"I hope so too."

"I think Eliko has found a home of a sort here, a place she can belong."

"That's good, I'm glad. What has she been up to?"

"Helping out in various ways. She's one of the most talented earthbenders I've seen, and clever as well. She sits in with me on my business when I ask, or keeps an eye on the market. Cleared some of the fallow fields after last harvest, Ah, and she volunteered to take care of those bandits along the east road the other month."

"That's great, I'm glad she's finding things to do and helping you out."

"Yes." He glances out the window. "She should be up by now, if you want to see her."

"I do. I didn't have a chance to send advance warning."

"Well, I'm sure she'll be pleased to see you regardless." He gives her directions to Eliko's house and bids her farewell.

And Tarinda goes looking for Eliko.

Eliko's house is a modest one-story affair, a little ways from the mayor's house.

Knock knock.

There is a long pause. The door cracks open and Eliko peers out. She blinks.

"...Tarinda?"

"Hi."

"What... are you doing here?"

"Fire Nation got interested in my inventions, decided they wanted me making weapons, and weren't offering enough timeline and resources that I could just build other things on their dime instead. Somebody offered me a ship out, I took it, I got dropped off a hike from here but I don't think anyone's actually going to follow up, that was just a precaution. Didn't know where else to go."

"Uh. Okay. Do you want to come in?" She opens the door wider.

"Sure, thank you. I don't need to stay, I don't want to inconvenience you, but I thought I'd stop in and explain the lack of coded letters."

She steps aside to let Tarinda enter. Her house is simple and neatly kept, with many bookshelves and books. In one corner is a desk with the typewriter set up on it, a stack of blank pages to the right and a box of finished pages below.

"I'm going to need a new place to get back to work and resume sending those. I can't just do it all now, it's too long. I'm probably going to have to build another typewriter from scratch, all new molds and everything..."

"...I finished the phonograph molds. For the records."

"Oooh, that's awesome! Good sound quality and everything?"

"Yeah." She goes to a cupboard and takes out a stone cylinder in two parts. "It fits together with a pin," she says, demonstrating, "the wax goes in hot and then when it cools you take it apart."

"Neato! Was it really hard to figure out?"

"More- fiddly than hard, to get all the details right. And the join has to be very smooth, or the wax gets caught in it."

"Well, once phonographs are more popular here you can make a business out of it."