Chapter 2 – by Michelle Milburn

The Courtesan Prince part 1 of the Okal Rel Saga

Though a mere commoner by virtue of his lack of Sevolite genes, Von is nonetheless caught up in the lives of the powerful Sevolites who enlist his services as a courtesan. On this particular day, even before business hours begin he must seduce the very Vrellish, very pregnant Liege Vretla Vrel away from interrupting a meeting between Von’s mentor and another Liege, only to be discovered by the unamused father of Vretla’s baby. The baby is nothing more than a political “child gift,” but that doesn’t stop the future father from drawing his sword on Von — and Vretla’s pregnant state doesn’t stop her from drawing her sword in turn.

The situation is quickly dampened by an angry Liege Monitum, who has just concluded enlisting the services of Von’s mentor and the owner of the Den, Eva — but unfortunately not in the way Eva would have. Rather than desiring her physically, Liege Monitum is more interested in having her arrange an audience between two rival Demish houses.

After comforting Eva in the way he knows best, Von pays a visit to the dying Demish Princess-Liege of H’Us who, unlike Vretla Vrel, is more interested in Von’s poetic ability than his other courtesan skills. Unfortunately, his respite from power politics is short-lived when he is cornered by the troubled Demish Lady Anatolia H’Reth, wife to Von’s childhood abuser and mistress to the Pureblood Ava Delm, the highest ranked Sevolite in the empire. Anatolia is pregnant, but not by her husband, who hasn’t touched her in years. The only other two options are both impossible: Delm protects his Pureblood genetics with the anti-fertility drug, Ferni, and Von, as part of his courtesan training, has been sterilized both by drugs and surgery.

Regardless, Von has been dragged into the mess: Delm wants Von brought back to the home of his childhood abuser, H’Reth, and there he will await the Royal Gorarelpul to discover Delm’s unknown plan for him.

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Art of Michelle Milburn

Michelle Milburn (http://mmilburn.ca/) is a graduate of the UNBC/Emily Carr fine arts program who has done cover art for Okal Rel Legacies titles and will be doing saga titles for the remaining books in the main series starting with Part 7: Healer’s Sword.

Chapter One of The Courtesan Prince: Pilots Are Uncomfortable People — Summary by Nina Munteanu

The Courtesan Prince part 1 of the Okal Rel Saga

In the far future, two waves of human descendants have scattered across the universe to make a new home. The first Alpha colonists develop a liberal and technocratic society and call themselves Reetians (from Rire). They frequently lose their minds and their lives during faster-than-light space travel, called reality skimming, and eventually lose contact with Earth due to jump destabilization, and assume Earth was destroyed during the collapse.

 Meantime, Earth produced genetically superior Sevolites, who could withstand reality skimming. An ensuing war between the Sevolites and their allies with Earth led to the foundation of the Sevolite empire, an austere society rooted in maintaining the purity of the original, genetically superior blood lines.   

A thousand years later, Earth’s offspring (Reetion and Sevolite) meet. And clash. After a brutal war, they agree to segregate, based on ideological differences.

Now, 200 years after the “Killing War” in which the Reetians were all but destroyed by the Sevolites, the Reetian Space Service Explorations Branch recruits hot-headed pilot Ann of New Beach to help pilot an ambitious mission to make Second Contact with human colonists known as Gelacks on the far side of Killing Reach Jump. 

The recruiter finds Ann languishing in a resort-like “group home” and suffering from a “clinical depression”; reality skimming has taken its toll on her mental health. But Ann is a hot commodity: a pilot with great grip. A veteran in reality skimming, Ann knows how to avoid the gap (exposure to dimensions ordinarily coiled up in the stuff of the universe) in navigating the jump. Ann seizes the recruiter’s offer even though it means aligning herself with a renegade co-pilot, a colleague she had previously assaulted, and a dangerous mission of questionable merit.

 Ann meets the swarthy mission leader, Ranar, a bright anthropologist determined to succeed in Second Contact, with an opportunity to reunite the Reetions with another branch of humankind: Gelacks. Gelacks might be what’s left of Earth’s population; a beta colony that explored in another direction after the Reetion’s jump to Earth collapsed a thousand years ago. A culture where disputes are settled through the sword.

 The Courtesan Prince immerses readers in a world rich with culture, space travel, adventure and intrigue. I enjoyed the terms Lynda invented for the various aspects of her world. Lynda, you are a master world-builder! 

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Nina Munteanu is the author of five novels and short stories, translated into several languages throughout the world. Her latest book “Outer Diverse“, the first book of her Splintered Universe Trilogy, will be released October 2011 by Starfire World Syndicate. Nina teaches writing online through her website NinaMunteanu.com and conducts workshops throughout North America. Her fiction writing guide “The Fiction Writer: Get Published, Write Now!” (Starfire World Syndicate) is used in several North American universities and schools and will be published in Romanian by Editura Paralela 45 this fall.

Re-Reading the Okal Rel Saga

Healer's Sword by Lynda Williams, Part 7 of the Okal Rel Saga

With Healer’s Sword, part 7 of the 10 novel saga, slated for release before Christmas 2011, I decided it was time to re-cap the series as the beginning of the countdown to completion. My plan is to work through books in a leisurely fashion with the help of readers, friends and Okal Rel contributors game to review a chapter. If you are interested, e-mail me at lynda (at) okalrel.org because I’m always happy to hear from a new recruit.