After his conversation with the Duchess, Alfonso goes to find the Countess of Seguer, who, based on a brief conversation he had with the druid Feather that afternoon, spent her time on the Forests committee being, actually, less of an enormous bitch than he would have expected. Still, it won't do to have the Committee on Nonhumans and the Committee on Forests issue wildly conflicting recommendations; that just leaves it up to the floor which of them to go with, and he doesn't trust the floor.