"I sure do appreciate Fire Nation culture," she agrees. "I don't know how I'd pick a boat, though."

"In Paochen village, on the northwestern coast, there is a tea shop whose proprietor is a great fan of pai sho. He keeps several boards at his tables. Show him the lotus opening. He will find you a ship."

"Okay. Thank you."

After the game wraps up, Piandao takes his leave.

Tarinda keeps an eye out for opportunities to mention her interest in traveling and seeing more cultures. For inspiration.

Her guide stops by in the middle of the afternoon to ask if she needs anything.

"I was wondering what kind of vacation schedule I'm working with! Around when I got recruited here I'd just started running out of inspiration, you know, it would be useful for me to bop around learning how people in various parts of the country live so I know how to invent stuff for their use."

A few days traveling should be all right. With an escort, of course. She wouldn't want to get lost.

Oh, naturally. She comes up with an itinerary that will put here where Piandao suggested.

They can leave tomorrow, then.

And she'll be at the village two days later.

She sightsees in a perfectly inoffensive fashion and plays pai sho with the tea shop fellow.

His eyes widen in recognition as she lays down her tiles, and he follows the lotus with her. It turns out a pair of her guards are his niece and nephew, and he uses that connection to get them to partake in a pot of tea while they play. By the end of the game, the group of soldiers is slumped over the table, snoring.

"Uh, are you going to be in trouble over that?" she says.

"Not as much as they will be in when they wake up tomorrow." He chuckles. "Come on, let's get you to that ship."

"Thank you so much."

"You are welcome."

There's a rowboat on shore, which will take her to the larger vessel standing off in the distance.

She hops aboard.

Row row.

The crew of the ship proves to be somewhat... piratical. The captain wants to know if she has anywhere in particular she'd like to be dropped off.

She has ever looked at a map. She asks for anywhere in the general area of a geographical feature reasonably close to both Eliko's new home and the desert where Wan Shi Tong's library lives.

Maps, yes, those exist. Just south of the great swamp it is, then.

"Thanks! Is there anything I can do to help you guys out while I'm aboard?"

"Just stay out of the crew's way. And don't go poking around the hold, that stuff doesn't belong to you and is none of your business."

"Sure thing."

The trip is quick and relatively peaceful, at least, if not so comfortable as the way she came out.

The village they put in at is a rambling collection of wattle and daub houses with thatched roofs, set up on stilts to keep them above the swampy river delta. Raised wooden paths serve as walkways between.

To the northwest is a dark and imposing forest, the southwest is more open, the land filled by rice paddies and distant hills.