Witch, Wolf, Woods

CHAPTER 6: LIFE WITH AN AFFINITY

The metallurgists also repaired things of a more personal nature, fixing other witches' possessions, which could be anything from trinkets to heirlooms, ranging from handheld mirrors and silver-plated combs to jewelry boxes, picture frames, and delicate chains for glasses, in addition to all shapes and sizes of jewelry.

As Katja gained more experience, she was allowed to help repair things for visiting travelers, in addition to other members of the Hexen.

Travelers frequently visited the castle to seek help from the witches, and Katja could never decide what was worse—when they gaped openly at her disfigurement or when they tried to pretend as if nothing was wrong with her, carefully averting their eyes from her face as they spoke.

While she appreciated how Tante Bettina always waved her towards another task rather than insisting she be the one to speak with a traveler about repairs, Katja also knew the blacksmith did this so people wouldn't stare or mention her scars. She hated being treated differently because of how she looked, but at the same time, she had no real desire to speak with the non-magical visitors, so she always smiled her thanks at Tante Bettina's dismissal and slipped away to the furthest reaches of the forge.

Although Katja was happy to do whatever task needed completing, whenever she was given the chance to create something of her own design, she always created jewelry.

Creating something purely for decoration, where function and utility didn't matter, was very different from creating things intended to be used for a given purpose. The metal used in a shovel, for example, cared far more about how much dirt it could lift than how it looked.

But with jewelry, she could focus on creating something that would be valued purely for its looks, which was actually quite ironic, given how much Katja despised her own appearance. Perhaps that's what drew her to jewelry in the first place—the desire, however shallow and self-centered she knew it to be, to create something appreciated for its loveliness that was in some way associated with her.

She also came to love repairing others' jewelry because of the music contained in the pieces, melodics stories offering glimpses into other people's lives, which were certainly more fascinating than her own. She especially came to love repairing the pieces that had been passed down through numerous generations, painting a musical portrait of a family over the years, filled with inevitable events such as death and loss, but also with long-awaited occurrences, too, including marriages, births, anniversaries, and birthdays.

And so time passed, and Katja threw herself into learning everything she could about her affinity. In the beginning, she was motivated to learn simply because she wanted to understand her ability, in addition to the fact that she loved sharing something with her mother and often liked to imagine what she would have said about the things her daughter created.

Had Katja developed friendships and interests outside of her metalworking, she likely wouldn't have spent so much time on her affinity, but unfortunately, even as she became more skilled at working with metal, she struggled to connect with the other girls.

While Katja wasn't naturally very outgoing, she did at least try, initiating conversations and inviting others to do things with her. But children are a fickle, cruel lot, and she soon grew tired of them staring at her face or asking her the same questions she'd told them numerous times she didn't know the answers to—who her father was, why her mother was dead, and how she'd gotten her scars.

It also didn't help that Elise made it clear she would view friendship with Katja as a direct affront to herself. The other children in the dormitory were either afraid of Elise or ignored her in favor of pursuing other interests, but they also had mothers, grandmothers, or other family members in the castle to spend time with.