The Abbey

[Kidney]

Tod stopped writing. He was maybe mid-way in a sentence when he looked back at her. 

It was strange, for Tod to witness something that he had swore to never look upon. But curiosity among angle of sight cursed him to stare at her for a few moments. His eyes locked with her chest for a few seconds before Tod grabbed his paper and tucked his coat over himself. 

In a few moments, and placing the paper on the desk for a few seconds, he slowly closed up his coat around himself. "I'll be back in a moment."

He buttoned his jacket up, covering his torso, but his nearly black legs, densely tattooed, were exposed as he exited his room in a burst of movement. 

[Outisakanobody]

"Thank you." Ignis says as she goes about changing. She does her best to be quick, wanting to avoid any unfortunate situations.

[Kidney]

Tod stood, receiving a look from a monk down the hallway of less than favorable nature. He looked down, waiting for a minute or two, and then he walked back into the room. 

His eyes trailed back to his feet, and he returned to his desk, picking up the quill and writing another sentence. He returned to this area out of fear, fear of looking at her again. Although being dressed again helped with whatever feelings he may have felt, staring at a woman in her undergarments. He sighed, writing yet another sentence.

[Outisakanobody]

Ignis had changed her underpants and put on her regular pants and overcoat again. She was still barefoot though. She decided to have a seat on Tod's bed and look through her small wooden box to make sure the contents were still secure.

[Kidney]

Tod continues to write, his tattooed feet tapping rhythmically on the floor as his quill flew across the page, getting sentences down in a burst before Tod slowed down again. His eyes scanned the page as he proofread again, finding no spelling or grammatical errors at the current moment. 

He sighed again, rubbing his forehead again, a little tired from a restless sleep and the stress of temptation. He hit his fist against his knee lightly, creating two tracks of simultaneous tapping with his foot and his hand before stopping himself. He sighed once again, starting back up writing again.

This might take a few tries. 

[Outisakanobody]

Ignis quickly strapped the box closed and safely stored it away in a corner. When she was done with that, she started putting on her socks.

"What did you mean by...keeping away demons? Or whatever your exact words were." she asks as she goes about her mundane task.

[Kidney]

Tod slowly dropped the quill back into the well, but realized that he was now out of ink. He cracked his neck, audible pops coming from it as Tod let out a breath of relief. He turned back, picking the chair he sat in up, shifting to face her. His eyes seemed to be trained on hers, as he should have been doing for a while now, as he failed to do so when he left the room. He seemed, neutral. 

"I am what is known as a Exorcist. I was trained at the Holy Manor of St. Kessiah. I am also what is known as a user of the Power Words. I was trained at a very young age, up until I was around 15."

He spoke the words as if he were delivering a speech, it was practiced statement, perhaps ingrained in his mind. But really, Tod didn't know where they came from, he just seemed to know. Tod then gestured towards his thigh, lower on it, in a place where horizontal writing sat, a scripture? A sentence? Ignis would not be able to decipher it. Despite her knowledge of Latin, this dialect, seemed to be a conlang. "This is a Power Word. Although, this one is a slight phrase, although in the delivery you are supposed to smooth out the end of the first word and graft it into the beginning of the second."

He explained this with a level of scrutiny, as if it held a very high value in the delivery of this so called "Power Word".

[Outisakanobody]

"I'm confused. What purpose do these markings serve? Wouldn't written words suffice?" Ignis asked. With her face in the open air, Tod could see her chewing her lower lip, displaying her confusion.

[Kidney]

Tod understood her confusion, honestly, he was confused as to how he ever got started in this in the first place. His eyes darted over his heavily blackened feet, before he came to an answer. "They don't really have to be tattoos. The original words were written upon great scrolls. I simply had tattoos already, and I thought to maybe continue the pattern. Stupid, I know, but, I have come to love all of my markings."

[Outisakanobody]

"Hmm. What was your first tattoo?" Ignis asks, curious now about the markings and trying to get a closer look at them.

[Kidney]

Tod thought, oblivious to whatever Ignis might have done, and he rubbed his cheek in thought. He popped his head up, and then let it fall. He bared his teeth in the cringe-kinda-way, before waving his hand dismissively.

"It was a punishment. The first lives..."

He shook his head, he was gonna say it. "It sits just above my dangly bits."

[Outisakanobody]

"...I'm sorry, I don't understand. What did you do?" Ignis asked, feeling like her question had not been answered.

[Kidney]

Her question definitely rattled him, and he settled back into his chair. His eyes trailed down towards his waist, and he stared at his own body. His hands were slowly raising, and his eyes trailed across his fingers.

Perhaps it was her pushy questionings, or his own weakness, he revealed what he had done. "I was, involved with another student at the Holy Manor."\

His breath stopped in his throat, his hands clenching as he swallowed this breath and forced himself to take one before speaking again. "We had sex in my room. I was punished, she was imprisoned."

[Outisakanobody]

"That seems quite harsh. I'm sorry to hear that." Ignis says, looking rather sadly at Tod. To her it seemed like a foolish thing to be punished for.

[Kidney]

Tod seemed relieved, if only for a moment. Perhaps the explanation of his failures could be therapeutic. Sadly, the feelings of this particular one were less intense as usual. The memory of everything before his first tattoo seemed to come forward, as if onto a podium, instead of thrashing forward as if on a war chariot out of his mouth.

He drew in another breath. "Harsh is the understatement of this conversation. I have not spoken to that woman in a long while, but I fear she may not have lasted long in a religious cell as a deflowered nun."

There was sympathy, but held very low. Perhaps a conflict.