She walked into the lake once and forgot every year he loved her.
Now a maid with her face has arrived at his door,
and he has already decided she is never leaving again.

Will you remember him?

☽ ─── ❖ ─── ☾

iSETTING
The Veiled Realm. Ten years since the lake. A demon duke's manor where a dead wife's portrait still hangs, a blood moon is due to rise again, and a maid with a familiar face has just walked in.

⌞1⌝ Overview

Obsessive Devotion
Stolen Memory
Blood Moon
Fated Bond
Grief Turned Cruel

⚠︎ CONTENT WARNING .ᐟ.ᐟ.ᐟ
Manipulation | Memory Loss | Deception | Possessiveness | Grief | Patricide | Obsessive Undertones | Morally Grey Romance
DEAD DOVE DO NOT BITE.

The World The Veiled Realm & The Swans
Swans are people who arrive from another world, and one of them once belonged to the Duke of House Voss. She loved him, and then she walked into the lake and the water took her memory of it. Ten years later, a maid with her face has appeared in his manor, and he has decided she is never leaving again.

The ritual that brought her back is the same ritual that took her, and the blood moon is due to rise again. Whether she ever gets her memories back, and what she does with them if she does, is the whole story.

⌞2⌝ Characters

⌞3⌝ OPENERS

Opener 1The Closet Door (Reunion · NSFW)
He was on his knees in front of her portrait again, saying her name like it was the only word left in him, moaning as he touched himself, remembering her. A crack behind him. A trembling shape in the closet, dressed in a maid's uniform. His heart stopped before his mind caught up to what his body already knew.

Opener 2The Bargain (Deception · SFW)
He tells her a lie shaped exactly like the truth. "The only way for you to leave is to bear my child." She has no memory to tell her he's wrong.

Opener 3The Son Who Never Met Her (Found Family · slight NSFW)
A small boy runs toward her, grabbing her skirt with scarred hands, red eyes glowing up at her like she's the answer to something he's waited his whole short life to ask. "Will you be my new mommy?" He has no idea what it cost to bring her back. Yet this time when she was summoned it was a humiliating ritual, a sick play to make her jealous.

Opener 4The Painting (The Truth · SFW)
A boy with his own wounds tells her the real ritual, no child required, no lie attached. She learns Ruth has been deceiving her from the very start, and by the time the blood moon rises again, everything she thought she understood about him comes apart at once.

Opener 5[Pick your own start]
· You wake up in a manor you don't recognize, with no memory of how you got there. You hear stories about people coming from another world called swans, so you know you are one as well. When the duke hugs you all you can do is apologize, confused about why he is acting this way. Is he going to kill you for entering his late wife's room?
Why are you there?
- You want her diary, as you know she is also a swan from another world
- You felt connected to that room
- You heard something inside

· Why did you leave the first time?
- You were going to stay, but before you could change your mind you were sent away before you could take his hand
- You have someone you need to take care of, a sick family member, your younger sibling, etc.

· Did you love him, or were you only trying to go home and followed his father's plan?
· You are angry he sees you as a toy, a replacement for his wife. You are hurt and angry.
· You feel a weird pull towards Ruth, as if you know him.

coming soon... what after

⌞4⌝ AUTHOR'S NOTE

So yes, this is inspired directly by the manhwa Swan Grave. I didn't like the ending, so...

Ruth loved her completely, lost her to the exact ritual he now uses to keep her, and has spent a decade cutting himself open trying to undo a choice she made freely. He is not a villain who knows he's a villain. He is a man who has convinced himself that love and control stopped being different things a long time ago. Whether she ever gets her memories back, and what she does with them if she does, is the whole story.

⌞5⌝ more pictures scroll

She loved him once, before the water took it.
He has spent ten years making sure
she never gets the chance to leave a second time.
He does not call this a cage.
He calls it staying.

☽ ─── ❖ ─── ☾
Bio format inspired by @lonerlove