as he couldn't figure out any way of getting out of it that wouldn't cause mortal offense, he rolled with it, thinking that perhaps once they were away from the kingdom he could convince her to forsake the path, however honored he might be by the sentiment. That didn't happen. It's ~10 years later now, and he's long since even stopped trying. Truth is, he has no idea what he'd do without her at this point.

As for Kliru and Velsik, they were naturally ambivalent about the whole undertaking when Norah and Nemo left, but as time has gone on and her fame has increased, they've become satisfied that they made the right decision in honoring her determination. Velsik saw something in that devil-may-care young wizard back in the Sultan's dungeon, anyway, and however much the wizarding establishment may not care for Nemo's ways, the prince-consort of Niúvac is content. With a properly educated khavar guardian, the young fool may actually live long enough to go far in this world. :)

--G.
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Benjamin D. Hutchins, Co-Founder, Editor-in-Chief, & Forum Mod
Eyrie Productions, Unlimited http://www.eyrie-productions.com/
zgryphon at that email service Google has
Ceterum censeo Carthaginem esse delendam.