The bright lights of the healer quarters all shone down on Jackie.

His fated laid on the operating table in front of him. It was protocol that no warriors were allowed in there with the healers, but no one had dared to remind the harbinger of that.

Kol-Eresh stood, unmoving, looking at Jackie's lifeless body and hearing every breath that she took. They were few and all of them were shallow.

He hadn't said a word since he'd gently lowered Jackie to that table and taken up guard above her.

The tension in the room was palpable.

The healers were shuffling around Jackie, trying to determine what had happened to his beautiful fated. From time to time, Kol-Eresh saw their eyes flicker to him and the naked fear that he saw there told him many things, none of them pleasant.

One, the healers had no idea what was going on with Jackie, given that they would have told him if they did. And two, they were very much aware of what fate awaited them if they couldn't save her life.

Nayanors were not a forgiving species. Kol-Eresh had dealt out harsh punishment for much less than letting his fated die before his eyes.

"Harbinger," the lead healer finally turned to him.

Kol-Eresh turned his burning eyes to him. Forack had served him well for years and he trusted the man's judgment on any other day but the one where he had to strain to hear Jackie's breathing.

"Choose your words very carefully, healer," he replied, the dark tone of his voice making nearly everyone in the bay wince.

Only Forack, who had survived his worst moods, met his gaze.

All Nayanors were born warriors. Even the techs and pilots, healers and scientists were in great shape, but they didn't match the warriors who lived for battle. Forack was no match for him and he knew it very well. Kol-Eresh had promoted him years ago by killing his predecessor before the healer's eyes so slowly that Forack had interrupted, earning several scars and the harbinger's respect.

Now he stood closer than ever to his own painful demise.

"Do you want me to tell you the truth, Harbinger?" Forack replied tersely, holding his head up high. "Or do you want me to use pretty words I'd save for a very, very young child?"

Kol-Eresh turned slowly, the first motion after he'd entered the room. Towering over the healer, his arms crossed over his wide chest, the harbinger leaned down and spoke in a deep voice that seemed to silence even the machinery in the room.

"Are those the words you want to take to the gods, Forack? Because I will make them your last if your next ones aren't a whispered apology on your gods-damned knees."

Forack didn't budge while his staff looked on in horror. They had served the lead healer for years and Kol-Eresh could see that unlike warriors, they harbored some sense of loyalty for the man. Enough not to want to witness his gruesome murder, at least.

"I don't know what happened to her," Forack said. "You can take my head now, Kol-Eresh, or I can tell you what I'd do next because the last I remember, I didn't stop fighting for any of my patients until I heard their last breath."

The harbinger looked at Jackie. His fated's breaths sure sounded like each could be her last.

The consideration didn't take long. Whatever was wrong with Jackie, Kol-Eresh was sure Forack's blood wasn't the cure, no matter how much he spilled. And on a ship where even his captains cowered from him when his temper was raging, Forack was a rare reprieve.

"She's not waking up," he replied instead, making it half-statement, half-question.

"No," Forack said, trying hard to mask the sigh of relief as he realized that he would live to see another day. "She's in some sort of shock. I could try waking her forcefully, but until we know what's happened, I would not."

Kol-Eresh nodded slowly.

"You said you had suggestions," he said. "Go on. And make them good."

Forack gave him a hard look which Kol-Eresh chose to ignore and explained:

"I ran diagnostics for every known illness that the Terrans have recorded. All came up negative. Either it's very new or it's something out of our hands."

"You should dearly hope it's the first," Kol-Eresh said, looking at Jackie.

"I do," Forack said. "Gods have been good to me in my life, but it doesn't mean I want to meet them very soon."

Kol-Eresh barked a humorless laugh.

"Speak," he ordered then.

"The females," Forack said, checking a screen that showed Jackie's vitals. "Your fated can't give us answers in her condition, but perhaps they can. If it's something new, they might know. I want to ask them."

"I doubt they'll give you any answers," Kol-Eresh said, running his fingers over Jackie's cheek.

He nearly winced. Her skin was ice-cold.

Forack chose not to comment on that.

"I will ask even so," he said instead.

"Do it," Kol-Eresh said, taking Jackie's hand and holding it in his.

As Forack was leaving the room, throwing a glance to the other healers that clearly told them to stay quiet and out of his way, Kol-Eresh added:

"And Forack? Make them talk. No matter what it takes."

The healer left with a grim nod.

* * *

Hours had passed when Forack returned to the healer bay. His face was ashen.

Kol-Eresh hadn't let go of Jackie's hand throughout that time. He'd stood, guarding his fated, his thoughts increasingly darker. If he were to lose Jackie... The harbinger didn't want to consider that.

Nayanors weren't the only species in the galaxy who bonded to their fated mates. Brions, the most powerful warriors of the Galactic Union, did the same. As did Corgans, their bitter rivals. Each one of those races experienced different emotions when forced to face the loss of the person who made their existence whole.

Brions accepted it with the staunch pride they were known for. Men who had suffered the loss of their fated could be picked out of crowds easily. The look in their eyes was dead, as if the light that had once burned brightly was gone now and only breath remained to keep the body going throughout their shadow deaths.

Corgans were more religious about the matter. They celebrated the lives of their fated, judging their loss to be the will of their gods and delving into the memories they'd made together. The lives they led after their fated were gone were more purposeful, carried by the image of someone only they were able to see.

Nayanors were nothing like that.

The long lives of their species became a curse when there was no one to share it with. The rage that was released into their hearts when the females died wasn't comparable to anything else. The warriors freely gave in to the bloodlust that ran so close to their surface. They searched for death themselves, longing to be reunited with their fated in the afterlife, but not before taking as many enemies with them as they could.

"Enemies" was a loose term for anyone stupid enough to get in their way.

Kol-Eresh had had to stop several such rampages. He had pity for those lost souls, but not the pity weaker species had. His pity and compassion were the razor-sharp blade of his sword and a precise strike that never missed.

So it was understandable why Forack approached him like he was a dangerous, wild predator.

"How is she?" the healer asked, although the harbinger knew he could probably tell more from the screen than his admission.

"Alive," Kol-Eresh replied simply. "For now. Speak, healer, my patience is nonexistent today."

Forack nodded.

"She has something called Rovecolis. Apparently the Union has been plagued by it in the past few years. It came from a newly discovered planet. One female told me that most of those who caught it were politicians, diplomats, people who dealt with the induction of the world into the Union. She is apparently one of them."

Kol-Eresh didn't reply at once. He hadn't even known that. There was so much more he needed to find out about his fated. To lose her was not an option.

"And?" he demanded harshly.

"It's a death sentence," Forack said, backing away from him when the harbinger looked up at last. "For the Union, Harbinger."

"What in the name of gods does that mean?" Kol-Eresh roared, making the rest of the healers flee from his anger. "Do we not live in the same galaxy? Are you telling me she's lost?"

"I'm telling you the Union couldn't cure her," Forack replied.

The harbinger saw him eye a long blade that was used for gods knew what. Definitely not Jackie, as long as he still had a say.

"Can we?" Kol-Eresh asked, trying to force himself to be calm, but it wasn't so easy.

He was seeing the red-hot flare of his own rage.

"Maybe," Forack said carefully. "Harbinger, I don't know. We have not encountered this before and much of the ancient wisdom is gone. The people who devised the diadons could maybe make sense of what's killing her."

"I told you not to mention the Eternals on my ship ever again," Kol-Eresh snapped.

The group of scientists who had found the secret to harnessing the power of the sapphire minerals inside the diadons were not popular on Luminos. As brilliant as they were, they were also completely insane, even by Nayanor standards.

Harbingers several generations ago had banished them from all fortresses, driving the Eternals away to their hideout that no one had been able to locate. It was a complete mystery how they'd managed to survive all the long nights, but recently, they'd made an appearance again.

It seemed time didn't heal all wounds. The men who had been sent to exile to die hadn't taken the suggestion. They'd lived. So had all the experiments, machines and pure, unrestrained insanity that drove them.

The worst of all, the Eternals had lived in a very literal sense. The men who had returned to test Luminos once again by kidnapping Terran females and doing tests on them were the same who had fled to their exile.

It meant they remembered everything and Nayanors, as Kol-Eresh often reminded himself, were not prone to grow more forgiving in their later years. If anything, the Eternals were even more vicious than they'd been before.

"I didn't propose asking them," Forack went on, sighing. "I merely noted that perhaps what they've already given us could help."

Kol-Eresh growled.

"You want to fit my female with a diadon," he stated. "Have you lost your mind?"

"It's the only solution I see," Forack said honestly as he always did. "You know it's not impossible, but the female who eventually told me the story was very specific. She has weeks to live, if that. I don't think the wormhole travel did her good. It might have triggered some previously unseen symptom."

There was something odd in Forack's tone.

"What do you mean?" Kol-Eresh demanded. "When the female eventually told you? What went on in the holding bay?"

Forack's face was as unmoving as if he was carved from rock.

"The females didn't respond well to my question as you predicted," he said. "They didn't think any assistance should be provided to us despite the help going toward one of their own. They truly hate us, not that it's any wonder. The problem was that the crowd turned against the female that knew your fated and mentioned she knew what was wrong."

The healer pulled a face.

"Terrans," he said distastefully. "One single female is usually a good match for her mate, but every time a lot of them are held together like that, their tempers flare as if feeding on each other."

"What happened?" Kol-Eresh demanded.

"I had to protect the female who had my answers," Forack said, shrugging. "Some others were hurt. One died, I think."

"That is a great loss," Kol-Eresh remarked. "All captured females count."

"Yes, it is," Forack agreed, holding his gaze.

A heavy silence set as they looked at Jackie. Kol-Eresh wondered what she would say if she knew her life might have been bought with another. He suspected his fated would not like that, but there had been no other way.

Jackie came first, always.

"What happened to the female who talked to you?" Kol-Eresh asked.

"She lives," Forack said. "I had her stationed away from the others. I do not trust them to welcome her back."

"What else did she say?"

"That it's not contagious," Forack said, shrugging. "It needs first-hand contact with whatever was the carrier and I doubt we have it aboard. The female also said they'd spent time together on Terra and she didn't develop any symptoms, so the rest of the ship is safe."

Kol-Eresh's mind turned back to the diadon as Jackie sucked in a rasping, hollow breath.

"Is the diadon the only way?" he asked the healer. "No alternatives."

"No, Harbinger," Forack replied firmly.

Kol-Eresh considered.

It was true what Forack had said. Terran females had been fitted with a diadon before, in extreme and hopeless situations much like the one at hand. In fact, he'd recently seen a female live from that operation and it was the one thing that gave him hope in the face of losing Jackie.

There had been a particularly violent long night years back when Kol-Eresh's fortress had been breached. He'd traveled with his domain to the fortress of Jos Gharo, belonging to the harbinger Rhyslan. Of all Nayanors, Rhyslan was the only man who Kol-Eresh considered a friend.

Rhyslan had cut a diadon right out of a warrior's chest to save the sister of his fated. The female, suffering horrendous exposure from the storm, had lived. It had been touch-and-go for a while, but the fragile female had pulled through.

There was a problem with that, though.

"You know the risks," Kol-Eresh said. "All the females who lived after the implant – and I don't have to remind you of the success rates which are still under one percent – have been on Luminos for at least a year."

"That is true," Forack admitted. "It is still the only way I see. She doesn't have enough time to start the long process of finding a cure. Only the diadon might have a chance to combat it."

She can't die. She is mine and nothing of mine is lost until it's ripped from my grip.

"Can you do it here?" Kol-Eresh asked roughly.

Forack shook his head.

"No," he said. "I have to take her to the Black Hall. No other place has equipment like what we need. Harbinger Rhyslan got lucky. Your fated has never set foot on Luminos. I would not take any chances."

"Very well," Kol-Eresh said, looking at Jackie.

The Black Hall was the largest and most ancient fortress on Luminos, belonging to another harbinger with a Terran fated.

"Let Zar Kohora know we're coming," he ordered. "And have Jackie brought to my rooms."

"Harbinger –" Forack protested, a deep frown on his face. "I don't think it's wise to remove her from my care."

"You said there's nothing you can do for her here," Kol-Eresh replied. "I want her with me."

The tone of his voice ended that argument.

You are mine, Kol-Eresh thought, feeling his fated's weak pulse under his fingers. The gods themselves have to descend on Luminos to take you from me.