Nesteron tried to persuade Deirdre to invite him to the party

Wilf Netherton’s attempt to secure an invitation to Daedra West’s gathering turns social storytelling into investigative access: at Ainsley Lowbeer’s direction, he invents a plausible reason for Daedra to admit him, bringing Flynne Fisher along to look for the man seen on Aelita West’s balcony. The plan rests on an old intimacy that may now be shadowed by suspicion, and Netherton’s later effort to approach Daedra through the artist Annie Courrèges remains uncertain rather than resolving that estrangement.

The proposed invitation

Lowbeer identifies Daedra’s gathering as the next useful opportunity in the inquiry. It is scheduled for Tuesday evening, four days away, though its venue has not yet been announced; it may take place in one of the guildhalls. The guest list includes the Remembrancer and lesser figures from the City, while the gathering’s apparent purpose remains unknown. That combination of influential guests and an opaque occasion makes attendance valuable, but difficult to arrange openly.

Lowbeer proposes that Netherton find a narrative that will lead naturally to Daedra inviting him. She acknowledges the complication directly: he is her recently former lover, and Daedra has not tried to contact him. Yet the history that makes his return awkward may also give him a credible point of entry. Lowbeer presents the invitation not as a courtesy but as a necessary step; if Netherton refuses, she sees no way to proceed.

The invitation would be for Netherton and one guest. Flynne is to accompany him, using the gathering to survey Daedra’s guests for the man she saw on Aelita’s balcony. When Flynne asks whether the attendees are rich, Lowbeer confirms that they are. The scene thus sets two kinds of access side by side: Netherton’s personal and social connection to Daedra, and Flynne’s observational role in a search for a specific, unidentified man.

Netherton constructs a route in

Flynne tells Netherton to get them in. He closes his eyes, then opens them with an invented but detailed rationale: Annie Courrèges, an English neoprimitivist curator despite her French name, had met Daedra with him at a working lunch in the Connaught. Netherton had later persuaded Daedra that Annie held a flattering theory about the artistic progress of her career. Now, he says, Annie is unable to attend physically and would be delighted to accompany him by peripheral.

The story converts a chain of prior connections into an explanation for Daedra to accept him again. Annie supplies the ostensible occasion; Netherton’s previous introductions make that occasion plausible; and the peripheral offers a way for Annie to participate without being physically present. The proposal is specifically designed around Daedra’s interest in her work, rather than a direct appeal to the former relationship between her and Netherton.

Lowbeer thanks him and says she never doubted his ability. But success in devising the invitation does not settle whether Daedra will believe it or what she thinks of him. Netherton notes that, according to Rainey, Daedra may think he killed her sister, or may have friends spreading that rumor. He stands and calls for a drink, shifting from the brisk performance of a solution to its personal cost: the invitation would bring him back into the orbit of someone who may suspect him of Aelita’s murder.

A later appeal through Annie

Netherton subsequently tries to approach Daedra through a voice-mail exchange. As he drinks excellent whiskey, an unfamiliar spiral sigil appears on his palate; he assumes it references the Gyre and suggests that the patchers are being incorporated into the narrative of her current skin. On the third ring, the sigil gives way to a vast, gray terminal hall, where an unseen young Englishwoman answers. The mediated setting frames the conversation as another constructed route toward Daedra rather than a direct encounter.

Netherton reminds Daedra of Annie’s appreciation for her work and asks to arrange an introduction. Daedra does not respond with simple enthusiasm: she mentions that someone had jammed the zip on her jumpsuit and that it had to be cut off, then asks what Netherton wants from her. He says he wants her to allow him to introduce her to Annie again, and to contribute, however slightly, to something whose importance he may never fully understand. Daedra’s reply turns the exchange back to the dangerous rumor around him: people say he did something to her sister.

He proposes a meeting in a cloaked table at the bar of a Kensington venue called Impostor Syndrome. When Daedra asks why he is in a peri club, he explains that Annie is away on a moby bound for Brazil and would need a peripheral if Daedra agrees to meet her again. The practical need is urgent: Annie is about to begin fieldwork among neoprims, or technophobics, and has had her phone extracted. If the work goes well, she may be with them for a year or longer, so the meeting would have to happen before she arrives.

Hesitation and unresolved access

Daedra says she is busy and suggests perhaps the following month, but then admits she has something coming up and does not know how much time she would have for Annie. Netherton leaves the decision with her, saying it depends on how interesting she finds Annie and allowing that he may be mistaken. Daedra says he can be, and that she will think about it. She then disappears from the voice-mail scene, leaving Netherton among the peripherals in the silent, restless display of Impostor Syndrome, where he signals a Michikoid for another drink.

The exchange secures neither a confirmed invitation nor a meeting. It does, however, show Netherton continuing to use narrative and mediation as instruments of approach: first, he invents a social rationale for entering Daedra’s gathering with Flynne; later, he offers Daedra a renewed connection with Annie. Both strategies depend on other people and carefully supplied reasons, while the unresolved accusation concerning Aelita stands between Netherton and Daedra. Her final willingness to consider the proposal keeps the possibility open without restoring their former intimacy or clearing the suspicion.