First contact describes the actual meeting (as opposed to vision) between the human Shun He and the Fae healer Inora Ithkal.

The waterscout Susong was the first to see the tattered sails of the grand junk Lungcao, which wrecked on a sandy beach near the eventual location of Pearl Colony but far from any permanent Fae structure. Unable to interpret what she was seeing, she ran to her chief, the healer Inora Ithkal, who was ranging with the scouts. Using Passed Vision, Inora recognized the boat immediately from a personal dream of hers. Inora told the waterscout to go home, and Inora arrived on the beach herself to make first contact.

Approximately 180 sailors aboard the Lungcao pitched tents while Inora tried to communicate with the blind Shun He, captain of the the Lungcao and the leader of Pearl Colony. The seahand Jojokai lit a routine, small fire. Inora felt a powerful, unfamiliar force from this fire, realizing it was the first on the island that did not originate from dragonbreath.

Leading Shun He to the fire, hand in hand, she could pass vision to him as long as they touched and felt the heat. In this vision, Shun He learned of a source of water, technology to build with steelgrass, the written and spoken languages of the archipelago (Wyspan), and the identity of the Fae's leader, Shiramba.