| “ | You're outnumbered and outdone, Bastian! And you only have one wish left. So use what's left of your brain and wish to go home. That's where you belong. | „ |
| ~ Xayide to Bastian Bux in the climax of The NeverEnding Story II: The Next Chapter. |
| “ | Now that was wishful thinking. | „ |
| ~ Xayide in Tales from the Neverending Story. |
Xayide, the Mistress of The Emptiness, is an immensely powerful evil witch who serves as a major villainess in the 1979 German novel Die unendliche Geschichte (The Neverending Story), expanded into the main villainess in the 1990 fantasy film sequel The NeverEnding Story II: The Next Chapter. She also serves as the main villainess of two spinoffs: the cartoon The Neverending Story: The Animated Adventures of Bastian Balthazar Bux and the live-action television miniseries Tales From the Neverending Story.
She was portrayed by Clarissa Burt in the 1990 film sequel, and Victoria Sanchez in the mini-series. She was voiced by Janet-Laine Green in the animated series.
Appearance[]
Xayide is a tall, strikingly beautiful woman, albeit somehow disquieting, hinting her uncanny nature. In the novel she has marble-white skin and fiery red hair mounted in plaits and braids, and wears purple robes. Her heterochromatic red and green eyes, that sometime glow, give her a troubling gaze.
Xayide's film depiction is quite faithful to the novel, though she first lacks a face and needs a magical ointment to make herself one. In spite of her beauty, her rigid posture evokes her otherworldly nature. She has brown, frizzy hair and golden eyes.
She first wears an elaborate red gown and a sophisticated hairdo, but later dons an elaborate headgear and a long-sleeved gown covered in diamond motifs, with large, pointed shoulder pads, starting emerald-green but darkening as her plan unfolds.
In the cartoon, Xayide first appears with a featureless face that shows what she sees like a screen, until she gives herself facial features with her magic, as a nod to the film.
She wears a forest green robe and hood, a lighter upper dress with pink trims on her shoulders and sleeves, and a black half-mask ending in a pink tiara-shape, with yellow slits that can either be her eyes or cover them, narrowing and widening just like real ones and glowing depending on her mood.
In the mini-series, Xayide has fair skin and straight hair, eerily twisting herself. She wears black robes and a cape, red jewels, claw-rings on two fingers, and a silver or diamond tiara. In war, she dons a chainmail, plated gown and a talon-shaped crown.
Nature[]
In the Novel[]
Xayide is described as the most powerful and dangerous witch in Fantasia. She looks human, albeit unnaturally so, though her exact nature remains untold, for to quote the narration itself: "But that is another story and shall be told another time." She is feared all over in Fantasia, ruling her domain from her creepy castle shaped like a hand, known as Horok the Seeing Hand because of its multitude of windows looking like eyes. She controls the forest of orchids of the Oglaïs Garden, and sits on a throne of red coral surrounded by strange objects.
In the Film[]
The film elevates Xayide as the personification of Emptiness, a new threat to Fantasia and a possible remnant of the Nothing. The face she gives herself could be seen as a symbol of the danger that appears innocuous at first glance.
In the novel, Xayide was mortal and her magic could be broken, which ended up leading to her death, but in the film, she could only be destroyed by filling her void in every way. No longer being empty, she could no longer exist in the first place and all that she hollowed was given back its substance.
The Emptiness itself is spawned from everything hollow, be it physically, spiritually or metaphorically. It threatens to engulf all, leaving victims outwardly intact, yet voided of essence and barely existing, unfit to fulfil their purpose. As the Nothing comes from cynicism, apathy, and excessive materialism, it comes from disinterest, boredom and loss of imagination. Being an opposite force to the creativity fuelling the world of Fantasia, made from all that was imagined, only a human full of imagination can dispel it.
In the Cartoon[]
Xayide first appears as faceless in the cartoon.
Truer to the novel, the cartoon portrays Xayide as witch, using titles like the Mistress of Evil. No mention is made of the Emptiness, but as in the film she is more powerful and eldritch. Once again, she must make herself a face and after her apparent demise, she manifests as a gigantic green cloud, hinting that she is more than it seems.
In the Live-Action Series[]
The mini-series makes Xayide the Childlike Empress' older sister, and former co-ruler of Fantasia, who coveted total power and for that was exiled by a mysterious Wizard. She rules the Dark City and contains the Nothing in a chest. She uses it to void people, enabling her to transform them into brainwashed Drones. She aims to spread it to void Fantasia of beauty, spirit and creativity, just as in the film.
Powers and Abilities[]
Xayide's sorcery is unrivalled in the novel. And the adaptations make her even more powerful, being no doubt the mightiest being in Fantasia outside of the Ivory Tower. She might even be equal to the Childlike Empress, the personification of all imagination, as in the film she could keep her under home arrest, and spread the Emptiness over Fantasia. In the cartoon her magic is nigh unlimited, but her stamina is not.
In the novel, Xayide surrounds herself with strange artefacts and controls several magical objects, that she likely created. She is never seen casting spells, but she can seemingly create wondrous things like a throne made of mirrors, and infuse things with her magic. Her primary ability is her control over all that is empty through her will, which she can shape, animate and multiply, or transfer control of it to anyone she pleases. This being the origin of her armies of formidable Giants: huge, black, metallic and hollow monsters, looking like armoured insectoids, who wield swords and can ride metallic horses.
In the film, her control over emptiness expands to people who lost their mind or purpose. She wastes entire landscapes in Fantasia by draining substance from things and people, leaving them as good as inexistant. Her giants are more monstrous and robotic, with pincers and retractable buzzsaws or drills.
Moreover, she can go through the centre of the world and travel everywhere at the speed of darkness, described as faster than light (not minding the scientific nonsense). She can see and cast spells pretty much everywhere, watching the fleeing hero Bastian miles away and seizing him with a hand-shaped energy blast. Still, she needs a machine built by her servant Tri-Face to steal Bastian's memories, an independent process in the novel. (She knew of it but did not control it, only influencing its results.)
In the cartoon, she can perform telepathy and telekinesis, conjure whatever she thinks of, control the weather and elements, summon magic beings, and more. She can make potions or artefacts, bewitch objects and cast all manners of spells or curses. Worse, she uses deadly attack and defence magic.
In the mini-series, she can monitor the real world and influence it to some extent, sending her servants there. She can shape-shift, transform people, and build all manners of magic-powered technology.
Personality[]
In the Novel[]
She is poised and courteous, but not averse to sarcasm or passing insults as praises. But to her core she is cruel, hateful, power-hungry, arrogant, and heartless in every sense. She is very extravagant and acts larger than life, as if trying too much, scorning bonds and caring as burdens to discard. She greatly enjoys luxury, revelling in being served and carried around, and craves control. As such, she hates disobedience and reacts with anger when losing control of the situation.
She is immensely scheming and perceptive, being noted to plan for every possibility. Knowing that she cannot subdue Bastian, she deals with him indirectly. Worse, she is a perfect manipulator, impeccably feigning concern and friendship to gain Bastian's trust, quickly noticing and playing on his doubts, fears and craving for greatness and adventures, to veer him where she wants him to. She erodes his trust in his friends and slowly corrupts him, bringing about his ambition and worst traits with words alone.
In the Adaptations[]
Xayide in the film.
Contrasting the novel, the movie makes her cold, dignified and imperturbable. She wants to control all stories, voiding them of the fantasy giving them meaning.
She claims to merely want to bring "order" in the "chaos of dreams" and boldly asks how it could be wrong, but there is little mystery that she really want is to dictate her law and make everything strictly functional, soulless and almost mechanical.
The cartoon makes her as poised, polite, scheming and clever as in the novel, albeit even more arrogant, demanding, impatient and wrathful, though she remains calm. She relishes in her vileness and loves to gloat, taunt foes or lord over people. She loathes opposition, yet grudgingly respects her foes.
In the mini-series, she bitterly loathes the Childlike Empress, finding her hands-off ruling unworthy. She remains regal and scheming, still claiming to bring "discipline", but she hides seething scorn behind her creepily exaggerated congenial facade. She likes to taunt and gloat, but is vain, irascible and unhinged.
Role in the Novel[]
Xayide appears in the second half of the story, after the hero Bastian Balthazar Bux, a pudgy, insecure, and misunderstood, ten-year-old dreamer who lost his mother, enters Fantasia, after giving the Childlike Empress a new name and dispelling the Nothing. The Empress offers him her symbol, the wish-granting AURYN talisman, tasking him to remake Fantasia with it, as it was obliterated by the Nothing.
With each wish, Bastian forgets one memory of the real world. Having always dreamt of being a hero, he wishes to become beautiful, brave and skilled, at the risk of losing himself in petty wish-fulfilment. He gains the Light Blade Sikanda and befriends the Greenskin Atreyu, whose quest he read before entering Fantasia and the Luck Dragon Falkor (Fuchur in the original German). While well-meaning if careless at first, Bastian's wishes have unforeseen consequences. His craving for recognition, growing successes and waning memories make him increasingly selfish, resenting Atreyu's and Falkor's calming advice.
After many adventures for both himself and others, in which he gives names and stories for many places and people, Bastian learns of the dreaded witch Xayide and decides to confront her. Later, she captures Bastian's bodyguards, the knights Hynreck, Hykrion and Hisbald, demanding his fealty lest she execute them. Incensed, he fakes an attack at the portal of Horok Castle to infiltrate it, saving his friends chained over a bottomless pit. He faces the wicked witch, who immediately feigns surrender and obedience.
Falkor refuses to carry Xayide, who offers servants to carry him, flattering him to distance him from his peers. She gives him the Invisibility Belt Ghemmal, knowing he will use it to spy on his friends, mistaking their goal to save him from himself by taking AURYN for treason and banishing them. Bastian leads a procession to see the Childlike Empress again, but Xayide makes him believe that she is gone and that he is her successor, so he enters the Ivory Tower and crowns himself Childlike Emperor. Atreyu is forced to interrupt the ceremony with his armies, but the resulting battle wrecks the tower and nearly kills him.
Chasing Atreyu, Bastian finds the City of Lost Emperors, haunted by past saviours of Fantasia who lost their way in empty wishing, mindless and broken. Horrified, he gives up memories of his father for the wish of selfless love, surrendering Sikanda and AURYN to Atreyu. Oddly, losing her grasp over Bastian breaks Xayide’s control of her Giants, who trample her to death as she stands before them demanding they stop. Perhaps due to sharing control of them with him, or due to losing relevance in his story...
Bastian finds his true calling, as saviours of Fantasia are meant to, being restored to normal by the Waters of Life, that were in AURYN all along. He goes back home and cures his grieving father with the Waters, healing both worlds with his stories.
Role in the Film[]
Xayide, holding one of Bastian's memories.
The first film ending after Bastian's victory over the Nothing, he has returned to the real world, likely for a few years. His life has improved, but he is still grieving for his mother and unable to connect with his loving albeit distant father.
After fear got the better of him in school, Bastian returns to Mr. Correander's bookstore where the Book leading to Fantasia is kept. He finds out that books are voided of words and hears the Childlike Empress calling for his help, prompting him to return to Fantasia. There, he arrives at the wondrous Silver City of Amarganth and is bestowed AURYN.
The Childlike Empress tells him that she is kept prisoner by an eldritch force spreading all over Fantasia and eating away its essence, wrecking the surroundings of the Ivory Tower. A force he must name. This is Xayide's doing, who is watching Bastian and the Empress through magic mirrors. Her servant Tri-Face built a magic Memory Machine stealing one memory for each wish he makes, so she sends the bird-man Nimbly to the Silver City, to gain his trust and push him to make wishes.
After Xayide sent her Giants to the Silver City, Bastian reunites with Atreyu and Falkor, who lead him to Horok Castle. It is protected by energy beams disintegrating all that comes close. Bastian is caught in one, but Atreyu uses AURYN to deflect it back and destroy them all. Atreyu makes a diversion but is captured, while Bastian uses AURYN to sneak into Horok, saving his friend from a bottomless pit.
They find out that the Giants are empty, so Bastian names the threat the Emptiness. They confront the wicked witch, who feigns to surrender after some token resistance. She states to need to be at the Ivory Tower to free the Empress, so they order her to follow them there. Falkor refuses to carry Xayide, who offers to travel in her luxurious Xobile coach, followed by a wary Atreyu on his steed Artax.
Xayide tempts Bastian under Atreyu's suspicious eye.
Playing the motherly figure that he misses, Xayide gifts Bastian the Invisibility Belt and pushes him to waste many wishes. Bastian rejects Atreyu's proof that the Xobile is running in circles. While invisible, he overhears Atreyu's and Falkor's concerns and mistakes it for a plan to steal AURYN.
Atreyu sees Nimbly watching a stolen memory of Bastian, who refuses to listen. In the ensuing fight, Atreyu accidentally falls to his death, carried away by Falkor. Horrified, Bastian runs away only to see the machine. He flees on Artax's back, while his father is reading his trials after finding the book.
Knowing that he has only two wishes left, Xayide casts a spell to throw him down a river. Guided by Nimbly who had a change of heart, he returns to the now ruined and deserted Silver City, trading his mother's memory to resurrect Atreyu.
Bastian confronts Xayide and his fears.
Fully aware that Bastian misses his father, Xayide appears telling him to wish back home. He feigns to comply, but having overcome his fears, wishes instead to grant her a heart. No longer empty, she sheds a tear of possible remorse and dies.
With Fantasia and Bastian's memories being restored, the Childlike Empress appears to thank him for saving her world once again. Bastian bids farewell to his friends and leaves Fantasia, ironically through the very thing he dreaded at the start. At last, he reunites with his father, starting their lives anew.
Role in the Cartoon[]
In this cartoon mixing aspects from the films and the novel, Xayide is constantly plotting to usurp the Childlike Empress, but Bastian keeps foiling her as he travels to Fantasia, being protected from her sorcery by AURYN. She is the greatest threat there is, with the possible exception of Gmork (here one with the Nothing), who appears much less often.
The Tears of Sadness[]
Xayide poisons the Fountains of Life and water in Fantasia with tears of the perpetually despairing Acharis, to petrify anyone who drinks water or merely looks at it. Bastian and the tree-man Bark Troll go to the gnome scientist Engywook and his wife the witch Urgl, who give them a potion. They confront Xayide, but drop the potion in the fountain as she hurls an explosive beam. This transforms the Acharis into the ever-laughing Schlamoofs and dispels the curse. (This also happens in the novel, albeit differently.) Pestered by the Schlamoofs, Xayide is forced to retreat.
The Purple Buffalo[]
Investigating the disappearance of the purple buffalos that his people need, Atreyu finds a giant flying ship owned by Xayide. She trapped them all in a crystal, planning to turn them into giant locusts that will devour all life in Fantasia.
She telekinetically knocks him out, then subdues Bastian with gusts of wind, as he sneaks into the ship with a magic powder given by the Buffalo Spirit, unable to free the buffalos. She send the two with other enslaved Fantasians forced to power her flying ship, but they escape and sabotage it.
Xayide's spirit swears revenge after her destruction.
Knowing they cannot free the buffalo, Bastian lets Xayide free and transform them, only now using the powder to turn them back to normal. The buffalos trample the ship and Xayide, but her spirit swears revenge.
Missing Memories[]
Xayide is enslaving the Snow Sprites to unearth the memories of the Childlike Empress from the Picture Mine where every Fantasians' memories are stored, for breaking them makes their subject vanish for real. Helped by the blind miner Yor, Bastian barges in as Xayide is about to blast the memories with fire, but she threatens to break the Empress' memories of him.
Faking a random attack, Bastian breaks all the memories of Xayide and her servants, vanishing them. But in the end, the Empress explains that sharing memories keeps them alive, restoring all of her memories and their subjects, Xayide included.
Perilin[]
The ever-growing Night Forest Perilin is kept at bay at day by the fire lion Grograman, who scorches everything around into Goab, the Desert of Colours. But it is starting to spread, destroying everything on its wake. Having befriended Grograman due to the protection of AURYN, Bastian starts looking for him, and discovers that Xayide has trapped him in a block of ice inside Horok Castle.
Bastian and Bark Troll storm Horok, but Xayide threatens to levitates the tree-man in the fire if they do not give her AURYN. Fortunately, Bastian's calls awoke Grograman who barges in, forcing the witch to protect herself in an energy sphere. Grograman destroys the forest, revealing that just like in the novel, he dies every night to let Perilin grow and resurrects every morning to keep balance intact.
A Friendship That Flames[]
Bastian and Bark Troll meet a blue ferret-man called Axin, helping him find the present that his people tasked him to bring to the Childlike Empress after he lost it. Axin leads them to Fire Mountain to find it. On their way, Axin starts getting on Bark Troll's nerves, who leaves in anger. It was in fact a trap devised by Xayide to lead Bastian on a nest of fire-breathing snakes to be devoured. The boy only owes his life to Bark Troll, who defeats Axin with rotten eggs, leaving Xayide trapped by a rock avalanche.
The Three Feeling Stones[]
Xayide is seeking to unearth the three Feeling Stones, that regulate the emotions of every Fantasian. Despite Bastian's best efforts, she seals the Joy Stone, the Love Stone and the Hope Stone inside a bewitched casket, leaving all Fantasians unfeeling, unable to care when she takes over the Ivory Tower. As Xayide orders the Imperial Court to tear down the tower, Bastian arrives feigning surrender and offering a toast for the new Empress, laced with Urgl's love potion. Bewitched, Xayide retreats and offers the Feeling Stones to Bastian, who leaves them in the Ivory Tower, under the Childlike Empress' watch.
The Belt of Invisibility[]
The greedy Shadow Goblin finds the Belt of Invisibility Ghemmal, using it to steal valuables everywhere. Learning this, Bastian goes to Horok and demands a solution to Xayide, who tries in vain to steal AURYN before conjuring a feast for his visit, which he refuses. She offers him a second belt, for only the invisible can see the invisible, knowing that no-one will see or hear him and hoping to blackmail him with it. As she can still hear him, he drives her crazy with chatter and songs, forcing her to release him.
End of Times[]
Watching the Silver City of Amarganth, Xayide sees a storm sinking the magic Silver Clock into Murhu the corrosive Lake of Tears, which starts eroding it. Horrified, she realizes that time will stop in Fantasia. She surrounds herself with a protective aura, but it uses all her power, preventing her from magically restoring the clock. Protected by AURYN and advised by the Three Great Thinkers to work alongside an enemy, Bastian finds an exhausted Xayide clinging for dear life over a chasm and saves her.
Xayide grudgingly follows Bastian to the Silver City, where he provokes her into refusing to give up. She grants him a protective aura for him to dive in the acid and rewind the clock. As time restarts, she uses her last strength to levitate him to safety with the clock, and he saves her in turn from the storm. Puzzled by how he saved his archenemy, Xayide teleports away, warning him that the truce ends here.
The Everlasting Night[]
Xayide steals Urgl's grimoire, but accidentally creates the sentient Night Breath, who covers Fantasia with an everlasting night and plunges her in an unbreakable trance. As Bastian and Falkor are trying in vain to stop the Night Breath, even calling the Four Wind Giants, Urgl goes to Horok Castle, where Tri-Head and Nimbly try in vain to awake the witch. Urgl awakes Xayide, who refuses to dispel the Night Breath, but Urgl expected it and bewitched her with purple rabbit ears, forcing her to comply.
Mirror, Mirror[]
As Bastian is having fun in a cave full of deforming mirrors, he stumbles on a magical one devised by Xayide to bring an evil reflection of himself to life. The evil Bastian steals AURYN, enabling Xayide to trap the real one in the reflections of a mirror. Fortunately, Xayide's mirror accidentally created a good reflexion of her, who can only use good magic and manages to free him.
Xayide persuades the evil Bastien to put the Childlike Empress to slumber with a cursed gift. Shunned by all, Bastian and the good Xayide enter Horok Castle, tricking Xayide into vanishing his double. Her good double dispels her energy ball to save Bastian, deflects her sphere of destruction, and destroys her summoned elementals with rain and breeze. Xayide blasts her double with thunderbolts and Bastian with a shockwave before he retakes AURYN, but her double tricks her into breaking the mirror with a death ray. She vanishes thanking Bastian, who escapes with AURYN and uses it to wake the Empress.
The Dreaming Fields[]
Xayide plants a Nightmare Weed in the flowery Dreaming Fields, the source of Fantasians' every dream, covering them in purple thorns. Bastian finds that every dream came true, changing them all apparently for the best. Even Xayide has been reduced to three, powerless servant maids by Tri-Head who dreamt to be king. Alas, the realized dreams go overboard to the point of nightmarish consequences. Falkor guides Bastian to the Glass Tower to get Star Light, using it to destroy the Nightmare Thorns and return everyone to normal, including a very angry Xayide who refuses to let Tri-Head sleep.
Role in the Live-Action Series[]
Like Gaya of Spook City in the novel, Xayide is the Dark Princess of the creepy, steampunk Dark City, populated and expanded by Drones whom she playfully treats as her adoring subjects. She has a praetorian guard of mighty Dark Knights (hollow armours like the Giants). Here, her spell caused the Childlike Empress' illness, and Gmork, who exists in both world like in the novel is her right-hand.
The Beginning[]
Bastian befriends Mr. Correander way easier than in the novel and gets the Neverending Story Book after visiting his dying mother (who knows of Fantasia) in the hospital. As in the novel, he reads of Atreyu's quest to save Fantasia after being gifted AURYN. Xayide sends Gmork, both to track down Atreyu in Fantasia in his wolf form, and to steal the Book from Bastian in the real world, as his substitute homeroom teacher Mr. Blank. Atreyu shoots him down, but he keeps harassing and unfairly punishing Bastian.
Xayide parades with her Dark Knights.
Xayide invades Atreyu's village and turns his tribe of Woodlander into Drones, including his best friend Tartus. Xayide spots Atreyu taking his friend with him, but AURYN teleports them away and frees Tartus. They meet with the Tatterdemalions clan of refugees, but Xayide shape-shifts as a little girl to attack them.
Fleeing, Atreyu befriends Quana, the Fly Girl piloting a Luck Dragon aircraft. They set out to rename every location lost to the Nothing to restore them, using maps from her family. Meanwhile, Bastian and his friends erase every mention of Mr. Blank, vanishing him from the real world. Furious that he lost to a mere boy, Xayide forces him to become a Drone.
The Gift[]
Getting a job at Mr. Correander's bookshop, Bastian reads about Atreyu and Fly Girl, learning from the turtle Morla the Ancient One that the Childlike Empress needs a new name. As he and Bastian see each other at the Southern Oracle and the bookshop, Xayide storms the Ivory Tower. The Empress is too weak to fight her off, but she encases herself in a crystal cocoon, prompting a furious Xayide to leave.
Atreyu finds himself with the Wizard, none other than Mr. Correander who exists in both worlds, learning to read stories. Bastian later names the Empress Moonchild, rebirthing her and Fantasia, and helps his father let go of his grief, as he was about to sell their house to April Jones, in fact a servant of Xayide sent to the real world as a real estate agent to steal the Neverending Story Book.
Xayide releases a captive to reveal that she has Falkor in chains to lure in Fly Girl and Atreyu, the former rushing into the trap in spite of the latter's warnings. Xayide blackmails Fly Girl to give up her maps, threatening to burn them to force Atreyu to give AURYN, but he defeats a restored Gmork and subdues Xayide with a staff given by the Empress. Unable to rescue Falkor, they escape, swearing to return.
Badge of Courage[]
Before Atreyu and Fly Girl escaped, Xayide ordered the Luck Dragon aircraft reverse engineered and sabotaged. As such, they are forced to jump by parachute as it sinks in a river. They are rescued by the Tatterdemalions now led by Tartus, who build a new one from scratch with the old one's core.
Xayide lets Gmork return to the real world as Mr. Blank, employing Bastian's father as his lawyer to get at him. However, Bastian proves his harassment and he is dismissed, being made a slave by Xayide. As Morla tells Xayide that another boy can influence Fantasia and will decide her fate in the next battle, Bastian confronts his bully Connor: said other boy. In detention, Bastian makes the essay they must write about Fantasia, stirring his taste in stories as they write the Woodlanders' battle against Xayide.
The Childlike Empress herself tells Xayide to stop her campaign of destruction, warning her that she has sown the seed of her own, but in vain. The Empress gives Atreyu the Light Blade Sikanda to protect his village, and he rallies his comrades after unlocking its power. Xayide takes profit of Sikanda's theft by Hynreck, Hykrion and Hisbald (here crooked false heroes) to corner them, but Fly Girl drops Sikanda replicas from her aircraft, which they use to send the Dark Knights fleeing after Atreyu destroys one.
Resurrection[]
The crooked merchant Rip Rowdy restores the Luck-Dragon aircraft, stupidly selling it to Xayide, who throws him to jail. Atreyu and Fly Girl followed him in the Dark City, sneaking in unnoticed. Yet, Xayide knew they would return for Falkor and sent him to the Chasm of Deepest Fears. There, they overcome illusions of their fears, free Falkor and fly away, but barely escape Xayide who is piloting the first aircraft.
Xayide sends April and her tomboy daughter Gemma to the real world. April seduces Bastian's father and asks a wary Bastian, who knows who they are, to show Gemma to school. Gemma frames Bastian for bullying and steals the Book, but April sacrifices herself to save her from being turned to a Drone. Meanwhile, Bastian is nearly killed by Gmork, and Atreyu, who was sent to the real world by the Wizard, kills the wolf monster with his bow. But far from the key to supreme power, the Book ages denizens of Fantasia who read it. Xayide cannot help but read until she crumbles to dust, breaking all her magic.
The Empress sends April and Gemma to settle in the real world. Before Mr Correander puts the retrieved Book away for safekeeping, he and Bastian read that Fallon, Bastian's classmate who developed an unhealthy obsession with the Book, went to Fantasia to resurrected Xayide. But Mr. Correander is not worried, implying that other dreamer kids will take care of it, as "that is another story, for another time".
Trivia[]
- Xayide's name is meant to be pronounced "Zai-Yē-Dē", as it is done in the live action mini-series, but it is pronounced as "Zai-Yē-Dā" in both the live action film and the animated series.