Esmerelda Northrup-Medina

Esmeralda Northrup-Medina is a Corax, the current CEO of the delivery company Hermetic Society of Swift Light.

Biography
The current head of the Hermetic Society of Swift Light (since renamed Helios Overnight Services — NASDAQ symbol HOSer), Esmerelda has been trying to give the job away, to no avail, for the last 14 years. During that time, she's also turned it into a highly successful publicly traded courier service that turns an obscene profit every year.

Esmerelda herself has retired from active service, leaving all but the most vital deliveries to her human and kinfolk employees. On those rare occasions when The Old Lady (as they respectfully call her — when her office door is closed) actually gets involved with the legwork, there's something truly serious going down. Past cargoes she's handled personally include Grand Klaives, blueprints of Pentex corporate HQ, weapons-grade plutonium and other, more important things.

Pushing 45 years of age, Esmerelda keeps herself fit enough for active service. Her black hair is kept short, and while she usually wears business suits, the dress code around the office is casual—just in case. You never know when a dissatisfied client or supernatural entity is liable to burst in, demanding a refund. That has happened twice, and the firm's offices have relocated twice as a result.

While custom demands that only one Corax work for the Hermetic Society of Swift Light at a time, Esmerelda has an open-door policy to others of her breed. Furthermore, she has been known to commission freelancers and subcontract runs to give other Corax a hand — or when she doesn't feel like risking one of her own people.

In a sense, Helios Overnight is just a sideline for Esmerelda. To no one's surprise, her real business is the collection and collation of information. Every time someone hires (or inquires about) Helios, Esmerelda creates an in-depth file on the client. These files are constantly updated and cross-referenced, and some fascinating tidbits of information have come to light that way. Most Corax know about Esmerelda's database, but none have ever seen it. That doesn't mean that none have tried, merely that none have pulled it off.

Esmerelda and her husband, Ivan, have one child, a boy named Diego. The kid's already been earmarked for the Change, and many Corax believe that, contrary to her protests, Esmerelda has decided that Helios Overnight will be handed down to Diego as an inheritance. While there's no custom specifically preventing this sort of thing, it's never been an issue because before Esmerelda, no one's managed to hang onto the Hermetic Society for more than a couple of years.