Domita Drusa

Domita Drusa served as grey hand under Emperor Albanus for all two and a half years of his rule. Though it is unclear whether she knew Albanus killed Emperor Justinius or helped him with the assassination, she was taken to the Grey Keep at the beginning of Emperor Crispus's rule and interrogated until her death four years later.

## Early Life

Though a native Seprum, she had a Dhi caretaker as a child who explained to her the principles of Paraism. It is unlikely she considered herself a Parai given her predilection for torture, but she was enamored by the idea of a suffering sink, or someone who could experience all manner of pain without letting it affect them negatively—she often discussed how a human might become one with her siblings and teacher. She taught herself hedge magic at a young age, sneaking books from the Patha library and reading them crouched under her window, using the light of the moon to make out the letters.

At at thirteen, she applied for a position in Jeon Dae University in Guk. Though no evidence suggests she was a good cook, she was granted admission, perhaps as a diplomatic favor to her family, though her parents did not learn she intended to move to Ju for three years until she had already packed her things and organized to travel with a Makkadi caravan. The youngest of six children, her father and wither did not have the time or energy to stop her, though they refused to support her while there.

## Time in the Triple Kingdom

Domita did not attend Jeon Dae University, not even the orientation. Instead, once in Ju, she applied for an apprenticeship with a spiromancer, who claims they accepted her because she threatened to use her family's connection to the Kuan saj to have them killed if they did not agree to help. She studied under them for half a year, forging letters from Jeon Dae back to her parents so they did not suspect her.

When Domita heard of a group of traders who planned to go through the Kazei Pass to Dhi, she left her master behind and traveled with them. In the Chomo Valley, she earned money mostly by throwing her family name around and bullying people into granting her favors. She may also have stolen money—it was unclear from the transcripts of her interrogation. Within a year, she'd made her way up the Aleya and found herself a new master, a Dhi healer. For two years, she studied the healing arts, informing her parents that she had been selected by the Ju queen for a cooking apprenticeship in the palace. During this time, Domita developed a habit of cutting and burning herself, which would last the rest of her life. Her healing magic was skilled enough that few ever noticed the wounds.

This is likely why her mentor cast her out, calling her "unstable," according to Domita's testimony. Domita sought out a new teacher for a few months before deciding she'd learned as much as she could in the triple kingdom and returning home. It became a standard joke amongst her siblings to "ask Domita to cook something" for parties and events, though she posits her parents never noticed she seemed to learn nothing about cooking after three years at the premier cooking school in Ju and an apprenticeship at the palace.

## Grey Woman

Agrippina Iccacia, grey hand for Emperor Junius, ran into Domita by chance at a market in Meditas. As the spouse of a butcher cut Agrippina a slice of meat, the grey hand noted the cut on their hand. The butcher's partner claimed it an old scar from a childhood accident. Behind Agrippina in line, Domita said that the edges of the wound were too well defined and the color too white for the cut to be more than half a decan old, at which point, according to Domita's story, the butcher's spouse broke down and admitted that their husband beat or cut them sometimes if they misbehaved.

Such cases are notoriously difficult to prove in court unless the husband admits he harmed his partner without cause, which few do, but Agrippina enjoyed a challenge and she liked what little she'd seen of Domita. The two schemed together to get the husband to admit his crime to a magistrate by convincing him Enby, divinity of mischief, was taking away his sight and driving him mad with the guilt of it. Their tactics included stealing important objects from the man and replacing them hours or days later in plain view, making him lose faith in his eyes; interrupting his sleep night after night until he began to hallucinate; and, at their end of their reign of terror, convincing him he killed a prostitute, played by Domita, and that her ghost was haunting him. He admitted his crime a decan later and the partner inherited the butchery, which, by all accounts, both Agrippina and Domita frequented for the rest of their lives.

After what Domita referred to as her "audition," Agrippina hired her to be a grey woman, a worker in the Grey Keep and possibly spy as well, though Domita denied as much to her last breath. Domita took to interrogation with great zeal, impressing the aging Agrippina enough that she almost named Domita her chosen heir when she was only twenty-five.

Domita's favorite tactic to get Henesians to speak was to disguise herself as a fellow victim—her wither was Henesian and Domita, by all accounts, could pass with only a little accent work. Domita ordered her underlings to torture her instead of the suspected rebel, or to force the rebel to interrogate her, which, according to Agrippina, broke rebels faster even than waterboarding. Domita referred to this unique style of interrogation as "moral torture." She often spoke negatively of the dedication most grey hands had to "stereotypical, physical torture." In a letter to Iccion, her favorite sibling, she wrote:

> It takes only a day in the Grey Keep to understand that all torture is emotional. Humans can withstand infinite pain if they do not allow their emotions to become wrapped up in treatment: shame, hopelessness, and the greatest weapon of the interrogator, fear. I have seen grown men break to treatments I do to myself as practice because they could not handle the fear, even if the pain was negligible. I am of the opinion that a more efficient Keep would focus on moral and spiritual torture more than simple pain and simulated drownings. They are rebels, are they not, and what do rebels fight for if not the abused innocent? There is no faster way to shatter the heart of a rebel than to force him to commit atrocities upon a so-called innocent and let him spend his free time trying to reconcile his actions with his beliefs.
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In her time working under Agrippina, Domita also popularized the mock execution and what she called "choice torture": asking victims to choose which fellow prisoner to be killed or hurt and often forcing them to carry out the choice themself.

## Self Injury

Agrippina grew wary of Domita as she grew older, writing to her partner:

> I do not believe fully healthy people excel in this art, nor do I believe any healthy person could survive long in the Grey Keep. I am used to the sadism. How could I not be, even if I do not consider the pain of other particularly gratifying, certainly not compared to their confessions, but I have never seen a woman like Domita. I do not know whether she enjoys hurting them or herself more. I walk in on her carving rivulets into the soles of her feet and healing herself days later, after the wounds become infected from walking on them. I see the way she looks at brands and hot iron: with longing.
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> Calpurnia tells me she must have a great deal of internal pain and she externalizes it as a coping mechanism. Calpurnia has never had a way with people but I expected better from her. I have spoken to Domita's siblings, her childhood friends, and her two parents. By all accounts, she was a happy child. She is not coping with anything; she is vaccinating herself. You should hear how she talks about fear, as if feeling it is the death knell, a disease for which there is no cure. She knows she may one day be cut or beaten and she harms herself today to prepare herself for that eventuality. This makes me fear for what she intends to do, and whether there is any way to control someone who cares not about inflicting pain upon herself or others.
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> Justinius hates me and sees I grow old. I beg you, my love, do not let him appoint Domita as grey hand if I should die before Junius does.
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Iccion also distanced themself from Domita in this time period, concerned for her health and betrayed when she promised them she'd stopped hurting herself, only for Iccion to hear from Calpurnia that she had done no such thing. They considered asking the mater of Drusa to exile her but did not put it past her to have them assassinated for attempting such a thing. They did not have the sway with Emperor Justinius to convince him not to replace the aging Agrippina with Domita when Emperor Junius died, but Calpurnia and Junius Dexia did; Emperor Justinius appointed Calpurnia to the position, a move that enraged Domita, who viewed the role of grey hand as her birthright. She returned to the triple kingdom and killed her Ju and Dhi masters. She claimed this was merely an act of anger, though her interrogators suspect both knew something about her she did not want getting out. Whatever it was, Domita died without revealing it.

## Grey Hand

When Emperor Albanus killed Justinius and took the throne, he appointed Domita his grey hand. She tortured a large number of citizens in her early months, destroying reports of their interrogations and crimes; most scholars believe she was covering up for Albanus' murder, though she never admitted as much.

Her employees feared for her sanity as Albanus' reign continued. After a servant girl reported the assassination of Justinius to the senate, Domita allegedly used a hammer to break every bone in her leg, then drew a rune on herself and waited almost six hours for it to grow strong enough to heal the damage. At her insistence, Albanus sentenced the girl to death at the Grey Keep, though when she arrived, Domita had lost interest in her and let her die relatively easily.

When a grey woman found her vivisecting her own hand to "see how the bones connected," they reported her to Emperor Albanus, begging him to replace her and fleeing to Makkada when he refused. In the final days of Albanus' reign, Domita amused herself drawing detailed anatomical sketches of various bones systems and organs, based on her own experience, sometimes tattooing them onto the flesh of prisoners. When Emperor Crispus killed Emperor Albanus and took his hands captive at a feast, she did not struggle or make an argument for her innocence.

## Interrogation

While Albanus' black and silver hands lasted only three and six months in the Grey Keep before confessing, likely falsely, and accepting their executions, Domita remained in the Keep for almost four years before she committed suicide. She often critiqued those responsible for her interrogations, suggesting improved techniques, better rope placements, or new forms of torture altogether. One interrogator described:

> After I bound her to the slab, she said, "Waterboarding again? Not very original." and sighed as if bored or disappointed. She did not struggle, though I've seen men break their arms during simulated drownings. At the end, when I removed the cloth, she said, "Angle wasn't steep enough and the water should be colder."
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Another interrogator said she told them "either heat the brands longer or stop wasting my time." Though she was branded as a ciphra to keep her from accessing the spiral, she remained able to use hedge magic, writing runes on her skin using her own blood and healing certain injuries to give her interrogators "a second chance."

Though she never admitted to playing a role in the assassination of Emperor Justinius, she did share her life's story, the notes of which were eventually compiled into a book that most high-ranking grey women read as an educational text. She was found dead in her cell a little before her fourth anniversary in the Keep, having broken her ankles and one wrist to get out of her chains. She had used her own blood to write a final message on the wall: "Improper procedure to allow prisoners to commit suicide. It gives them control over their lives."