"The Lucky Fox has plenty of singing, and Valerio the barkeep gives good advice. It's popular with adventurers, too — I don't know if there'll be anyone who fights with a glaive, but there might be."

"The largest gatherings of wizards are likely to be at the temple of Nethys on Chestnut Street. There is also a temple of Iomedae not far from there, so it should be straightforward to visit both."

There are guards at the city gates, but they don't seem to be checking travel passes, and they don't give their group any trouble.

Some of what the city has to offer is at least reminiscent of the sort of thing found in Egorian — here's a bookstore, here's a dumpling shop, here's a tailor — but far from all of it. This person is selling political pamphlets making two dozen different arguments, some contradictory. This Abadaran has a sign up with pricing for anyone who wants the services of a cleric and doesn't want to walk all the way to one of the temples. These children are begging on a street corner (the Eagle Knights exchange a glance, and then Independence retrieves some leftover sausage and honey-cake rations and offers it to them). This woman is doing an elaborate dance on a street corner involving colorful scarves. This person is theoretically selling cheap jewelry but in practice mostly attempting to teach their cat tricks. These two people are having a loud argument about whether Supreme-Elect Codwin is hot. 

They can split up (wizards and cleric to the temple of Nethys, the other three to the tavern) and plan to meet up again afterwards. (Justice stops a couple of times on the walk to top up a cistern.)

Are proper orphanages Evil?  Or is it just that Andoran really is that much poorer?  Well, it will be a cheap easy source of Good, keep some coppers and food snacks on his person and give some out.  Maybe not having orphanages is a deliberate strategy so everyone can get a little Good pitching in to help them out?

He's looking forward to the temple of Nethys.  Hiding out in the woods did not make for the most intellectually stimulating environment, and even if the dynamic at the temple isn't quite as friendly and open as he hopes, he is third circle now and that should count for something.

This particular temple of Nethys is located in what was once an auxiliary building for Augustana's wizard prep school, though years of modifications have made it nearly unrecognizable as such. 

The central atrium is occupied by a number of projects. A pair of wizards are sitting next to a glass tank containing several rocks and some sort of device; one is repeatedly casting a spell, while the other one peers at the device and notes down something on his paper. A young man is alternating between sketching out a topological structure in chalk on a large slate board and adjusting a physical model made of clay and string. A whole group of people is crowded around someone holding what appears to be a long coil of water; three of them have wet clothing. The unattended projects include half a dozen tubes of colorful liquids sitting under a hemispherical glass cover, a list of notes on the daily weather posted by the door, and a pair of... doorways?... standing freely in the room, located about two paces from each other.

An door in the back of the room leads to the temple's library, and several doors along the right wall lead to smaller rooms, two of which are currently occupied. A closed door in the left wall is labeled with a large sign reading Residential Wing: Do not enter!

"Welcome!" says a child, who looks all of about eight years old. "Can I help you find anything?"

He takes his time looking over the chalkboard and demonstration and various projects.  It’s better than he imagined it.

“I’m, uh, new to the city.  If there is a schedule of planned events and demonstrations and such that would be helpful?”

“Oh, and I guess I’m looking for books on bonded objects, uh, amulets specifically and techniques for transferring them if you have anything on that.”

He’s managed to stop the looted amulet from losing its enchantments in the absence of it’s original maker, but he still hasn’t quite got it fully working for himself yet.

He wonders if the child is a student or apprentice or indenture or the child of someone associated with the temple.  Do they seem nervous at all?

The child does not seem nervous! She's smiling broadly at him. She's got a child-sized desk and a child-sized chair, and is sitting on top of the desk, leaving a mathematics book, an adventure novel, and a stack of papers on the chair.

"You missed the familiar show," she tells him, in a tone that suggests she thinks this is deeply tragic. "This evening Corinna, I mean Learned Natali, is teaching a night-class on Choral-the-Despot-of-Brevoy, and Learned Rattazzi is doing a demonstration on the back lawn of a variation for Cat's Grace. The library is back there" (she points), "you can read in there until half an hour before sundown as long as you don't hurt the books. If you hurt the books you have to pay to replace them and they'll kick you out. I dunno if we have a book on transferring bonded objects, ask the librarian. ...The librarian is Learned Quentale. She's the one that looks like an elf."

"There's a schedule posted by the library door," interjects one of the people with wet clothing. 

The child sighs. "I was getting to that."

It really is perfect.  A dopey smile fills his face.  He probably looks an idiot but he can’t bring himself to care.  (He’s got a headband and a fancy bonded object and an interesting research project so it’s not like anyone that matters would actually think he’s an idiot.)

After an awkwardly long pause he remembers to say something.

“Oh uh, thanks.”

It’s not a normal Chelish thing to say but he’s had a few days to start picking things up from the adventurers that rescued him.  He thinks he could get used to saying thanks.

He goes over to read the schedule and keeps his eyes open for an elf (or polymorphed into elf?) librarian.  

The week's schedule is posted outside the library! Today is Oathday, so most of the events listed are already completed by now, but the events for Fireday include an early morning class on supernatural properties common among aquatic life in the Aspo Bay, an evening class on metamagic in the Nexian tradition, and an evening demonstration of something called a lightning-jar; the events for Starday include a morning class on the poetry of Darl Jubannich, a morning demonstration of an unusual type of channeling (the schedule is unclear on what exactly this involves), and an evening class/demonstration on safety procedures for magical research. Reoccurring events listed on the schedule include a Toilday morning class on Draconic and a series of Wealday evening classes on empyreal lords. Most of the people on the schedule have the title "Learned", but a class discussing known and speculative ways to make Remove Disease more reliable is taught by a Luminary, this week's class on an empyreal lord is taught by an Archivist, and the metamagic class is taught by someone without any title. Those who wish to teach a class, or those with children who are interested in reading or mathematics lessons, are advised to contact Learned Rosa Sanesi. 

There are several people reading in the library, but the librarian is probably the half-elf woman currently frowning at a large leather-bound book. The library itself is divided into several sections; the largest is the section on Magical Theory and Practice, but there are also sections on "Religion", "History", "Natural Philosophy", and "Fiction." (Labels in smaller writing under each placard clarify some of the distinctions here: mathematical texts are shelved with the magic books, except for accounting (shelved under religion); books cataloging beasts that adventurers might encounter are shelved under "Natural Philosophy", even if those beasts are extraplanar in origin; the study of the stars is considered to be "Religion"; and so on.)

Learning a metamagic is one of the last two items on his mental checklist  to be a genuine proper wizard and not a laundry wizard dropout that got lucky surviving fights!  (The other item is learning to craft a type of magical item besides just scrolls).

Unusual channeling sounds neat but he isn't sure it would show up well enough to Detect Magic and he doesn't Greater Detect Magic or Arcane Sight yet.

He kind of wants to take a shot at teaching his approach to eschew materials, but he isn't sure he can explain what he does well enough for someone to learn from him.  (He taught himself by skimping on material components and feeling how that altered the spell or made it outright fail then gradually intuiting a way to compensate in his casting and spell preparation).

He waits a moment to see if he can make eye contact with the librarian, then speaks up.  He is careful to speak quietly.

"Excuse me, do you know if this library has any books on transferring a bonded object after the original owner has died?  If not, any books about bonded objects in general might be helpful... I think I've halfway managed a transfer, I've stabilized it well enough to avoid losing the enchantments tied to the bond, but I can't actually utilize all of them properly."

He gestures to the nonstandard Armillary Amulet he is wearing.  It has a faint aura of divination like a normal Armillary Amulet, but also has some overlapping transmutation auras.

"I don't think we have anything in our collection solely on that topic, but I'd expect several of our books on bonded objects to touch on it." Her accent isn't exactly Andoren, but it's definitely more Andoren than Chelish. "If you've maintained the enchantments, I'd really expect that to be the hardest step... let me see..."

She retrieves a few books from the Magical Theory and Practice section. "Outhier's A Treatise on the Diverse Properties of Bonded Jewelry is quite good if you're competent with the Galtan dialect. If not, Guitart's Bonded Items for the Adventuring Wizard is tolerable, though not nearly as comprehensive. If you're looking for something more opinionated, I'm partial to Hildubitatt's works; this one is a good place to start. Don't reshelve them yourself, put them on that cart when you're done."

Andoran continues to be perfect!  He wonders if the lack of any mention of library fees or membership fees is a Good thing or a devotion to Nethys and knowledge thing or some mix of both.

"I'm only passable with Galtan but I can spare a comprehend languages on myself if I get stuck on anything.  So I'll get started with your first recommendation." 

Because he is a real wizard his Comprehend Languages will last nearly an hour!

Meanwhile:

The crowd at the Lucky Fox is fairly small at this hour, but the room isn't entirely empty. As promised, some of its customers are adventurers — over in the corner, one of them is telling an elaborate story about saving a village from a gang of hill giants in the foothills of the Five Kings Mountains, illustrated by a Silent Image, and around a table a group of adventurers are debating whether to invite one of their friends on their next job. 

"Elettra, Independence, great to see you both! And who's this with you?"

"This here is Mateo! He's from Cheliax, he just made it out."

Valerio looks abruptly more serious. "Just got out? That's the sort of thing that calls for a celebration. First drink on me."

He takes a mug and casts what looks like a Create Water, but what actually appears is ale. He hands it to Mateo. "Welcome home, my friend."

Cayden's clerics really can create alcohol in place of water!  That always sounded made up to him - it's the ultimate combination of too good to be true, too simplistic to be true, and fun to joke about.

"Thanks!"  He's learned that Good people say this to each other in a friendly casual way.  He throws back a chug of the ale.

"I certainly feel at home!  Would you all like to hear the story of our grand escape?  I say our, the other escapee is over at the Temple of Nethys."

He's mentally polished his story to the point it should fit into a Chaotic Good crowd.  In this polished version he and Fernando have hit it off reasonably well, but of course have strongly differing interests so it will make sense if never hang out again.

Grin. "I'd love to!"

"Well, even before I thought of escaping from Cheliax entirely, I did find one group willing and eager to fight Asmodeus."  He is going to skip over the whole 'murdering, raping, bandit' part of his past prior to joining the cult, ideally never mentioning it for as long as he lives.

"That was unfortunately their only redeeming quality, as they were Baphomet cultists."  He feels the slightest twinge of guilt at bad mouthing the leader like this, but he has mostly convinced himself of the story where the leader was planning on maledicting him next, so it is only a twinge.

"I had been on the outs with the group for some time when our leader asked me to join him on a teleport to catch a member of the cult that had failed to report in at a designated meetup.  I'm a decent fighter, but not the best to take with limited teleport capacity, so I suspected the purpose of taking me was to give me an example of what a lack of loyalty looked like.  And I suspected they might have it out for me if I didn't shape up my attitude.  They were opposed to Asmodeus, but it wasn't like they didn't also like to throw around lots of detect thoughts."  Although the leader notably generally avoided directly punishing thoughts themselves.  One of his many favorite parts of hanging around Good adventurers compared to Evil adventurers is that they never read his mind.

"So when I realized their lovely group of adventurers-" he gestures to Elettra and Independence "-was ready with an ambush when we teleported in on the defector, I thought fast and turned on the cultists."

"It was a good thing for their group, you know one solid 6th circle spell can turn a fight around easily.  And it was a good thing for me, because sure enough, when we later searched his equipment we found not one, but two scrolls of Malediction.  I don't think I could have passed the loyalty check he was planning on after seeing him maledict someone!"  He'll go with the implication that he would fail out of a Good streak and not out of boredom/discontent/anarchic impulses.   

He takes another chug of ale.

Valerio is an excellent audience for this story — he hangs on to Mateo's every word, looks excited or nervous or serious in all the right places, draws in a sharp breath when Mateo mentions the Malediction scrolls. 

When Mateo finishes, he raises his own glass. "A toast to Mateo, who had the courage to stand up to a sixth-circle wizard and lived to tell the tale!"

"Hear, hear!"

Valerio drinks. "So, what are you planning to do next? Got more adventures ahead of you?"

“Well I’m good with a glaive and a good grappler.  If the world was better I suppose I wouldn’t have much to do, but I hear there are lots of slave traders on the Inner Sea and Andoran has need of fighters to help stop them!”

"You can say that again!"

Glance at Elettra and Independence?

"We're going to put him in touch with some people."