All Ashes and Illusions

Women are snakes and liars, all of them: the more beautiful, the more conniving. Dont let your guard down, or they will ruin you.

Yuel was only six years old when he witnessed his mother being put to death, for the heinous crime of daring to have an affair. For other women, such a folly mightnt have been so lethal, but for Yuels ill-fated mother the wife and queen of Indras tyrannical king, Khalil it spelt her doom.

As he witnesses his mothers corpse decomposing beneath the intense sunlight, Yuels father offers him some sage words of wisdom: namely, not to trust women. They are, in Khalils words, wicked and deceitful, and becoming too attached can end in nothing save disaster.

Outwardly, Yuel must swallow his sorrow, for fear of earning his fathers ire. Kings are not, after all, supposed to cry; even future kings such as him. In private, however, Yuel turns to his nursemaid, the kindly Safiya, for succour. Safiya is Yuels only ally in the palace: his father cold and distant; the servants deferential, brow-beaten, and kept silent through fear. Without Safiya, Yuel would be all alone...

Yet she, too, abandons him, when Yuel grows old enough to no longer need a nursemaid to tend to him.

Bereft and embittered, Yuel has nothing to look forward to, until after a prolonged illness his father eventually dies, and Yuel inherits the throne and the crown in his stead.

No longer a young boy Safiyas little prince but a grown man, Yuel plots to win Safiya over once more. Unable to forget about her, and unable to trust any other woman, Yuel cannot conceive of a life without her. She did promise to stay with him, after all and, single-minded to a fault, Yuel is determined to see this promise fulfilled at any cost.

• About 90,000 words of text (approx 4-6 hours of reading)
  
• A kinetic story with no choices/branches
  
• Detailed background and character art
  
• A custom soundtrack
  
• A highly dysfunctional relationship
  
• Free patch that adds uncensored r18 content
  
• Complete and utter agony