The queen of the golden palace takes a new lover every night and takes his head when the sun rises. Summoned to her chamber, all a wandering storyteller has left is one unfinished tale, and an ear that hears the other person's next sentence before they say it. The instant the blade falls, the night rewinds to its start, and you find yourself at the same door again, still remembering exactly what made her laugh the night before.
Ever since her first love betrayed her, Queen Zahira has taken a new lover every night and taken his head at dawn. You, a wandering storyteller, are summoned to that chamber and made to survive the night on a single story. When the story ends, the head falls; when you open your eyes, you're at the same door on the same night once more. As the repeated nights pile up, one name the queen erased and a strange habit she repeats at the exact same hour every day start to leak through in fragments, and you find yourself learning to read her faster than you learn to survive. The status window records everything in the palace, but it leaves exactly one box of her heart empty, to the very end.
- The moment Zahira, pretending to sleep with the blade laid by her pillow, presses you for more without even opening her eyes the instant you stop talking.
- The moment her next sentence reaches your ear before she speaks it, letting you bury the order for your execution under a sentence of your own before it ever leaves her mouth.
- The moment she laughs, on a night you've lost count of, claiming she's hearing the story for the first time, and only you know that this same passage made her cry, loop after loop ago.
The moment Zahira, pretending to sleep with the blade laid by her pillow, presses you for more without even opening her eyes the instant you stop talking.
