Elizabeth "Liz" Ryan is a Roane living near Half-Moon Bay, California. Formerly a Selkie, she is the head of the Ryan clan, and first appears in One Salt Sea.
Biography[]
Elizabeth was born in 1956 to two Selkie parents. Because the truth of Selkies were kept a secret until the skin-passing ceremony, Liz yearned to be a Selkie. She developed a relationship with Luidaeg during her younger years, which lasted until 1993 when her mother passed her skin on in a brief moment of weakness, at which point the relationship ended. Liz became the head of the Ryan Clan after her father passed away, and discovered the Luidaeg's true nature after her father's funeral. The two women have had a contentious relationship ever since and Elizabeth descended into alcoholism as a result.[1]
Partly out of guilt, Elizabeth manages to track down one of the remaining Roane and marries him, giving birth to her daughter Diva as an apology to the Luidaeg, as Diva's half-Roane bloodline spares her from having to inherit a Selkie skin.
In the Series[]
In Sea-Salt Tears[]
Elizabeth meets Annie and develops a relationship with her. The relationship ends, as Annie warned, when Elizabeth accepted her Selkie skin. Elizabeth becomes head of the Ryan clan in 2002. At some point before this, she has married and had a daughter, Diva, with an unnamed husband of Roane descent.
Drown the Lamenting[]
Elizabeth meets Aldridge, a Roane man who has foreseen that they will have a child together and that child will have some influence on restoring balance among the Roane and Selkies. Even though Elizabeth isn't attracted to men, she agrees to wed Aldridge and have a child with him.
One Salt Sea[]
Elizabeth is first introduced here as the head of the Ryan clan. After the Luidaeg passes down Connor and Margie's skins to her, the Luidaeg warns her that the deadline is coming to a close now that October is present and that she has one year to put her affairs in order. Liz drunkenly remarks that she wished she still believed the Luidaeg was a distant cousin.
Once Broken Faith[]
Because of the Selkie's weakness to elf-shot (seeing as how they are human without the skin that keeps them from dying), Elizabeth is present at the conclave to legalise the cure for elf-shot.
Suffer a Sea-Change[]
Because of Gillian's transformation into a Selkie, the Luidaeg takes her to Liz in order to train Gillian in being a Selkie. Because of the limited time that Liz has, she's initially hesitant, until the Luidaeg offers the remaining Lost Skins in exchange for helping Gillian adjust to her new life.
The Unkindest Tide[]
When the Luidaeg calls the Convocation of Consequences, Liz's romantic past with her comes out of the surface, as Isla in a fit of rage made a remark about it. When the Luidaeg announces that Selkies can loot others for their sealskins, Liz warns Toby to stake a claim on Gillian to protect her when she realises that Gillian is the most likely Selkie to be hunted first.
A Killing Frost[]
Roane kids Elsa and Nathan drag down a highly intoxicated Elizabeth down to the Ryan house kitchen to greet Toby when she retrieves Quentin. The effects of the skin binding had already begun to regress Elizabeth's age younger from when her original Selkie skin halted the ageing process, but it still hasn't affected her metabolism as she is still an alcoholic. When Toby breaks the compulsion forcing Quentin to eat nonstop and as a result he throws up in the sink, she demands he clean the dishes, which Toby objects to. Frustrated, she exits the room.
Be the Serpent[]
Liz attends Rayseline's trial alongside Gillian.
Trivia[]
- Toby identifies Liz as Elizabeth Norton in Be the Serpent.[2]
- Liz tends to go for strong alcoholic beverages such as brandy and whiskey. Her hand tends to twitch towards a glass upon seeing the Luidaeg.