All that was left of Tira-Lian was a handful of half-collapsed buildings, less than a third of the original defensive wall, minus the base stones, and only three of the original ten guard towers and one of them didn't have any steps left to climb up to the nest. A few flags hung limply, bleached white by the sun. Only half of the great gate remained, one half of a door barely hanging on its rusted hinges. The wild wheat had grown all the way up to the base stones of the wall, which was the only thing that had stood the test of time, but they were rocks and dirt so that wasn't too surprising.
The wind had fallen still as they'd approached, but occasionally the wheat shifted anyway. The entire place felt unsettled, and the horses shifted nervously as they stopped outside the gate.
"Take them back to camp." Captain Li ordered. "We'll send a wing for you when we're done."
"Is that wise?" Lady Yang murmured.
"No help if they get scared and run." Fox murmured.
Anna stepped closer to Chenzhou, taking his arm as she shivered. Yuze's hand came to rest on Qiang Ye.
"I can see why the tribes avoid this place." Marian gripped her cloak. Finn, Emmy, and Patrick were huddled behind her.
Ardain hummed quietly and now Eirian could hear Huaban and Qiang Ye answer.
"I'm surprised this much is still standing." Eirian glanced at Chenzhou.
"The weather on the prairie can be intense. Windstorms tear down most things in time, but it has been a while since there's been a truly devastating one." Chenzhou studied the flags hanging from the posts. "The foundations must be strong."
Eirian started forward and Captain Li and several of his men quickly caught up with her.
"Let us go first, your grace."
Eirian sighed, barely concealing her annoyance. "There's no one here."
Li's men raced ahead anyway as the Captain fell into step beside her. A weather-beaten man whom life had carved out of exasperation and exhaustion, he seemed determined to go on, nevertheless. He'd managed to keep a calm head in every situation Eirian had seen him in so far. Captain of the Guard was a distinguished position in the Land of Sorrow, for Li to have held it for so long spoke to his skill, both on the battlefield and in the political arena. The Captain of the Guard in Aontacht typically only lasted a few years before they angered the wrong person in the course of their duty and were removed, but Marian had told her that Li had held the post for well over a decade. He'd been installed even before Chenzhou's Right of Ascension and there'd apparently never been any serious attempt to remove him.
From what little of him she'd seen, he was solid and dependable. It only highlighted the differences between the Camelia and the capital. The Captains of the Guard she'd met in the capital were ambitious officers looking to use the service to pivot to more powerful positions in the government. It was a position that was less about protecting the King and more about promoting yourself. The long serving lieutenants of the guard were typically the trusted and experienced officers. Both of Finn's sisters were lieutenants, though he was convinced one of them was aiming for the top spot. It was part of the game to never actually say that though, because God forbid someone admit to being ambitious out loud.
Since half the door was missing, they just walked in.
"It's a superstition in the borderlands that its bad luck to cross a village wall when you're not taking the village." Captain Li explained and smiled at Eirian's incredulous look.
"I thought they were nomadic?"
"They are. But there are villages doted throughout the prairie land that serve as bases for trade. Most of them were established independently from the tribes, but control of them changes often. The tribes take them during inter-clan conflicts, then they'd free themselves when the tribe weakened." Chenzhou explained from behind them.
Eirian studied the rotting wooden door and stone archway as they stepped through. "It takes a lot of manpower to take a defensive wall. If the tribes don't use them, they probably don't understand that, and they'd be unprepared to deal with trained defenders. Would cost them more losses in battle then they were prepared for. Easy to see where a superstition like that would come from." When no one responded, she looked over her shoulder at them. "Wouldn't it?"
Chenzhou and Yuze looked surprised at her insight, but they both nodded.
"Where did you learn that?" Anna asked.
Eirian shrugged. "I studied at the military academy in Aontacht. My father didn't allow me to attend as an actual student, but Eric snuck me into the lectures when I was bored. Military science is rather fascinating. Strange mix of human nature and luck and you never know which way it's going to go. What did you study?"
"Oh," Anna's expression fell a bit. "My father only let me attend the basic grades. I had tutors for the arts as I got older, literature, languages, painting."
"Ah, the womanly arts." Eirian nodded. "I love to read, but I could never sit still for the rest of it."
"The art in the capital must be beautiful." Anna looked wistful. "My tutors often spoke of the Queen's Galary."
"It's endless," Eirian muttered. "Goes on and on. Some of the works are beautiful, but most of them are overhyped nonsense."
"I'd still like to see it one day." Anna murmured.
"Well, now that I'm at the Camelia, one day you two can go." Eirian stopped inside the gate and studied the village of Tira-Lian.
The plum tree orchard was nothing but a lot of barren trees behind a couple of half-collapsed houses. Most of the surviving buildings were along the main street, the heart of the village. They'd been protected by the buildings that had been destroyed, but they were withering away now.
At the end of the main street, the skeleton of a manor house sat alone.
"That's Song Manor." Fox explained. "It was abandoned years before the village was destroyed."
~ tbc