Meredith

Meredith is the titular character of the Merry Gentry series of novels. She is known variously as Meredith Nic Essus, meaning Meredith daughter of Essus, and she also takes the alias Meredith Gentry after fleeing the Unseelie Court.

Prior to the start the series, she ran away from the Unseelie court and became a private investigator in Los Angeles. The story follows her discovery by sidhe forces and her return to the faerie courts as well as her subsequent rise in power.

Meredith's goal at the series start, is to have a child so that she can become queen of the Unseelie court and avoid the certain death that awaited her should her cousin succeed in that goal before her. In A Lick of Frost, it is discovered that she is pregnant with twins, each of whom have three fathers due to interference from the sidhe deities, the Lord and Lady. In A Shiver of Light, however, she gives birth to triplets.

She has held several faerie crowns. In Swallowing Darkness, she is crowned queen of the Sluagh by Faerie and the Goddess, and she is formally recognized by the Sluagh as Sholto's queen. She and Doyle are crowned queen and king of the Unseelie Court, but they give up their crowns in exchange for Frost's life.

Appearance
Her hair is red "Sidhe-scarlet," like garnets or rubies. Her eyes are tricolor in gold, jade green, and emerald. She has moonlight pale skin, is just five feet tall, and a full figure, both latter traits mark her as a mixed blood sidhe.

She has multiple scars from various duels, which she usually keeps hidden with glamour. There is a hand-shaped scar on her ribs where Rozenwyn tried to crush her heart with magic in a duel. She has rippled scars that appear to be burns on her shoulders, where someone tried to force her to shape-shift in the middle of a fight. She also has a "tattoo" of a moth on her torso, which is actually a mark of power.

She has a "tattoo" of vines on her wrist from being "handfasted" to Sholto as his queen of the Sluagh.

Powers
Although the novels start with her displaying no hand of power, they develop over the course of the series:

Glamour
Before Merry came into her powers her glamour was her most powerful magic. Hers is so good she can make her glamour seem real to a persons sight and touch if she tries hard enough.

Hand of Flesh
In A Shiver of Light, Merry uses her power, Hand of Flesh, to injure Taranis. The first time she uses it against Taranis is when he calls her to a dream. Once the dream ends he was perfectly fine. The second time she uses it against him, he traps her in a realistic dream with the intent to spell her to love him. She figures it out and calls the Hand of Flesh against him disfiguring his arm in reality.

Hand of Blood
In A Caress of Twilight she develops the capability to make something or someone bleed at will. This power is called The Hand of Blood.

In Swallowing Darkness, Merry uses her powers to kill, and when using The Hand of Blood she thinks "die" instead of "bleed" and her opponent dies.

Sexual Powers
In A Kiss of Shadows, when she is given Branwyn's Tears, a powerful, magical aphrodisiac, she unlocks most of her powers. She restores her boyfriend's shape-shifting powers after having sex with him.

In Seduced by Moonlight, she begins to restore the magic that others had lost and bring sidhe into their Godheads.

Weapons & Artifacts
The Chalice - Once it was a cauldron and it could feed thousands and never go empty, dead warriors could rise again alive the next day though robbed of their speech, then one day it changed into a cup. It is one of the greatest treasures of the sidhe. It increases the magic done around it. Appears and disappears to and from Merediths hand. Was originally a Seelie relic.

The Queen's Ring a.k.a. the happy-ever-after-ring - a heavy silver octagonal, not perfectly round; as if it had molded to all of the fingers it had encircled over the millennia. It was a plain, almost mannish style. Inside the ring were engraved the words: "For if my love comes not to me, dark and dismal my life will be" in an ancient form of Gaelic. It magically adjusted itself to fit Merediths finger. It sometimes refused to be removed.The ring reacts to any fertile mate the hand wearing it touched. It could divine which two people would make a fertile couple. It was a gift from Andais as a sign of her favor.

Aben-dul - A pale sword that was almost flesh-colored in its hilt. Its hilt is carved with the images of what it can do. It can only be touched by someone with the hand of flesh otherwise it will consume the person who touches it in the same way the hand of flesh destroys. It allows her to project the hand of flesh over distance in battle. It is the only object in legend that was formed to be the perfect match to the hand of flesh.

Personality
Meredith is very independent in all areas of life, including her sex life.

Titles
Titles Meredith has held:
 * Nic Essus - Meaning literally "daughter of Essus." The human media tends to treat it like a surname. The title is dropped when a sidhe comes into their power, as Meredith has done.
 * Besaba's Bane - Besaba is Meredith's mother, and her pregnancy by Essus tied Besaba to the Unseelie court despite her wish to stay in the Seelie court.
 * Child of Peace
 * Princess of Flesh - Meredith gained this title when she awoke her first power, the hand of flesh. This title replaced her title "NicEssus." This title is usually combined with her other title to create "Princess of Flesh and Blood."
 * Princess of Blood - This is Meredith's title for her second power, the hand of blood, but the title is usually combined with her other title to create "Princess of Flesh and Blood."
 * Princess of Flesh and Blood - The combined title regarding her powers: the hand of flesh, and the hand of blood.
 * Queen of the Sluagh
 * Queen of the Unseelie court

Family
Meredith's family tree:

Father's side:

 * Prince Essus - Meredith's father. Prince of the Unseelie court.
 * Queen Andais - Meredith's aunt, sister of Meredith's father Essus. Queen of the Unseelie court.
 * Prince Cel - Meredith's cousin, son of Meredith's aunt Andais. Prince of the Unseelie court.

Mother's side:

 * Princess Besaba - Meredith's mother. Princess of the Seelie court. She is half Sidhe, a quarter brownie, and a quarter human.
 * Uar the Cruel - Meredith's grandfather, father of Meredith's mother Besaba. Prince of the Seelie court.
 * Hettie - Meredith's grandmother, mother of Meredith's mother Besaba. She is half brownie and half human, and the closest person to a mother figure Meredith had.
 * King Taranis - Meredith's granduncle, brother of Meredith's grandfather Uar the Cruel. King of the Seelie court.
 * Princess Eluned - Meredith's aunt, twin sister of Meredith's mother Besaba. Princess of the Seelie court.
 * Cair - Meredith's cousin, daughter of Meredith's aunt Eluned.
 * Donald - Meredith's great-grandfather, father of Hettie. Human.
 * Hettie's unnamed mother - Meredith's great-grandmother. She was brownie, and she was killed by Sholto in one of the great wars.
 * Maggie May - Hettie's mother's sister, Meredith's great-grandaunt. A brownie, and Queen Andais's cook in the unseelie court. Meredith calls her "Aunt Maggie."
 * Matilda - A cousin of Maggie May and Hettie, but the exact relation to either is unclear, and it's further complicated that Maggie May is Hettie's aunt. Matilda says that any "brownie from Scotland who came to the new world" is a cousin. Meredith acknowledges their kinship when they meet.

Children:
Meredith gave birth to triplets:
 * Gwenwyfar Joy Tempest Garland – daughter of Meredith, Rhys, Galen, and Mistral
 * Alastair Essus Dolson Winter – son of Meredith, Doyle, and Frost
 * Tegan Bryluen Mary Katherine – daughter of Meredith, Sholto, Royal, and Kitto

Pets:

 * Miniver a.k.a. Minnie - white Greyhound type with her face divided into red and white fur. There is one large red spot on her back.
 * Mungo - white Greyhound type with one red ear.

Lovers
Meredith Gentry's lovers to date:


 * Abeloec
 * Adair
 * Amatheon
 * Ash
 * Barinthus
 * Briac
 * Doyle (husband/king of the Unseelie)
 * Frost (king)
 * Galen (king)
 * Griffin (former fiance, pre-series)
 * Holly
 * Ivi
 * Kitto
 * Maeve Reed
 * Mistral (king)
 * Nicca
 * Rhys (king)
 * Roane
 * Royal
 * Sage
 * Sholto (husband/king of the Sluagh)