Cheria Barnes

Cheria Barnes (シェリア･バーンズ) is the granddaughter of the butler working for the Lhant house in Tales of Graces. She holds feelings for Asbel Lhant, but refuses to tell him.

Prologue
Cheria plays a significantly small role compared to the other main characters during this part of the story, serving as an character for story progression rather than a combat character like Asbel, Richard, Hubert, and Sophie. She first appears when Asbel, Hubert and the mystery girl return from meadow, distraught that the boys left her behind, once again. She tries to run up and confront them, but due her illness, runs a mere few feet in front of her. Asbel rushes to her and reminds her not to run like that, but she was too upset to listen. In a moment of panic, Hubert suggests that he give her the sopheria flower he brought back with him. Upon receiving the flower, Cheria calms down, stating that she "can forgive him just this once". Asbel introduces her to the mystery girl and their quest to find out who she is, to which Cheria shows deep concern and for a moment, seeing the girl as something of a rival for Asbel's heart. Nevertheless, Cheria suggests that they ask Fredric, the Lhant family butler and Cheria's grandfather.

Returning to the manor, they ask Fredric, who has not the slightest clue who she is. Lady Kerri, Asbel and Hubert's mother, approaches the group and informs Asbel that his father, Lord Aston, wishes to speak with him, much to Asbel's irritation. She also scolds him for letting Cheria accompany him when he plays and forbids him from letting her tag along. After going into a coughing fit while trying to protest Lady Kerri's decision, she is ordered to be sent home by Fredric. Later on that day, Cheria returns to Asbel and Hubert to find out that Asbel proclaimed himself the guardian of the mystery girl, much to Cheria's shock and disbelief. After tossing up a few names to call the girl, the kids settle on "Sophie", inspired by the name of the Sopheria flower that she was fascinated by. After it is learned that the Turtlez transport carrying Prince Richard was attacked on the East Lhant Highroad, she, Asbel, and Hubert rush to the scene to help. Though Lord Aston was angry with Asbel for intervening, he was commended by the royal escorts. Sneaking in the through the window on the side of the house, the gang meet Prince Richard, who coldly rejects them under the impression that they were only pretending to friend him to use him later. It is not until Asbel trades places with Richard in his training that Richard really starts to open up to the group. An excited Asbel insists on showing him Lhant Hill and confides in Hubert and Cheria, who stay behind, to cover for him. Sometime during the events on Lhant Hill, Cheria and Hubert reluctantly reveal the whereabouts of Asbel, Sophie and Richard.

When the three return, Asbel is confined to his room while his father and brother travel to Barona, the capital city of Windor. Asbel breaks out of his room with the help of Sophie and heads to Barona as well. Upon arrival, the meet up with Cheria once again, who happened to be in the city as well for a doctor visit. Cheria accompanies Asbel and Sophie to meet Richard, whom met up with them at Gloandi, the treasured valkines near the castle. The prince, in disguise, takes the group to a scenic hill along the Southern Barona Highroad, confessing that his father was poisoned and wishes he can create a world without conflict. The group later returns to the capital, where they run into Hubert and Aston. Richard agrees to reconvene with his new friends later on that night where they will go to castle via secret passage. When Richard never shows up, Asbel and the group go search for him themselves and stumble across the Barona Catacombs, where they find Richard's unconscious body. Trying to awaken him, the friends are soon attacked by a large monster that immediately hits Cheria and Hubert into a cave wall, knocking them out. Eventually, the whole party is attacked with Sophie presumed dead due to the monster impaling her and leading her to sacrifice herself for the friends, unleashing a strange power that is absorbed by Asbel, Cheria, and Hubert.

About a week later, Asbel awakens and is infuriated when his father announces that Sophie was dead and that Hubert was adopted by another family. Proclaiming that he is declining the responsibility of being the next lord to become a knight and storming out, he is approached by Cheria, who overheard everything and begged him not to leave. She insisted that she can "replace" the lost children with herself and do the best she can to make up for them being gone. This deeply angers Asbel, who yells at her for even suggesting that. She tearfully apologizes and Asbel simmers down, blaming only himself for the losses. He falsely tells Cheria that he will stay in Lhant and, the following day, leaves without her knowledge.

Main Arc
Seven years later, Cheria meets Asbel and Malik Caesar in Barona and informs Asbel of his father's passing, an event relayed to him via letter from his mother, but one which he never read. After being told by Malik to return to Lhant to check on the town's status, Cheria accompanies Asbel back home. While Asbel is joyed to see her and in better condition, Cheria acts distant and extremely cold to him. She reveals that she acquired the power of healing and coldly tells Asbel that she can fight for herself and that she does not need him to protect her from monsters anymore. Upon returning to Lhant, they are approached by Bailey, one of the town's militiamen, and told that Fredric had been apprehended by the invading Fendel forces. The couple rescue him and lead a strategic move to drive the forces away through Lhant Hill. When the two seemed at a bitter loss, the reincarnation of Sophie, or who the two believe may or may not be Sophie, save the two in the clutch and accompanies them to battle the forces. The plan is a success and success and they forces of Fendel temporarily draw back. When the two return to Lhant, Cheria breaks off to tend to the wounded.

Back at the manor, Asbel assumes responsibility of Lhant and maps out their next move to drive Fendel's forces out completely through use of a nighttime attack. Cheria accompanies him, claiming that she wants to protect her home. While heading to the North Lhant Highroad to the caverns, where they will launch their surprise attack, Cheria's behavior really started to get to Asbel when he was pondering over this "New Sophie". He confronts her about how she has treated him and how he plans to assume his role in Lhant. When the Lhant forces reach Fendel's settlement, they find it deserted and learn that Fendel had initiated their OWN night invasion. The forces rush back to Lhant and find it being aided by Strahta, lead by Hubert. After a brief quarrel with Hubert, Asbel is removed from Lhant, along with Sophie. She is later seen being comforted by Fredric, who stills expresses concern for her despite her being over her illness. She wanted to deliver news of Raymond's betrayal after hearing his thoughts when Hubert Oswell went out of the study but was captured. After the party saved her, Asbel lashed out at her. She retaliated by saying she was trying to help him. She finally confronted Asbel about how he broke her heart and started crying. Asbel apologized and when Pascal and Malik remarked on their relationship, Cheria got mad at them saying she does not care about him. Asbel could not help but laugh and eventually made up with Cheria, creating a new friendship pact with Sophie.

Appearance and Personality
She has a good personality which lets her face difficulty with cheerfulness. Though she holds feelings for Asbel, she is the type who will not be honest about it. Furthermore she grew distant to those feelings during the long seven years they were separated, making their relationship awkward. She has strong feelings about being useful to the Lhants, as she has been living with them all this time. Also, as a dedicated healer, she tries her best to help every injured individual she can, usually running straight to trouble. After meeting Pascal, Asbel notes that Cheria acts like a mother for the rest of the girls. As one of the core members of the relief organization she is in, many others see her as an angel, mainly due to her healing skills and her gentle personality. Because of this, she has gained the admiration of many of her peers, especially Raymond and Bailey.

Fighting Style
Cheria's arte style consists of throwing daggers, allowing her to pressure the enemy from a safe distance. Her burst style consists primarily of holy offensive spells and area-based healing magic with three support spells to augment the party's evasion, accuracy, and resistance against enemies. Cheria is a rather fragile character, possessing the second lowest physical defense parameter in the whole party, coupled with sluggish running speed. However, her base stats are on par with Asbel's, and she boasts the highest arte defense out of the entire party, meaning her stats are weakened mainly due to weapon balancing.

While some of Cheria's arte execution is slow, her fighting style allows her to be mobile after attacking. This allows the player to constantly move while pursuing enemies from afar. By guarding and concentrating, she can perform critical hits easier than the other members by striking from a distance. While her healing spells take longer than Sophie's to chant, they have the ability to heal multiple party members at once. She can also lower her chanting time through mastering titles and performing attack chains.

Relationships
Asbel Lhant - Cheria is a childhood friend of Asbel. While they were young, she would often try to play with Asbel and Hubert but had a hard time due to her illness. After the incident which led to the perceived death of Sophie, she tries to be there for Asbel, who lies to her and leaves her alone for seven years. Because of this, she grows cold and distant from Asbel when she reunites, especially when Sophie returns. It is until she gets kidnapped that she reveals to Asbel that she missed him and she felt that she did not matter in his life anymore. She finally returned to her old self and reconciled with him with the help of Sophie.

Even at a young age, Cheria seemed to hold strong feelings toward Asbel. As her closest friend, Asbel's self-imposed exile affected her tremendously, but she never stopped thinking about him. After reconciling, her feelings for him grew and eventually blossoms into love, though Asbel is too oblivious to pick up on this at first. During the "Lineage and Legacies" chapter, Asbel and Cheria's feelings for one another grew, especially because of Cheria's absence due to her relief work and when Asbel's mother begins to pressure him to find a wife. Near the end, Asbel promises Cheria that he will tell the person he cares about most his feelings. At the end of the story, Asbel decides to act on his promise and asks Cheria if she wants to live with him saying that he will wait for her for as long as it takes.

Hubert Oswell - Cheria was very protective of Hubert when they were children, and often tried to make him feel better if he got discouraged or sad. Now that they have become older and Hubert has become capable of defending himself, Cheria and Hubert can protect one another on equal ground. In addition, they would talk to each other easily, though Cheria sometimes pick up on Hubert's newly acquired oddities.

Sophie - In childhood arc, Cheria at first views Sophie as her rival for Asbel's affection and gets jealous whenever she thinks Asbel and Sophie are too close, a notable example would be when Asbel claims that he will be with Sophie for the rest of his life if she doesn't regain her memories, something that Cheria objected greatly. However, the two remains on friendly terms since Cheria knows that Sophie is a nice person after she gave her a Sopheria flower. In future arc, Cheria become a mother figure for Sophie, reprimanding her when she didn't take a bath for days and comfort her when Sophie questions her own existence.

Raymond Oswell - Both were not on a good start since Raymond once tried to kill Cheria. Cheria's kindness made Raymond eventually fall for her. Before the final battle with Lambda, Raymond confessed his love for her, but Cheria rejected this due to her feelings for Asbel, though she didn't reveal it, leaving Raymond heartbroken. However, this didn't stop Raymond from pursuing her, following her wherever her relief work is.