Bonded units were a rarity even amongst the oldest and most experienced Covens – to be bonded to one’s doll would mean sharing every sensation, thought, and experience with it. Few survived.

Bonding is an intense mental strain until one became accustomed to the shared mental state, and witches that survived the experience became more and more doll-like the longer they lived. Conversely, their dolls became more and more witch-like, unsettling friend and foe alike.

“Becoming,” they almost universally called it, as the increasingly bizarre pairs worked in tandem to hone skills new and old alike. Lovers, life partners, battle buddies…all human-analogue relationship dynamics fail to describe it.

Sharing your partner’s every intimate thought and desire lends itself to altering both selves into a blended amalgam of the two, a swirling pool of thoughts where there used to be two distinct beings.

A witch’s anxiety, soothed by her doll’s Stillness and serenity. A doll’s fears, drowned in the intensity of its witch’s love. To say these pairs are perfect is a gross over-simplification – however, should you come across one, the common wisdom to to keep far, far away.

You never know if they decide to simply add another doll or witch to the collective.