When the Mermaids Cry

**When the Mermaids Cry**is a Story Arc of the the Exteria Multiverse. It takes place in Avalon and follows the perspective of the young heiress Ortensia Bolton. This storyline follows a Chessboard narration.

## Main Arc

### Act 1 - The Devil and the Tower

Ortensia, a young woman living with her cold, uncaring parents, and raised by her butler, is forced to assist to a family reunion where her father Norbert Bolton has sought to marry her forcefully to Lancelot Crawford, son of Norbert's occult-crazed old friend Aleister Crawford. During the reunion, Norbert proclaims his desire to summon the Lady of Shalott, an ancient being, and make her his through an ancient ritual.

His proclamation is met with incredulity, even further where he presents a riddle, a poem meant to represent Shalott's unsealing. This poem asks for eleven souls to die in exchange for Shalott's revival. Although this seems at first to be only an absurdity, the party is even more unsettled with the arrival of the mysterious Cheria Bolton, who seeks to take the Bolton family for herself, further destabilizing the reunion.

### Act 1 - Faerie Murders

As Ortensia ends up enjoying Lancelot's presence and learns to know him, screams notify Ortensia that something has happened. Her father is found in his locked study, dead and with a sun-shaped blade in his heart; soon after, a perfectly closed room houses Aleister and his spouse Vanda Crawford, both struck death with a star-shaped dagger. Finally, Alisha, the young servant, is found in the living room with a moon-shaped knife inside her.

Panic begins to torment the guests, as they slowly realize a madman is among them. As they begin to panic, something, an invisible, absurd presence, starts to pick on each of them, one by one, until only Ortensia and Lancelot remain. when Stephen Bolton seems to have survived, he is ultimately killed in front of the pair, as the Lady of Shalott, the ancient fairy queen, materializes.

### Act 2 - The Purpose of the Chessboard

Ortensia, refusing to believe in a fairy-like individual, challenges her and attempts to prove that she is a false existence, but Shalott's defense seems to be indestructible, as she refutes Ortensia's claims, destroying her theses until she manages to makes Ortensia admit to a second round with her. Shalott readies new crimes, seeking to prove herself and show her true nature as a magical being.

In said second round, Ortensia investigates her own and discovers that Norbert is obsessed with seizing Shalott due to "possessing her once", making her suspect that Shalott is in fact her mother Kathleen Bolton. Further investigating, she learns that mysterious photograph Wolfram Rowley has something to hide, and that Cheria is driven by vengeance over Norbert, her true father, who raped her mother.

### Act 2 - To Find the Truth

A series of murders happens once more - Stephen, his fiancee Justine Dormouth, and Kathleen herself, are killed in three intricated closed rooms. However, this trick ultimately fails when Ortensia realizes that the living room contains a secret passage - which she manages to open by deciphering Norbert's ritual and finding an old lullaby hidden within.

There, Ortensia uncovers the truth: Norbert kidnapped and raped Kathleen at a very young age. Soon after, she was seduced by Wolfram, who took advantage of her, leading to the birth of twins, Ortensia and Alisha. Taking advantage of this, Norbert imprisoned Alisha and raped her during her childhood, leading to the broken Kathleen and Alisha uniting under the common mantle of Shalott.

### Act 3 - A Miracle is Born

Upon discovering this, Ortensia, maddened by the revelation, slices away her own eyes in order to hide from the truth and protect Shalott's existence, and is granted by overseer Lily Evershire the miracle of a last chessboard, where she would have the chance to write her own story, protecting Shalott, Kathleen and Alisha, as well as Lancelot and Cheria at the same time.

Ortensia briefly takes Alisha's place as Norbert's prisoner in order to be acknowledged as "Shalott", allowing her to pass for dead in an elaborate last board, where she, Alisha and Kathleen manage to create a perfect situation, facing off against Lancelot and Cheria's arguments. Ultimately victorious, the complete Shalott is granted life, and mastery over the board, as the group is brought by Lily to the Cheshire Isle.

## Characters

* Norbert Bolton, Lord of the Bolton Household
* Kathleen Bolton, wife of Norbert.
* Stephen Bolton, son of Norbert and Kathleen.
* Justine Dormouth, Stephen's fiancee
* Ortensia Bolton, daughter of Norbert and Kathleen.
* Aleister Crawford, friend of Norbert.
* Vanda Crawford, wife of Aleister.
* Lancelot Crawford, son of Aleister and Vanda.
* Wolfram Rowley, photograph.
* Brendan Kennedy, friend of Norbert.
* Claudius, butler.
* Johan, servant.
* Alisha, servant.
* Cheria Bolton, mysterious guest.
* The Lady of Shalott
* Lily Evershire, overseer.

## Riddle

The riddle of the Lady is the following poem, written in pentameter.

*"Lady of the Lake, of the faerie crown*

*Far from the world, in thy tower confined*

*Reign'st thou upon the souls the water cries*

*My heart I shall offer for thy freedom*

*Lady of the Lake, in thy mourning gown*

*Phantoms of foam and blood will break thy chains*

*Souls offered, to free the caged mystery*

*Misery will befall thee, lon’ly Sun*

*Lament thus, for the Twin Stars to die soon*

*Fated to bring the Moon to a last rest*

*Remind seven souls of the sins undone*

*Mirror, break thy merciless hold at last*

*Do these eleven souls satiate thy still ?*

*Reminisce, be reborn, o Shalott Queen*

*Siren of the deep, thus I pray to you*

*Lady of the Lake, mercy on my Soul !"*

One can observe that the first syllables of each word represent a musical note : La, Fa, Re, Mi, La, Fa, Sol, Mi, La, Fa, Re, Mi, Do, Mi, Si, La.

## Trivia

* This storyline is a Chessboard narrative inspired from the **Umineko no Naku Koro ni** franchise.