Rogues

Episode 19 | Infiltration

By midday, the whole group were awake and ready to make their way over to the warehouse. Bismuth and Sunshine had discussed hypnotising the witches to hide what they were and Poppy had promised to check the truth of everything they were told, in the hopes of working out what they were trying to keep secret that might lead them to Prince.

Em was bouncing in place with anticipation. She'd grown more and more anxious each time she'd woken up during the night and smelt Prince's blood again. By now, she was just about ready to burst through the warehouse doors and take Santos on herself.

Bismuth turned to the others, "Last chance to turn back."

They all stood resolute, signalling to him in their own ways that they weren't going anywhere before he smiled and lead them all forward.

The moment they stepped into the view of the two witches stood by the door, Sunshine kicked up her Air magics, forcing her influence into their minds to hold off their panik long enough to get close enough for hypnosis. The witches had definitely noticed what they were, but she and Bismuth were doing quite well in using their power of suggestion to keep them from alerting anyone else.

Once they were close enough, the group stopped in place to give Bismuth his chance to tamper with their minds.

He looked them both in the eyes, his own glowing a gentle purple. "Such a normal day, isn't it? You haven't seen anything out of the ordinary. Just a few people who want to join your congregation."

Sunshine noticed the reflective glow of purple in the witches eyes as well and grinned to herself at how quickly Bismuth was working his way into their minds.

One of the witches smiled at him. "New members? Nothing wrong with that. Welcome!"

She and the other guard pushed the doors open, introducing them to the other people inside swiftly before closing the doors behind them and returning to their posts.

Bismuth was practically cackling with glee at how easily he'd fooled them and Poppy had to nudge him in the side just to calm him down as two more humans approached them.

One seemed to be a young woman in her early twenties and the other was an older man in his late forties. They were both dressed casually with the woman in a soft woolen jumper that slid slightly off her shoulders and black leggings and the man in a dark grey shirt and jeans. "Welcome, all of you!" The man began in a jovial tone. "It's so good to know that others are as devoted to serving the Dark Lord in the way that he intended as we are."

Sunshine was desperately trying to hold back a growl at that. Santos' cult were known for claiming that the Clergy did not serve Satan 'correctly' and it was one of the main reason the congregation had even come to their attention. Opposition from fellow religions or churches wasn't as common as most would expect it to be for a Satanic church so, when it did occur, it was much more noticeable.

Bismuth bowed his head politely. "Thank you for allowing us in. I understand that your congregation has lost some followers recently. I hope we can be the start to regaining some of those lost soals."

As always, Bismuth was playing directly into their hands, telling them what they wanted to hear and letting them think they were in the position of power. Sunshine could see how his influence was adapting their auras aswell. That wasn't something a regular Air ghoul's influence could do and she was more than impressed with how the patterns swirled and twisted as he shaped them how he pleased.

The woman giggled at his perfect reply and the her male accomplice just smiled warmly, "You'll probably be wanting an introduction, I presume?"

Bismuth nodded. "And we'll follow on."