These days, Katherine kept to herself.
She worked quietly but tirelessly in her grand old home, each and every day spent doing the thing she loved most. Even as time passed by and children around the world fell in more love with screens than paper, there was always enough curiosity and imagination to keep her trade going. Mr. Qwerty and Kailash were always with her, and she never missed an opportunity to visit North at his workshop, so she was hardly ever lonely. That feeling hadn't settled within her in a long, long time.
That being said, Katherine knew right away that it could only be sympathy, and pity, that she felt worming its way into her gut as she watched her newest helper stroll through the looming oak shelves of her library. As she watched her appearance shift and flicker and fade as it so often did, Katherine felt a small sting in the pit of her heart, like someone was plucking away the thread of their own tapestry. It was a strong loneliness, a dangerous one, radiating from the girl walking slowly between the adventures and mysteries. Katherine strode carefully toward her.
"What's wrong, Mary?"
The girl turned around, her delicate face faltering before a pearly-white smile flashed at her leader.
"I do sometimes wish I had a different name."
"I thought it was cute," Katherine pouted at the girl. She dissolved into a gentle laugh and stepped closer, her eyebrows knitted slightly with worry. "But really, I know something is troubling you."
"...I..." her voice fluctuated; it was always so subtle, one could never really tell unless she spoke for longer, but Katherine could almost see Mary's vocal chords growing and shrinking with each syllable. She sighed.
"It must be so hard."
Mary looked down at her feet. Katherine watched her features, as they shifted and twisted. Sometimes her hair darkened, sometimes it got lighter, sometimes it flickered from brown to blonde to black to pink. It grew out, shrank up, curled, waved, straightened out. Her complexion shifted through a relatively small range of skin tones, occasionally going extremely pale or dark or gaining a dusting of freckles across her lovely nose. She got taller and shorter, her chest and hips grew and shrank, the details of her face bounced between a cute child and a beautiful woman, with the rare and sudden jump to a masculine form before snapping back to being conventionally female.
"It...there are days," Mary looked up and away, her gaze far off down the hall of books. She held herself, shivering slightly. Her very clothes flickered from t-shirts to sundresses to miniskirts to shorts to corsets to battle armor. Makeup bloomed onto her face, sometimes light and sometimes heavy, some princess-y and some punk-ish. "when it's so much. Too much."
Mary shivered harder. Her body spasmed, almost launching her into Katherine, who held out her hands and pulled her into a hug.
"I'm sorry, my dear. You're so brave to endure this."
"I...I have to, who else will?" Mary gasped. She leaned desperately into the warmth of Katherine's embrace, and when she regained enough strength to pull away, it felt like leaving a mother's most loving hug. "Who else can teach them?"
"All the things they say about you," Katherine lifted her hands again, this time cupping Mary's face delicately. "and yet, they need you."
Mary took a deep breath and held it, suddenly going stiff. She clenched her eyes shut, bracing herself by tensing up. A horrific-looking shiver passed through her body, and when it passed she coughed and gasped for air, sinking to the floor. Katherine knelt down beside her, concern etched into her young face.
"Does that happen every time?"
"No...yes," Mary quickly resigned her lie. She glanced down at her body, a bitter smile on her face. "It hurts. When they figure it out? When they realize they let me save everyone again, when I'm the Chosen One again. When I get the cutest guy. When I'm loved by everyone again. When they...when they learn it's not right." she coughed, sighed, and continued. "But it's good. Another author knows better now. They know that it's okay for a character not to be perfect."
"Will you tell me what that last one was about?" Katherine helped her up. "If we write it down, perhaps we can watch this young writer make even more progress, yeah?"
"...it was another girl," Mary said softly, looking down at her feet again. "It was a first-person, borderline self-insert. She was the villain's daughter and..." a soft blush dusted over her cheeks. "She ended up with the main."
"Ohh, wow!" Katherine didn't bother fighting down a laugh. "Always those nowadays, hm?"
"I can feel more changes. She just made a newer character. Still a girl, but high-strung. No OP psychic powers. Not an automatic hero." Mary gave her own small laugh, light and perfect in every way.
"See? She's learning," Katherine beamed. She took Mary by the hand and led her out of the shelving and into the sitting area. "I'll call Mr. Qwerty and you can recount it all to him."