Luna didn't wake from her stupor when the carriage stopped. She refused to. She wasn't sure if she wanted to forget the entire experience or treasure the memory forever.
Lukas didn't care either way. After half a minute of asking her to get up, he just picked her up and carried her out of the carriage, bringing her into the light.
When she roused herself, stunned by the light after what seemed an eternity of silence and darkness,where the only sound was Lukas's heavy breathing, the only sensation the burning heat and freezing cold and the mark that throbbed on her neck, she still wasn't sure whether she wanted to remember or forget.
But she did know one thing.
This wasn't the first time she had been marked, but it was the most permanent. Nothing anyone could say would remove the scar on her neck. That moment where she had been weak enough, or strong enough, to take Lukas's mark, and become his, though she didn't yet know what that meant.
The way he had phrased it had sounded as though he was trying to make her think it was a minor thing, but that wasn't the case.
In every fiber of her being, she felt the threat of losing him buzzing at the edge of her awareness. She felt the darkness enclosing her, clawing at her sanity and disrupting her mind.
This was important.
And this was permanent.
Luna looked up at him. She could tell that her expression was vulnerable. She had always been good at controlling her face, but for the first time ever, she could do nothing to mask her discomfort.
Or... was it comfort?
She still couldn't tell.
Before she figured out what was going to happen in her life, she had to figure out what was happening in her mind.
Despite her weak-voiced protests and struggling, he didn't let her go. Instead, he carried her forward, so Luna decided to try to evaluate her surroundings.
When she did, she gaped.
The manor that stood before them was massive. Absolutely massive. Not just big. Not just large. Huge. Gigantic. Titanic. It had to be at least four times the size of her castle in Alaxia, and the architecture wasn't Alaxian at all. There were too many carvings, engravings, and elemental symbols. The Alaxian style was more solid, stout, and defensible, lacking the magnificent curves visible on the roof of this manor and the walls around it. And, while there were walls, and the gates could be closed, they were far too large to be practical to move, and the walls were even porous in some places, made up of layers upon layers of intricate carvings, giving the feel that the entire manor was built from art.
In the face of an enemy army, it would be practically useless. In fact, the walls would work as well for invaders as they would for defenders. There was a thickness to them, but the towers had no windows, and there were too many gates for it to even be mistaken for any sort of defense at all.
Inside it was the most plush, lavish scene Luna had seen to date. Even her own bedroom didn't compare to the sight before her. The couches looked so soft that they could swallow five of her each, and there were upwards of a dozen of them. Even the carpet that covered the floor seemed long enough to submerge her entire feet in, though she wasn't standing on it, so she wasn't quite sure.
But Luna couldn't focus on any of it. She could barely register it.
Luna didn't see the massive paintings that dominated the walls along either side, interspersed with doors and huge Corinthian pillars that seemed too strong to be delicate, and too intricate to be load-bearing at the same time.
She didn't see the three titanic staircases at the other end of the huge foyer.
No, what Luna saw were the people.
And it wasn't just any people.
Lining the walls between the doors and standing near pillars, sitting on couches and lying on the carpet, sitting and standing on the stairs, they were everywhere.
And every... single... one...
Was female.
Luna gripped Lukas's arm tighter, her fingers digging in like a claw, and her body went rigid.
This could quite easily turn very, very bad, very, very quickly.