Beliefs.

02. Republic City

I easily found my way to the police station. It was just as Asami had said. The building even featured a statue of Grandma Toph in all of her glory. After all she had been the Chief of Police before Aunt Lin had taken over her job.

I entered the building, and quickly found my way to the front desk, where a rather tall boy sat, looking bored out of his mind.

"Hello," I smiled sweetly.

The boy glanced at me. "What do you want?" he asked.

I raised a brow at his unenthusiastic welcome, but nonetheless let it be. "I'm here to see Chief Beifong, she'll be expecting me."

"Yeah, sure. Now come on, get out of here. You're wasting my time," he waved me off.

I chuckled ironically. "Let me rephrase. My name is Esme Beifong. I'll be seeing my aunt, Lin. So unless you want to loose your job. I would do yourself a favor and just let me see her."

He squinted his eyes at me. "Right then," he decided and waved his arm to the right. "Third door on the left," he pointed.

I gave him a stern look, but nonetheless kept going. I followed the doors down till I found the one spelling "Chief" on the door. I knocked softly.

"Yes?" I heard a voice call from the inside. I opened the door and looked around. And there she was. Lin looked like my mom, but you could see they had different fathers. However they shared same features. Features I even shared as well. I guess she noticed as she recognized me in an instant. "Esme," she called. "Finally you're here."

I smiled softly and took the seat in front of her desk. "Thank you so much for giving me this chance."

Lin nodded. "Of course. I mean anything for my niece, right?" I nodded. "Anyway. I mentioned a detective job in my letter. And I chose that because I trust you. Now you should know. I don't trust people very easily. Something however, tells me I can with you. So I wanna know why do you want this job?"

I shrugged casually. "It's not easy being the granddaughter of the greatest earthbender in the world, and then not being able to bend her element. You know it's been hard all my life watching as everyone around me settle down in a life without adventure and discovery. I can't live my life knowing my grandmother saved the world when she was 12, and I've never left my home. I want to help, and I want to make a difference. For me, but also for nonbenders all over the world, trying to prove they can be worth it, because we're all equal in the end," I finished my mini speech.

"Wow," Lin breathed. "That was quite the speech. Well, I would say you've got the job."

My eyes widened. "Just like that?" I asked.

Lin shrugged. "I mean. You deserve it. You've held out for this long. I think it's time for you to get out there," she said.

"Thank you!" I smiled brightly. "Thank you so so much. This is everything I wanted!"

"Not so quick there," Lin said. "I promised you a place to stay. There's some apartments a little away from here. Most of my deputies live there. It's cheap and nice. Should work well for you," she said. She walked up to a cabinet and got out a key. "Ask Haydn at the front desk for the address. And don't worry about his attitude, I'm afraid that's not gonna chance anytime soon. Anyway, you start in three days, at dawn."

I smiled. "Thank you, Lin." She gave me a nod and I walked out of the room. The guy at the front desk — Haydn — still sat, looking bored out of his mind.

"You're back? Was it brutal?" he asked as I approached him.

I chuckled at his feeble attempt. "I'd say it was successful, on my part anyway. Lin wanted you to tell me the address of the apartments the deputies live in. Preferably an empty one."