"This is so beautiful. Why didn't you want me seeing it?" Rose skipped from one sight to another, gazing up into the crystal roofs one moment and kneeling to peer at a carved slab on the ground the next, moving so quickly that even the Doctor was finding it hard to keep up. He really had tried to steer her away from the temple, but the allure of pretty statues and shiny spires had pronounced themselves victorious.
"Rose, we really should get out of here," he insisted, avoiding her question. There were people gathering for morning prayers, and the rising probability of her being seen was making him edgy. Not because he didn't want to be noticed, but because, like a coward, he didn't want to be faced with the task of explaining things if they were.
This time Rose ignored him, spotting and becoming instantly enamoured by a statue standing between two pillars of the temple's centre aisle. Carved in something resembling grey marble and set upon a round plinth, the stone woman was a curious thing; her arms were spread wide and she looked up to the sky, but a heavily embroidered velvet cloth had been draped over her head and shoulders, obscuring her face from view. The words at the base of the plinth translated themselves in her head, and Rose read out loud, "The Lady of Time and of the Burning Sun."
She seemed so fascinated by the figure that the Doctor consented to indulge her for a moment, and offered an explanation.
"Legend says that when Mamanda was dying everyone who looked at her went blind because she was burning so bright. From childhood you're told never to look at the statue's face for too long, or the light will come out and take your sight too. Even the high priests won't look at her, so they cover the faces with cloths, just to make sure." He gestured to the base of the statue, where red roses were scattered on the ground. "It's considered respectful to remove the cloth if you make an offering or pray, though. But never forget to put it back."
"I feel like I should leave something. How come there's roses here anyway?"
"Visitors to Earth liked them so much they took plants with them. You wouldn't believe how many planets have roses now. Here…" The Doctor felt around in a few pockets for something, pulling out a small silver coin. "You can leave this. It's a prayer coin. Visitors leave them when they visit, to show respect."
Rose took the coin. It was a plain silver disc with no marking other than a small star on one side. She looked up at the cloth-covered woman and hesitated for a moment.
"Do I take the cloth away?"
The Doctor nodded, and then seemed to reconsider suddenly. "Actually, Rose, that's not such a good idea." The look in his eyes aroused her suspicion immediately. "We need to go. Leave the coin and we'll go see the marketplace or something." He made to take her hand, but in one fluid movement she turned, and pulled the cloth defiantly from the statue.
"Whoa. Okay, that's…weird."
Much to the Doctor's surprise (and unbridled relief) Rose didn't say anything else. She merely placed the silver coin on the plinth, recovered the statue's face, and began walking away.
Maybe I wasn't being so stupid after all…There was an awkward silence, a mumbled 'I'm sorry' from the Doctor and a short walk in the direction of the main door of the temple, and then Rose became fascinated with something else. She hadn't noticed them when she'd entered, but at either side of the door stood two more statues, mirror images of the same animal carved in jet black marble with the same patterns upon their round plinths as had been on the base of Mamanda's image.
"Those are depictions of a mythical creature called an andar. When a person dies, they take the soul to the heavens and to her."
Rose cocked an eyebrow at him. "They're not mythical." He could see she was still unsettled from the experience of looking at the statue, and didn't know quite what to say.
"Not where you're from."
"I want to go now. I want you to tell me just how many of these stories there are out there."
He nodded gently and took her hand, leading her the rest of the way to the door. Rose reached out to open it…but it moved before she could touch the handle. The door swung open to reveal a lone man, a priest, making ready to say his morning prayers. He looked first at the Doctor, nodding politely to acknowledge the visitor, then at Rose, and this time he gasped and put a hand over his eyes.
Rose looked as though she was about to cry, and for the first time in Rassilon knew how many years, the Doctor thought he was going to be sick.