In the tenth and chronologically final tale in the series, “The Game of Time and Pain” (1985), Gorgik has been successful in his political campaign to end slavery officially throughout the land of Nevèrÿon.

The political question is how the nation should deal intelligently with this sudden population of freed slaves.

In an age and a nation where there is no media, numerous people have taken to pretending they are Gorgik the Liberator, some for good and some for evil, for their own ends.

“Rumor and Desire” shows a set of mosaic pieces from Clodon’s life before he decided to take on the Liberator’s identity in order to be a more effective highway bandit.

As Delany writes in the voice of "K. Leslie Steiner", in the introduction to the entire project (“Return... a preface”, in Tales of Nevèrÿon), the eleventh and final written story, “The Tale of Rumor and Desire”: ... was one Delany wrote when a two-volume collection of all the shorter Nevèrÿon stories and novellas had been planned.