Very quietly, Lark whispered in Briar's ear, "Could you tell Sandry and have her tell the Duke about our foreign visitors?"

Briar nodded and reached out with his magic, showing the scene to Sandry in his mind.

Niko never missed a beat, although he must have been as taken aback by the strangers as the rest of them, "We are most honored by your presence," he said, "This is Dedicate Moonstream. She is the Senior Dedicate here. These are Dedicates Crane, Rosethorn, and Lark." he indicated them and they bowed, "These are mages Briar Moss and Trisana." Tris had finally dropped the "Chandler" from her name.

For an awkward moment they all stared at each other, unsure where to go next with the greetings. Finally, Moonstream said, "It appears you have come very long way. Perhaps you would want to refresh yourselves? We would be honored if you would come up to the Temple and eat with us."

Katara and Aang smiled enthusiastically while Mai gave a stately nod. Sokka caught Tris' eye again and smiled.

Toph took Katara's elbow as they headed up the steep path, this was also prearranged. It was often useful to Toph to have people underestimate her, so she generally played "poor little blind girl" around strangers.

"Is it all right if Appa stays here?" Aang asked Moonstream, "He's very hungry and I think he really likes the beach grasses."

Moonstream looked dubiously at the great six legged animal and nodded.

***

Duke Vedris was eating his breakfast when Sandry came hurrying into the small dining room they used for just the two of them. She wore her riding habit. "Uncle!" said Sandry with great excitement, "We need to go to Winding Circle today, right now. Lark sent for us." she looked excited but also a little worried.

"Everything all right there?" he asked.

"I think so, but they have some foreign visitors they said we should greet." Sandry replied, "They're very foreign--Niko had to use a translation spell. Briar says they seem like they're high ranked.

"How did they get here?" asked Vedris, intrigued.

"Briar says," Sandry shook her head in wonder, "They flew."

***

"They seem very friendly." Aang said quietly to Mai.

Mai nodded, "Looks can deceive." she said serenely, her hands were folded in her sleeves so that she had access to her knives. Her face was the careful mask of the Fire Nation Courtier that she'd learned as a child. She walked with Aang, Katara and Toph were behind them and Sokka watched their back.

There were many factions at home that had objections to the peace treaty between the Four Nations. Some were Fire Nation, some were Earth Kingdom, and even one or two mad Water Tribsman had tried to destroy the peace by assassinating either the Avatar or one of the leaders of the Nations. Unless they were in their own homes, with people they trusted absolutely, they never let their guard down.

It was not so hard for Mai; this had been the way of things in the Court of the Fire Lord for as long as she could remember. The strong and crafty rose in the former Fire Lord Ozai's Court. Her own father had been the survivor of three assassination attempts. One of the reasons for her mother not objecting to Mai's mastery of bladecraft was the clear need for it.

For Aang, it was hard to reconcile himself to living in distrust. One of the reasons he'd decided on this trip was partly because he was missing the freedom he'd enjoyed when he'd travelled with just Katara, Sokka and Toph. He never mentioned it to the others, though--they would rightly point out that he'd spent most of that time trying to avoid being killed. But it was different when it was a straight forward fight and not this fear of a knife in the dark.

"Do you think they might have any information on the Air Nomads?" Aang asked after a few moments.

Mai shrugged, "I don't know." after a second she said, "There were still a couple words I didn't understand--what do you suppose "mage" means?"

Aang shrugged, "It sounded like a title--like "master" or "teacher". I suppose whatever that man did isn't perfect. I bet there's ideas that just don't translate well." Sometimes, when Aang was in a new situation he could feel bits and pieces of the accumulated wisdom of his other lifetimes float to the surface of his mind. This was a very old idea--that there could be other people than the Four Nations and that they would be profoundly different.

Tris and Niko walked a little ahead of Aang and Mai, shamelessly eavesdropping. They wouldn't have heard their conversation save for the breezes Tris was sending around to bring their words to her. Tris felt justified in that they knew nothing about these people

"Did you feel that?" whispered Aang suddenly.

"What?" asked Mai.

"Someone..." Aang trailed off, looking for the source of the crossbreeze. It felt like a greeting breeze--almost like an Airbender's handshake. He felt the little current of air whisper around his back and then it moved to stir the braids of the red haired woman who walked ahead of them with the tall man. Was this why she was in his dream this morning? Was she one of the lost Airbenders? With just a little Bending, he turned another breeze back to her.

She started and turned to look at him, "Did you just...?" she looked frightened. Aang did his best to look friendly, but something about him alarmed her. He could see it in her eyes as she hastily turned away.

"What was that about?" asked Katara, who'd seen the look Tris gave them. Mai dropped back to walk with Toph and Katara walked with Aang.

"She was Airbending." whispered Aang, excitedly "I need to talk with her."