Severin

He is the protagonist of Book Three: The Iron Garden. He traces contamination in the water near the village of Kosta back to its source: an iron wall in the forest where the water tastes wrong and the animals behave wrong and patches of summer wildflowers persist into October. What he finds behind the wall changes everything he understands about the world. He is warm. He is also furious. The warmth and the fury exist simultaneously and both are genuine. More will be revealed in Book 3.

Medium height, lean, built by work. Dirty blonde hair tied back. Hands permanently stained from plant compounds. A burn scar across the back of his left hand. Compelling face.

Alchemy. Healer training. Herbalism. Contamination tracking. He can read preservation magic the way others read weather: by its residue, its taste, its pressure on the body. His specific skill is mapping contamination spread and identifying its source.