Seylin

Seylin is a fictional character and a goblin from Clare B. Dunkle's fantasy series, The Hollow Kingdom. He appears in all three novels, and acts as the protagonist of the second one, Close Kin. Over the course of the series, he marries Emily Winslow, is taught magic by Marak Sixfinger, and goes on to teach Marak Catspaw and Aganir Ash, also known as Nir. He is also Catspaw's advisor.

Character background
Seylin debuts in The Hollow Kingdom, first appearing as a black cat by a bondfire with Marak Sixfinger. While Marak pursues Kate Winslow, Seylin, along with other goblins, helps him by guarding and spying on her. He and Marak are close because Marak teaches him magic. The goblin King also sympathises with Seylin because, even though he is a goblin, he looks like an elf. As a result, Seylin is very insecure and sensitive about his appearance. He gets teased by other children and ends up feeling more comfortable in the form of a cat.

When Kate and Emily move into the goblin kingdom, he and Emily become close friends. She defends him from the teasing of the other children and is able to convince him to get into trouble with her. By the time they are adults in Close Kin, Seylin is in love with her and tries to propose. She misunderstands his intentions and they get into an argument, which leads to him wanting to leave the kingdom to find who he believes are his real people, the elves. Marak knows Seylin is a goblin, but allows him to leave as long as he is allowed to watch over him using magic and promises to only let goblins interfere if Seylin is attacked. After he leaves, Emily discovers what happened and wants to go after him. Marak refuses to let her follow him, but does agree to allow her to leave the kingdom with the excuse of finding her human nature.

While away, Seylin finds a small band of elves living in a primitive camp, Sable, Thorn, Rowan, Willow, and Irina. He is disgusted with what he finds because Thorn runs the camp as a bully, abusing Sable and controlling everyone with threats. Sable, a woman who scarred herself to prevent her marriage to Thorn, is suspicious of Seylin and believes he is a danger to the camp and may lead goblins their way. He tries to help the elves and stands up for Sable when Thorn makes her sleep outside, but they don't seem to want his help. After Thorn robs a human farm, turns a human into a rabbit, and continues to torment Sable about her scars, Seylin decides to leave. Before he does, Thorn tries to make him help in killing the horse they stole and plan to eat. Just then, Emily and Richard find him. Seylin and Emily reunite and plan to marry, but before they can leave the camp, Willow hits Seylin with a stick, which provokes the goblins spying on them to come out. They put Thorn, Willow, and Rowan to sleep while they steal Sable and Irina. Once back in the goblin kingdom, Marak marries Emily and Seylin and makes Seylin Catspaw's tutor.

During their marriage, Seylin and Emily have eight children. Two of them appear or are mentioned in the series: Celia, who marries Tatto, and Dentwood, who marries Miranda's younger sister, Charlotte.

In the third book, In the Coils of the Snake, Seylin becomes Marak Catspaw's advisor. He is heavily involved in the goblins dealings with the new band of elves and tries to council Catspaw on how to best deal with them, as well as Miranda. Catspaw doesn't listen and the tensions between the goblins and the elves escalates when the elf lord, Nir, kidnaps Miranda after Catspaw breaks their engagement. When Sable dies, Catspaw blames Nir and plans to kill him. When he finds out that Nir left for a two week journey, he convinces Miranda to return to the goblin kingdom in exchange for Nir's safety. To figure out what is really going on with the elf lord, Seylin goes to visit Miranda and interviews her about him. Based on what she tells him, he discovers that Nir is really the elf King and Miranda is his bride. He reunites them and reveals everything in the Truce Circle. After everything calms down between the goblins and elves, Seylin begins to tutor Nir on how to be a king.