Short story: Faes

The faes' sudden return in the modern world sent ripple of shock all over the world. It gets worse when people realise that they can get contaminated with their magic and die—or in a few cases, awaken with the same power as the faes. Estelle is the first such survivor, and in their panic the French government beg the faes to take her away from them.
Estelle is now forced to endure the faes' deadly political games while having to better the relationship between them and the home country that has rejected her.

The world

The faes re-appearance

The faes had been hiding their realms for centuries, but they have suddenly reappeared into the modern world alongside their magic. They live in a continent floating above the Atlantic ridge, in between the Americas and Europe-Africa.
When their continent reappeared, the USA tried to investigate and intimidate them with their navy and aviation, but powerful wards prevented them from getting too close to the continent. There are currently a lot of speculations worldwide on whether the wards would stop a nuclear bomb and what effect a bomb would have if it exploded against the wards—would it block all of the radioactivity or let it through? Would the subsequent poisoning of the ocean affect their coast or would the wards stop it too? A lot of people in the countries with nuclear power are trying to pressure their government to send a nuclear bomb at the faes because they are panicking.
The faes have sent spies to the human countries to steal designs and explanation for computers and the Internet. They have used thes to replicate them with magic to have their own Internet network, and have started to connect it to the human one.

Government

This continent is divided into several countries, each ruled by a fae prince or princess who have deep seated rivalry with each other. Each country has its own court, centred around their prince, and they send envoys to each other's court.
A queen is the religious leader of all faes but does not have that much power. If she pushes too much against the princes, they will defy her and she will get humiliated by their lack of obedience. On the other hand, if she is clever and manipulative enough, she can have a great impact on politics.

Fae biology

The faes have a humanoid appearances. They are considered "extremely beautiful", but there are debates between humans about whether this is due to their magic and glamours twisting minds even through photographs or if there is a real differences between species. They are longer-lived than humans depending on the strength of each individual's magic and can reach 500 years.

Magic

The faes generate strong magic, and they are able to infuse it in the ground of where they live to make their continent magical too. Because of the wards isolating them, the rest of earth got slowly starved off magic over the centuries of their disappearance. Now that they are back, magic is starting to seep back everywhere. Estelle is the first to get "infected" by it—it not only allows her to use magic but also to generate it on her own.
The faes can lies, but they also can hear some dissonance in the voice of anyone who does so, and so it is considered extremely rude. They can use magic to understand other languages and make it seems as if they are speaking in them too.

Character

Estelle

Estelle is a scientist and was at a conference in Nantes in the west of France when she got "poisoned" with fae magic. There had been a hurricane forming over the Atlantic and the fae continent, and its powerful winds carried their magic to the western coast of France and Spain. Estelle got injured in a car accident and her body instinctively gathered the ambient magic and made use of it to heal her, subsequently fully absorbing it in her body and transforming her. Other people also injured in the accidents tried to do the same but the magic killed them more quickly than their injuries.
The emergency health service and the police saw it happening and spread the news. French people then pressured their government to send her away to the faes so that she would not contaminate the rest of them. Estelle is very bitter about this and does not feel much incline to exert herself in advocating for better relationships between France and the faes as they are all demanding of her...

The fae prince

He is the ruler of the fae country standing directly opposite to France, and so he was already in contact with the French government before they asked him to take in Estelle. He accepted as this was an opportunity to lord over the other fae courts that he is the first prince with a magical human.
This triggers a temporary alliance of the other fae courts, with their envoys present at his court and scheming against him and Estelle. Killing her would sour his relationships with France and make prince lose face...