Fingering the keys

Nesre contacts Ume and tells her the trail is cold and she’s free to go back to work, and then tells her he has an engagement for her, which turns out to be for the Meer. Later, Ume is “decompressing” at a Garden pub, and Cree enters (with another man?) and recognizes Cillian as Ume. Yet later, the realization that Cillian is a courtesan gives Cree the idea of using him to get close to the Meer. Nesre’s plot to assassinate MeerAlya develops later.

• Nesre’s plot, as revealed initially to Ume, is to spy on the Meer.
• The Expurgists also want Cillian to spy on the Meer.

In the end, the Expurgists have been stirred into foment against the Meer, and this becomes the Expurgism. Ume is with MeerAlya on the fateful morning, having been sent by Cree/Nesre on a mission of less violent intent. Cree has to rescue Ume from being bludgeoned along with Alya. They realize they have both been set up by Nesre, and they, in turn, kill him. (If the ripper plot still exists, he comes after Ume.)

Additional thoughts on the Meer's proclivities:

• On her first assignation with him, MeerAlya asks to “feel” Ume; he runs his hands over every inch of her body. What he really wants is to sculpt her, which he begins once he has memorized every inch of her with his hands.
• Ume eventually falls in love with Alya, persuading him at last to break the Meeric law and have sex with her on the evening of the the annual vetma. She also sees what it takes for him to perform the ultimate vetma. It is the following morning that he is dragged from his bed, and the first blow to his skull knocks a chunk of it into Ume’s face, so that she is flecked with bits of his brain when Cree drags her away from the Meer’s body. As Cillian, he is in love with Cree, but Ume’s bond with Alya was unique to her.