The while Jarec spent overseas Estrid and Freca lived with her parents' family on the Isles. Estrid's brothers were busy building their first sea-going craft, a joint venture including finances from several Seapolis merchants, and the Arthain family as well. Estrid's long discussions with Dormal paid off, and the vessel was finished by mid 1582.
Jarec returned from Noloswal and Handra in late Earth Season 1582. By sheer luck he and his crew had escaped the victorious Alatan fleet which had sunk the Holy Country fleet in Fire Season. As one of the most senior captains of Dormal alive in the Holy Country (most of the captains who had returned from the 1581 Handra venture had been sunk in the battle) Jarec was invited to the City of Wonders to help build up a new navy for the Godking. Thus Freca lived for three years in the capital of the Holy Country, while his father divided his time between his family, the Godking's Pilots Guild, and the deep sea vessel of the Seapolis consortium joined by his family. In 1585, Jarec was second in command of a flottilla of five vessels being part of the Godking's navy combing the Mournsea for the Alatan escapees. Aided by the Ludoch of the Mournsea, the Kethaelans caught up with the Alatan fleet, and took revenge for the lives of their comrades sunk four years before. Jarec returned from the fighting marked by a deep scar across his brow, but with rich booty from the Alatan pirates. He spent this on a larger share of one of the new naval ships built on orders of the Godking, but financed by citizens who in return received a share in the expected revenues from trade and booty. The family relocated to Seapolis, where 7-year-old Freca spent some time in the office of the consortium trying to make sense of all the numbers and writings. When one of the clerks actually explained the meaning of the bookkeeping, young Freca proved adept at handling numbers and letters, as well as other facets of Issaries' ventures.
One year later Jarec was called into the Godking's service again. He became Fourth Captain of the fleet sent to explore the Rozgali Sea and the eastern realms, commanding the "Pharaoh's Pride" of which he held a twelth share. Jarec promised Estrid that this would be his last greater expedition, and left his son and pregnant wife at the City of Wonders. After one-and-a-half seasons of swampy coasts, treacherous reefs, fever-bearing giant moscitoes and ferocious savages the fleet reached Teshnos, and established the port of Dosakayo. Jarec left part of his crew - including his cousin, acting quartermaster of the ship after the previous holder of that office had caught swamp fever and wasted away - at the new port offshore the fire-worshipping theocracy, to cure their wounds and illnesses, and to provide trade goods for their return voyage. The crews of the most damaged ships were distributed among the fleet to make up the losses and left-behinds, and the remaining ships set sail further east. They sailed through forests which spread past the shore into the sea, were attacked by female savages in dugout canoes, other savages on rafts made from living trees, and yet other savages in turtle carapaces, but somehow persevered into a foggy sea. The mermen they met warned them of other mermen, less friendly than the Ludoch allies of the Kethaelans, and also of vast dragons hidden below the surface. Still, the Admiral pushed onwards, even though some of the more experienced captains counseled to return to the Holy Country. The fleet entered an inland sea from the east, suspecting no danger on the surface of the sea, when disaster in the form of a large fleet of enormous barges towering over even the largest Kethaelan vessels descended upon them, rowed by apparently tireless rowers, and manned with fierce warriors using devilish magics. The proud Kethaelan fleet was shattered in the first onslaught, a few surviving ships made it badly damaged to the high sea, while a few others were captured. The Pharaoh's Pride was among the escapees, but badly burned by draconic breath of the assailants there was no way to perform the magics of Dormal properly. The torn hull of the ship carrying Freca's father was found later on one of the Sofali Islands, its crew disappeared but for a few dead buried on the beach.
When word of this disaster reached the Holy Country in 1588, Estrid relocated with 10-year-old Freca and his 2-year-old sister Jara to Jarec's family, selling the Seapolis house. Two years later she learned about the fate of Jarec's ship, and finally accepted her fate as a widow. The following year she sent 13-year-old Freca as an apprentice to her younger brother Brin, who had inherited his former master's jewellers shop in Karse, while taking Jara with her to her new husband, a fisherman living not far from the Zoo on the southern shore of the archipelago.
Freca spent the next four years as an apprentice to his uncle Brin. He made the aquaintance of the Ulerian girls living and working next door at Margala's, a clique of younger and more daring Mockers (the Lanbrili thieves' ring in Karse), a quite renowned swordsman from Rhigos whose life he once saved but which he failed to repeat two years later, and of course the more regular citizens of this independent city on the border of Heortland. He picked up a couple of skills from his aquaintances, including some of the arts of Uleria, beginners' burglary, Rhigosan two-swords fencing, a taste for horse-races, and an uncanny skill in altering jewelry beyond easy recognition overnight.
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