The Ties that Bind
Chapter 1: Chance Meetings
It was a particularly cool Midsummer's day, a brisk wind blowing through the Oxford streets as the 17-year-old Will Parry worked his way against the cold air, making his way to the Botanic Gardens, as he had every midsummer's day for the last 4 years. Reaching the garden, he sat where he usually did and waited, letting his mind travel back to memories of the adventures he had enjoyed when he was 12, and of the girl he had come to love only to have her pulled from his grasp. Will, for his part, had tried to move on in other aspects of his life. That coming September, he was to be attending Brasenose, one of the most prestigious colleges at the University of Oxford, to study Physics, having been inspired by Mary. Kirjava was curled up on Will's lap, and also thought back as well. However, the two noticed something unusual. In front of him, on a flat stretch of grass, a young man with dark hair was sitting, seeming to talk with an otter standing by him. Alongside this, Will was able to tell even from a distance that the young man looked extremely pale, almost sickly. Will watched as someone ran up to the pair and tried to push the otter away from the young man, brushing said otter in the process. Will heard the young man shout out, sounding almost pained, and the person was frightened off by the otter, who then settled next to the young man. Everything he had just seen flew around Will's head like a whirlwind: the proximity between the young man and the otter, the pain the young man showed when the otter was hit, and the young man's sickliness all lead Will to a single, impossible conclusion. Unsure of what to expect, Will made his way across to the young man who, Will realised, was also looking down at some notes, as well as talking quietly to the otter.
"Hello?" Will greeted. The young man looked up. Closer up, the young man looked even sicker, as if he was on life support.
"Hi. Don't mind the otter. She's not bothering me." The young man replied. When Will glimpsed the young man's notes, he saw a few words he recognised, such as 'Dust', 'dark matter' and 'dimensions'. The otter looked at Kirjava, who was by Will's leg, with interest.
"Is she settled?" Will asked. The young man raised an eyebrow at Will's question.
"She's your dæmon, right?" Will asked as a follow-up, which increased the young man's confusion.
"How do you -?" The young man asked.
"It's a long story, but I've been to your world and come back." Will remarked, holding out his hand to shake. "I'm Will Parry."
"I'm Peter Stephenson." The young man, Peter, replied, shaking Will's hand. "This is Adara."
"This is Kirjava." Will replied, petting his own dæmon. "What are you doing in this dimension, Peter?"
Meanwhile, in a more clement version of Oxford, Lyra and her daemon Pan were also sitting in the Botanic Gardens. Her studies had progressed, and she was to start an undergraduate degree in the subject of alethiometry come the autumn. The walk to the Botanic Gardens had been mostly uneventful, apart from Lyra having a small discussion about her studies with an academic that had taught her alongside the usual lessons at St Sophia's for the last year or so. With all the stresses over the recent months, Lyra was happy to have a few moments of peace and contemplation of what happened all those years ago. She could have remained in that garden for hours but suddenly, her quiet reverie was interrupted by somebody clearing their throat. Lyra turned to see a man with fair but greying hair and a woman with dark, also greying, hair. Lyra also noticed that standing slightly behind the two adults, there was a young woman, no older than Lyra, with blonde hair. Rather mysteriously, the trio only had 2 dæmons between them: a barn owl that was sat on the shoulder of the man, and a wolf that standing beside the trio.
"Are you Lyra Silvertongue?" The woman asked. Lyra was a bit shocked at first, as she had no idea who any of the trio were.
"Yes. Can I help you?" Lyra asked.
"That's what we hope." The man added. "We have a sensitive matter and have been informed that you may have some expertise in these sorts of matters."
Lyra, intrigued but still a bit defensive, turned to the three. As she did, the girl moved from behind to in front of the two adults.
"I need you to help me get back home." The girl stated. Lyra was going to ask for clarification, but the girl suddenly and without warning, collapsed.
Back in Will's dimension, he and Peter were sitting at a bench near where they had met, whilst their dæmons were talking whilst sat on the green itself. Will sat in rapt attention as Peter explained the story of how he had ended up in Will's dimension. Peter was the son of two academics at his version of Oxford, both of whom were researching the field of theoretical physics, or at least Stephen's world's version of it. Peter had known that his parents had been involved with some secret research, as they had regular meetings with other academics but shared little detail with Stephen, and sometimes even acted as if the meetings never took place as well. One particular night, his parents were meeting with their colleagues at the Stephenson's house, within the dining room. Unbeknownst to his parents or their colleagues, Peter had crept into the kitchen and was listening through the thin door, currently closed. Whilst not able to make out all that was being said, he was able to determine a few phrases, including something about a Rusakov field, dimensions, and someone named Asriel. Peter remembered his parents mentioning this Asriel figure before, after a story was published in the newspaper, saying that he had disappeared, though the details had grown faint with time. One phrase that Peter was able to capture intrigued the youngest Stephenson.
"We'll attempt to use the prototype tomorrow night." Someone said from within the room. "Speed is as imperative as secrecy."
There were murmurs of assent, then the sound of movement. Peter sprinted from the door, Adara right behind him and the pair were able to get back up to Peter's room without seeming like he ever left it. The following night, both his parents said that they had to head out for some formal event, though Stephen quickly realised that this was simply a cover to go to whatever 'the prototype' was. A few moments after his parents left the house, Peter snuck out as well. He followed his parents from their house, along the dark Oxford streets, keeping to the shadows so that he wasn't detected. He followed his parents all the way to one of the old science buildings, that Peter remembered had been closed by the Church due to some research that had used the facility whilst it was open. As Peter crept through the corridors, he heard muffled voices from one of the rooms. Sneaking up to the window, Peter watched the scene in intrigue: his parents and the other academics who were at the meeting the day before. They were standing round a bizarre device: There was a sphere connected to a cone, directed towards a large empty space in the room. A large number of wires were attached to the sphere and fixed it to an amalgam of circuit boards below this arrangement. Unfortunately, whilst Peter could hear someone speaking inside the room, he wasn't able to make out any of the words that were being said. He watched with interest as the academics began to activate the device and a low frequency humming began to fill the air. Unfortunately, in his interest, Peter was leaning against the door more heavily, meaning that said door opened, causing the Stephenson to fall into the room. When Peter stood back up, everyone in the room was looking at him with expressions ranging from confusion to fear to anger. Peter slipped round into the room when one of the academics lunged at him. He ended up in front of the device as the frequency and amplitude of its humming increased.
"Peter! Move!" Both Peter's parents shouted, but it was too late. A beam of light fired from the device and hit the air next to Peter. Much to his surprise, the air seemed to split apart. However, Peter's wonder quickly became fear as he realised he was being pulled towards this tear in space. He tried to move away, but the pull was too strong. Just before he passed through the tear, Peter saw his mum take something from her pocket and throw it at her son. Peter caught it and recognised it in an instant. It was a journal that his mum always had on her. She wrote her scientific ideas in there, as she felt she could have a eureka moment at any moment. Peter caught it.
"Use it to find your way home!" Peter's mum instructed Peter. It was last thing he heard either of his parents say, and the last he saw of them, before he passed through the tear. Next thing he knew, Peter was lying outside on the green where he and Will were now talking, with no sign of the tear. "I've been working on a way back since then." Stephen finished, leaving Will in quiet shock.
Back in Lyra's world, the two adults and Lyra had been able to get the girl to the two adults' house. Whilst the girl rested, the two adults gave Lyra some information about the situation over a mug of chocolatl. The adult's dæmons were in the next room watching the girl until she came back around, whilst Pan sat on Lyra's right shoulder. The two adults were Dr Arthur and Dr Charlotte Stephenson, both physics researchers at Gabriel College, not that far from Jordan where Lyra was lodging. They explained that they had been involved with a confidential project who were trying to open a gateway between two worlds. However, when it came to the reasoning behind the project, both adults were slightly evasive, though they mentioned that it was to gain allies for some cause.
"Who's the girl?" Lyra asked the two adults. However, before they had a chance to answer Lyra's question, the two adults' dæmons crashed into the room, Arthur's owl dæmon Safirah flying in, and Charlotte's wolf dæmon Acario sprinting in.
"Sarah's awake!" Acario declared.
"Thank you, Ari." Charlotte commented, before turning back to Lyra. "I think we'll let Sarah introduce herself."
Charlotte and Arthur lead Lyra and Pan to the next room where the girl was sitting up. She looked sicker than when Lyra had been approached at the Botanic Gardens. This and the apparent lack of a dæmon suddenly made sense to Lyra.
"You're from a different world." Lyra deduced.
"She is." Charlotte admitted. "We were testing a prototype for a gateway of sorts. It was meant to open a one-way split, just to test the waters, but there were complications."
Charlotte and Arthur looked to each other, almost mournfully, though this was only for a moment.
"When the device activated, someone from our world travelled to the other side, and Sarah was pulled into ours." Charlotte continued. "The device collapsed, and we haven't been able to sync it to the same world."
"What do you need me for?" Lyra queried, confused.
"I heard about your travels to another world from another academic, someone called Malcolm Polstead. He told us that you had mentioned that you had become attached to someone from another world. From the details we could ascertain, that world was the one our device connected to."
"So, what do you actually need me to do?" Lyra asked.
