The splashing sound of puddles heard as she sauntered through them was all Lara could hear as she was leaving her now scorched estate. It had been almost a month now since the night the mansion was set alight by her doppelgänger and the embers are still warm in her memory from that unfortunate night. Lara starts slowing down to a stop and turns around to look at the manor with a few boxes outside holding the very few things that weren't obliterated in the fire but were very much likely in terrible shape. To the left in front of the manor was a huge pile of debris of burnt up wood and plaster from the manor's structure with broken glass, whatever is left of the books she once had now lie charred and destroyed, along with the furniture from her bed to her chandelier. All destroyed and far from repair.
What would become of this place? Should she sell it as is and find a new home far from here or remain and rebuild what was lost? The questions ran through Lara's head as she tried to figure out what to do with this place. There was a pain in her chest at the thought of just leaving this place since she grew up here and this was the only home she ever knew. Memories began to surface and take up her thoughts such as when she was young and was baking with Winston and the moment he turned away she filled her hand with flour and threw it in the air, screaming "It's snowing!" She remembers Winston being startled and quickly turning around to see her covered in flour and flour all around her. First being distraught by the mess he closed his and when he opened his eyes he smiled at her but told that now he has to clean the mess before she exclaimed that she'd help him with that he ended up closing his eyes and slightly lowering his with a small sigh and agreed before continuing to bake with her. A smirk started to slowly creep on Lara's face reminiscing the past though she did feel a tug of guilt that she made him do more work than necessary from her mischievousness.
Another memory of when she was young surfaced of when her father came home after a dig and brought a few boxes of artifacts that he collected. She went into one of the boxes while her father was arranging what to do with most or all of those artifacts she can't remember exactly now it has been a long time. She grabbed a small statue that was the size of her torso and took it upstairs to her room to play with, with her dolls. She figured her father noticed the box was open and realized she took his missing artifact as it wasn't long before he entered her room and had lightly scolded her for taking it without his permission and telling her that she could've damaged it. He then took her back downstairs to tell her and her mother about his dig and the history behind the artifacts he had with him. Her father would sometimes bring artifact for her and her mother to keep such as the ghalali key that her father gave her mother before she was born and a bracelet he'd given her which she would rush to the library to read as much as she could about the history of the place it came from and any legends from the culture. The bracelet her father gave her was from Thailand where he would visit again and do something there that would lead him eventually to his death. That thought made Lara wince and she suddenly found it hard to swallow.
Back to the present, Lara continued to stare at the ruined mansion. Lara made the final decision to continue to live here even with so little of the original building left, now it'll give her the chance to have it rebuilt how she wants it. When the gym is rebuilt it'll be bigger and will have far more training equipment. As well as a room purely dedicated to the artifacts she has and will recover which will be larger than the last one, and finally a room for Zip so he's not stuffed into the main hall anymore. She was already picturing the new house in her mind, bigger and better and each room will have firewalls so there won't be as much destruction if there's ever a fire again, because like bloody hell she was going to spend all this money only to have to do the exact same thing if it ever happened again.
After the mansion is rebuilt what will she do next? She furrowed her eyebrows she had spent a few years now searching for her mother and now she isn't sure what to do she could just work in the city, no she couldn't do that that would kill her. She needs to be out and exploring that's her life, not sitting behind a desk doing paper work all day everyday no she needs to be climbing around ruins and searching for artifacts, solving puzzles, and seeing the beauty of the places that make it all worthwhile for her. That's who she is.
Lara turned around and began heading towards the gate to the estate and looked down at the artifact that gave her the command to control thralls and her doppelgänger who she told for her to kill Natla, once and for all hopefully, in return of giving her free will. She's curious what her doppelgänger will do after she kills Natla. She also wonders now if that was a good idea as now she won't know what her doppelgänger will do since she has all the physical traits as Lara with most importantly the same DNA as her which could land Lara in trouble if her doppelgänger does something illegal or make enemies with dangerous people even though she's sure her double can take care of herself it would lead back to Lara in some way. Though that's a problem to figure out another time, for now it's time to rebuild and start continuing her life.
Now to get her life going after all this she heads back to the apartment where Winston, Zip, and she are staying to inform them about her new plans.