Essus

Essus was the brother of Queen Andais.

During the Second World War, Essus had served as a spy for the Allies. He had earned two silver stars for his service which he bequeathed to his daughter.

He loved his sister and she him, and never agreed with any plotters who favored him as ruler for the Unseelie Court since his rule could only follow his sister's death.

In a treaty to maintain peace between the courts, Essus took Besaba of the Seelie Court  as a consort. Part of a three year agreement, but within a year, Besaba was pregnant with Meredith making them a married couple by sidhe law. Essus raised their daughter since Besaba preferred to return to the Seelie court.

After Queen Andais tried to drown her niece as a mongrel when the child was six, Essus took his household including his daughter and mother-in-law, Hettie, out into the human world to raise Meredith. He schooled her on the history of the fae, made sure she understood the culture of, not just the sidhe, but the goblins, demi-fae, and lesser fae as well. He also insisted she attend school so that she understood humans and what it meant to be American born.

Essus served as the unofficial Unseelie ambassador to the Goblin Court as well as to humans. He had served as a Allied spy during World War II, and earned two silver stars that he gifted to his daughter.

Essus was assassinated when Merry was seventeen. He had been cut down alongside a country road. Pictures of his hacked body and Merry's own grieving image were sold by Barry Jenkins to the tabloids.

When Taranis first invaded Meredith's dreams in A Shiver of Light, he took Essus' form. Meredith thought it wrong since in all the years since his death, she had never dreamed of him.