The Magic Between Us: Merrick

This post is part of The Magic Between Us series, an exploration and analysis of characters in the Stories of the Eleriannan series.

The most interesting and confusing question I’ve received about In Sleep You Know is “why did you choose a male lead for this story?” I’m not sure if it’s that people expected me to only write about women, or if it’s a genre assumption that main characters in urban/contemporary fantasy tend to be female, but when have I ever followed convention anyway?

Look, one of my goals is to tell magical stories about the kind of people I know and understand and that the general public might not think of as “magical.” I’ve also said many times that I don’t pick the characters, they choose me. Merrick Moore showed up early on when I was dreaming up the Eleriannan series with a different name and a slightly different trajectory, but he established himself quickly as the kind, sometimes clever/sometimes clueless, going-nowhere musician that we know today. Merrick’s a reluctant hero, which is a trope I find pretty realistic–I mean, it’s one thing to believe in magic happening in front of you when you’re at a party and everyone’s acting weird but they’re beautiful and dazzling and maybe you’re caught up in the moment so you go along with it. It’s another entirely when you’re back at home, hung over and with a new tattoo that you don’t remember getting and then you realize you’ve lost a bunch of days and…well, you start to feel stupid about how it all went down and you bought into it.

Still, there’s a part of you that hopes–and fears–it was all real.

At the character’s core, Merrick’s a confused, easy-going, uninspired guy who never wanted much of anything in life before the moment he crashed a [unbeknownst to him] Fae party. When he’s offered a chance to be more, to do important things, he balks. The only passion he ever had was to be in a band but even that hadn’t gone much of anywhere. That’s why it’s important that his first success after accepting his fate with the Eleriannan is to pull off The Drawback’s first real show–and exercise a little magic while doing so. It wakens possibility in Merrick’s mind, and a new sense of motivation. Suddenly, he sees what magic can do and he’s found a purpose, and that feels good to him. He feels alive for once, instead of just phoning in his life.

Some important background about Merrick comes out in Cast a Shadow of Doubt: although he comes from a more privileged background than some of the other mortal characters, he’s also suffered from neglect. His parents are well-off so Merrick never wanted for material things, like Vali for example, but he was basically ignored, left to his own devices, and never expected to do anything beyond go to college. Money from his parents is how he’s stayed afloat, but they don’t have interest in him beyond that. His bond with Lucee is strong in part because he sees her as his only real family, a sister from different parents. He’s shown to have taken care of her many times, especially when they were growing up and her family tried to control her and shape her into something she didn’t want to be. The contrast between them is stark. Merrick is the privileged guy left to waste his life because no one expected more from him and couldn’t be bothered to put any effort into him; Lucee’s the legacy academic who was continually forced down paths not of her choosing, even though she had all the drive and vision she needed to achieve anything she desired.

Merrick’s friendship with Lucee is crucial to his growth.

She’s the one who pushes him to reconnect with the Eleriannan, and she stands firmly behind him when he becomes the champion of the Fae. She steadfastly believes that he can succeed, seeing his potential and believing in it more than any of his actual family ever did. In return, Merrick has supported Lucee’s dreams to be a musician, giving her space to be herself when her parents would not.

It’s worth noting that almost every person who encourages Merrick to take on this new role is a woman. Aisling, Fallon, Lucee–this trio provides the gateway for Merrick’s change into a responsible person with a mission. And The Ladies are the challenge that proves he’s worthy to take on the mantle; besting them and forcing them to give him their names shows that he has the strength of mind to be a champion. All the keys to Merrick’s success come through these women, and he acknowledges this readily, and does his best to repay their support by doing the same for them.

It’s also important to note that he doesn’t end up being the leader of the Eleriannan–that’s Lucee. He’s a great champion but he never once thinks of becoming more than that, and it’s not because of the lack of drive he once had. It’s because he understands that he’s finally in a place that suits him–and leadership is the role that suits Lucee best.

Some interesting things about Merrick that might get missed by the reader:

He didn’t really care about academics but he was a decent scholar and that helps him several times in his dealings with the Eleriannan.Similarly, his politeness gets him through uncomfortable or uncertain situations. He learned early on that much can be excused if it’s done with manners, and uses that to navigate the unclear social mores of the Fae.Despite his easy-going nature and outward appearance of being fine after the big battle for The Maithe, he’s still traumatized by what happened, especially by the fight with Camlin. His connection with Aisling at the beginning of the book is a callback to several versions of the “faerie lover” story, where a mortal [man, usually] falls for a faerie [woman, sometimes a faerie “queen”] and she brings him into her world, revealing magics to him–for a price. In Merrick’s case, that’s joining them for seven years in exchange for Fae gifts. Cullen [who with Aisling is one of the first Fae to befriend Merrick] recognizes Merrick’s potential and in doing so, is slowly awakened to recognize his own ignored potential. Merrick has a track record of inspiring these kinds of revelations in those around him–like what happens when he goes to talk with the Gwyliannan. Merrick’s connection and then love for Aisling breaks a curse and create great changes in her life and status.

I think the most important thing about Merrick is that he’s an example of how any of us, even if we’ve never had a heroic day in our lives, can become someone important and game-changing, if only we find the means to believe that we can. For him, it takes other people seeing in him what he could not, but that magic was always there. He just needed to take a chance and do something outside of the norm in order to discover it.

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