Rikilda came out of the privy room but did not find her father where he had left her. She watched around to know where he had gone, but her hearing senses gave her the answer.

She heard the grunting of some men beyond the door. One of them sounded like her father.

"Are you there, father?" She ran at the locked door.

"Go back to your room!" Nortze's scared voice came.

Saer fell again by holding his bleeding ear. The vessel clanged beside his face. Nortze saw him squinting at it, and he could see through his intentions. Anger in the Calajhan's face transformed into sheer horror.

"Are you there, father?" Rikilda asked through the door.

"GO BACK TO YOUR ROOM!" Nortze frowned.

While Saer was opening the vessel lid, Nortze geared for teleporting himself back to privy passage. About a minute ago Saer wanted Nortze gone, but when he was about to leave, Saer changed his mind. It would have been okay if he could only convince Nortze about the danger he was pushing his daughter into.

Saer lifted the lid when Nortze was halfway through the door.

Guards had been placed away from privy to sustain privacy. The guard in there had heard tales of women being uncomfortable with their own noises while on the privy seat. It was last year when a guard before him was almost beheaded for laughing at sound of a guest unclipping her robe. Since then he was accustomed to act like he was not hearing anything in the privy. But this time he was hearing something he could not ignore.

The area sounded like a fort.

Better be a stonemason. Guard picked his sword and ran towards the source of sound. He wanted to call soldiers but then remembered how loud his voice was. The guard rushed towards privy as he heard painful groans.

He was frozen when he saw an old man fighting the white servant. The old man's long hair obscured his face. When he moved his head, he got a better perspective of his face.

Dylan Bloudkast.

He saw the white man clutching his sword. The guard looked at his own sword on his waist, which was way smaller than it. Thinking he could worsen the situation, he ran to call other guards.