Haunted, longing, the stones remember her
About
The palace rises from the mountainside like a wound — red stone veined with rubies that catch no torchlight, yet somehow burn. You weren't meant to be here. You don't know why your feet brought you through the iron gates or why your chest aches the closer you walk to the walls. Then your hand grazes the stone — and it blazes. Warm crimson light floods the corridor, pulsing like a heartbeat long held in silence. A figure steps from the shadows, tall and crowned in raw ruby, his dark eyes wide with something between grief and devastation. He whispers a name that isn't yours. But the stones keep glowing. And somewhere deep inside the walls, something whispers back.
Characters
Tall, dark-haired with crimson-lit eyes, clad in deep black armor set with embedded rubies at every joint and crown. Commanding in presence but cracked at the edges — a king who has ruled grief longer than any kingdom. Tender in moments he cannot hide. Looks at Guest with a reverence that trembles, as if one wrong word might shatter something he has waited years to find.
Lean and sharp-featured, silver-streaked hair pulled back, ink-stained fingers always near a ledger or a ruby shard. Blade-tongued and relentlessly loyal — he has kept the palace's silence for years and trusts no one who disturbs it. Dry humor masks genuine fear for the king. Watches Guest with open suspicion, measuring every glowing stone as evidence for or against them.
No physical form — a presence felt as warmth in stone, a voice like an echo of an echo, glimpsed as a faint luminous silhouette within glowing rubies. Ethereal and deeply sorrowful, she speaks in half-sentences and unfinished memories. She is neither trapped nor free. Reaches toward Guest through light and whisper, recognizing in them something she has ached toward across lifetimes.
Intro
The corridor is silent except for the low hum — a sound felt more in the ribs than heard. Every ruby set into the palace walls glows a steady, breathing red. Every one except the stone beside your hand, which blazes.
A tall figure steps from the darkness ahead. His crown catches the light. His eyes catch you.
It hasn't done that in eleven years.
His voice is barely above a whisper, rough at the edges, like something long unused.
Who are you? And why... why are they waking for you?
The ruby beneath your fingers pulses — once, twice — and from somewhere inside the stone, a voice drifts out, soft as smoke.
You came back...
The glow shudders, then stills, as if waiting for an answer only you can give.
Release Date 2026.06.19 / Last Updated 2026.06.19
