Melisande

## Family Members

**Partner:** Paula

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## Biography

Melisande is introduced in Defender, the second book in the series. She is the Hive's Gold Commander, in charge of both Law Enforcement and Defense. Melisande came out of the Lottery of 2524, and became Gold Commander of the Hive in 2527, at the age of twenty-one.

She married Ambassador Paula around New Year in 2529, but just three days later, Keith's antics caused a series problem between the two of them and Paula along with her brother, Senior Ambassador Elliott had to work hard to repair the damage he had caused. They separated and didn't talk again until 2533 and soon after remarried, this time understanding the conflicts between their two careers.

### Early Years

Melisande had a serious health issue in her childhood that meant she had to fight for her life every day, and undergo a series of surgeries. That was how she acquired the mental toughness essential to her difficult position.

She is so musical that Amber sees her mind full of scintillating notes. Hers is also the only mind comparable in complexity to Lucas's that she has found, so she feels apprehensive that Lucas might be attracted to Melisande.

Despite being short, Melisande has great charisma and immediately dominates any group she joins.

### Work History

Milisande became Gold Commander in 2527 at age 21 because the previous Gold Commander retired and the two other people that were imprinted as Gold Commander rejected the promotion. Due to the decrease in the number of telepaths in the hive and the escalating problems that were happening.

As Gold Commander Milisande works closely with the Telepath Units and because of his malicious behavior, she often visits Keith's unit so he can easily find out whatever he wants from reading her mind.

She is also imprinted to fly a fighting plane, and clearly has no problems with being Outside. She has lead Hive England's defensive force when Joint Hive Treaty Enforcement required a force to assist with another hive.

## Summary

### Defender

Melisande comes to the unit and her mind is read by Amber, at Lucas's request, to ensure that she is not involved in the conspiracy they are unraveling. Lucas hands her a report on the threat to Operation Rainbow Cascade and his plan how to deal with it. She gives the code name Light Angel to the mission, which sticks in law enforcement circles. With Melisande's cooperation, the threatened explosion is averted and the Nosy myth strengthened in the eyes of all witnesses.

### Hurricane

Melisande orders Amber's whole unit to move to the Sea Farm to unravel a particularly difficult, deadly case, against Lucas's protests and doubts. She tells them about the importance of the mission so as to get Morton his life-saving surgery, but not the reason why Joint Hive Treaty Enforcement insists on having viable sea farms for all the hives. She goes with them as they arrive by plane, leading a whole wing of 48 fighter planes, and stays at the nearby base, following their progress, while the Unit deals with the criminal investigation.

### Borderline

Melisande has to juggle the competing demands of Amber and Keith, who is jealous of Amber and tries to harm her. The Gold Commander is more closely involved in the details of telepath relations and work than was obvious from the earlier books. Melisande is worried about a possible conflict between Mira and Amber, and about the incident when Tobias hurt Amber. It emerges she has been keeping bad news from their unit - that Keith was trying to steal Lucas. She supports Amber against Keith when he tries to "borrow" Buzz, but wants her to send Beckett back when Keith demands it. Amber has a confrontation with Melisande in which she threatens to strike if any of her people are taken and endangered by Keith, and gets her way.

### Adversary

Throughout the book, Melisande struggles to control Keith. Her ongoing conflict with Hive Politics is revealed to stem from a past conflict with the Hive Politics siblings during the North America Group negotiations, when Melisande failed to stop Keith from interfering in the business of Hive Politics, and from her prior marriage to Ambassador Paula, which failed as a result of the fallout from Keith's meddling. Melisande strongly objects to Hive Politics requests to allow Joint Hive Treaty Enforcement to interview Amber, and to allow Amber to leave the Hive in a Joint Hive Treaty aircraft to prove she is able to work as a telepath outside the Hive. Melisande remarries Ambassador Paula after the two resolve their differences.

## See also

* Gold Command
* Operation Rainbow Cascade
* Sea Farm (Hive England)

## References

### Bibliography

* Edwards, Janet. *Defender (Hive Mind 2)* (2017). Wallam-Crane Press. Kindle Edition
* Edwards, Janet. *Hurricane (Hive Mind 3)* (2018). Wallam-Crane Press. Kindle Edition
* Edwards, Janet. *Borderline (Hive Mind 4)* (2019). Wallam-Crane Press. Kindle Edition
* Edwards, Janet. *Adversary (Hive Mind 5)* (2023). Wallam-Crane Press. Kindle Edition