[quote=@Fractured]
<Snipped quote by Vacare>

If it is a prison, there must be some faster route in and out of the dungeon. They wouldn’t have transported prisoners across the path we took.
[/quote]

*I continue to recover my mana*

Hmm... This place gets curiouser and curiouser. If not a prison, and definitely not a fortress, this place must've had a different purpose. With the two of us, meaning of course myself and Aerith, showing up at roughly the same time. Your theory of this place being some sort of Magical location is starting to make sense.