Hana ran through Holywell Street, crying. Oh how she'd get those stupid Magdalen boys, oh yes she would! How dare they try and take her pride from her! She closed her eyes so that the passers by would not see her tears. The Broad Street- Magdelen Street junction was busier than usual today, but Hana navigated well and true towards the Nuffield College fish pond, where she could think her revenge up.
Her daemon, Morfaeliyoreskon, was lonely and disconsolate- ordinarily she would be perched on Hana's shoulder whispering words of comfort and hope until Hana's mother could get there and the true parenting would begin. But today Morfael was lost because she was part of the problem, and Hana would not let her touch her until she was calmed enough. So Morfael watched and waited, while Hana laid down on her belly and fed the fish at Nuffield whatever she thought they wanted. Eventually the tears ceased and Hana lay still, thinking.
"Morfael?" She whispered.
"I am here." Her daemon would always be there.
"I think it would be best if you took me to Wolfson or Green." Those were her other public, yet private, sanctuaries- her parents' colleges, and where she could remember playing and being played with since she could think.
So Morfael led her human up Worcester Street onto and the beginning of the Banbury Road to Green Templeton College- her father's college. Hana came in and slipped by the porter, who nodded at her. She turned round in the courtyard, and looked around for any of her father's colleagues or students. Hana spotted Thomas Gelding, a man her father lectured who was fairly approachable. She quietly went up to him and asked him where she might find a Mr. Culvigard today. Thomas replied that her father was still on lunch and was up at Wolfson visiting a Ms Silvertongue. Thanking Thomas, Hana turned back and walked in a calm and controlled manner across to the Woodstock Road, where she kept going until Linton Road, for along Linton Road was where Wolfson College could be found.
Upon entering the Porter's lodge, Hana checked her mother's pigeonhole. It was full of stuff, including several spare keys and odd gold coins. Hana left that and walked past the central courtyard to the dining hall entrance, which was laid with Carrere marble. She entered that and went up the main steps. But then she turned the corner however, and walked up the steps carved in the marble away from the second set of doors. This went up above the dining hall, and was where her mother's office was. Nobody questioned Hana; they were much too used to seeing her to wonder what she was up to now.
Hana pushed open the door to her mother's life. She was immediately hit with the smell of gardenia, faint but always there. She could hear two voices talking animatedly- her parents, and then she could almost feel the tension in the atmosphere, as her parents realised someone was there. Probably speaking out their views again, Hana thought.
"Ma? Pa?"
"Hana." The word was spoken from her father to her mother, but not as a question. A reassurance perhaps. That it wasn't a Church member there, just their daughter.
"Can I ask you something?" Her mother consented, and beckoned her in, Morfael following quite closely. Hana's face was clear and determined- right now there would be no crying, no weakness. She wanted answers and revenge and she wanted them now.
"Ma, why is Morfael not settled yet? Why is she like a witch's daemon, why does it not hurt if she goes away from me?" Her mother. Lyra Silvertongue. If anyone knew, she would. Her mother had been to other worlds and fought the Church, loved a murderer from another world, and seen ghosts and the land of the dead, and fought alongside armoured bears and witches against Spectres and men, and then walked among angels as their equal. Lyra Silvertongue would know because she could read the alethiometer, and the alethiometer could tell her everything.
"Perhaps it is because you're not ready to settle- and you know how Pan and I are like a witch's daemon, able to stay worlds apart. Perhaps it is a hereditary skill, once acquired. I don't know, but I know that if you are ready to settle, your daemon will settle." Hana nodded once, but pressed her mother for more information- what exactly was it like? Could you tell if your daemon was about to make a permanent form? Lyra tried to answer as best as she could, but in the end she just asked why Hana wanted to know.
Through gritted teeth Hana told her mother that the boys at Magdalen College School had been telling her that she was a freak because she could pull Morfael 5 feet away from her. Of course Hana could make Morfael go entire countries away from her, but it was never shown to anyone but Lyra. They also asked her how old she was, and when Hana proudly announced she was 14 years old, they laughed and said she must be mentally retarded. However, Hana wasn't saying all this through gritted teeth because she was reluctant to tell her mother- Hana was too angry inside, she was seething horribly and used more of that self control to stop her voice quavering.
Lyra Silvertongue's face scowled horribly. She remembered her vivid childhood before the coming of rebellion, and was not ashamed to admit she too had been teased for various things about her- but mostly Lyra was queen of all around her, a natural leader and deceiver who could think up eleven different stories in half a minute who nobody dared attack, because Pantalaimon would crush their daemon to smithereens. And because Lyra belonged to Jordan College, which was the best and most prestigious college in Oxford, and knew it (but that was a lesser reason.)
"How then, do you strike revenge?" Hana smirked.
"You read my mind, Ma. I want to stage a prank."
There it's finished! First Chapter!
It is a slow start, but I have half the other chapters planned in my head.
