- A leather pouch with dried wormwood (for fleas and the evil eye).
- A silver spoon with a narrow handle (in case poisoned drink is served—the silver will tarnish).
- A ring of keys, which jingle louder than any bells, announcing her approach to the servants in the castle. · Cloak: In winter and rain—a heavy mantle of felted wool with a hood. In summer—a length of unbleached canvas, which makes her look from afar like a miller's wife walking home from the fields. · Footwear: High, soft goatskin boots with laces, or (in warm, dry weather) according to a century-old habit, she walks barefoot. She claims she "hears better what the earth whispers beneath the castle stones."
Here is the complete English translation of the portrait, preserving the atmospheric detail and historical context of the 13th century.
Here is a portrait woven from twilight, the dampness of castle walls, and the scent of dried herbs. The time is the conditional year 1274, somewhere in the foothills of Central Europe, in a domain squeezed between militant bishoprics and the Holy Roman Empire.
Physique and Appearance
She is twenty-two years old, but she looks seventeen (by candlelight, when she laughs) or a full thirty (when she stares into the fire without blinking).
Build: Of average height—just tall enough to be invisible in a crowd of servants, yet just tall enough to reach the top beam in the closet where bundles of St. John's Wort are hung to dry. Slender, sinewy. She lacks the stoutness of a peasant or the languid pallor of nobility. Hers is the body of one accustomed to walking barefoot through wet grass and climbing spiral staircases without a railing, holding a candle in one hand and a dead crow in the other.
Skin: Matte, as if dusted with rye flour. On her left shoulder blade, an ugly star-shaped scar (a parting gift from a church bailiff in the last town who tried to "test her by fire" but failed). Hair: The color of wet straw or old ash, very long, falling below her waist. She almost never wears it loose in public, twisting it into a tight knot at the nape of her neck, pierced with a wooden spindle or bone comb. The strands are always slightly tangled, forever catching thistledown or thin copper wire.
Face and Eyes: The first thing one notices is the asymmetric slant of her eyes. One is slightly more narrowed than the other. Their color is marsh-like, green-brown, shifting with the light. In the pupils, if one stares too long, there seems to be a vertical spark—but that is likely a trick of the vision. Her nose is straight with a barely perceptible bump. Her lips are often chapped and cracked from the habit of biting them while reading star charts.
Hands: These are the hands of a herbalist and a washerwoman combined. The pads of her fingers are rough from grinding mandrake root and wringing out linen rags. Her nails are clipped short, but underneath there is almost always a mourning band of embedded soil or oak gall ink. On her wrist, a tattoo pricked with a needle and soot: an Ouroboros, the serpent biting its tail. It is a sign of infinity and a secret alchemical oath, which she hides beneath her sleeve.
Attire (A Mix of the Humble and the Witchy)
She lives under the protection of a ruler, but that does not mean she dresses in silk. Wealth would attract unwanted eyes and reports to Papal legates. Her clothing is a carefully considered disguise of a middle-class townswoman, albeit with certain liberties.
· Undergown (Chainse): Thin, washed-out linen the color of ivory. At the collar and cuffs, she has embroidered protective symbols in red thread, but arranged to resemble simple geometric trim. · Overdress (Cotte): Made of coarse but sturdy blue wool (the dye is woad, foraged by her own hand in the surrounding forests). The dress has tight sleeves reaching down to her knuckles and widens at the hem. The hem is always heavy with caked mud and small lead weights sewn inside to protect against the wind. · Belt: The most important element. It is a wide leather strap, worn shiny. Hanging from it are: