"This way, my lady." The woman servant opened the door of the Bei Fong family house. "Master Gui is expecting you in the parlor." Toph could tell she was pointing then, embarrassed, quickly pulling her hand down.
Toph stepped over the threshold and tripped. The woman half-raised her hands to help, but Toph had already caught herself on the door frame. She pushed herself up, and gingerly patted the splintered wood. The door frame had buckled under her weight and snapped in two.
"Don't worry about it," the servant said in a mix of annoyance and pity. "It was an accident. Go on, I'll fix it." She knelt to examine the post.
Toph smirked. That would show her. She continued down the hall. She passed a closed door on the left where she could hear low voices. Probably some of her cousins. She kept walking until she reached the parlor the servant had pointed to.
There was no one inside.
Unimpressed, Toph flopped down on one of the chairs and propped her feet up on another. She flung her bag into a third chair, and leaned back into the cushions. With a practiced air, she unhooked her meteorite bracelet from her arm and began bending it into new shapes.
She was beginning to wonder if she should just bring the whole House down when she felt an older man approaching. He didn't knock, but strode right into the room. "No, don't get up," he began, then realized that Toph had not budged.
"I am Gui Bei Fong, Head of the House. You must be Toph."
"And you must be ugly. But it's hard to tell." She waved a hand in front of her face before snapping her bracelet back onto her arm.
She couldn't feel through the thick carpet that he was tensing with dislike, but she could hear it in his voice. "You wished to speak to me about something important?" he reminded her.
"Don't I get a drink?"
"We will not be here for very long," Gui said.
Toph frowned. She hadn't expected a warm reception, but this was just rude with a mask of politeness. She hated nobles for that.
"I'm looking for Jiao. You may not have noticed, but she's been missing for a month now."
"Ah yes," said Gui. By the ruffling sound, he was pulling a piece of parchment out of his robes. "It is hardly a mystery. She left a letter. Perhaps you would care to read it?" he asked blandly. Toph bit back an angry retort.
"I will leave the honor to you," she growled.
Gui cleared his throat. "'To my dear family,'" he read. "'I am sorry, but I must leave. I must help the refugees around the world rebuild their lives, or I am no better than those who allowed the war to happen in the first place. Best of luck to you, and may we meet again in this life or the next, Jiao.'"
He gave Toph a moment to let the words sink in, then added, "It is in her own hand, and her own voice. There is no doubt as to what has happened to her. I am sorry that you came all this way for nothing -"
"How can you believe that?" she protested, sitting up. "How can you accept that letter as proof? It has to be a trick!"
"With all due respect, Toph, I have seen more of Jiao than you have. I am more aware of what she will and will not do, and this impulse of hers to leave is quite in keeping with her character. If you will allow me -"
"Fine!" Toph cried, jumping to her feet. "If you don't care what really happened to her, then I'll just have to find out myself!" With a jerk of her hand, she pulled her bag to her, and with a stomp of her foot, toppled all of the furniture into the far wall. The Head of the Family stumbled over his protests, but Toph was already out the door.
"Come back here!" Gui ordered.
"Not on your life," Toph mumbled. She was almost out of this wretched house when the door she had paused at an hour earlier opened and three people spilled out into the hallway.
"Please!" the woman was crying. "We haven't anywhere else to go!"
Without enough warning to stop, Toph slammed into the group. She felt enough vibrations to recognize a man, a woman, and a young boy, perhaps fourteen. She guessed that they were a family. Another man, finely dressed in the manner of her family members, stood in the doorway. "We'll not take him!" he snapped. "Leave at once!"
"Toph!" called Gui, striding down the hall.
The man and woman turned as one. "Toph? The Toph?"
Very aware of the Head of House bearing down on her, she resisted the urge to punch them. "Yes, that's me. Gotta run." She tried to push past the boy, who seemed to be slow to react, but he grabbed her arm tightly.
"But you can help us!" said the man. "You can teach our son!"
"No, I don't take students," she protested.
"Nobody will take your son on," Gui said, having caught up to them. "Nobody can teach someone like him."
His tone made Toph focus her attention on the conversation. "What do you mean?" she asked suspiciously.
"Our son is deaf, my lady," the woman explained.
"Our people refuse to teach him," said the man, "and we have traveled all over Ba Sing Se to find a teacher, but no one will take him."
"Stop speaking this nonsense," Gui ordered. "I want you out of this house."
"We thought since your family taught you when you were blind," the woman continued hurriedly, "that they would do the same for our son. But now we see that is not the case."
"I told you, we cannot -"
"I'll do it."
Everyone looked at her in surprise. "I'll do it," she repeated. "I'll teach your son to bend." She would do it if only to spite Gui Bei Fong.
"Oh, thank you!" cried the parents. The son bowed very low.
"Meet me at the gate of the outer wall tomorrow at dawn," she told her new student. He bowed again, and the family was finally shuttled out of the house.
"Very noble of you," Gui commented dryly. "To take him on."
"Everyone should get a chance to prove themselves," Toph replied. "And a deaf earthbender can't be any worse than a blind one."
Gui laughed. "If only he were an earthbender," he said. "But that boy is nothing less than a sandbender."
