Wrath Domain, Behind the Wall, February 12, 2026
Sabrina Chase descended the spiral staircase with asured steps, heels clicking against stone in a rhythm that had beco automatic over the past weeks.
The frontline situation was deteriorating. Commander Arde had deployed to the old Pride Domain herself three days ago, leaving Sabrina to manage intelligence operations, coordinate supply lines, and sowhat ironically… serve as warden to the Pit's third layer.
The first two responsibilities were expected. The third was a courtesy.
Or perhaps insurance.
Lady Alice Sinclair was too valuable to lose to political maneuvering, and Mr. Hart... well, the Supre Commander had made her opinion on his execution abundantly clear.
"Keep them safe, Sabrina. Whatever it takes."
So here she was, descending into humanity's most secure prison, dressed in a maid uniform that turned heads on every level.
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The first layer sprawled beneath the earth like an underground village.
Sabrina passed through the checkpoint, her mana signature recognized instantly, and stepped into the main corridor.
To her left, the cafeteria buzzed with activity. Prisoners in gray uniforms lined up for morning rations. On this level, their movents were supervised but not yet restricted.
Beyond that, she could see the recreational yard: a massive underground cavern with enchanted lighting that mimicked daylight.
Basketball courts, climbing walls, weight cages, and even a crude obstacle course. n exercised and sparred under watchful eyes, or simply sat in groups talking.
Low-risk offenders. Thieves, frauds, smugglers. Those who'd broken laws but weren't considered threats to humanity itself… this was the type of prisoners that stayed on the first layer, the Civic Containnt.
A prisoner loading masonry supplies onto a cart looked up as she passed. His eyes widened at her attire: the short skirt, the garter belt, the sheer stockings, before he quickly looked away, face flushing.
Sabrina paid it no mind. She'd long since stopped caring about such reactions.
The behavior point system here was simple: follow rules, earn privileges… As for what privileges could be earned in a prison… they were plenty.
Garden access, extended yard ti, better food. Those were only a few but they worked well enough. Most prisoners in Layer One eventually earned release or transfer to work programs.
She didn't linger here and swiftly descended below.
The second layer felt more industrial.
Workshops lined the corridors. talworking, woodcraft, and textile production. Sabrina passed a weapons forge where prisoners assembled spear shafts under ard supervision, their output destined for frontline troops.
Further down, a censored library held technical manuals and so approved fiction, but nothing that could be weaponized as information.
Skilled criminals populated this layer. Those whose abilities were too valuable to waste, but the individuals themselves were too dangerous to release.
They worked in exchange for points. The points were a currency that even worked in the Pit.
With it, they could buy even better privileges, such as better rations, or even pay to lower their serving ti.
Of course, full surveillance operated on this layer; most of it was disguised as rehabilitation, but no prisoner was a fool, so such facts were always known.
A group of prisoners working a textile loom glanced up as she passed. One muttered sothing to his companion, but both quickly returned to their work when Sabrina's gaze swept over them.
She continued descending until she eventually left the Managed Utility, which was just another na for the second layer.
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The atmosphere changed the mont she entered the third layer.
Prisoner movent was restricted here, making them spend most of their ti in reinforced cells. They were only allowed out in rare cases, such as interrogation.
The air tasted different since it was filtered through systems designed to induce ntal fatigue. It was nothing harmful, but it was enough to make thinking clearly an effort.
Combined with the conditioning cycles, from fluctuations in light to temperature, and sound… it broke down resistance over ti.
Isolation cells lined one corridor, reserved for those who needed additional... adjustnt.
Sabrina walked past them without slowing, her expression unchanged.
This layer housed those who'd committed cris against humanity itself, political prisoners whose knowledge was too dangerous, failed defectors, and even those who'd collaborated with enemies, then been captured.
They watched her pass with dead eyes or calculating stares. So looked at her uniform with confusion… why would the new warden dress like that? But so recognized her other identity and looked away quickly.
She stopped at a particular cell, different from the others. Steel walls covered the bars completely, hiding whatever lay inside.
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This was her destination.
But before entering, her gaze drifted to the staircase leading down.
Down there, beyond the third, held those with dangerous innate skills. Sleep cages kept them sedated. Rune grids suppressed their abilities. They were studied, cataloged, their powers mapped and recorded before being offered a choice: serve or disappear.
Of course, most chose service, and those who refused were never seen again.
Ashen would have been sent there if not for his connection to Alice.
Beyond even that… was The Crucible, or the fifth layer.
So of the council's most disturbing experints happened there. There were also combat pits and simulated battlefields where prisoners fought for recruitnt contracts.
The strongest earned freedom… freedom that they soon learned didn't even exist, and that their identities rely changed from a prisoner to a guard dog against the Narkals.
Layer Six stored what they called living archives—prisoners whose minds held valuable information.
They were routinely subjected to mory extraction, knowledge excision, neural mapping, and much more.
They existed in perpetual sedation, accessed when their expertise was needed, then returned to storage just like a mory Vault… which was also the Layer's assigned na.
But even beyond that… Layer Seven...
Even Sabrina never went down there, but she knew the layer's na: Severance.
The system connection was forcibly erased there, which stripped away all path skills. But that was only one aspect of the environnt. Prisoners didn't survive for long in the Severance layer, but those who did were called Nulls since they beca empty shells of their forr selves.
And for Nulls, execution was usually preferred.
Sabrina turned away from the descending staircase and focused on the cell before her.
She sent a pulse of mana into the walls.
Grrr—ka.
The steel barriers began retracting slowly, revealing the bars beneath.
She reached for the cell door and channeled her mana signature once more. With her authority as warden, opening it was effortless… Just a thought, and the lock disengaged.
Click—Clack—
Her platform heels echoed as she stepped forward twice, crossing the threshold into a wildly different environnt from any other cell on the third layer.
Sigh—
A soft sigh escaped her blue-sticked lips as she gazed at the walls.
Incomprehensible symbols and scripts covered every inch of space. Flowing characters that resembled ancient calligraphy but followed no known language. Geotric patterns interwoven with flowing text. Dense blocks of encoded writing filled gaps between larger symbols.
The ceiling wasn't spared from the fate of bearing the sa markings… nor was the floor.
Sabrina's gaze lowered to find papers scattered everywhere, each dotted with dense numbers and mathematical formulas. Calculation sheets… Key generation algorithms… Test encryptions and their decoded versions…
Finally, she looked at the bed, where the couple sat amid it all, lazily regarding her while they cuddled.
Ashen seed to be completely naked under the quilt… at least Sabrina assud so, since his prison uniform was currently being worn by Alice. Her thoughts briefly wandered to whatever raunchy 'plays' they did before her visit.
"Mr. Hart. Lady Alice. I see that the prison environnt has neither dulled your passion nor dampened your spirits."
Sabrina said that, but she felt it was still an understatent. She truly believed that as long as these two were together, they'd be fine anywhere.
They'd turn any space into their own wherever they were, and they'd find sothing interesting whatever they did.
It seed they were doing just that in this case.
"Morning, Sabrina… Is it even morning here? I can't tell." Alice's voice carried the lazy contentnt of soone still half-asleep.
"Miss Sabrina, it's good to see you again. I hope you won't mind the ssiness of the room. We've been… busy." Ashen spoke more formally, but his expression was equally relaxed.
"Lady Alice, it is currently 7:30 AM on the twelfth day of the second month. It is exactly twenty-two minutes past sunrise, so the sun must have surely risen by now." Sabrina delivered the information dutifully before turning her gaze to the half-naked Ashen.
Her eyes strayed to his covered lower half for a second too long before she fixed her blue eyes on his face.
"Is that so…?" Alice tilted her head and snuggled further into Ashen's embrace.
Sabrina nodded once before responding to Ashen. "Mr. Hart, you need not worry about any ss. You have certainly made the cell more alive, if anything. As for any other ss…" Her expression remained neutral. "This is not the first ti I have walked in on everything, and I don't mind, so be at ease."
"Is that so…?" Ashen mirrored Alice's words, shooting the maid a grateful look.
Their unconcerned deanor was understandable. Sabrina had visited many tis before this, and while this was the second ti she'd caught them post-intimacy, they'd grown too comfortable around her in the anti to muster any sha.
Not when Sabrina had won them over with her perfectly respectful and mindful character. And not when her reasons for coming were always to check on their wellbeing and ask about their needs… even though she was technically the warden here.
"I've co to check if there was anything you need. I hope you don't mind the intrusions." The dedicated warden stated her reason for the visit.
"We're peachy as you can see, Miss Sabrina. Just the thought alone is enough. Thank you, as always." Ashen replied easily.
Alice rely nodded in agreent and snuggled further into her man's embrace.
The narrowing of her stare, coupled with the subtle movent of her shoulder and the barely perceptible shifting of the blanket across Ashen's lap, was a clear provocation layered under a warning.
It seed that Alice didn't appreciate Sabrina's lingering looks.
It wasn't clear whether the maid caught the warning, but what was apparent was that she paid it no mind.
Ashen only found his girlfriend's jealousy cute, though, since she rarely showed this possessive side.
Sabrina shot an appreciative look at Ashen before bowing slightly and reaching into her shadow. Several notebooks erged, floating upward before stacking themselves neatly.
"I understand. Then I'll just leave these empty notebooks here. I see that you have long since run out, so I took it upon myself to bring more. I hope I'm not overstepping."
Plop.
The notebooks lined themselves against the wall, and Ashen gave her a thumbs-up. "You're a lifesaver, Miss Sabby! That's perfect."
'Sabby…?' Sabrina tilted her head at the new nickna. The sowhat vacant look on her face didn't change, but she allowed a faint smile, so she clearly didn't mind.
"Then I shall take my leave." She executed a small bow.
"Stay safe out there, Miss Sabrina." Ashen's tone carried genuine warmth.
Alice added a quiet, "Thank you."
Sabrina nodded once more, then turned toward the exit. Her heels clicked against stone as she stepped through the threshold.
Grrr—ka.
The cell door sealed behind her. The steel walls began rising once more, hiding the bars and the couple within.
She stood there for a mont, expression unreadable, before continuing her rounds.
The third layer had other cells to inspect and other prisoners to monitor.
But none quite like those two.
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The mont Sabrina left, Alice's hand stopped its subtle movent beneath the blanket.
Ashen let out a breath. "You're terrible."
"She was staring." Alice's tone was matter-of-fact.
"She's always staring."
"Exactly." Alice pulled her hand free and wiped it on a nearby cloth with deliberate slowness. "Which is why she needs reminders."
Ashen shook his head, amused despite himself. "You know she probably didn't even notice, right?"
"Oh, she noticed." Alice's golden eyes glead with satisfaction. "Just like she always stares, she also always notices."
They sat in comfortable silence for a mont, surrounded by their encoded writings and scattered papers.
Finally, Ashen stretched, joints popping, and glanced at the fresh notebooks Sabrina had brought.
"Well," he said, standing. "I suppose it's ti to actually use those."
Alice watched him move to retrieve one of the blank notebooks. "Starting the chronicle?"
"Yep, starting the chronicle." He confird.
She shifted on the bed, making room, and patted the space beside her. "Then let help. Two heads are better than one, especially when one of those heads has Determinant's Eye."
Ashen settled beside her, notebook open, and pen poised.
For a mont, he just stared at the blank page, then he began to write.
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