Sanctuary

The City Guard searched high and low for any sign of Rychard for weeks after his escape, but found nothing. However, it wasn't long before something else caught their attention. The strange graffiti that had first appeared two months ago was now appearing more and more every day. However, today was different, today the graffiti carried a simple message with it.

"Open the gate.

Let the Darkness in"

This graffiti itself had been pained in the main city square, and it had attracted a rather large crowd. Wes and Anya were stood in the cordoned off area near the main gate, discussing ideas of who was behind the message.

"We can't rule out the possibility of it being Rychard, despite us finding no sign of him, he could still be in the city" Wes suggested.

"Right, but 'Let the Darkness in'? That doesn't sound like Rychard" Anya sighed. Ariel and Ashe approached the pair.

"Got any leads?" Ashe asked.

"Not as of yet, Roisin contacted us to know the labs will assist in any way they can" Anya smiled.

"I'm still not used to us all being separate" Wes joked.

"It's not too bad, there's games night" Ariel smiled

"True" Anya nodded. "It's good we still meet up at least once a week" Anya agreed.

"Hmm, while we do have a number of prime suspects for this" Ashe began. "What if it's not a person?" She asked.

"Not a person? So what, a Demonhawk flew in and wrote it?" Wes teased.

"Ha-ha" Ashe rolled her eyes and smiled. "No, we're thinking there is just one culprit behind something like this, what if it's a group?" She added.

"Hmm, that would explain how the graffiti just keeps popping up" Ariel nodded.

"Right, but who would want to write something like this?" Anya asked. "I mean, I know we all probably wanna blame the Araneians, but it doesn't seem like something that they would do" She added.

"The people of Disceath don't seem the type either, very scientifically minded type of people" Wes nodded.

"The people of Demi lived their lives under a cloud of smog, I doubt that they wanna go back to a world like that" Ariel theorised.

"Then who is behind it?" Ashe pondered.

"Maybe..." Ariel began, but sighed.

"Maybe what?" Ashe asked.

"This might sound a bit out there but... what if it's some sort of Doomsday Cult?" Ariel suggested.

"Hmm, it would explain that damned symbol they keep painting" Ashe said as she looked up at the giant symbol that had been painted on the side of the City Hall.

"I dunno, why would people want to doom everyone?" Anya asked. "It seems so self-destructive" She added.

"Yeah, but if there is one thing people are good at, it's being self-destructive" Wes sighed.

"Okay, if we are going to go with this theory, right now, they don't pose too much danger" Ariel began. "However, in time, if they are not rooted out, they could endanger the whole city, so we need to do whatever we can, now, to contain the spread of this cult. There's no point waiting til it gets bad to actually take action" Ariel explained

"Yeah, that's obvious" Ashe nodded and smiled.

"Right, so our first task will be confirming the existence of this cult" Ariel stated.

"How can we confirm it?" Anya asked.

"Hmm, there must be some way that they are spreading word about the cult, to increase their numbers" Ashe suggested.

"Right, possibly on the city's intranet" Wes nodded.

"We need to get some officers to go over all the sites possible then" Anya smiled.

"No" Ariel stated.

"Why not?" Anya asked.

"From this point on, this investigation is private, we cannot risk alerting the cult that we are onto them" Ariel explained.

"Are you suggesting there could be cultists in the city guard?" Ashe asked.

"I'm 99% sure of it, it seems the most beneficial position for a cult member to hold" Ariel replied.

"Hmm, they also could be being blackmailed" Anya nodded.

"Okay, so it'll just be the four of us investigating?" Ashe asked.

"That's correct" Ariel replied. "As much as I would like to bring Roisin and Dex in on this, we cannot implicate them in this investigation" She added.

"Right, good point" Ashe agreed.

"Okay, we'll come up with a cover story, and can use one of our apartments as a base of operations" Ariel nodded. The others agreed, as Ashe looked up and frowned at the strange symbol.