Beletheep's idea of a less stuffy, more comfortable place aligned with Shay's own. "You're a man after my own heart, Beletheep," Shay would remark when they took their seats in the crowded<em>Bloated Whale</em>. She sipped at her ale, approving of the higher quality, while she listened to what the ratfolk had to offer her. Shay committed the address of the Huninghorn estate to memory and pocketed the slip of parchment. "Looks like we'll be seeing a lot of each other then. Her majesty knows how to provide for her followers quite well." The Queen of Mice and Men had solved most of Shay's networking problems in a single pass with the introduction of Beletheep. In the city she used to operate in, Shay had six contacts that served for all of Beletheep's functions--those contacts were burned bridges now. The ratfolk was a one-stop thieves shop.<br/><br/>"The matter with the coral statue," Shay said. "If I could procure a method for shrinking it, that would be easiest. Depending upon how much your buyer is really offering I could write off the purchase of such a spell as an investment." If there was a black market, and there almost always was, surely there were mages that did such dealings.<br/><br/>"One more thing before I go to the estate," Shay added. "The Trade Council was an empty lead, but who stands to gain the most from the policies that are being vetoed? From her majesty's words earlier, I can only guess they were policies that empowered the common folk and less so the noble classes. But is there an individual that stands to gain the most?"<br/><br/>This would be Shay first lead to track down: following the money. She would have to find Huninghorn's ledgers and accounts. But if Beletheep had a promising answer, it could be something she could cross-check. Regardless of the ratfolk's answer, Shay would thank Beletheep for his time, finish her ale, and make her way to the Civic Quarter and the Huninghorn estate. It was mentioned that renovations were being done. If she caught the workers during a shift, Shay had at least one valid guise to work with. First step, however, was getting the layout of the estate mapped out, starting from the outside.