In Thath's office, with Thath unconscious and bound, Alptraum has just remarked to Nekara that Thath is his father. Nekara, repulsed at this news, reacted by flinging a crowquill at Alptraum's head – and missing. Alptraum makes his case to Nekara, explaining why he thinks that his existence is not blasphemy. Nekara seems appeased for now, but reluctant to accept this sudden revelation on Alptraum's part of his "true purpose," after all the time he's spent uncertain of his importance and identity.

They have little time to mull over this, however, for they both hear a sound at the door. Alptraum goes to the door to investigate, and peers through the keyhole, just in time to see a large Fnerf guard kicking the door in. Alptraum gets thrown across the room, but displays remarkable resilience, getting up and flinging himself down the garbage chute before the guards can pour in. (By this point, Nekara apparently has already availed herself of this means of evacuating the room as well.) Alptraum lingers just inside the chute opening, to overhear the guards arguing about what to do, and their leader calls out to have some reavers sent down the chute to root out the intruders.

At this, Alptraum decides that his luck has run out, and he surrenders.

Alptraum is taken to a "guest room," though this one has some bars over the dumb waiter opening, to make it much harder to sneak out (or in). Alptraum tries to find some way to break apart furniture in his room to work his way out, but to no avail. A Fnerf "hostess" comes to check in on him, and to ask him what he was doing in Thath's office, but Alptraum refuses to speak to anyone but Thath. So, he is left alone, since he is informed that Thath – having been hit about the head by a large blunt object – is in no condition right now to be "entertaining guests."