For I Am Calm

Chapter 2: Umbra

The dispatch vehicle makes an abrupt stop. Surely we can't be there yet... we all look at each other with confusion. Phylos makes his way to the front and opens the doors slowly. The doors swing fully open suddenly. Our driver looks displeased. "Why have we stopped?" Xavier demands an answer. The driver says to get out and look so we do just that. We make our way to the front and see what used to be a bridge is now just debris. "You'll have to go the rest of the way on foot it seems." The driver apologizes.  "No problem... it's just a few miles down the road." Phylos says with some confidence yet there's a hesitation. It's probably better this way... once we have everything we need we say our goodbyes to the driver as we part ways. Him turning around, us making our way to the other side. 

Once on the other side we consulted the map and made our way to the small town the cathedral should be. The walk was full of silence from the absence of any wildlife that once existed only to be broken by an occasional cough, sneeze, yawn, or just chatter coming from us. It took a good two maybe three hours till we saw the outskirts of the town. We stop to observe from a distance away. There are people living there... we spot some civilians, not in robes, going about their lives. Annalise takes out binoculars to get a closer look. "Everyone seems on edge..." She notes as she continues to look. "No wonder, I can see some cultists nearby... like they're on guard" She adds before putting the binoculars away. She turns to us and lets out an exasperated sigh. How do we even get close without being seen... we spend some time trying to brainstorm ways to get in the town. "There's probably demons at every entrance." Xavier sigh. "Perhaps there's a blind spot." Phylos' eyes start to shine with this determination as he comes up with a plan. Phylos and Annalise scout the perimeter while Xavier and I remain here to see if there's a pattern in the guards path.  

A half hour passes and the two return with good news. "I talked to a local and said there's a way in via the river." Annalise reports. You talked with a local and returned unscathed, locals must be trapped in the town by the cult... we share what we discovered on our end. "If there's a way to get on the cathedral rooftop we could get in." Xavier thinks for a moment. No need to rush things, it's wise to take our time with this... we take a good amount of time figuring out what our path would be. If we get discovered who knows what'll happen to not only us but to the town. I don't plan on putting innocent civilians at risk because we're here. "We walk the river bank, it leads to a culvert we can use to be out of sight." Annalise suggest. I don't see anyone else coming up with anything thus far... the other two look at each other and back at her. "Alright. Then we could probably scale the rooftops to the cathedral." Phylos adds. 

We wait until dark to put our plan in motion. We walk the river bank and like Annalise said there's a culvert that runs underneath the town. Once in the town we crouch close to the ground to avoid immediate detection. Afterwards we found a way on the rooftops. One by one we climb but when it's my turn I have some small trouble pulling myself up. I'm not like the others, they're military, they're built for this. Compare me to them, I'm the "weak link" as some could probably put it. They pull me up and we look to see how to go across. I think we got lucky because at some point we had to go back to the ground due to the lack of foundation and all the guards were not at their post. This can't be good, what's going on... the others caught on when Annalise pointed it out. At this point we decide it's most likely safe to go through a side door. "Just stay in the shadows just in case." Phylos adds before we make our way. 

At the side door I take a deep breath before trying the door. It was unlocked. "I don't like this.." I whisper. Nobody leaves a door unlocked if the hours of operation say it's closed... unless there's something more going on inside, god please grant me thy strength. We entered one at a time and then closed the door behind us. "Ok, what now?" Xavier asks. Phylos shushes him and tells us to listen. Chanting. Chanting mixed with cultists is usually never a good sign. Though we can't stand here forever so we have no choice but to push forward. We find a door and attempt to open it. I say attempt because the moment we open it makes this big squeaking noise. I mentally facepalmed but nothing goes perfectly. Something was bound to go wrong. "Fuck it." Xavier says and pushes Phylos aside and kicks the door open. The chanting stops as we exit the room. As expected, demons and more cultists. They immediately turn their heads to look at us.