Emily is the Healer mage, whose magical element is water. Her blue-green, flower-shaped "rainbow jewel" gives her the incredible powers and abilities of healing, empathy, ESP, seeing magical auras, magic-weaving and mind-control. Her jewel changed to a rainbow heart after she bonded with her paladin Indigo, a shape-shifting power crystal. As a healer, she shares a bond with all animals, but is especially close to Ariel, a snowy owl, Phel, a fairy creature, Lorelei, the unicorn, Riannan, a unicorn princess, and Ozzie, an elf-turned-ferret.
At the beginning of the series, Emily has just moved to Stonehill with her mother, a recently-divorced veterinarian. Although nervous about starting her new life, she soon finds comfort, companionship, and purpose in helping the magical animal refugees at Ravenswood. Her healing powers are incredibly strengthened and enhanced to even higher levels by her love of animals and musical abilities. In Secret of the Unicorn, she helps the unicorn Lorelei re-grow her horn, and becomes a surrogate mother and teacher to a herd of baby unicorns in Song of the Unicorns. She finds a paladin and discovers new mind control and magic-weaving powers in Heart of Avalon.
Emily is a kind, helpful, and easygoing person, but can be shy, timid, and lacking in self-confidence. During Adriane and Kara's fights, she tries to be the peacemaker and avoids taking sides. In the end of book 12, it is evident that Marlin, the mer-prince of Aquatania, has romantic interest in her. One of her fears is that she won't be able to become a Level Two mage, due to not having a bond with a specific animal, failing to save the web and losing herself to the darkess. In book 11, Dark Mage, Emily falls under the spell of the Spider Witch and ultimately fulfills the prophcey by becoming the Dark Mage by "killing" Ozzy. As a dark mage, she has also gained some new magical abilities (mostly offensive). With the help of her friends, she's freed from the Spider Witch's influence in the final novel, Full Circle, and we also learn she didn't truly become the Dark Mage because she didn't really kill Ozzy.
Appearance wise, Emily is (at least depicted in the graphic novels) quite short, with red curly hair and green eyes. As for her wardorbe, she usually prefers to wear comfortable clothing. However, this shouldn't be mistaken for lack of fashion sense, since she is shown to have one.