Martin considered the...heir's rather unorthodox idea of having an orgy to provide plausible deniability and smokescreen to cover for the defector.  Assuming there<em>was</em>a defector, and that the entire thing was not some trap designed to embed a spy into their own House.  "I have to agree with Lady Oksana.  As different as your suggestion may be, Lady Eliza, a gathering of the size you are talking about provides far too many variables to control properly.  And if we were to decrease the number in attendance to the point where such variables could be accounted for - if not outright eliminated - then we risk losing the deniability factor that it would ostensibly provide.  It is not an unworthy idea, simply...less than other possibilities.  We shall hold it, I think, for if we need a last throw of the dice."  Sounded like Martin; there were rumors going around the House that he was barely interested in the body, so to speak.<br/><br/>That led onwards to the spice merchant.  "Paeter Gull..."  Known to work with House Richese, and of their number, one whose ancestry had been in House Talbot.  "What we need, to begin, is the names of Gull's entourage.  By eliminating those that<em>cannot</em>be the defector from the party, that will leave us with a list of candidates.  Though I must warn - assumptions are our enemy here.  With that said...we should focus on those on the outs of the House's internal politics.  Someone who may have been overmuch trusted with handling a House matter and failed - whether of their own lack or the sabotage of others - and thus whose star is seen as declining rather than rising.  A man who is set to become House Lord, after all, is not likely to turn on his own."