"I heard the sound of voices in the night

Spell-bound, there was someone calling

I looked around, no one was in sight

Pulled down, and I kept on falling…"

- "Street of Dreams" by Blackmore's Night

Chapter Two: Setting the Course

Lilandra strode into her private audience chamber with her cloak billowing behind her, and Gladiator following her like a silent shadow. She wanted to get this nonsense over with so that she could get back to Charles. The only reason she was putting up with it was because Araki and Oracle served her well, and they deserved an explanation. She was Empress, and she did not answer to them, nor was she obligated to inform them of her comings and goings, although she usually did, just so that if some problem arose while she was gone, they would either have the authority to handle it or they would be able to contact her.

However, the urgency of Charles' cry for help – and the nature of their bond – had made that impossible this time, which was the only reason she was willing to answer the "summons" – framed as a request – from her Councilors. Either way, this would not take long.

Her two Councilors were waiting for her, and they bowed as she ascended the low dais at the far end of the room and took a seat on her "throne". Unlike her main audience chamber, this room was designed for comfort, not to inspire awe or fear. In this room, she could meet with small groups – of no more than ten – which made it ideal for diplomatic meetings with allies and envoys, away from the eyes of her Court.

"Empress, we are glad to see that you are well," Araki began. "We were worried when we could not find you." There was a hint of censure in his voice, although he would never openly rebuke her.

"It was only the fact that we could not locate Gladiator – and the fact that he had not called out the Imperial Guard – that made us check to see if your star cruiser was still here," Oracle added. "We had not heard that there was trouble in the Empire."

Lilandra was not accustomed to apologizing – as Empress, it was a habit that she could not afford. While she was always polite to the folk who served her, apologies could make a ruler look weak and ineffectual. She was not about to offer an apology to her Councilors, but she would give them an explanation. There would be no hiding the fact that Charles was being tended to by the Royal Healers, after all.

"I received a call for help from the X-Men. Their need was quite urgent, and I do owe them a debt," she told them calmly.

Araki frowned. "The debt was paid with the technology that was sent to them."

"The debt has not been repaid. I owe them my life and my throne. A few paltry pieces of technology do not even begin to cover that," Lilandra replied. Her patience with the formal word games was quickly ebbing, not that she had much in the way of patience with such formality to begin with.

"What was so urgent that the Earthman Xavier felt the need to contact you?" Araki asked. The only way that the X-Men could contact her was through Charles and their bond, because Aerie was far out of communication range with Earth. Both of her Councilors were aware that she and Charles were able to communicate telepathically across the distance. They knew that she and Charles shared a link, but because Lilandra had never explained the full extent of the link, they didn't realize the true power of what their Empress shared with the "primitive" Earthman.

"The Earthman Xavier had been attacked and was dying," she briskly stressed the title Araki had bestowed on him – which some might consider a slur, although her Councilor had not intended it as such – as she spoke. "He knew that our technology was the only thing that could save him, and as I owe them my life…" She rose to her feet, intending to end this farce and return to Charles' side. "If that is all that requires my attention, I am going to see to my guest."

Both of her Councilors blinked in surprise. "Xavier and his X-Men are here?" Araki asked. "But why?"

"So that the healers may save his life," Lilandra answered. "He will need extensive treatment, for his mind was badly damaged – but Charles is the only one who returned with me. His people are still needed on their world."

"I thought that he had chosen not to leave Earth, Majestrix?" Oracle commented.

"That was before he was nearly killed and his mind destroyed," Lilandra explained, her patience just about gone. "I could not refuse him, and not just because of the debt I owe. The lidhje shpirt would not permit it."

There was stunned silence from all three of her advisors. Although Gladiator did not sit on her Council, she often sought out his advice, for he had seen much in his service to the throne of Shi'ar. This was the first time she had given the bond its ancient name in their hearing – and they knew the ramifications as well as she did.

"Empress…" Araki exchanged a look with the other two. "Your link to the Earthman Xavier is strong, but to name it the lidhje shpirt in the ancient tongue…"

Lilandra's temper – rarely seen – snapped. She had already spent a full day dealing with business related to the empire – and that was before she had received Charles' cry for help. Then she had undergone an intense psychic rapport with him twice – once when she had received his initial cry, and then again when she was helping him bid farewell to his X-Men. She had little energy and no patience left.

"Should I refuse to name it what it is, and deny it when it exists?" Her tone was coldly acidic. She rarely yelled, even when her temper was roused. Instead, her voice took on an arctic chill and she would verbally flay any fool who approached her unwisely – including her councilors. Everything in her life was about duty and sacrifice, except the bond she and Charles shared.

I will not deny this any longer! "The bond I share with Charles is not a temporary link formed by the strength of our shared telepathic powers! Even when we were a galaxy apart, I could feel him in the back of my mind. If that is not a lidhje shpirt, though undeclared, nothing is."

There is no reason now to deny it. Charles is my mik shpirt, now and forever. But until he is recovered enough to understand, I must say nothing to him about it. I have no reason to believe that he will not accept it, but that will be his choice, and before I make any formal declarations to the Empire, I will be certain he understands!

Araki bowed in the face of her anger. "Forgive me, Empress." He took a few steps back.

Lilandra closed her eyes and took a deep breath to calm down. Araki is only voicing caution, which is his duty, she reminded herself. "You are forgiven. That will be all." She descended the dais. She was going back to Charles.

Gladiator followed her out of the audience chamber as she headed towards the healers' wing of the palace. That was where they would have taken Charles until he was well enough that he wouldn't need constant monitoring or life support. While she wanted him with her in her own chambers, for the time being that wouldn't be possible.

She was preoccupied and at first didn't notice Oracle's quiet presence. When she finally realized that the other psychic had accompanied her, she sent the other woman a weary look that was half exasperation and half expectation.

"Empress, does the Earthman Xavier know of the true meaning of your bond?"

"He knows only that we share a powerful link, but does not know the full meaning, nor does he understand the ramifications of it. Until now, I deemed it was wiser not to speak of it for the sake of the Empire." Yet another sacrifice I have made in the name of duty. If I had confided the full truth to Charles at the beginning…would it have changed anything? Would he have come with me and stayed by my side, helping me save my Empire?

She would never know.

"But by the ancient laws and sacred writings…"

"I know, Oracle. But the effects to the Empire, especially in the immediate aftermath of my brother's death and my coronation are exactly the reason why I chose not to say anything."

"What will you do?" Oracle asked.

"What future do you see?" Lilandra countered. While her psychic powers were telepathic and empathic in nature, Oracle was telepathic as well as being a true clairvoyant, and often times could use her powers to see into the future. That was the reason that Lilandra had appointed her to the Council from her place in the Imperial Guard. She could often see different pathways, depending upon what choices Lilandra made.

Oracle closed her eyes for a moment and when she opened them they had turned a solid, pale, translucent blue. "The future is in shadow, my Empress. There is no way to see what may come, for a shroud has been cast." She closed her eyes again, and when she opened them they had returned to their normal soft pink. "I cannot advise you through the use of my powers."

Lilandra sighed, but she wasn't that surprised. Normally, the more important a decision that she had to make, the less use Oracle's powers were. The fact that the young woman could not see anything told her that whatever she decided to do, it could very well determine the fate of everything – including her empire. But that had been something that she had expected.

What will I do? If the sacred writings speak the truth of the lidhje shpirt"For now all that I can do is see to it that he receives the best of care. The attack against his mind has imperiled his life, Oracle." And I must pray that not speaking of the bond has kept it merely to a telepathic link – although I fear that is not the case.

Together, the three of them entered the healers' wing. Charles had been placed in a bed at the far end of the wing, hooked up to a monitor that was much more sophisticated than the equipment the X-Men used. Not only did the device serve to monitor his life signs, but it could function as life support if his body suddenly failed.

At the moment however, it appeared to be acting merely in a monitoring capacity. Her beloved appeared to be asleep, his features calm and peaceful, and his breathing slow, deep, and at ease. Her telepathic rapport with him from earlier seemed to have stabilized his condition enough that he wasn't in danger of dying at any moment the way he had been. Either that or the healers at the palace had found some treatment that had pulled him further from the brink of death.

"How is he?" Lilandra moved to the side of the bed and picked up one of Charles' hands as she took a seat on the edge of the bed. With her free hand, she gently caressed his face, although this time he did not respond to her touch.

Brith'ta had been sitting beside the bed as he had promised until she approached. Now he rose to his feet and bowed. "We were able to move him from the ship to this bed without incident, Majestrix."

"Does he sleep?"

"Once we had him settled in and the monitoring system attached, he slipped into this state, and we have not been able to rouse him."

"Empress!" Another healer (Lilandra was not certain, but she believed his name was I'zra) who was stationed in the palace rather than on her star cruiser, approached from a door a few yards away before she could ask Brith'ta to clarify his answer to her question. "Your guest is resting comfortably, and we've begun analyzing the device that Brith'ta says did this to him." The healer shook his head. "For a primitive device, it was highly efficient, I was surprised to note."

Lilandra nodded. "All that a weapon must do is perform within its design specifications." She turned to the others, including Gladiator. "You are dismissed. I will be staying here."

Oracle, Gladiator, and Brith'ta bowed before they left the room. The other healer checked the monitor and made several adjustments before he turned to the Empress. "Please excuse me, Empress. I wish to return to the analysis."

She nodded silently and waited until he was gone before she looked back down at Charles. "I pledge you, Charles. We will find a way to help you. You are my mik shpirt, and I want you to learn what that means – just as I want you to be with me for the rest of our lives," she whispered. She raised the hand that she held to her cheek and pressed it there, wishing that he was conscious and could touch her.


Later…

"My empress?" A voice said softly from behind her.

It was very late at night and the soft voice was the only sound in the healers' wing. Lilandra blinked and turned to look in the direction of the call. Brith'ta was standing there, a look of concern on his face. It took her a moment to put a name to his face however, she was so tired. "Healer Brith'ta?"

"Empress, will you not consider getting some rest?" he whispered, approaching her with a slight bow. "You appear to be exhausted, and I know you used a great deal of your energy when you were in rapport with him. You cannot help him by exhausting yourself, and if the healers need to you reach out to him using the lidhje shpirt, you will have no energy."

"I do not wish to leave him alone," she replied, reaching out to caress Charles' cheek again. She'd been sitting here in the healers' wing for hours, but there seemed to have been no change in his condition. Unlike earlier, her touches had not awoken him. Part of her was relieved at that, since he probably needed sleep in order to heal, but part of her wished that he had woken so that she could talk to him.

"I'll stay with him, Empress," Brith'ta promised. As she turned to look at him he met her eyes squarely. "I'm a trained healer, Empress. This will not be the first time I've sat watch over one of my patients. If there is any change at all, I'll send for you, I pledge it."

She hesitated further. Somehow, it didn't seem right that she should return to her luxurious rooms to sleep while her beloved lay in the healers' wing alone with only a stranger for company. She was weary, but…

The morning would bring another round of diplomatic and imperial matters that she would have to attend to, and she would most likely be kept busy all day. It wasn't easy to rule an empire the size of hers, and she probably wouldn't get to be with Charles again until the evening, unless his condition worsened again. She wanted to spend as much time with him as she could, since she couldn't simply abandon her responsibilities to sit with him constantly. Brith'ta had told her that Charles would have a long recovery once they worked out a treatment for him.

"Empress," Brith'ta knelt in front of her so that he could look up into her eyes. "I understand how important he is to you. I will not leave him alone."

Finally, she nodded. "Agreed. You will send for me…?"

"At the least change, Empress, whether positive or negative, I swear it."

She nodded again and rose to her feet. "Thank you. I will be back in the morning."

"Of course, Empress," Brith'ta stayed kneeling on the ground until she had turned and walked out of the room. Then he rose to his feet and walked over to the monitor and studied the readouts. From what he could tell, his Empress' mik shpirt's condition hadn't changed since that afternoon, which was both a good sign and a bad one. The good news was that their technology was keeping him alive and stable. The bad news was that the rapport that she had shared with him earlier had apparently only worked as a temporary measure.

Brith'ta had seen a lot of injuries in the time that he had served as a healer. He had been stationed with the Empress from before she had become Empress, back when she had been Princess-Grand Admiral Lilandra, although at that time he had merely been an apprentice healer himself. Yet, in all that time he had never seen quite as unique an injury as the one that this Earthman had sustained. He honestly didn't know where they would even begin to look for a treatment for it. Whatever the madman who had done this to the Empress' beloved had had in mind…it was cruel on a level that Brith'ta had never seen before.

He sighed. If the Earthman Xavier died…the wrath of the Shi'ar Empire would fall upon the man who had done this…and not even the Earthman's X-Men would be able to stop the Empress from seeking her rightful revenge.


Lilandra retreated directly to her sleeping chamber as she entered her rooms. It had been a long day, and despite her determination to stay with Charles, she knew that Brith'ta had been right. She was exhausted, and she would do Charles no good if she drained all of her energy and had nothing left to give him if they needed to use the lidhje to help him. The only thing that had truly convinced her to listen to him however was the strong sense that she had of Charles in her mind. It was stronger than it had ever been since the last time she had been on Earth – back when the Dark Phoenix had been a threat to the universe. The strength of his presence in her mind was enough to reassure her that if something were to go wrong, she would know it almost immediately.

She quickly readied herself for bed before she slipped beneath the silken sheets, wishing yet again that she was not going to bed alone. She had had ample opportunities to take a lover before now, but her love for Charles had prevented her from doing so. He was the only man who had ever fascinated her, the only one she had ever desired. As Empress she could ill afford the rumors and gossip that would abound if she simply took lovers and did not choose a consort and produce an heir.

With the exception of one brief period in her life, she had always gone to bed alone, and it had always been Charles whom she had wanted beside her. It was yet another sacrifice that she had made for her empire – but she had known that the time would soon come when her Councilors would begin insisting she consider choosing a consort. The empire could not afford not to have an heir-apparent, or ideally, more than one. Unless she had been prepared to tell them about the lidhje shpirt, she would eventually have been forced to cede to their wishes and choose someone who could perform the duty of helping to give her an heir, no matter how repulsive that idea was to her.

There were many fine young Shi'ar males who would serve admirably as a Consort for their Empress. She had spoken with many of them at diplomatic functions and receptions, and she knew that each of them had done his best to try to win her attentions and considerations. None of them had stirred so much as a flutter of desire in her heart the way that the mere thought of Charles did. Even if she had chosen one of them, they would never have been Emperor and co-ruler alongside her. That was a right that was reserved exclusively for the man who held her heart – Charles Xavier. Fortunately, as Empress she had the right to decide if her chosen consort would share the right of rule and title of Emperor-Majestor with her. It was a provision that had been written into Shi'ar law at the very beginning of the empire in order to keep a political marriage from turning into a way for important families to manipulate the consort into granting them more power.

There had been very few of her ancestors who had wed for love, so for the most part, the position of Consort had been just that. But there had been a few, including her mother and father, who had shared equally in the responsibility of ruling their empire, even though it was her father who had been the rightful heir. As a child, she had dreamed of having a marriage like the one her parents had shared, but had resigned herself to the likelihood that she would be forced to make an alliance marriage – and that was long before she had become Empress. As the youngest child, the odds that she would be the one ruling the Empire had been slim. Yet here she was, the supreme ruler of the Shi'ar Empire, in love with a primitive Earthman – one who would likely be considered completely unsuitable as her Consort, let alone co-ruler and Emperor.

She could afford to give Charles the right of becoming Emperor-Majestor because he had absolutely no ties to her people except for her. He was completely neutral and knew very little about her people and her empire, so he would have an unbiased view. There would be no grappling or scrambling for power among his relatives, because he had none. A marriage between them would be one of love, not political ambition. It would scandalize her Councilors if she did so, but she had never particularly cared.

She sighed. There would be time in the future to convince her Council that Charles could make a good Emperor and Consort – once he was well. Her Council advised her, they did not rule her. Ultimately, she was the final and supreme authority, and if she chose to take Charles as her husband, that was her right. He certainly could not be a worse choice than some of the so-called consorts that had married her predecessors. His people might be "primitive" by the technology standards of the Empire, but their race simply wasn't as old as the Shi'ar.

Given time, the Earth folk could easily overcome their difficulties and unite – and if they did they could make a formidable ally to any empire with whom they chose to support. That was the reason for the unofficial treaty between the Shi'ar, Kree, and Skrulls – Earth was a valuable planet, for more than one reason, and it would be interesting to see how they developed in the future. Of course, marrying Charles could bring up political problems with the other two empires…

Lilandra sighed again and rolled over. Her thoughts were unusually serious tonight, but she knew exactly why. Normally these moments before slumber were her one chance to relax and put aside the burdens that being the Shi'ar Empress placed on her. But tonight she could not relax. It was her mind's way of keeping her from dwelling on the fact that the man she loved was hovering near death, although he was stable for the moment. But there was no guarantee that he would remain that way.

But I must sleep, or I will be useless tomorrow, she told herself firmly. There is a great deal that I must attend to tomorrow. There is the diplomatic reception in the evening for Lord K'trell, which I cannot put off or neglect to attend. I have a High Council session tomorrow, and that also cannot be delayed. I will need to meet with my secretaries and discuss having them work more closely with Araki to sort through the matters that he and Oracle can handle, and the ones I personally must attend to. I intend to be with Charles every step of the way through his recovery, and I cannot afford to spend hours each day dealing with minor matters that Araki or Oracle could handle.

Firmly putting Charles out of her mind, she concentrated on a meditative discipline that was designed to force her to relax. If she could calm and center her turbulent thoughts, sleep would come that much more easily. It took much longer than it should have, but she finally felt herself beginning to relax, and once relaxation came, sleep followed quickly.


She was cold, and it was very dark. The darkness was pressing in on her, as if it was fighting to steal her away, to trap her from the light that she so desperately craved.

She looked around frantically, but she might as well have been blind for all the good it did her. Wherever she was, there was not as much as a spot of light that could be seen. The darkness – the air around her – tasted thick yet cold. It was so cold it actually made her gasp and struggle to breathe – which only made her panic all the worse.

Where was she? What was this hellhole? There must be something, somewhere that she could use to orient herself…yet there was nothing. She tried to focus on something familiar…faces, names…but nothing came to her. She could not remember anything. Who was she? Surely she must be loved and cared for by someone? Surely she must have interacted with someone in her past? Her entire life couldn't have been spent in this oppressive, icy darkness!

Lilandra…

That voice…she knew it from somewhere! But where? Who was it? Where was it coming from?

Lilandra…are you there?

Lilandra…was that her name? Her identity? The name was so foreign…but something about it was familiar as well.

"I am here!" she tried to call out, but again the icy coldness stole her breath, muting her and leaving her gasping.

Lilandra? So cold…alone…dark…help me!

That voice was so tortured…so frightened! She wanted to help, but how could she when she couldn't see, couldn't feel anything except cold?

Lilandra!

She woke with a start, a cry of fear and panic leaving her lips as she realized that darkness was pressing all around her. She took several heaving gasps, but this time the air was warm and pleasantly scented with the barishte that grew in small bowls of water all around the room. The scent was rich, yet soothing.

The scent helped her to place her location. "Lights," she ordered, and a moment later the lights came on dimly in response to her voice. She looked around for a moment, realizing that she was safe in her own bed, before she drew her legs up and wrapped her arms around herself, trembling in reaction to the dream.

The dream…

"Charles!" she cried as she suddenly realized that the bond was weaker than it had been when she had gone to sleep. Once again it was no longer the warm, steady presence that it had been. Now it was flickering and shuddering, as if it was on the verge of breaking. Her distress – her dream – was a direct result of their bond weakening.

Without a second thought she flung the covers of her bed aside, snatched up her robe and threw it over her shoulders as she raced for the door. She flung the door open so hard that she actually startled Manta, whose ability to see in darkness made her an ideal night-time guard outside the Empress' chambers.

"Empress? Are you all right?" Manta asked as Lilandra raced past her without stopping. The confused bodyguard hesitated before following Lilandra down to the healers' wing.

Lilandra burst through the doors and raced down to where Brith'ta was still seated beside Charles' bed, calmly studying a small, portable data reader. He looked up, startled, as his Empress charged towards him, and quickly stood. "Empress? What is wrong?"

"Why didn't you contact me?" Lilandra demanded, stopping at the bedside and seizing Charles' hand.

Brith'ta frowned. "There was no reason to, Empress. Nothing has changed since you left a few hours ago. He is still deeply unconscious."

"No! Something is wrong!" Lilandra snapped. "I can sense it! Our bond is weak, almost completely beyond my ability to sense!"

Brith'ta moved over to the monitor and studied the readouts. "According to this, nothing has changed, Empress. He has not stirred since we brought him here."

Lilandra shut out his protests and confused face as she closed her eyes and almost flung herself into Charles' mind. Her psychic self raced along the bond, trying to reach him, to pull him back from whatever was pulling him away from her.

Charles! Charles, it is Lilandra! I am here. Come back to me, Charles! Stay with me! Recklessly, she dove as deeply into his mind as she could, following the tatters and navigating the disrupted neural paths, trying to find the part of his mind that was him, the part that her people referred to as the thelb, the part that made a person who they were. It was deeper than the soul, deeper than the mind. It was that part of a person that was joined into the lidhje shpirt. She finally found him and reached out for him, filling his mind with light to drive away the darkness.

Where…who? A faint, whispered cry reached her, and she knew it was him. Leave me alone! He started to fight her, frightened by her bright, fiery presence in the darkness that was devouring him. She refused to let him go, holding onto him with all her strength.

I am here, Charles. I have you! she told him as she reached out to him and wrapped him inside her, gently guiding him back, pulling him closer to her. She poured her psychic energy into him, and into their bond, trying to strengthen and heal what had been tattered and weakened, to give him someplace where he could rest in safety without being cast aside into the closest approximation of true oblivion that she could imagine. She used her empathic powers to pour her love into him, allowing him to feel comfort and peace so that he would recognize her and stop fighting.

Lilandra? She felt him relax as he finally realized just who held him so tightly, keeping him safe and secure, and as soon as he relaxed, so did she, confident that she had him and he wasn't going to slip away from her again.

Yes, Charles. I am so sorry I was not here. I will not leave you again, she assured him. Rest, my love. Let my strength be your light and your safety.

Lilandra… This time there was no fear in his tone, only comfort and peace.

I am here, my beloved. Just rest. Rest and heal. You are safe.

The fear and panic that had been pounding at her mind - that had pulled her into that nightmare - slowly began to ebb as she held him cradled and allowed her psychic energy to act as a "light" for him, designed to comfort and protect him from the darkness. Finally, she felt him "relax" and ease back into a "sleep" of sorts. She made certain that he was secure before she released him and drifted back to her own conscious mind, although she continued to channel psychic energy to him to act as that "light" and to allow him to feel her as if she was holding his "hand" and keeping him safe and supported.

She slowly opened her eyes to find Brith'ta, Oracle, Araki, Gladiator, and the other healer I'zra surrounding her. She swayed slightly, drained again by her intense use of psychic energy, and Gladiator quickly helped her into a chair.

"Empress, what happened?" Araki asked.

"I – I don't know how to explain it. Charles was…he was so distressed. His fear and his panic leaked into my dreams somehow and pulled me along with it. I could feel everything he was feeling, as if I was the one feeling it," she murmured.

"Empress, he is not feeling anything right now," I'zra said. "He is so deeply unconscious, and his mind is in such disarray, there is no way he could feel anything strongly enough to process it."

"No…Charles is still there. His thelb was what was so frightened," Lilandra replied absently. "I don't know how I was able to sense it, but I just knew that something was wrong when I woke and the fear didn't ebb."

She took several steadying breaths. Why did I leave? I knew that he would need me! If it hadn't been for that nightmare…I would have lost him forever. His mind would have been gone beyond repair, even if his body was intact. Her guilt and self-recrimination hammered at her. It had been so close!

She looked up at the group that was gathered around her. "He is safe for now," she told them softly. "I have been able to bring him back to a place where he is no longer so close to oblivion – but I don't know if I would be able to if he slips again. His mind is so…so confused." She looked over at the healer. "Have you finished the analysis of the device that did this?"

"Not quite, Empress, but we do have a better understanding of what it was designed to do," he told her. "There has been no physical damage to his mind. The only thing that was damaged was the neural paths that are formed through thought and habit. Most people have chaotic minds and their neural paths reflect that chaos. They leap from one thought to another, and they are the people who tend to broadcast their thoughts so loudly that a psychic cannot help but overhear them."

Lilandra shook her head. "But Charles is a telepath. His mind was one of the most disciplined and orderly that I have ever seen. There was never any chaos or randomness in his thought patterns."

"And that was, we believe, the reason why this particular device was used. It was tuned specifically to react to his mental patterns, not to the patterns of anyone around him. From what you indicated to Brith'ta, he was attacked in a public place, yet he was the only one affected."

"That was what I understood from his X-Men, yes," Lilandra agreed. She thought back to the memories that she had taken from them when she had probed their minds. "The man who attacked Charles shot him with the device, and Charles just…screamed, in complete agony. His mind lashed out, out of his control and the X-Men did suffer as a result of his powers going wild, but it was only for a few moments before he collapsed. Until they got him back to their craft, they were certain that he was dead."

"For all intents and purposes he was," the healer agreed. "Their primitive medical science could never have saved him. Frankly, I am surprised that they managed to keep him alive as long as they did. One thing that we did discover was that because of the way this device was designed to act solely on one person, there should have been no way to block the effects, yet somehow he did. Resisting what was happening should only have compounded the damage and accelerated his death. Yet, oddly enough, that did not happen. Something slowed the effects of the disruptor and prevented it from killing him outright."

Lilandra raised her free hand and rubbed at her forehead. A low, throbbing headache was beginning to form behind her eyes – a side effect of the amount of psychic energy she had expanded that day, and it was only going to grow worse since she was still channeling energy to Charles, although she was not in full rapport with him.

"Empress, are you well?" Gladiator asked sharply.

"Yes, I am fine," she answered absently. "Just tired." She shook her head slightly before she looked up at the healer. "Have you devised a treatment for what ails him?"

"Treatment?" I'zra asked, puzzled.

Lilandra stared at him. "Yes. That is why I brought him to you, so that he could be treated and his mind restored."

"Empress, I do not believe any such treatment exists, nor that it is possible to treat this condition. I was under the impression that you wished only to make his last days as painless and peaceful as possible."

"If I did not desire him to be saved, I would not have brought him here!" Lilandra said sharply. "I could have left him on Earth, for he was at the very edge of death when I arrived."

"The deterioration cannot be stopped, Empress. Not even we have the technology or knowledge to do so. At best, we can only slow it down and prolong his life by a few days," I'zra said. "Even if we could find a way to stop what is happening, it would not be in time to save his life, nor could we guarantee that we could reverse the damage that has already been done."

"I do not believe that!" Lilandra snapped, outraged that he wasn't even going to attempt to save her beloved. "We have treatments that can help to heal psychic damage – with the number of psi-talented members of this empire, we would have to. Why do you not start with one of those?"

"Empress, I understand that this Earthman is important to you," the healer said. "But randomly experimenting with treatments could be just as devastating to his mind as simply allowing him to die from the original attack. All we would do is prolong his agony and destroy what dignity he has left."

"Leave us!" Lilandra ordered. "You are not to attend to Charles any longer."

Healer I'zra looked shocked for a moment, before he bowed and began backing away. "I am sorry, my Empress."

"Go!"

Lilandra turned her attention back to Charles. He still lay on the bed, his beautiful blue eyes closed. He had not stirred so much as a muscle since she had brought him from her ship. She closed her eyes and pressed his hand to her face. Could the healer be right? Am I only prolonging your suffering by continually pulling you back from death? I know you, Charles Xavier. If you had a choice in the way that you died, it would not be slowly suffering as your powerful mind decays. You would be content to die surrounded by your X-Men, or to die fighting for the peace that you crave so much. Could it be that the only thing I can do for you is to let you die in peace and dignity? No, I cannot believe that. I pledged that we would find a way to help you, and I always try to uphold my pledges.

"Empress?" Gladiator's voice was concerned as it drew her out of her musings.

She opened her eyes and looked wearily up at Gladiator. "I am well, Gladiator. I am simply trying to decide what I must do." She looked back down at Charles. "I love him, Gladiator, but I also know that if there was no hope, he would not want his suffering prolonged. He would rather go all at once, in peace." She leaned down and gently kissed his brow. "But I cannot bring myself to admit that there is no hope for him."

"I believe that there may be hope yet, Majestrix," Brith'ta said.

Lilandra looked up at him, sharply. "How so?"

"I have been studying the readouts and the analysis done by the other healers since I arrived earlier," he replied. "You are correct that we have treatments for psychic damage, and that is essentially what this is. Even though it was an electronic device that caused the damage, it is replicating the effects of a powerful psychic attack." Now Brith'ta looked curious. "When you are in psychic rapport with him, Empress, are you able to get any clarity of thought from him?"

Lilandra nodded. "Yes, of course. He can speak quite clearly to me, and he recognizes my presence."

Brith'ta nodded in satisfaction. "I suspected as much when you came in here a short time ago. His readings had not changed at all, but your bond was telling you that there was something drastically wrong. The two of you are linked very closely. He has been unconscious since you left, Empress. We had no difficulty in moving him here, and putting him on the more advanced systems seems to have helped to physically stabilize him further. His mental patterns are still highly disrupted, however. I suspect that until we discover a way to treat the condition, he will only have clarity of thought when he is in rapport with you, for his readings dropped back to a more disorganized level once you departed the ship."

Brith'ta set down the data reader he had been studying. "I also suspect that the reason that he did not die immediately from the effects of this weapon was because of the bond you share with him. I have also done some reading on the lidhje shpirt since this afternoon. The legends about it are not entirely clear, but the one thing that all the accounts agree on is that in a time of danger, the bonded ones will not only seek each other out, they will literally draw strength from each other."

Araki frowned. "From even a galaxy apart?"

Brith'ta nodded. "It is possible. Both Lord Xavier and the Empress are powerful telepaths, and the stories all claim that the lidhje shpirt links those of strongest hearts and minds, because it must be a link between equals. If their powers were strong enough, and their bond a true one, distance would not matter. We are speaking of matters of the heart, mind, and soul – and distance would have no effect on those things."

"I was rather uneasy in the time leading up to the psychic cry I received from Charles," Lilandra said slowly. "I could not understand why I was feeling so. I even considered that it might have something to do with Charles, but I couldn't imagine what could be going on that would be so devastating to him that I would feel it from that far away."

Brith'ta nodded in satisfaction. "He had been attacked, and instinctively was reaching out for your help. You knew it, you could sense that something was wrong, but it was such a foreign sensation to you, my Empress, that you didn't understand what you were feeling, because your mik shpirt is always so controlled and calm. I believe that your bond literally helped to slow the progression of the damage. He was linked to you, and you were still well, and healthy, so your bond was able to check the initial damage long enough for his X-Men to get him under life support, and then to keep him alive until he was able to muster the strength to cry out to you."

"But what does all of this have to do with a treatment for him?" Oracle asked.

"Most of the treatments that we have for psychic damage begin with some type of outside stimulus, to allow the mind to focus on what was done and to help the one who has been hurt recognize the damage and acknowledge it. From there, it is usually followed by intense psychic therapy sessions – a healer and a psychic literally helping the victim to reconstruct his or her mental patterns, erase whatever trauma might have been done, and help to restore balance," Brith'ta explained. "I would have to look into what the best form of initial treatment would be, and I would like to examine the weapon again once the analysis has been finished, but I think from there I could recommend a treatment and a therapy schedule for the Empress' mik shpirt."

Although she had the power to command him, she chose instead to ask. "Healer, would you consent to remain here on Aerie, until my mik shpirt is well? You know the truth of the bond between us, and you are familiar with his condition – the palace healers are not." She paused. "After what happened with the other healer, I do not trust them to have his best interests at heart. I trust you – because you are the only one who seems to care for his well-being as much as I do."

"Empress, I am yours to command. If what you require of me is to stay, then I shall stay until you no longer have need of me," Brith'ta answered.

Lilandra nodded. "I thank you. What must be done? What must I do in order to help him?"

"Right now, Empress, you need to rest." Brith'ta raised his hand to keep her from protesting. "Your bond with Lord Xavier makes you the logical choice to enter a rapport with him for the psychic therapy sessions. I suspect that he will respond with you where he will not with any of the other psychics. If you do not have the energy for the sessions, which will be very intense, we could do more harm than good."

"At the moment I am psychically supporting him, even though I am not in full rapport," Lilandra blinked several times as the headache behind her eyes worsened. For Charles, however, she would endure it. "What I felt when his distress leaked into my dreams…cold, darkness, pressure…it was almost what I would think of as complete sensory deprivation – awareness that something is wrong, but no control over what is happening. If I let him go now, he may slip back into that state, and the next time I may not be able to pull him back out."

The healer looked thoughtful. "However, you cannot support him indefinitely, Your Majesty." He tapped his fingers along the edge of the small table he was standing beside. "But if he slips again…" After a moment, he nodded as if to himself and turned away, heading for a cabinet further down the ward. He opened it and removed something from inside, then returned with a neural stimulator in his hand. He fastened the device to Charles' brow, in a slightly different location than where Lilandra had placed hers earlier, and activated it, setting it to a much higher power level than Lilandra had dared to use.

"Charles has never used one of those before today," Lilandra said, alarmed. "It takes conditioning to use at the highest levels."

Brith'ta nodded. "Normally, that would be true, Empress. But we are not attempting to keep him awake and focused, we are trying to further slow the deterioration of his mind, so that you do not need to support him." The healer made a few more adjustments to the stimulator before he appeared to be satisfied with what the readouts were showing him. "Empress, please release your psychic hold on him. I believe that I have this set at a high enough level that the stimulus it provides will substitute for your psychic energy without adverse effects."

Lilandra wasn't as sure, but she knew that she could not psychically support Charles' consciousness indefinitely. Very slowly, she cautiously pulled back the flow of psychic energy to him before she slipped out of contact with him. To her relief, the bond didn't waver or fluctuate in strength. But it took several marks before I noticed it the last time.

Brith'ta was watching her closely. "Do you sense a difference in your bond?"

"Not yet, Healer," she replied. "But there was no noticeable change until some time had passed the last time." She shivered slightly at a minor chill that went through the air, but dismissed it for the moment. "What might I expect to happen next?"

"For now, sleep," Brith'ta responded. "I understand that after what happened before you do not wish to leave, but I must insist that you rest. I will have another bed readied for you here beside your bonded, and I will give you a very light sedative to help you sleep." He looked at her more closely, a concerned look crossing his face. "You are exhausted, Majestrix."

He turned to face Araki and Oracle. "Clear the Empress' schedule for tomorrow. I want her to get a full night's rest, and I will need her assistance in beginning Lord Xavier's therapy."

"There is a Grand Council session as well as a diplomatic reception that cannot be postponed," Araki replied.

"Postpone the Council session until after the mid-day meal, and free up my morning," Lilandra ordered. "Sort through the issues that were going to be discussed and pick the four most critical things that must have decisions tomorrow. The minor issues will have to wait until the next session."

Araki and Oracle both nodded. "And the reception?"

"Will still be held as planned, with a few minor changes," Lilandra said after some consideration. "There will be no formal receiving line for Lord K'trell and I to greet the guests. If he still wishes one, the reception can begin earlier than scheduled, and it can be finished before I arrive. Also, arrange with the staff that the reception will not last as long as was originally planned."

"Understood, Empress. We will attend to it," Araki said, dipping his head in a short acknowledgment of her instructions.

"Dismissed," Lilandra told them, and her advisors left, followed by Gladiator at a subtle gesture. She remained sitting by Charles' side while Brith'ta quickly prepared another bed for her alongside Charles. As soon as the healer indicated that it was ready, she leaned down and gently kissed him good-night before she moved to the bed, where Brith'ta was waiting with an injector filled with a clear liquid.

"This is just a mild sedative, Empress. It will help you relax, despite your worries, but it will not force you to sleep, nor will it keep you asleep," he explained as he pressed it lightly to her arm. "That way if something does go wrong, you'll still be able to sense it and rouse yourself. I expect that your exhaustion will do most of the work in helping you to sleep once you've relaxed."

"I understand," Lilandra told him as she felt the tiny prick on her arm.

"Are you comfortable, Majesty?"

"Yes," she told him, just before she shivered slightly again. It did not escape the healer's trained eyes.

"You've almost drained all of your energy, my liege. Your body is chilled from the drain on your resources." Brith'ta went to another cabinet and pulled out another blanket, which he carefully draped over her shoulders before he ordered the lights lowered and stepped away from the bed.

Lilandra rolled over so that she could watch Charles. True to the healer's words, she could feel herself relaxing under the sedative's influence. Being closer to Charles was also helping.

As the last of her worries was forcibly suppressed, her exhaustion caught up with her, just as the healer had predicted, and the darkness rushed in to claim her.

Please don't forget to leave me a review! Again, the "Shi'ar" words in this chapter are a simple translation from English to Albanian, but I am still not ready to reveal their meaning.