CHAPTER 6
As she opens the door on its creaking hinges, she looks over her shoulder and announces: "Prayer is in a short bit, I will return after." She turns and begins to step through the threshold but stops as she hears a reply: "Allow me to dress, I shall join ye."
Quickly snapping her shoulders around so that she may face him, she inquires, "Pardon? You must rest, and I'm afraid that I still must inform Mother superior of your presence." but she is cut off as he raises his hand, palm toward her, silencing her with the motion. "Enough. I am well enough to rise; I am well enough to pray. I imagine mother should welcome new worship in her chapel."
Sister Mariette stands still, her hand still holding the door open as she winces at his insistence. Unsure if it is wise to bring a human man into the chapel, regardless of their shared faith. Plastering a polite smile that does little to hide her discomfort as her brows furrow up into her forehead, she replies to the man while he shakily stands up to begin getting dressed, "Oh...Yes, of course. I shall wait at the door for you, then..." She couldn't help but look at his form for a moment, his bare skin was unsettling to her, as if he had mange or the like. He looked unhealthy, with broad shoulders and a wide chest yet his ribs were still slightly visible whenever his arms would stretch up or his hands were held away from himself. Yet, she found herself staring more than she should, her curiosity apparent, implicitly announcing that this was the first human she hath encountered in her life. She shakes her head and claims her thoughts back, then steps outside and closes the door behind herself. Hearing him from the other side shuffle clothing and occasionally grunt, likely from the pain of his wound.
With Mariette now out of the room, the man sighs in relief. Hoping he was able to hide his embarrassment from her while she looked upon his bare flesh. He felt naked, not just because he was, in fact, only wearing undergarments, but also, for he was not attired in his armor. The chainmail, leather, steel: it felt more like his skin than his actual skin. As of now: he felt vulnerable as a babe in the woods. But... How indecent would it be to wear the garbs of war into a church? Might it be insulting to Mother Superior? The other sisters of the convent? God?? Ultimately, he decides upon suffering the sense of vulnerability and finds the tunic he wears underneath his mail, using that and his trousers as his only clothing. Albeit, he retained his helm upon his skull: that were non-negotiable, then retrieves his rosary from his satchel in the corner and ties it with a rope around his waist.
He opens the door and steps out into the hallway, where Mariette stood, staring at the floor and nervously wringing her hands; then abruptly ceases her ministration as he exits the room. The halls were similarly adorned like the infirmary in which he was residing: gray stone walls and floor, without any decoration or furniture, giving it an almost barren appearance. "Thank you for waiting," he says as he clings his hand to the stone arch of the threshold for balance. Mariette nods at him, " Of course...Follow me to the chapel." She begins to lead him down the hall, to a corner of the building of which immediately turned towards wooden stairs that led down. He glances at Mariette, impressed that she somehow drug him up a flight of stairs and down the hall into the makeshift infirmary.
They descend the stairs and enter the chapel, a familiar looking green carpet lies on the floor, stretching up through the aisle all the way to the podium that stands upon a small stage and in front of the altar. Two candelabras stand on either side of the podium. A large cross made of oak beams hung upon the wall behind it. The stage at the back has a door on the left as you face it, sunk into a round tower that spans the height of the corner. And on the right, another doorway within the wall through which one could see racks of pots and pans hanging from a shelf holding other kitchenware. The pews, of which there were only a few, maybe ten, line either side of the carpet.
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As they approach the first set of pews, Mariette motions her hand across the air, palm up, to present the chapel to the knight. "Here is the nave. Please sit wherever you like, prayer begins soon." She instructs. He nods and replies, "My thanks. I shall sit back here, near the narthex." and steps near the first pew in the back of the chapel. Mariette nods gently and sinks her chin down, not quite bowing her head, but not looking with confidence either, as she spoke, "As you wish. I shall be up near the altar with the other sisters. Please, be aware: your presence is not yet known to the convent. Mother will inquire of you, surely..."
As the knight shakily holds the back of the pew for support while he sits down, he nods and remarks, "I would be surprised if she didn't... After all, I know humans are disallowed in these lands..." He removes his silver cross from the rope tied around his waist, adorned with wrought-iron chains forged into thorny links that make up the rosary. He touches the cross onto the forehead of his helmet and begins praying quietly, though, not enough that Mariette could not hear him, "Father, Lord of Heaven and sculptor of the Earth. Bestow upon me, your wretched servant, your grace. That you might give me your divine wrath to rend this world unto its bones. Inflame my soul with the malice of a broken covenant and-"
Mariette looks at him with a morbid curiosity. One of her brows curves up as she stares at him a moment, silently thinking, 'His manner of prayer is... odd. It seems... cruel.' As she steps away and nears the front-most pews, she sees her other sisters arriving, some from the kitchen, others through the main chapel door, but all of them begin whispering amongst themselves about the guest in their hall. Mariette overhears a couple gossiping sisters asking each other how a human got into the kingdom at all, let alone in their chapel.
Mariette ignores it, however, and sits in the front pew, alone. Instead thinking about the man's cryptic praying, 'What denomination could his be? He has a rosary, so he is Christian... to some extent.' Mariette's thoughts are interrupted as the door on the left side of the stage opens on its whining hinges that echo through the chapel, and out steps Mother, her eyes closed as she walks across the stage in the same path and pace as she's done countless times before. Her voice carrying a weight of pious authority, but in a playful chastising tone, "Sisters, sisters... What is this whispering?" she announces, a slight smirk playing upon her chops. Mother has a deep and rich brown fur, almost red in hue. Another jackal, with long ears and thin snout. Though, on her right side, her snout has a large gash of missing flesh, with the bone of her skull exposed unto the air, the teeth that lined this section of her jaw were cracked and dried out. Her right ear, as well, suffered in its own right, with a large segment of the cartilage simply gone, leaving a deep valley right down the middle of her ear. She continues her halfhearted disappointment, "You know that gossip is improp-" Her sentence is cut short as she halts mid-step, no doubt realizing there was a new entity within her church.
Her smile quickly drops and is replaced with a wrathful sneer as her head snaps to the side, looking upon the intruder: the man at the back. With her light demeanor completely thrown away, she barks her rhetorical question, knowing full well that this was a human, and worse yet, a man: "WHAT...IS...THAT?"
