Schierke

Slight and small-framed, Schierke measures only about 120 centimeters and weighs just over thirty kilograms, placing her near thirteen during her travels. Green hair surrounds a calm, girlish face. Nothing sets her apart in a crowd like her witch's garb, a pointed hat and trailing robe that Flora sewed for her; she cherishes it as a memento and will not exchange it for common dress. Rounding out the ensemble is a gnarled wooden staff she leans on to steady her spellcasting.

Composed and quietly earnest, Schierke bears herself with a maturity beyond her years. She was devoted and dutiful to her late mistress, and Flora's passing wounded her deeply. Raised in seclusion within the forest, she scorns the broader human world and cares little for the faith of the Holy See, yet she finds the traveling life bearable among her companions and takes quickly to newcomers like Sonia and Isma.

Her composure cracks most readily around Isidro, whom she regards as a witless nuisance and jabs at constantly, a running quarrel that lightens the party's darker hours. Guts put her off at first with his blunt edge, but that unease slowly ripened into a quiet crush, which he notices and simply meets by treating her like a kid sister. What she holds most tightly is knowing she occupies a place no one else can fill: she alone can settle his mind while the Berserker Armor threatens to consume it, a weight she understands will only grow the more he depends on that accursed gear.

The years she spent studying under Flora left her a potent witch despite her youth, and the party treasures her for it. She senses and guides the flow of od around her, which lets her follow people and turn their attention aside. With strands of her own hair as a conduit, she speaks mind to mind over great distance and can even borrow another's sight. By projecting her astral self, tethered to her body by a shining cord, she wanders the astral plane, enters the Berserker Armor, and hauls Guts free of his murderous rampages.

Her attacking magic runs from setting her loose hair alight as tiny fire elementals to calling up far greater powers. By invoking the Four Cardinal Kings she raises wards that turn back and dissolve astral creatures; she can flood Enoch and drive its trolls away with the water elemental, Lady of the Deep Water, then reduce her foes to ash with the Wheel of Flame. She traces a protective seal across the Brand of Sacrifice to dull its pull on monsters, and a single sweep of her staff leaves people compliant to her wishes. The mightiest of these rites demands unbroken concentration.

Much of her power blossoms in crisis. She joins the push to kill the Sea God from the inside, threads the party through Elfhelm's barriers, and is chosen to venture into Casca's broken mind beside Farnese, collecting scattered memory fragments to piece her sanity back together. On the island she further learns to shape magic by instinct, without carved runes, drawing on whatever spirits happen to stand nearby, and takes up study under Gedfring to commune with daimons, Flora among them.