Ah well. At this point it's near standard dinner time, so back home to get properly dressed and then... to the meeting location! She didn't expect to get any research at all, having no particular result from these few hours leaves her no worse off.

The letter conveyed the meeting location. It's a nice restaurant called the Winter Oak in the Cliffside ward of the Heights. The staff at the front entrance were expecting her. They point her to the table where Aline is waiting. It's in a private side area. The decoration is very pretty.

Aline knows her as a friendly face with an ear for useful gossip, who will conceal exactly what you ask her to but might leak anything you don't. Always a little quiet — active discussion could go long, and she was usually busy — but definitely willing to listen, and with a bit of a talent for unique solutions to silly problems. It's a different perspective on her from the guard's, but one she had practice displaying.

She walks to the table and sits. A tired smile, as if she's been slightly run over by recent events. "It's been a busy week for all of us, I'm sure. How have you been?" Yesterday was hectic enough that she didn't get actual updates from individuals, with everyone more focused on the political maneuvering. This is an opening to turn the conversation somewhere else. 

"As well as I can be, given recent events." Aline talks about her personal life for a little while. It's mostly within the range of expectation, but Tencednil can tell she's more uneasy than usual.

Tencednil relays some of the more amusingly dubious rumors she's heard on her patrols, building on Aline's comments. Nothing really useful, just the minor things which keep a reputation going.

"—and down across the river, they're saying they saw imps running off with cats and eating them! They've certainly never seen an imp trying to eat something. The cats might be going missing, though, the sewers, and the city as a whole, has been a little restless?" A quirk of her voice at the end there, a shift of her attention, and she's clearly leaving an opening for Aline to follow up — with anything she knows that might be causing unrest, for example.

Aline had a reason to ask Tencednil to dinner, no need to treat her as a hostile source. Leaving a clear opening to segue into whatever she's thinking might be fine. If not, well, Tencednil is competent and Aline isn't trying that hard to conceal whatever it is.