NICER observations of the 2018 outburst of XTE J1810-197

We present the earliest available soft X-ray observations of XTE J1810-197, the prototypical transient magnetar, obtained 75-84 days after its 2018 outburst with the Neutron Star Interior Composition Explorer. Using a series of observations covering eight days we find that its decreasing X-ray flux is well described by either a blackbody plus power law or a two-blackbody spectral model. The 2-10 keV flux of the source varied from (1.206 +/- 0.007) x 10(-10) to (1.125 +/- 0.004) x 10(-10) erg s(-1) cm(-2), a decrease of about 7% within our observations and 44% from that measured 7-14 days after the outburst with NuSTAR. We confirm that the pulsed fraction and spin pulse phase of the neutron star are energy dependent up to at least 8 keV. Phase-resolved spectroscopy of the pulsar suggests magnetospheric variations relative to the line of sight