Biography: Princess Meredith NicEssus was born at the Unseelie faerie sitheen in Illinois to Prince Essus, brother to the Queen of the Unseelie Court, and Besaba, niece to the King of the Seelie Court. Her heritage also includes human and some lesser fey. The human heritage unfortunatly made her mortal and kept her magic from developing as quickly as other sidhe.She was raised away from the Sitheen by her father to keep her safe from the sometimes lethal political manuevers in the court. When Meredith was seventeen, her father was assassinated and the perpetrators of the crime were never caught. Due to issues surrounding a broken enagement as well as several attempts on her life, Meredith secretly fled to Los Angeles. Her limited magic earned her a position with Grey Detective Agency (a firm specializing in magical solutions). She also enjoyed an intimate relationship with fellow detective and former selkie, Roane Finn. Meredith experiences the first growth of her magical abilities during sex with Roane when she accidently restores his stolen seal skin and gives him back the ability to shape shift. As a result Sholto, King of the Slugh, finds her. He claims he has been sent to bring Merry back to the sitheen, willing or not, but his actual purpose is to propose a marriage alliance so that both will be protected from the Queen's supposed wrath. Unable to deal with the thought of sharing Sholto, his lover and guard Nerys (a Night Hag) attacks Merry. This causes her to manifest true sidhe magic for the first time and develop a "hand of power", specifically the "Hand of Flesh" like her father. She reduces Nerys to a ball of flesh and escapes to encounter Doyle, a Raven (Queen's Guard) known as "The Queen's Darkness", with a real summons home. Once she arrives, the Queen, Andais, informs her that she is to be declared a possible heir to the throne alongside Andais's son Prince Cel. Andais's heir will be whoever manages to conceive a child first. Merry returns to LA with several men selected from among the Ravens to both guard her and get her pregnant. These men include Doyle, Frost (known as Killing Frost), Galen (a childhood friend) and several others. Meredith's way is cleared somewhat when Cel is sentenced to six months imprisonment for his part in several crimes committed in the mortal world. Meredith is then asked to participate in fertility ritual by a famous actress, Maeve Reed, who is an exile from the Seelie court. This is complicated when the Nameless, a magical creature made of all the fairy magic that was discarded so the fey could live in America, is released and sent after Maeve to keep her from revealing that, Taranis, King of the Seelie Court is sterile and as such should be deposed. Merry manifests the "Hand of Blood" and defeats it. Merry and her Guard end up absorbing the magic of the Nameless which increases their magical abilities. Taranis also begins to take a sudden interest in Merry. After several occurences in which she exhibits power far beyond even the most powerful fey, Merry discovers that she is a vessel for the Goddess and she is meant to restore Faerie back to its former grandeur. While returning to the Unseelie sitheen for a visit, Merry is gifted with the Queen's Ring. The ring's purpose is to select couples who are perfect mates to one another and should procreate. Merry agrees to sleep with any man the ring recognizes for her. During the visit, Merry saves her The Queen from an enchanment designed to make her so bloodthirsty that she will have to be killed and escapes another attempt on her own life. Then to add another level of difficulty a human reporter is found dead in the sitheen. Merry uses ordinary forensics to discover the killer when magic can't. All the while Merry's connection with the Goddess is bringing the sitheen back to life, though Andais does not like the fact that the new alterations make it more like the Seelie sitheen and asks Meredith to go back to LA. Meredith is allowed to take any member of the court who wishes to go, including Mistral (the Master of Storms). Maeve Reed offers to let them stay on her estate and during the fulfilment of a magical agreement with some of Merry's allies, it is turned into a third sitheen. All is well until Taranis accuses three of Merry's Guard of raping a Seelie woman. Merry meets him to discuss things and discovers that he has bewitched the U.S. Ambassador to the Faerie Courts to side with him. Taranis goes crazy and injures several of the Guard, including Frost and Doyle. After Frost chooses to sacrifice his lifeforce to the new sitheen, Merry discovers she is pregnant at last. The wild magic involved in the sitheen's creation has caused her to conceive twins fathered by six of her Guard(Rhys, Frost, Galen, Doyle, Mistral, and Sholto). While still dealing with this, Merry is kidnapped and raped by a completely insane Taranis. Merry is quickly rescued and holds a press conference to inform the world of his deeds.