Nodnod. "Thank you."

After a moment, he adds, "Am I going to sleep and eat here?"

"Oh, probably. What makes you assume I know where servants eat and sleep?"

"...You seem like you know most of everything."

"You're not wrong but paying attention to servants' lives is a waste of my time."

Nodnod.

"Can I go now?"

"You may."

Elsewhere, Daira is trying to get the attention of an earthbender.

An earthbender eventually notices this and talks to her.

"I, uh, I want to learn," she says, leaning into the last word. 

"Who'd have thought, a girl from the home islands wants to learn from me. Sure, if you want and you have... any aptitude."

"I have aptitude," she says confidently. "What I don't have is a teacher."

Then can they work out a time to go off by themselves out of town?

They can absolutely do that.

He asks what she's figured out on her own.

"Not much," she admits. Not anything, really. "I can feel it, sort of."

They have a lesson. By the end of it she can technically earthbend. Barely.

That's good! That's a start! She doesn't look like a terrible bluffing liar!

What does Lee think?

He thinks she'd better not get too cocky.

But he's glad to see she's made some progress.

She's not cocky, she's awesome.

She's willing to spend a lot of time practicing alone between lessons. Hopefully that helps any. She practices with air and fire, too, because she can and she should. She focuses on what's right around her so she doesn't get overwhelmed by how much there is in even relatively small spaces.

She realizes she's paying less attention to her surroundings than she should be, and fixes that, but not soon enough.

Word gets passed up that someone was seen bending multiple elements.

That's the kind of rumour that draws attention.

Not long after the news starts circulating, a new face arrives in town. He has lots of armed guards and no subtlety at all, and he really, really wants to find the Avatar.

Well, time to definitely not go back to the area she'd been using to practice.

Lee is going to tell her she messed up big-time, but he's going to do that eventually no matter how long she avoids him about it, so she might as well talk to him about it right away.

"Might be safer to go home and tell the authorities than to stay out here with every faction in the Earth Kingdom hunting you."

"Might be?"

"I think it would be, but it's hard to be certain of anything."

"And the prince?"