In the shadow of the sedge hat, only the traveler's lips, red, closed, and full were exposed. Their clothing was dusty from the road and the knapsack on their back was the dun green of Earth Kingdom cloth, as was the rest of their ensemble. They looked like any other rural traveler, another pilgrim or poor kid who thought they'd make it big in Republic City, leaving as quickly as they came.

When the traveler met the bridge, they were not unsettled like other newcomers to the city by the blaring and sooty automobiles that clogged the roadway. The traveler instead continued forward, head down against the sun, looking up briefly only for a glance at the statue on Aang Memorial Island.


The shrieking of trolleys, Satomobiles, motorcycles, and the rushing crowds around the traveler never hindered them. They moved like a ghost, no one giving them a glance besides the occasional curious child. Silence was in their movements.

The traveler stepped into an alleyway, set the knapsack down, and tossed the sedge hat into a pile of rubbish, quickly changing their clothing into something cleaner.

If anyone had been in the alleyway, they would have stopped a while and stared. The sedge hat uncovered a head of white-gold hair that spilled, though limp from sweat, onto the traveler's shoulders as iced eyes moved everywhere, gathering the scene. The new clothing gave an outline of a hard, thin body, with a hint of a woman in the curves. The traveler pulled her hair into an indecent topknot and departed the alley.

She continued on, eventually finding what she was looking for in a quiet building with wide red shutters off the main roads. An small, graying woman accumulating a pile of sunflower seeds and reading the newspaper raised her head when the traveler entered the restaurant.

Slowly, she approached the counter. A wooden clock ticked loudly on the wall behind the old woman and the room smelled of stale tea leaves and fish sauce. "I was told I could find a room here," the traveler spoke. Her voice was low, calm.

The old woman spit a hull into the pile. "I've got two rooms, one with a window, the other without. Thirty yuans a month—per window," the old woman grinned, revealing a handful of blackened teeth.

"Window," the traveler replied, handing over a tightly rolled pack of bills.

"Excellent choice."

The old woman led the traveler out to the inner garden and up the outdoor stairs, rambling as she went.

"You're a kid from the country, right? No. Not so much... You have a water tribe look—that hair. North or South? Don't worry, you don't have to answer. I like to wonder. You seem too young to be traveling by yourself, though. What are you, fifteen? Sixteen? I don't want the police coming around asking if I'm harboring a runaway. And you better be able to pay me each month..."

She unlocked a door in the shade of a tree growing up from the inner garden. The two of them walked inside.

It was a bare-amenities flat, with a wood stove and a rusting bathing tub. The single window was surprisingly large, paneled with yellowed rice paper and bloodwood.

"Thirty," the old woman said, wagging her finger between the traveler and the window, "per window."

The traveler only responded by settling her pack on the dusty floor.

"You can find bedrolls up by Tatsumi Avenue. Tell the lady there Mina sent you. She'll throw in a pillow and a wool blanket. Expect them to be moth-eaten."

The old woman handed over a key.

"Welcome to Republic City," she grinned, again with the teeth.