I really hadn't noticed how well King Caiphus kept things peaceful until he wasn't around to do it. Far as I'm concerned, one king's as good as another, and fighting over which is which just makes things messy. Sometimes jacks up the price of bounties, which can be nice, but that's usually the type of job that the law doesn't approve of unless the client wins. But despite the plague making the outlands angry and the city scared, things were steady. Then one morning we woke up to the Old Palace half-collapsed, with Caiphus's armor fallen, burned and scattered, in front of the throne. Way I heard it, they never found a trace of his body, or his spooky advisor's, but no one had much doubt that he was dead.
And within a month, all hell was breaking loose. The minotaurs were locking down their caravans and not helping any other merchants, the crooks were making more trouble, and all the angry sword-arms in all of Myria were making noise about revolution. I was in a trading house, looking at doing some work as a guard for a human-run caravan when an angel walked in. I didn't spend all my time in Argenport, but everyone but tourists recognizes the First Captain of the Valkyrie. And she came right my way.