Gaoler's Honey

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"Blood is not red in the way that this honey is red."

"This succulent drop will allow you to enter the memories and dreams of helpless innocents. Perhaps you have your reasons."

Gaoler's honey, colloquially called red honey, is a more sinister breed of prisoner's honey.

Precious Memories

Gaoler's honey comes from a flower that is a cross between the exile's rose and a flower from Hell, pollinated by bees that have consumed a victim's tears. It seems the hybrid has existed since the days of the Fourth City. The name of this honey likely refers to the practice of capturing prisoners in order to harvest their minds for this valuable drug; consumption of this substance allows one to experience another's memories. This takes place in a dream-location called the Chambers of the Heart, and is incredibly painful for the unfortunate victim.

The Empress' family and servants also regularly partook in red honey until a "bad strain" turned most of the royal children into monsters. There is another insidious variant of honey, known as Cardinal's Honey, that allows for one to enter and experience the dreams of the dead; it is a side effect of red honey production, pushed to the point where the victim has nothing left to give.

A Garden of Cages

The Garden of Roses and Cages

Some of the red honey that is not gathered in Hell is produced on the Isle of Cats by the Pirate King Leopold, who himself is a red honey addict. The people whose memories are used to create the honey are kept locked in cages, and are almost comatose due to the amount of pain they are experiencing. There is also a Cage-Garden in the grounds of the Shuttered Palace.

Several important figures are implied to be addicted to honey, such as the Captivating Princess.

To the Skies

"We are democratising art," she says, loftily. "Thanks to our cage-garden, a writer need not speculate about the sorrow of a lover as their beloved dies; they can taste our honey and know it themselves. We are no longer subject to the tyranny of experience."

In the Sunless Skies timeline, with Hell being off-limits, the production of red honey shifted to Titania, where the Midnight Rose runs an operation. Most of the red honey is sourced from caged artists: they can leave anytime, but they also believe that to create art, one must seek misery.