Gaoler's Honey

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"Are you quite sure you want to know this?"

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"Blood is not red in the way that this honey is red."[1] "This succulent drop will allow you to enter the memories and dreams of helpless innocents. Perhaps you have your reasons."[2]

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

Precious Memories[edit | edit source]

A bee-stung victim

"When lamplighter bees suck the nectar of the crimson strain of exile's rose, they are driven to madness. They enter the brains of humans and harvest their memories. [...] Those memories are instilled in red honey. Each sip is a burst of memory on the tongue."[3]

When bees drink the nectar[4] of a hybrid between the exile's rose and a flower from Hell,[5] they become mad and burrow into the cranial orifices of humans to extract their memories, drinking their victims' tears[6] and leaving significant scarring on their faces.[7][8] The harvested memories are then processed to create gaoler’s honey.[9][10] Consumption of this honey allows the consumer to experience a person's harvested memories[11] from their perspective,[12] in a dream-location called the Chambers of the Heart.[13] This process causes immense pain for the original owner of the memory,[14][15] and the consumer may also be severely disoriented once the honey wears off.[16] Although not explicitly outlawed in London, gaoler's honey is still confiscated by the Ministry and the Admiralty when discovered.[17]

Red honey can be extracted from both human and nonhuman minds.[18] It has been harvested since at least the era of the Fourth City;[19] its common name likely refers to the practice of capturing prisoners in order to harvest their minds for this valuable drug. Victims often suffer memory loss[20] and spend the aftermath of the process in a vacant, dissociated state.[21] In severe cases, a person (like Zaira) may have so many memories harvested that they forget who they are entirely.[22] Zaira claims that she consumed red honey made from her own memories, allowing her to reclaim them; however, she also hints that she may instead have adopted someone else's identity through the same mechanism.[23] It may be inferred, then, that both of these occurrences are possible. While many people involved in the manufacture of red honey are forced into the harvesting of their memories, some consent to it for personal reasons.[24]

Properties[edit | edit source]

"Never touched honey myself. I've seen what it does. ... Makes everything inside come out, so you can see what they were trying to keep hidden. Doesn't happen to everyone. Think there has to be something in the blood before people start to, you know–" he jerks his head towards the mist-shrouded palace, "–get like that."[25]

The flavor of red honey is not unlike the taste of blood.[26][27] Unless preserved and "frozen" in zee-salt,[28][29][30] red honey degrades upon the death of its source, becoming cloudy and losing its potency.[31] It may also transform into a more lethal variant,[32] cardinal's honey, a black honey that transports its imbiber into the dreams of the dead.[33][34] Red honey has curious effects on infants or children who consume it, accelerating their development and maturity to an alarming degree.[35]

Red honey has some kind of transformative effect,[36][37] though it remains unclear whether this is intrinsic to the honey, due to contamination, or tied to the user’s nature.[38] Regardless, it has the potential to warp a person into a reflection of their worst desires and insecurities.[39] The Empress's family and servants regularly partook in red honey[40] until a "bad strain" turned most of the royal children into monsters.[41] Several important figures are implied to be addicted to honey, such as the Captivating Princess.[citation needed]

Hell has taken an interest in red honey; both the taste[42] and the memories it contains[43] are appealing to devils.

A Garden of Cages[edit | edit source]

The Garden of Roses and Cages

"Before you is a garden washed with blood. A sea of petalled crimson. They say these particular exile's roses are of a variety cross-bred with a flower from Hell. That would explain the stench of brimstone, underneath the sweetness. Winding paths lead to irregular rows of cages, each covered in tangles of thorn and vine. Some of the prisoners inside the cages call out to you, others mutter to themselves, or weep. A few simply stare, hopeless and silent."[44]

Much of the red honey that is not gathered in Hell is produced on the Isle of Cats[45] by the Pirate King Leopold, who is a red honey addict himself.[46] The people whose memories are used to create the honey are kept locked in cages, and are almost comatose from pain.[47] There is also a similar Cage-Garden on the grounds of the Shuttered Palace that supplies honey for the royal family.[4] Before this garden was established, the Palace sourced its honey from prisoners held in New Newgate's predecessor, Old Newgate.[48]

A set of shackled stained with red liquid.
Honey-Stained Shackles

A Cage-Garden looks largely like a traditional apiary, accompanied by a garden of hybrid flowers.[49] Bees collect nectar from these flowers, returning to hives where the honey is stored; apiarists employ smoke to subdue the bees and harvest their honey.[50] Of course, however, gardens do not typically feature rows of human prisoners.[51] Most of these unfortunates are people whose absence would not have a ripple effect,[52] like isolated zailors and forgotten senior citizens.[53] It is beneficial for a cage-garden to keep its prisoners alive for as long as possible, so they are fed well.[54] The Shuttered Palace keeps a meticulous ledger of its prisoners, cataloguing the nature and quality of each victim’s memories, and tailoring the product to the royal family’s particular tastes and needs.[55]

The Midnight Rose[edit | edit source]

"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 now off-limits, the production of red honey has shifted to Titania, where the Midnight Rose runs an operation. Most of the red honey is sourced from caged artists who believe they must suffer for the sake of art; they are allowed to leave at any time, but choose not to.[6]

References[edit | edit source]

  1. ↑ Drop of Gaoler's Honey, Fallen London
  2. ↑ Taste Gaoler's Honey, Fallen London
  3. ↑ Ask what red honey is, Sunless Sea
  4. ↑ 4.0 4.1 A Crown of Thorns, Fallen London "The Shuttered Palace has its own cage-garden, so that red honey might be harvested for the family's private use. Lamplighter bees sip nectar at the rosebeds, then fly to the cages to feast on memories."
  5. ↑ Work out what the hell he's talking about, Fallen London "The petals you brought him are from a rare and deadly flower: something you get when you cross-breed exile's rose with a flower they brought out of Hell. [...]"
  6. ↑ 6.0 6.1 Accompany her as she works in the glass house, Sunless Skies "Rosebushes heap against the glass and climb in thorny tangles through the greenhouse. Among them are tall cages, each occupied by a prisoner. Bees buzz into and out of their ears, and sip from the corners of their eyes. The prisoners cry out, and sob, and plead. "Look closer," the Apiarist says. Around each of their necks hangs a key on a chain. "They can free themselves at any time, but choose not to. They are artists, you see. They believe they must suffer if they are to one day make great art.""
  7. ↑ A Crown of Thorns, Fallen London "A Venerable Cage-keeper brings water to a caged woman. "She's got memories of the prelapsarian pleasure gardens, so her moments of respite come rarely. I try to bring her comfort while I can." The woman moans, rubbing her bee-stung face."
  8. ↑ Talk to the Lady of the Gardens, Sunless Sea "A breeze lifts her gold-mesh veil: there is a shadowed emptiness where her eyes should be, and livid scars all around. The sort a nectar-maddened lamplighter bee might leave, when it burrowed into a brain. [...]"
  9. ↑ Ask what red honey is, Sunless Sea "When lamplighter bees suck the nectar of the crimson strain of exile's rose, they are driven to madness. They enter the brains of humans and harvest their memories. [...] Those memories are instilled in red honey. Each sip is a burst of memory on the tongue."
  10. ↑ Allow yourself to be shown the cages, Fallen London "The Simpering Cage-keeper leads you past rows of cages filled with wretched prisoners: well-fed but shrunk with despair. Black bees drone busily around them, crawling into eyes and noses, out of ears and mouths, harvesting them like flowers."
  11. ↑ A memory of sky, Fallen London "The wind shakes […] the shed where you lie. […] the sky is […] visible through a crack in the […] roof, calm as a mirror, very blue. (Somewhere, someone is screaming at the pain of you crawling through their memories.)"
  12. ↑ Steeped in Honey, Fallen London "Silken slippers on marble. Meringues crowned with fruit and freshly-whipped cream. Moonlight! Your tinkling laughter mingles with the liquid sound of the string quartet as another suitor whirls you across the floor, your jewels spraying fragments of coloured light across his flushed cheeks."
  13. ↑ Steeped in Honey, Fallen London "The soft red flesh of the walls pulse in and out of view. Who are you? Why are you here? There is nothing to do but submit to the memory taking form around you."
  14. ↑ Impress the Fellow with secret knowledge, Fallen London "This stuff. Gaoler's honey. Cross-bred, flower from Hell. Drives bees quite insane. Oh, you know? Odd effect on us. Get into dreams, memories of damned. Crawl around and enjoy them. No fun for the damned! Terrible pain. [...]"
  15. ↑ Steeped in Honey, Fallen London "Of course, you know she'll undergo the most exquisite suffering while you explore her memories,[...] but for me, that's part of the point."
  16. ↑ Steeped in Honey, Fallen London "Red Honey can be disorienting, [...] this strain more than most – a sign of its potency. I do hope you enjoyed it. Now, perhaps you would like some air to help you gather your wits?"
  17. ↑ Hide your cargo, Sunless Sea "There are no laws against red honey in London, but that won't stop the Ministry from seizing it if they find it."'
  18. ↑ Consume the red honey chip, Sunless Sea "The memories are diluted, largely unspecific. But that is not important. What this red honey carries is something far deeper; a connection of souls across centuries. [...] Never lost with the passing of flesh. This was the dream of the First Emperor [...]. His memory was placed here that all could see their true destiny. [...] His tears run uncontrollably down your cheeks." [Editor's Note: The Emperor is a Pentecost Ape]
  19. ↑ A Crown of Thorns, Fallen London "The man's gossamer skin is scarred with ancient beestings. In fragments, he speaks of the stupas that were here before the last Fall. As he talks, a single bee crawls inside his ear as if it was an orchid. He pays it no mind. He is glad the things he has seen will live on. After the bee emerges, legs bulging, he tells you of his time in the monastery, and how it prepared him for this life. [...]"
  20. ↑ "Captain's compliments, my King.", Sunless Sea "Isery enters with a wine-glass of thick honey; behind them Zaira drags in a stumbling prisoner. It is the sailor you stole from the Cumaean Canal, only they do not seem to recognise you at all."
  21. ↑ Take a sip, Sunless Sea "The prisoner gazes at the ceiling blankly, with no sign of his earlier distress."
  22. ↑ Steeped in Honey, Fallen London ""I don't know who I am. Surely that's not right." Her face twitches with uncertainty."
  23. ↑ Talk to the Lady of the Gardens, Sunless Sea "She tells you that she was once a prisoner in this very garden, but that she escaped and drank down her own memories stewed bright and honey-sweet. "And then I was whole again! [...] Or maybe that was someone else. It most probably was. Don't you think? It sounds very far-fetched, now that I say it out loud.""
  24. ↑ Steeped in Honey, Fallen London "Memories for Red Honey are often harvested by force, but here at Mnemosyne we ensure that every donor consents to the process. It is carried out here, on these very premises, at great expense."
  25. ↑ A Crown of Thorns, Fallen London
  26. ↑ Steeped in Honey, Fallen London "The Red Honey touches your lips, your tongue. Your mouth tastes of smoke-tarnished metal. The thick liquid runs down your throat like velvet fire. [...]"
  27. ↑ Share a little honey with the Captivating Princess, Fallen London "You wake in Watchmaker's Hill. The air of your thoughts is clouded deep red. There is a taste like blood in your mouth. The Princess is gone."
  28. ↑ A Frozen Drop of Red Honey, Sunless Sea "Suspended in what feels like a chip of zee-salt. [...]"
  29. ↑ A dusty bowl of glassy red chips, Sunless Sea "A drop of red honey hangs in the middle, bleeding out through cracks in the salt. Red honey contains memories. Why would the chips be here?"
  30. ↑ Ask for help translating the Vault inscriptions, Sunless Sea "The memory of an architect, long dead. They were scribes also. This is not like the honey you may know. It is frozen. Saved. Let it melt into your tongue. Should anybody see you, it will be said you stole it." She glares. "From the Emperor."
  31. ↑ An occluded vial, Sunless Sea "The Melliferous Sister tells you that the honey occludes at the precise moment when the person the memories are harvested from dies. The memories lose their sharpness, a little."
  32. ↑ Conduct your own researches, Fallen London "[...] Cardinal's Honey. It is a corrupted form of the Red Honey. [...]"
  33. ↑ Gather your thoughts, Fallen London "This midnight honey sends its victims into the dreams of the dead. There, [...] those who died after being harvested for honey linger."
  34. ↑ An occluded vial, Sunless Sea "You taste the honey, and then your mouth fills with blood. A fight! You-in-the-memory feels a hand squeezing your neck. [...] Is there a dead woman writhing in some strange hell, as you steal her memories? Death, in the Neath, is so rarely a release."
  35. ↑ Reunion, Fallen London "Your baby smiles up at you as they bring you to him. He has all of his teeth; most are stained in crimson red. "There you are, your baby says with impatience. His expression is old, his voice preternaturally mature. He struggles to articulate some of the more complex sounds, but the meaning is clear. "I have been waiting for far too long. They have quite exhausted the servants." He pouts. "They have such mundane lives. I thought I would expire from boredom.""
  36. ↑ The Captivating Princess, Fallen London "In the days and weeks after the Liberation, the palace roof-tops become your home. You descend to hunt for food, water, red honey, other entertainments. [...] There is a thrilling and dramatic primacy to your existence together. You barely need to speak to each other: words become as redundant as sight. Your smell and hearing are astonishingly keen. The red honey, you think, is working changes."
  37. ↑ Reunion, Fallen London "There are too many of them, but they have not grown used to their changes yet. They stumble and loll. Flesh sloughs like damp clay."
  38. ↑ A Crown of Thorns, Fallen London "The change imposed by the Red Honey was a gift. As it was to me. The rest of our family proved... inadequate to the wonders on offer. They grew indulgent, lazy. He had potential to be more, as I am. He should have grown up here, with me."
  39. ↑ A Crown of Thorns, Fallen London "Never touched honey myself. I've seen what it does. Not just to people like her, but to the takers. Makes everything inside come out, so you can see what they were trying to keep hidden. Doesn't happen to everyone. Think there has to be something in the blood before people start to, you know–" he jerks his head towards the mist-shrouded palace, "–get like that."
  40. ↑ The Gift (Story), Fallen London "The younger Hathhorn stirs from his wine-fog. "Father took me to the Palace, once. Just after the Fall. I dined with the royal children. The footmen served a bowl of honey with every course, red as fire.""
  41. ↑ The Gift (Story), Fallen London "A Sprightly Septuagenarian drones about the revels of his youth to a patient ingénue. "...and the gaoler's honey flowed like a river! Or at least a tributary. There were tureens of it. Vats! We didn't know, then, of course. Terrible thing. Bad strain. Hence all this..." he waves a vague hand at the darkness."
  42. ↑ Sell a shipment of red honey to the Brass Embassy, Sunless Sea "Ahh, delicious. I think I smell a memory of innocence in this one. No. It's despair. They have a similar bouquet, you know."
  43. ↑ The Season of Skies, Fallen London "[...] In exchange for a new law from Hell, she offered certain critical memories. Unfortunately, the process of harvesting them is imprecise. She has lost too much of herself."
  44. ↑ Tending the Rose Garden, Sunless Sea
  45. ↑ Tending the Rose Garden, Sunless Sea "They say these particular exile's roses are of a variety cross-bred with a flower from Hell. That would explain the stench of brimstone, underneath the sweetness."
  46. ↑ Decline the taste, Sunless Sea "I sometimes wish I had never drunk of the rose's honey. It is one thing to know that you are damned, and another to feel it, in the very marrow and blood. [...] For me it was not - altogether - a choice."
  47. ↑ Tending the Rose Garden, Sunless Sea "Winding paths lead to irregular rows of cages, each covered in tangles of thorn and vine. Some of the prisoners inside the cages call out to you, others mutter to themselves, or weep. A few simply stare, hopeless and silent."
  48. ↑ Taste honey from an inordinate amount of bees, Fallen London "You see Old Newgate as it was. [...] the cages and the prisoners, the princes and the princesses watching and partaking, the jailers and the Masters who sweep through the chambers to inspect their prison."
  49. ↑ Tending the Rose Garden, Sunless Sea "Before you is a garden washed with blood. A sea of petalled crimson. They say these particular exile's roses are of a variety cross-bred with a flower from Hell. That would explain the stench of brimstone, underneath the sweetness."
  50. ↑ A Crown of Thorns, Fallen London "The bees swarm around the fresh honeycomb. Safe within a smoking ring of foxfire candles, a Troubled Apiarist inspects their work."
  51. ↑ Ambition: Nemesis – the Cage-Garden, Fallen London "A dank but serene place with a mossy fountain at its heart. Dark hives of bees humming on the far side. Dozens of cages stacked in rows and ranks: each has its prisoner, woman or man, their dull, hollow faces turned to you. Bees buzz to and from the cages –"
  52. ↑ Allow yourself to be shown the cages, Fallen London "The appetites of our patrons at the Palace grow day by day, [...] And our precious, ah, our precious blossoms here must be carefully picked. So as not to arouse attention, you see? If Carrywell can provide – ha! – lilies from the tomb-lands... we can pay well, you know. Marvellously well."
  53. ↑ Allow yourself to be shown the cages, Fallen London "This one was a zailor. His memories, I'm told, are extraordinary in their variety... ah, the grandmother from the Hill. If you're looking for cosy domestic dreams, her honey is the sweetest..."
  54. ↑ Allow yourself to be shown the cages, Fallen London "The Simpering Cage-keeper leads you past rows of cages filled with wretched prisoners: well-fed but shrunk with despair. Black bees drone busily around them, crawling into eyes and noses, out of ears and mouths, harvesting them like flowers."
  55. ↑ A Crown of Thorns, Fallen London "The palace's honey is meticulously catalogued. The ledger is a labyrinth of cross-references, so that you can search for memories by almost any quality, including era, salacity, and the involvement of notable persons."
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