When he is twenty-one, Gorgik is purchased by the Vizerine Myrgot as her lover and is taken to live in the castle of the Child Empress Ynelgo, back in Kolhari, where he gets his first taste of the advantages (and disadvantages) of life among royalty.

But he is so disgusted by what he sees there that he goes back to being an outlaw, working to free all the slaves of Nevèrÿon, no matter their color.

[1] Costikyan commented that "In Tales of Neveryon [Delany] shows not only that he has not completely succumbed to the modern penchant for meaningless pretension, but that he is still capable of writing a dynamite story.

"[1] Bernard W. Bell points out that Tales of Nevèrÿon is thematically concerned with "the reversal of conventional hierarchical, oppositional relationships.

"[2] Larry McCaffery states that Delany "thoroughly expands, deepens, questions, and undercuts the premises of [the sword-and-sorcery] genre".