Her first visit to the golden sands of Mars had been with an officer in tow and because of that, she hadn't truly gotten to take in as much of it as she would have liked. Half her mind had been on Cavansite the near constant pestering the girl had done.
As though pestering could bring back a person Tanais had never known, and from what she'd gathered, she would have hated.
She hit packed dirt when she arrived on the banks of the river, the water flowing smoothly a few feet away. It was the only sound then, and she found it a strange change from the omnipresent noise of the city she'd left behind. The remains of the docks spread before her in an orderly line, though the wooden parts of it had long since rotted and been washed away by the river. She stood for a moment staring up at the walls before she returned to herself and shook off the strange mix of emotions that welled up inside of her. She couldn't put a name to most of them, though she supposed nostalgia was part of it, and pride. Maybe love, though how you loved a place you barely knew, she didn't know.
Up the ramp from the dock, she stepped into the square she had seen last time, with its wide, dry fountain. Tanais made a mental note to look at it later... just incase there was a way to get it going again. There wasn't really a point since no one needed the water any more, but it felt like a thing that needed doing. Her boots made the only sound as she clomped across the street, thumbs hooked in her belt. She almost felt like she could catch snippets of conversation here as she looked at what might have been the ruins of market stalls. Bits of half heard melodies she almost remembered from instruments she almost recognized. The spirit of a once-thriving city was still here, sleeping... What it must have been like, when there were people and commerce and movement! She could only imagine, her thoughts shaping it all like the pictures in history books of old Rome.
The manor house at the head of the square, presiding over it all with stately, dignified... weight, if not really elegance. It was as much utilitarian as it was beautiful. The doors that might have bared entrance were long gone and she passed through the arch from hot sun to cool dark with relief. She'd probably been used to it, once. Grew up in the unforgiving heat.
To the side, one door led to what looked like a waiting room, with another beyond that maybe held a dry pool? The one opposite didn't boast much but a hall with other doors. Past this area though, a wide walking space circled a garden, or what she assumed might have been a garden once. Tanais paced around it as she studied the faint sign of pathways leading to benches and statues of warriors in Mars armor. Their faces were unrecognizable from exposure, but she probably wouldn't have known them anyway... nothing here was directly recognizable, even if all of it had that faint sense of familiarity that teased at her. More rooms opened off the main area, but she passed them without stopping, uninterested. There would be time to explore, but she felt like the more important areas were in the back...
It was in the back that she found what she could only call a small temple. To what god, she wasn't sure. If any god. A work of marble stood beneath the protection of the roof, tiered like a cake with arches she recognized from images of the Colleseum. Statues, far smaller than the ones in the garden and more suited to fit in the hand, stood and sat and danced between the columns.
Tanais stopped before it, her eyes drifting over the images of people long dead. People who had once lived here, no doubt, and the thought of that was... comforting. This place had been alive once. Had been a home. Her home?
Near chest level on the sculpture was an arched hollow, the columns flanking it decorated with lions and chains that wrapped up and around. Not chaining the lions to anything, but more the way you'd decorate with garlands of flowers. Inside this was a crumbling wood box, something that had probably been heavily decorated once, but the metal inlay was tarnished and the wood black with age. It drew her curiosity, but what really captured it was the small pedestal before the box, and the ring that sat on it.
Tanais reached for it and found it heavier than she'd expected. Thick and obviously gold, it seemed like a man's ring, made to fit a meaty finger and impress with its weight. Turning it over, she found the top flat, like something you'd use to press into a wax seal. The design... a lion's head, with the mark of Mars on its forehead and a circle of chain decorating the edge.
It was her ring, she realized. The ring of the Knight Tanais of Mars. She laughed, short and sharp, as she slid it onto the middle finger of her right hand. She'd been needing to get this damn thing for months now, and it had just been sitting here, waiting for her. She felt dumb for waiting so long. Check one thing off her to-do list.
Tanais flexed her hand, feeling the weight of the ring with satisfaction, and her eyes drifted to the box. She considered it for a long moment, red eyes tracing what might have been the form of a lion facing off against... a wolf? Maybe. Looking at it made her chest ache in a way she didn't really understand and something teased at the back of her mind. She felt suddenly like someone stood beside her, a heavy presence that was as familiar as her own shadow... but when she jerked her head to the side, there was nothing there but empty space and cool stonework.
Unsettled, and unsure why, Tanais glanced once more at the box and then turned, leaving it untouched. It might be important, whatever it was, but she wasn't sure she was ready for it. The deep yearning that had suddenly filled her, the deep ache of loss... No. The box could sit where it was and gather more dust.
When she left her wonder, the box was still sitting where she had left it, unchanged and unmoving. No presence wandered the halls of the ancient manor and no one waited longing for her return.
