Four years later
Lyra was now 16 years old as well as Will. At that very moment they were thinking of each other, trying to picture the others face and feeling the others presence. It was pure bliss and agony at the same time for each of them and they're daemons. Tears were running down Lyra's cheeks and she was holding Pan tight. The lover's were in two separate worlds. They were both thinking of their adventures together. Thinking exactly the same thoughts and wishing that they could spend at least one more minute in time with the other. They were in a garden on a bench in a town called Oxford. They were in the same place at the same time but the only drawback was that they were in two separate worlds.
Lyra was thinking of her parents. She had found out that together they had taken down the Regent, the Authority. They had somehow pushed the angel in the crevasse and then jumped in themselves. Together, Lyra thought bitterly, they were together in the same world when they died. Lyra was now going to a woman's college where she was learning to read her beloved alethiometer all over again. She had lost the ability when Pan had taken on his final form. He was a marten. He had always reminded Lyra of Will but it was never in a sad way. It was joyful to think of Will when she saw Pan everyday. One day, Lyra thought determinedly I will talk to Will again. We will be reunited, whether it's in the land of the dead or somehow finding a way to get into his world.
Will was thinking the exact same thing. He was in High School and fairing well. Will had Mary Malone to confide in whenever he needed to, which was a lot. His mother seemed to be saner more often and one day he would tell her where he went all that time when he left her at his old piano teacher's house. He would tell her that her husband had died.
Will and Lyra did feel completely happy in their lives except for the big part of their minds and hearts that remembered each other and the lives they had seen go before their eyes in the adventure of a lifetime. Lyra stood up, for she felt Will's presence leave her. She new in her heart of hearts that it wasn't forever, that next year this would happen again and maybe a few times in between. In the past four year's they had sat in the same spot at the same time seven times. The bench was their meeting place every Midsummer Day at midday but they both went to the gardens when they needed to get away and think about their lover. More than once it had happened that they were together without planning. They each believed that at those times they had a bond that went through the walls of the worlds. They each told themselves that they heard the other's voice.
Will slowly ambled away with his daemon, a beautiful cat that's fur looked much like the surface of the subtle knife that was no longer in existence. He snuck through the gates of the Gardens and went home to his mother and Mary Malone who he called his aunt in his head. He would go home and do his chores and talk to Mary about how he felt and how he missed Lyra, then tomorrow would be another day without Lyra. But one day will be a day with Lyra. One day I'll hold her in my arms again.