Tales of the Fae

**Tales of the Fae**is a Story Arc of the the Exteria Multiverse. It takes place in Troiani and follows the perspective of the noble Contractor Gemma Beatini. It is followed by A Silent Dominion.

## Main Arc

### A Very Strange Court

Troiani's head palace in the town of **Venetio**, governed by queen Anetta, is in turmoil. After Alyssa Auroria was exiled by order of the queen for no known reason, noblewoman and queen's confident Gemma Beatini is quite confused. Unable to understand what truly happens, she investigates alongside her friends Opalina Decora and Charlotte Clementia, other noblewomen of the court. The arrival of a young and quite arrogant oriental princess, Yasmina Al'Baya, in Venetio, further contributes to the political turmoil.

However, Gemma Beatini soon begins to feel a much more immediate problem. As she discusses with Celine Derilia, a young noblewoman from a ruined family, a mysterious presence attacks and slays all guards in the room, attempting to kill Gemma before Celine takes action, using a mysterious power to counteract it. The resulting clash sends Gemma inside another realm.

In that realm, Gemma finds her essence quickly eroded by the chaotic madness within ; but a mysterious catlike person introdusing himself as Dementero appears, offering to save Gemma in exchange for a part of her. Gemma immediately accepts, knowing there is no other way out. Once the pact is complete, Gemma is immediately saved and extracted from the chaotic realm.

### Race against the Clock

Gemma, owing her life to Celine, offers to pay her family's debts and educate her to become the perfect noblewoman. Celine in turn helps Gemma with understanding the situation. They are **Contractors**, bound to powerful, immensely evil entities known as Apocryphae, embodiments of madness that grant them power while slowly devouring them. Each of them have a rose with thirteen petals inscribed somewhere on their body ; as time goes on, the petals fade, and when the last is gone, the human belongs to the Apocrypha.

Celine tells Gemma that Opalina is a Contractor, her sickly physique due to her Apocrypha Albanivia draining her life away as only a few petals remain. Celine reveals her own power is the ability to transfer petals from person to person, so Gemma gives up a part of her time to save Opalina, perplexing Dementero unable to understand why one would want to hasten its own damnation.

Gemma investigates and finds out one more Contractor : Oceane Aria, a young, rebellious princess. Meanwhile, her dreams are visited by chaotic visions, and Alyssa seems to be behind them. Gemma finds Alyssa dying, her Apocrypha Dracomnus having devoured most of her mind, and saves her using Celine's powers. Alyssa reveals that the concentration of Contractors was no mere coincidence : Queen Anetta is a Contractor herself and her aim is to control all Contractors and Apocrypha in Troiani.

### The Frozen Queen

Gemma seeks to confront Anetta, but the latter is unfazed by Gemma's questions ; cold and merciless, she refuses to heed her words and rejects her, telling her Charlotte, a spy under her command, has everything under her control. Feeling deeply betrayed, Gemma brutally confronts Charlotte and breaks through her calm façade, before both women reconcile and unite with a common aim : to save Anetta from what happened to her.

Strange and mocking visits from the mysterious contractor Wendy attempt to sway Gemma into a murderous path, telling her the only way to save those she holds dear is to kill the rest, but Gemma refuses to compromise. She keeps investigating Anetta and understands what truly affects her ; she is dead, her Soul devoured and her Apocrypha using her body as a puppet. Gemma devises a plan for her and her allies, including Yasmina, Opalina and Oceane, to break through the throne room and give back her life to Anetta.

They manage to clash against the terrifyingly powerful Apocrypha Elsiemina and, sacrificing two petals each, manage to give her her entire consciousness back. Anetta promises to earn once again her court's trust and reveals a sinister truth : she lost all her petals while fighting another Contractor : the now exiled Swan Queen, Irena Beatini, a disgraced relative of Gemma's.

### Clash of Honors

The battle becomes deeply personal for Gemma as she seeks to put an end to Irena's plans for vengeance and destruction as the latter uses her Apocrypha Cygnatius to invade the castle and attempt to seize Anetta's throne ; however, Gemma's time is running short and she feels Dementero growing closer and closer to her, taking a part of his madness within to empower her. However, even after Irena defeated, and offered redemption, the battle is not over yet.

Wendy makes once again an appearance, and reveals she is not a Contractor but an Apocrypha herself - or rather, a subset of Apocryphae who kept their physical forms intact, an Apoqliphoth as she calls it herself. Raging against the world for making the Qliphoth - Apocryphae's previous forms - as they were and seeking to take revenge against both divinity and mankind, she calls upon the power of all Apocryphae and takes it for herself.

However, even without Dementero's immediate presence, a chaos-influenced Gemma manages to stop Wendy, before talking her out of her plan, eager to show her another way of rebelling against existence : to accept it and to change it from within, while protecting what truly matters. Reuniting with Dementero, her long lost companion, Wendy accepts Gemma's words and allows the contractors to live for a little longer, protecting them from further harm.

## Characters

* Gemma Beatini
* Irena Beatini
* Opalina Decora
* Yasmina Al'Baya
* Charlotte Clementia
* Alyssa Auroria
* Anetta
* Wendy
* Celine Derilla
* Oceane Aria
* Dementero

## Trivia

* This is the first storyline introducing Apocryphae.