Disclaimer: I do not own TRC. CLAMP does a better job owning TRC than I ever would.

Warnings: Implied, hi-i'm-whacking-you-with-a-neon-pink-stick pairings. Sort of SakuSyao-centric, with (way more explicit) KuroFai on the side. Because who doesn't love KuroFai? Mentioned Douwata, Shougo with Primera, and Sorata gushing over Arashi. I guess you could call this an AU. This is CLAMP, so yaoi/ shounen-ai. Might have what some consider to be suggestive themes in certain chapters. Minor cussing.

It was cold.

The constant dripping of water resounded eerily around the cell. She couldn't really tell through the thick shroud of darkness, but from the one time she had slipped on the slimy floor and reached out to steady herself, it seemed the rocky walls were covered in damp muck. There were no windows save for a small window on the door of her cell, casting a small rectangle of flickering light on the algae-covered stone at its feet. The air was damp and stale, and she supposed that she ought not to have been cold at all. If anything, the room was rather stuffy and a layer of cooling perspiration clung uncomfortably to her skin, sticky and cold.

The cold must be coming from within, she mused silently. She was miserable, and she was lonely. Her only source of comfort was that small rectangle of light, in which she now sat, huddled up with her knees to her chin.

And she still didn't know what she had done to be thrown this horrid cell.

The rhythmic drip of stank water and the hissing flicker of the torch outside was broken by loud footsteps echoing noisily down the corridor. She raised her head in curiosity at the sound of clinking chain-mail as her guard stood.

"Kanio," one of the men greeted quietly, "You're late for your shift."

So her guards were changing shifts.

"You have a problem with that?" came an unpleasantly snide voice, "I'm a busy man, Shougo."

"Sure you are," her guard—Shougo, was it?—agreed easily, though she could make out a mocking undertone, "Now if you'll excuse me, I'd best be making my way home. Primera will be worried."

There was again the chink of moving chain-mail before footsteps once again echoed through the dim hallway outside her cell, this time getting progressively softer. She wondered briefly if she ought to greet her new guard with a quiet 'good evening' (it was only polite after all), but was pulled from her pondering by the rattle of iron keys as the imposing steel door was unlocked noisily from the outside. A pause, then the door swung noisily open on rusty hinges and the new guard stepped into the dank cell.

She stared up at him with large eyes. Her guards had never once come in nor spoken with her since she had been thrown into the dungeons, save to slide a measly tray of cold gruel through the door. But the last time she had been given food was perhaps only an hour ago (it was hard to tell in the dark prison) and it was definitely not time for another meal yet. She could barely make out his leering face in the gloomy light, torch throwing his flickering shadow over her menacingly. He was large, fat even, with a round chubby face. He was bald save for a small tuft of hair sitting right at the top of his head, and a pair of small dark lenses obscured his eyes from view.

"So you're the peasant-witch," the guard sneered at her, "What's your name?"

She licked her dry lips. But when she spoke, her voice was soft and sweet, shy and strangely unfrightened by her intimidating guard.

"Sakura."

Chain-mail clinking, the guard straightened up.

"Ah, I see," he said smoothly. And here, a nasty grin spread itself across his round face, "Well, Princess, my name's Kanio. And I'll be your tormentor for the rest of your stay."

A/N: So err... Here's the prologue, the first chapter should hopefully be up within an hour. This is going to be a chaptered fic, but I've already finished writing the draft. There will be 7 chapters. It's my first time publishing (I've written but never published any of my writing), so I'm sort of at a loss with the rating. I'm actually surprised my first published fic ever is so SakuSyao centric because I'm a mad KuroFai fangirl. I flail at the mere thought of KuroFai, that's how bad I am.

I would bribe you by saying reviews make me write faster, but I've already told you people that I've finished writing it.

Ahem.

Review please!