"Ali!" Lyra called in exasperation to her eleven-year-old daughter, as she looked in horror at what used to be the kitchen. Everything that had been in a cupboard or a drawer was now on the floor or any other empty place. What in the world could she have been thinking? Thought Lyra, smiling despite herself. Her daughter unceasingly reminded her of herself at that age, when she was back at Jordan College. Pantalaimon, sharing her thought, nodded and jumped down from her shoulder onto the nearest counter to investigate the mess.

"What is it?" called Ali, her voice frustrated as if she'd been pulled away from some important task.

"Come here right now," hollered Lyra.

She watched as her daughter Ali walked into the kitchen, her daemon Sid strutting behind her in monkey form. She looked around, and then got a slightly guilty look on her face. The guilty look however passed as soon as it was there, and only an experienced pretender like Lyra could understand why after the guilty look, a completely innocent look replaced it. She also was able to see her daughters mind working furiously under the mask for a way to get out of this mess, something again, only Lyra would be able to see. And Ali knew it. As for Sid, he stood there, looking perfectly astounded at the mess.

"What is the meaning of this?" she asked, trying to put on the stern, motherly look and act serious, even though what she wanted to do was burst out laughing. Pan got down on the ground, and started walking in careful circles around Sid inspecting him carefully.

"I don't know," Ali replied, to all eyes looking as startled by the mess as Lyra herself was when she first found it.

"Cut the nonsense, Ali, what happened?"

Ali gave in, knowing she still wasn't quite good enough to fool her mother. "I was looking for something," Ali said carefully, "but I didn't find it,"

"And what were you looking for?" Lyra asked slyly, remembering the time she herself had hijacked Ma Costas, a gyptian lady's, boat, and had searched it tirelessly for the bung. They had nearly sailed all the way to Abingdon… She was getting sidetracked. "Well?" she asked again.

"I was looking for the…."

"What?"

"Oh never mind, I'll clean up." Pan was still looking harshly at Sid.

"You'd better hurry it up, I got to make dinner soon," said Lyra. She looked around the kitchen again, and sighed, defeated, "On the other hand, get your coat on, we're going out to dinner."

Lyra lived with Ali in a house on the grounds of Jordan College. It was a large house compared to most of the smaller urchin houses. The master of Jordan had built it for them new when he heard that Lyra was going to be living among them again, only this time with a daughter as well. The house was set inside the gates of Jordan, and surrounded by pine trees and oak trees, that mixed wonderfully despite there differences.

Ali, taking after her mother almost identically, practically owned the streets of Jordan College, and was highly respected among urchins, townies, and even a few from other colleges. And as for lying, she was an exact copy. It came easier to her than anything in the world, much to the dismay and amusement of Lyra, the master, and even some of the scholars who had known Lyra in earlier days. Ali was a whirlwind girl who was all for adventure. If she set her mind to do something, which she almost always did, she was going to get it. Except when her mother, Lyra, had a say in it. Lyra was her equal in every way, and not even the great Ali could do a thing about it. Ali had received little from her father what so ever. In fact, Lyra could not find one thing that resembled him at all, in appearances or personality. She had everything from Lord Asriel's commanding presence, to Marisa and Lyra's uncommon beauty though. Lyra found it rather strange actually.

Lyra tutored Ali in all the subjects that she had been put through in her duration at St. Sophia's school for girls (minus embroidering, which Lyra herself never could stand).

She had also been training Ali in aleithiometry. She didn't know why she chose to teach her that. It was actually the aleithiometer's suggestion. It had said 'teaching, daughter, and aleithiometer'. A meaning that to Lyra couldn't have been clearer. Ali didn't really take to it that well. She found it hard to sink into the state of mind, and meanings did not seem to come clear to her. But it was the only class that Ali attended willingly, so Lyra was happy. Ali had classes mostly in the morning, and had afternoon and evenings to reek havoc in all of Jordan College.

Lyra herself was now 27 years old. Ali's father, Brad McCarsky, was a professor from Holland that she had met nearly 12 years before. Ali had been an accident, really. Lyra had fallen in love immediately when she saw Brad, but it had only been an overnight romance, and Ali was the outcome. Unfortunately for Lyra and Ali, Brad died 3 weeks after Ali's conception in an automobile accident.

And what of Will? Well, Lyra's ability to read the aleithiometer was growing every passing day, the calm state of mind was becoming easier and easier to sink into, and her understanding was becoming much clearer. When she asked questions, depending on the question, she could understand about half of what it was trying to say.

She had gathered that Will was okay. Married to a nice young lady, and happy enough. They had two children and a dog. It also added in that strange way it always used to, that Will missed her tremendously, and sometimes even thought of reforging the knife. This last part always disturbed her a bit, but she knew he wouldn't. As for herself, Lyra still thought about him everyday. How couldn't she? But it wasn't a painful thing to think about anymore. She had gotten over the grieving, and now when she looked back, only the happy memories seemed to remain. Though, as Will himself had said, a memory is a very, very poor thing to have.

The next morning, after talking her mom, Lyra, out of bringing her along to some lecture about something or other that she promised would be interesting, Ali grabbed a coat and ran out the door. Her daemon Sid, now a lemur, ran after her. She ran full tilt toward the Jordan Gates, planning in her mind already for a day of fun. Their next attack was supposed to be on the townies, despite the uneasy truce they had made, and Lyra was not going to be late. It was supposed to one of the biggest battles ever, at least since the time when townies and colleger's alike had attacked the brick burners at the clay beds. Lyra had told her about it and had said it was fantastic. That was actually one reason Ali was so intent on getting to the town. She wanted to have a fantastic story to tell her mother when she got home.

She slowed down and began to walk, letting Sid catch up with her and climb to her shoulder as a monkey. He looked at her accusingly, and said,

"You didn't wait for me,"

"I know you'd have caught up, and besides, you wanna get there just like I do,"

"Yeah, " he said, and changed into a mouse to climb up in her hair.

They continued like that until they got to the gate and Sid began trying out battle forms, while Lyra kept walking.

"Be careful! Don't go getting inta too much trouble, Ali, ye hear!" called the security guard from his post as he opened the gate. He smiled to himself, remembering the days when he had said the same things to Lyra in her childhood.

"I won't," she yelled back, again breaking into a run.

By the time she reached the rendezvous point, in the ally behind the drug store, she was breathless. Sid, in the form of a mini dragon, was perched on her shoulder. She ran up to Mickey, a kitchen girl, and asked what was going on. Mickey immediately explained that the battle was off. She said that George and Beffer, two of their best warriors, were gone to the next town, and that it would have to wait until their return. After making sure there was nothing she could do to get the battle going anyway, she sullenly walked back towards the house, going over with Sid anything else they could do to fill their day.

"We could go swimming," he suggested, knowing that Ali knew that he meant in the creek behind their house. The creek was long, longer than even Ali had explored thus far, and it twisted and winded through woods and fields, far beyond Jordan property, as far as Ali knew. It widened and deepened in many places, providing numerous swimming holes for her and any lucky kids who came across it.

"Alright," she agreed, and began to run yet again to work off some of her built up energy she had been saving for the fight. They reached the usual swimming hole, the widest and deepest she had found this far, and Sid jumped down from Ali's shoulder onto the ground and changed into a frog. Now that Ali was near the water, she realized just how hot the day was getting. The water was tantalizing, and she wanted more than anything right then to just jump in, but she hesitated.

"Wait," Ali said, "Lets go farther,"

"Farther?" Sid asked, surprised, reverting to a hummingbird to buzz by her ear. They had never gone farther down the creek than this before.

"Yeah," she said

"Why?" he asked.

"Because we've got a long day ahead of us, and we might as well,"

"Fine by me," he said, but she noticed that he too was glancing back down at the water too.

So farther they walked. It seemed like the creek was thinning out, it was getting shallower and skinnier, and she was about to say that they should go back, but then it began to widen again. Just a little, but it did. Then all of a sudden it widened into a huge deep pool. The water was nearly clear, showing off its depth, probably over 10 feet. Its bottom was covered in large rocks, swaying water plants, and a whole maze of tunnels in the bottom rock. It would be a wonder to explore, and they would be the first to do so.

Lets go in, Sid thought to Ali, and Ali nodded, stripping down to her under drawers, and sitting down on the bank with her feat in the water. Sid, wasting no time, jumped in as a frog again, and once there, became a minnow, swimming round and round waiting for Ali.

Ali slipped into the pool, treading water, and relishing the coolness that was now enveloping her. Sid nipped her playfully under the water, then turned round and joined a school of minnows that were darting about. She ducked under the water, gazing around her, her short strawberry blond hair waving around her face. From under the water the scene was amazing. Tall underwater plants with small red blooms, over five feet high, all over, created a kind of underwater forest. Tall rocks a little taller than the plants were sprinkled here and there. But most amazing was the bottom. It was a network of caves. Bridges of rock crisscrossed over openings and tunnels that lead deeper into the ground.

Finding herself short of breath, she swam to the surface, climbing back up onto the large shelf of root that served as a bank to the pool. She found that Sid was already there, frog formed, sitting in the curve of a root.

"It was amazing, wasn't it?" she asked, already knowing the answer.

"Yeah," he replied, "what did you think of those caves?"

"I thought they were great," she smiled, "I think we know what to do for the rest of the day,"

Without any more delay they both slipped back into the water, and dived into the nearest tunnel. The tunnels were like a goldmine for Ali and Sid. Their bottoms were covered in tiny animals such as crawdads and clamshells were plentiful. In the sides of the caverns there seemed to be a luminescent glow. It came from tiny rocks covering all the surfaces. They whole thing looked as if it came out of a fairytale, it was amazing.

Three hours later Ali and Sid were back on the bank, adding even more to the pile of treasures that they had already collected.

"Shouldn't we go back soon?" asked Sid, looking at the setting sun in the sky.

"Just one more cave," Ali said, sad to have to leave at all.

So they went in one more time. The tunnel the followed seemed to be much longer than the others, and when it finally did end, it opened into a large cave. There was something different about the water though. It was colder, and had a different taste to it. It tasted like the ocean. Ali had been to the ocean on two other occasions, and knew the taste well. Sid became a glow fish a illuminated the cave. That's when she saw it. Ali saw something then that she had never seen before. She swam towards it and examined the edges closely. She swam back to the surface for a breath, then came back down to look again.

The thing she found, it explained why the water tasted salty, and it flabbergasted both Ali and Sid. Upon further investigation, she realized she had found something to tell her mother about after all. It was a window. A window, except with no glass. A window that lead into the ocean, into the ocean of what Ali was sure beyond doubt of another world.