Hester Shaw

**Hester Shaw** was a scarred human assassin who bent on assassinating Thaddeus Valentine on Earth of the prime reality. After stopping London she was attacked and destroyed by an Authority force along with Tom Natsworthy.

## Biography

When she was around eight years old, Valentine was good friends with Pandora and always treated Hester kindly until the day that Pandora and Valentine both found something that Pandora knew Valentine wanted for his own dark purposes. They fought over it, and Valentine stabbed Pandora in front of Hester and slashed Hester's face when she tried to save her mother. Before dying, Pandora gave Hester a necklace with an eye symbol, and Hester escaped.

### Raised by a machine

After running away as a child, Shrike found her and raised her for years like his own. He had always noticed how sad Hester was, and he offered a solution to make the pain go away. Shrike revealed a robotic body he made for Hester, so that she can die and be reborn as a machine with no memory of the horrors of her childhood. She almost took him up on the offer until she heard about Valentine being close, so she headed off to hunt him down and left Shrike alone and angered by her deception.

She was even glimpsed by expeditions and surveys made by the Aesdherians and Vasudans.

### Intervening fates

After six months, Hester left to carry out revenge against Valentine.

Salzhaken was one of several mining towns joined together in a cluster to conduct business before being alerted to the great traction city London's approach. While the other towns quickly sped away, Salzhaken’s engines stalled, allowing London to close the gap between it and its prey. Salzhacken’s engines started just in time to cause London to give chase across the bed of the North Sea. Unfortunately, even after abandoning its huge payload of salt, Salzhacken’s attempt to flee was soon crippled by a combination of ravaged terrain and a lost wheel, which slowed it down long enough for London to capture it through its harpoon launchers. Unable to escape, Salzhacken was soon pulled towards the gaping jaws of London and into the city's Gut. While air traders managed to flee Salzhacken, the rest of its citizens were taken aboard the city for integration into London society. Among these was Hester Shaw, who attempted to assassinate Head Historian Thaddeus Valentine while the refugees were being processed.

### Surviving

After a few hours wandering through the Out-Country, a desolate area entirely inhabited by Traction Cities, Hester and Tom came across Scuttlebug, a town. At the slave market of Rustwater, Tom and Hester were rescued by Anti-Traction League agent Anna Fang. During the chaos, Tom and Hester are pursued by Shrike, whom Hester revealed she knew.

Hester and Tom traveled with Anna to the airborne installation of Airhaven. There, they met with other members of the Anti-Traction League. Shrike caught up with them and Airhaven was destroyed in the ensuing fire. Following a fierce skirmish, Shrike was fatally wounded, realising that Hester was in love with Tom. Before perishing, he made peace with Hester and freed her of her promise. Hester, Tom, and Anna then travel to the Shield Wall with the surviving Anti-Tractionists.

At the Shield Wall, Hester and Anna manage to made it to London and head to St. Paul's Catheral. Hester finds that her mother's necklace holds the crash drive containing a kill switch for MEDUSA. As Valentine and Anna engaged in a duel, Hester proceeded to shut down MEDUSA with a crash drive before the final blast can fully take the wall down. She then pursued a fleeing Valentine to his airship, where the Historian revealed to her that he was her father, having been in love with Pandora before her death. When Hester had a chance to kill Valentine, she chooses not to. She hops on the Jenny Haniver with Tom who then brought down Valentine's craft, sending it crashing to the ground only to be crushed. She laughed in victory.

### Death

They decided to travel in the Jenny Haniver to see the world, only to meet their fates from above them. The Authority, which had been battling the ISA and Alignment forces which are battling the Shivans, found the *Jenny* and made an intercept course. Their attack succeeded due to the Authority possessing the advantages. She was thrown out and one of the fighters were making a pass while intercepting a Shivan fighter. Eventually she was rammed out of the sky.

## Appendices

### Background information

Hester Shaw was portrayed by Hera Hilmar.

### External links

* Hester Shaw from the Mortal Engines wiki