>>3815287
A thought along that line would be, what if the fears of the Warden aren't founded but come from the byproduct of the light world object from which he originates?
>someone in town made a safety mascot to warn kids about the dangers of exploring abandoned mines
>a faded flier became The Warden
>something about the Dark Jail is, very minutely, increasing instability in the mine and he can tell
>the lightner he sees as The Outlaw is running around and making the instability worse, the "life" within each of the Dark World affects the others and it's creating more subtle tremors in the Dark Jail
>the fountains need to be sealed else (what the Warden sees as) the world will end; the mine will collapse and kill anyone in it, light or dark
That's why he doesn't want to form a community around the Dark Jail, doesn't want the Lightners hanging around, doesn't want innocent Darkners brought to the jail, and wants the other fountains sealed as quickly as possible. He is focused entirely on safety and wants to do what he can to prevent the collapse of the mine the Dark Jail resides within.

A small DRY1 thing I haven't remembered to mention before: I think it might be more interesting if The Warden had a helper(s) that found Cole and Kanako after their initial encounter with Bearington, and if The Warden physically cannot leave the Dark Jail. It would be a direct contrast from Ralsei inexplicably traveling from world to world, and could be spun as the Jail being too dangerous to be left unattended for even a moment. The big foreboding keyhole to a deeper, darker part of the jail would feel more menacing if the Warden was unwilling to let anyone get close to it unattended.
The helper(s) could just be silent little scrimblos without much personality, the important part is the Warden being just as jailed as everything else housed within the prison.