She has one letter waiting for her at the Bank. It's from the Office of Spells at the Korvosan Guard. It informs her that the guard would like to pay for her spellcasting, when the need arises. The letter contains no requests, but given the language it was probably sent yesterday, before the disaster began.

That does make sense, it would take some time to process. Possibly she should confirm that she is still available despite recent events? Does this letter have anything in particular she is supposed to do, or is it just a notification of intent?

It's just a notification of intent.

In that case she will happily go about her day. If they need her, they'll tell her.

Once more she sets off from the bank towards Mika's new living place. Hopefully this time she won't be interrupted by either a tornado or a king being murdered.

There are no tornadoes or slain kings on her path through Midland. Mika's new address is at an apartment building in Pillar Hill. It's a slightly nicer building than the one she remembers in Old Korvosa.

Does she have an apartment number? If not, she is perfectly happy to ask for directions.

She does have an apartment number, for a place up on the second floor.

That makes this easy. She walks up and knocks on the apartment door. "Mika? It's Tencednil!"

After a few moments, the door opens. "You got my letter! 'tis nice to see you again. Especially with the whole mess going on now."

"I did! I was on my way down yesterday, actually, but then it got windy and the rain started falling and I ran inside, and, well, long story short I didn't get here. It's good to see you! I was worried you would be caught in the quarantine, the guard are quite serious about it. Which makes sense, magical ritually-produced Urgathoan plague seems bad, but it is inconvenient, and at such a dreadful time. I guess if it really was Urgathoans who killed the king it isn't a coincidence, but everything happening at once does make it all worse. Anyway, I'm glad to see you're safe."

"Thanks. Come in!" He leads her into his apartment. It's a little bigger than his old one. His stuff has been unpacked. "I bought this place with some of my share. No more rent, which is very nice. Of course I have property tax now, but it's much less than rent was."

He sits down at a table. "What've you been up to, these days? I've mostly been getting settled in here."

"Ah, well, there's a reason I know about the plague. I was looking for a way to go back down, finish off my circle and be sure I knew what to spend my share on. I didn't want to dive in on my own, though, so I saw the guard asking for volunteers to talk to the otyughs and I thought oh, that sounds safe, the guard can hire clerics and has people with nice big metal armor on to hide behind. So back on the 4th, I went to the station to volunteer and ended up looking in the sewers. The next day, I came back, we went a bit farther, and what do you know, there were the Urgathoans dumping their fungus stuff straight into the sewer water. It did explain what the otyughs were complaining about, that's for sure. So I spent Fireday helping them breach the Urgathoan cult, yesterday I saw it in the papers, and you know the rest from there. It's been a busy week!"

She already told this to Anton and Julio in her letter, there's no point trying to hide it from Mika. Trying to maintain a lie like that when she's expecting more work from the Guard would also be far more effort than it's worth, even more so when she's so identifiable. Also she doesn't have any specific reason to conceal it, but a memory never really dies, by the time you know you need to hide something it's too late to start.

"That's quite the mess you got yourself into. Glad you made it out alive. I heard they had a high circle priest and undead and other horrible things."

"They did! It was a little tight, but we managed. I knew the Marines are good at their job, but seeing them just keep putting arrows into casters and seeing the casters keep dropping does hammer it home. Even without their hippogriffs, they're masters with their bows. And speaking of the Marines and the guards, how was yesterday around here? We saw a little bit of looting, but the Abadarans sent out a guard squadron and cracked down on the first few, and that pretty much stopped there. Did you have any of the normal guard around here? I heard some hippogriffs in the air but I didn't actually see any."

"Yesterday was quite chaotic. The guard and the marines have been patrolling. There's been beasts coming up from the sewers, mostly in Old Korvosa but some around here too. And the looters and opportunists and such."

"Oh! Is there more coming up from the sewers? I know the otyughs were getting restless, and there were a few ghouls leaking out of the Vaults. The otyughs should be better by now, though, the Urgathoans were feeding them the disease and that was probably the problem. Are there other things I should be watching out for on the streets? It's best to know what to run from..."

"I don't really know specifics. I heard rumors about goblins coming up but I'm not sure if it's true. Most of my old sources are back where I used to live. I haven't talked with any of 'em since I moved."

"Ah well. Hopefully it's nothing worse than goblins."

That's everything she really wanted to learn from this interaction, so now it's time to make that less obvious. Basic relationship maintenance is always good, but it's going to be prolonged. Fortunately she doesn't have anything urgent coming up. 

"So, how has your move been? And where were you before? I can help you get used to the changes, but it's easier if I know where you're starting from. Is there anything you're having trouble finding around here? I don't know the area that well, but I'm sure we can go around and knock on a few doors and hunt something down..."

Mika will answer her questions and make small talk for some time.

Eventually, Tencednil leaves Mika's apartment. It's a little later in the day now. The city continues to be struck with chaos.

She spends the rest of the day poking around the area, dropping by bars and listening to rumors, trying to get a sense of the word on the street. How are people feeling about Ileosa? How people believe in the Urgathoan threat? Has anyone actually seen these monsters from the vaults, or is it all a friend of a friend? Monsters which are only ever rumored until they're dead would be a convenient way to shore up the Queen. If anyone asks what she's doing, she's just helping her friend move in and get used to the area, going around to get a sense of what's near him now. She'll have to give him details sometime in the next week or so for that to work, but that's not fundamentally a problem.

People didn't like the Queen before and don't like her now, but more than anything they're fearful of the Urgathoans. Some people claim to have seen monsters; dire rats and goblins and an alligator, apparently.

Just the normal sewer creatures, then. Are things from the Vaults pushing them out? Why? It can't be that quick. Still, at least for now that doesn't seem too dangerous. If people believe the Urgathoan threat, that's definitely a path for the Queen to minimize rebellion, which... might be good? It's yielding power to a conspiracy, but if the conspiracy is really just a coup handled with a bit more elegance that's not a problem. Actual Urgathoans could be much more of one.

Tencednil is much happier now that she has a better sense of the population. Even if she shouldn't need it, you can't know what you don't need to know until you've checked. Still, there goes the day, and humans aren't out much when it's dark. Back home, and some practicing with Silent Image before getting to sleep.

KORVOSAN CARRIER
MOONDAY, SARENITH 8th, 4708

MORE URGATHOANS FOUND BY GUARD, NIGHTTIME CURFEW IN FORCE

The Guard has found another cell of Urgathoans. A public execution has been scheduled for later today. The riots in Old Korvosa grow ever stronger. More monsters breach up from the sewers. The containment perimeter around the Shingles fails. Midland has mostly been spared the worst of it, so far, and the port remains open. The Order of the Nail dispatched a force from Citadel Vraid to help quell the chaos, and it arrived this morning.

"Urgathoans", at least. They might be real, but the Queen would be finding them even if they weren't. She'll have to go to the execution and see what they announce.

The Shingles were being contained? What needed containment? She must have missed something. That definitely illustrates why she should have spent more time asking around yesterday, and in more varied places. If the Hellknights are coming like the vision showed, this is either another (potential, threatened) riot or someone is looking for an excuse to call them. Or the sewer-beasts are much worse there, to the point where the Order is actually needed. That would be a coincidence, but only most coincidences are someone's fault. 

Anyway, first things first. Anything at the Bank? If things are getting dangerous in the Shingles and leaking out of it, they may well be calling all the casters they can get, and she is newly on that list.