Tehol and Bugg are discussing the Eternal Domicile. Bugg is meeting the Royal Engineer who is impressed with the work that’s been done shoring up some old warehouses. Tehol asks Bugg to make a call on the Ratcatchers Guild, which Bugg agrees to do on his way to the gravel quarry. Brys is astounded at the number of disappearances from the city in the last year.. around seven thousand. The Ratcatchers Guild has been assigned to look into them. He wonders what Tehol has stumbled onto.