Sticking the wickets

Complications: The League of Expurgists wants to use Cillian for their own ends. (Why Cillian?) Cillian can get into the palace as a courtesan, but so can other courtesans, especially those not being hunted for murder. The Meer would have to be the one fond of tranny courtesans for this to make sense, and still, wouldn’t being wanted for murder tend to hinder and not help? Is it because he can pass as a woman, or because he is genetically male that he’s valuable? It would make more sense if being a suspect forces him to live as a male, since none of his patrons have seen him as Cillian. So now we have Cillian able to move about freely, but with no access to templars, and Ume wanted for murder, so her contacts don’t matter because she must stay hidden. So how is Cillian useful? The Expurgists need someone with access to the Meer. The templars are not yet on their side.

If Cillian is living as a male, how can he help the Expurgists? If Ume is wanted for murder, how can Ume help the Expurgists? Can this work if Ume is not wanted for murder? What would be the disturbance and problem then? (Note that the Expurgists would definitely find her more appealing if they believed she had killed a templar out of class rebellion.) How can the LOE put Cillian/Ume to work for them with the current plot? Could Ume “confess” to the murder and claim it was self defense? As a sacred prostitute, is there prescedent for this? Would that then somehow give Ume access to the Meer? And, if so, what, then, does the problem become? Ume must find out who killed the templar before he kills her? Is she receiving anonymous threats? If the Meer has a penchant for courtesans, who would introduce Ume to him? (Since the LOE don’t trust the templars.)

Also, what is the movitation for framing Ume? Has Ume heard something she shouldn’t? Is she merely in the wrong place at the wrong time? And why was the templar killed? Did he know something that was dangerous to the killer? Was he about to inform the Meer of a plot against his life?

[Note: The idea that they want to recruit Ume because MeerRa was “brought down” by a “courtesan” (Ahr ) does not work. The Meer hasn’t been brought down, since this is pre-Expurgism. Therefore, RaNa is also still alive if I want to bring her in somehow tangentially. This could, however, be the first meetings Ahr attends; check Anamnesis for references to where. She could share what she perceives to be the Meer’s weaknesses, and testify against their coldbloodedness.]

Okay, the templars and the LOE both want to assassinate MeerAlya. Why not have them already working together? The templar frames Ume, then Cree appears by design. Or—or—what if, working together, the templar convinces Ume that she has killed another templar, and he is keeping her secret to protect her. Meanwhile, the LOE approach him as though unrelated, with “suspicions” of Ume’s involvement in the murder? They say because Cillian is “two spirits” he can meet with them under cover of his male identity and keep Ume from being associated with them so that she can infiltrate the House of Alya? So Ume is first a suspect when Cree meets her, then “cleared” by templar Nesre’s testimony, and the LOE persuade Ume to use her familiarity with Nesre and other templars to gain access to the Meer, who has a penchant for “two spirits” courtesans. (Now why wouldn’t Ume have been requested by the Meer before? She’s top-notch after all. Will have to mull this later.)

Cillian has to steal some men’s clothing in order to get through the streets undetected. (The classic “clothesline” device? Or does he accost someone?) He hates dressing like a man. Cillian offers a drunk gold coin for his tunic and slacks (relieved to discover he has not been robbed of his purse), and reluctantly throws away his veil and gown. Arriving home, he sees the Meer’s Guard surrounding his room, so he hides and waits until they’ve gone, then sneaks in a window and gathers what he can carry.

Later, Cillian is drinking in a pub and hears gossip that a courtesan has been murdered in some brutal fashion. The girls on the street are huddled in fear trading stories. Another patron starts to hassle the girls, and Cillian picks a fight with him, but gets outnumbered. Who should step in to save his neck once more, but the courtier Cree? Cree comments that Cillian has rather a fair face for a boy, and they exchange a volley of puns and double-entendres, making it clear that Cree knows Cillian is Ume, and Cillian knows that Cree knows. At this point, Cree offers Cillian a proposition, and asks him to join him at a meeting of Expurgists (not called this yet?). (Save Cree’s identity until later in the story; perhaps Cree and Cillian end up in a drunken roll in the hay.)