It was half past eleven in the morning on Midsummer's Day. Lyra had gotten into the habit of spending the day at the Botanic Gardens, turning it into an event of remembrance. Every year, the memories grew more vivid than the next or maybe they only appeared so because everything was so dull without Will. She turned towards the Main Street as she walked to the gardens and saw the children playing in the clay beds and was reminded in flash of her days spent there in the summer sun with Roger and Billy Costa; gyptians and townies united against the clay kids. Pan flying as high as he could back then and ducking back down to tell her where to strike, the rush of the wind that blew her raggedy hair in her face, times had changed.
Time had taken the Master and Dame Hannah, even Cousins, her nemesis, couldn't escape its inevitability. The Master was buried in the crypts below Jordan College and every now and then, Lyra would visit to talk to him about all that was happening. It wasn't as fun without Roger but she had taken it upon herself to make up a small shrine for him down there. After all, together they had been masters of Jordan too.
Time had also taken John Faa and Farder Coram. Lyra had spent much time with them and looked back fondly at the time she longed to touch Farder Coram's dæmon and the days spent on the boat navigating through the Fens. Tony and Billy Costa were heads of the gyptians now; Ma Costa would've been proud.
"Lyra!" said Pantalaimon, feeling her mind wandering, "we're nearly there."
She was so lucky to have him. He had felt so betrayed yet he loved her enough to come back to her, the thought and pride was enough to make her heart swell.
In her lifetime, she had seen the Magesterium crumble entirely and on its ruins, a new governing system was implicated with, she had been reliably informed, fractions devoted to the study of Dust. Lyra herself knew more about Dust than the entirety of those groups and she was in possession of the last alethiometer too as Fra Pavel's was 'misplaced' by some Magersterial agents.
Sensing her dæmon slowing, Lyra's eyes gazed at the building in front of her. So much about was the same as it had been in Will's world, even the way the bricked were laid with a solemn but steady hand. She glanced back at her dæmon again before stepping in through the entrance. A young boy ran past her with his dragonfly dæmon in toe, bustling with joy and the green naturalness around them.
She had lived a full life as she had promised Will and Xaphania and with the help of Dame Hannah, she could once again read the alethiometer. Every now and then she was struck with a feeling of unknown but the skill soon returned, fitting itself back into her mind like it had never been gone. She'd never asked about Will, no matter how tempted she had felt although she thought of him often and loved him even more so.
The gardens were empty apart from a few stray butterflies who fluttered about, timelessly elegant.
"Do you think Mary's ok?" Of late, Lyra's curiosity had turned more to how Mary Malone's life had been when she returned to Will's Oxford. With the loss of so many dear to her, Lyra had wanted the best for the woman. In an instant though, she remembered that Mary was in the care of Will and Kirjava and was absolutely fine.
Pan looked back up at Lyra and jumped onto her shoulder, his red-golden fur shining in the near noon sun. He nuzzled into her neck and felt, like she did, at home. They had deliberately taken the longer route to get there and Lyra's heart pounded as she saw the bench. It happened every year, she couldn't help it and she knew that Will and Pantalaimon and Kirjava felt the same. Pan stayed on her shoulder as she sat down on the bench. She looked to her right at the empty space where Will and Kirjava would have fit perfectly and despaired a little, a few tears spilling from her eyes. Then she saw something she did not believe or expect. In all of the seventy years since departing from him, she had not seen anything but here she was.
Beside her, a bright ripple of light and feathers sat.
Xaphania had changed very little since their last meeting, if at all. Whilst Lyra had acquired wrinkles and grey hair, Xaphania looked as young as she had when Lyra had first seen her on the banks of that wide river with Will. Her hair glittered in the midday light which made her even more difficult to see and her face was so radiant, it seemed to emit its own light.
"My kin and I have been watching over you, Lyra," she said, an element of power that had been absent in their first meeting audible, "you have grown to be a most beautiful woman."
"Thank you, Xaphania, but please tell me, how is Will? If you and your kin have been watching over Pan and I, then please have been watching over him too. I know he doesn't seem to need much watching over but please have been." The angel laughed a sweet tinkling laugh before setting eyes back on the elderly woman in front of her.
"We have been watching over everyone, my child. Everything is well again. The dead fly among us and we cherish their company as the harpies marvel their stories and you remember them."
"And what of Mary? How is she?" Lyra's eyes, young and eager as Pan leant forward, facing the angel head on. The ageless being laughed once more before telling Lyra that Mary was fine, if a little old. She did not, however, inform her of her visit to the woman earlier that day.
Mary Malone was still a proud woman and she and her Alpine Chough dæmon had accomplished much in their lives back in their world. Although weakened by age, her wit and mind remained as sharp as the subtle knife had been; when Xaphania had appeared to her, Mary was half concerned it was her turn to walk the path of the dead and tell the harpies of her adventures. She soon realised what she was seeing and embraced the angel.
"You have not changed at all. It's as if the winds of time have not touched you." Mary said, a smile firmly on her lips as her dæmon chattered on her shoulder. Since being taught how to see her dæmon by Serefina Pekkala, Mary had come along greatly and was able to communicate with her dæmon as well as clearly see those of others.
"They do not for we are not comprised of Matter but pure consciousness which is why we feel to such great lengths." Xaphania said warmly, smiling back at the woman.
"Have you visited Will yet? He is headed to the Botanic Garden what with today being Midsummer's Day."
"I have not seen the boy, no," Xaphania said with the utmost brilliance radiating from her, "but I intend to later today so please do not inform him of my seeing you."
"I shan't, Xaphania, and I was brilliant to see you, sometimes I think I imagined the entire thing. Thank you for reminding me that the most prized and wondrous things are often outrageously close to complete absurdity." Mary smiled once again at the patch of shimmering light before closing her eyes and going to sleep.
"Lyra, are you glad that you have lived the life you have?" Xaphania's voice was like honey, sweet and sincere,"are you proud if what you have achieved?"
Lyra couldn't see it but Xaphania's eyes were glistening and full of excitement. "Nobody understands as we do just what you went through for this world to return to how it was, and now with the worlds in perfect balance once again, so my kinsmen and I have decided to thank you in the way we can. You will be able to see if you concentrate enough. You'll understand when the time comes." and then Xaphania disappeared into the haze and Lyra and Pan were once more alone in the Botanic Gardens.
They stayed sat on the bench for several minutes trying to make sense of what they had just been told. Several minutes soon turned into several hours and the fringes of the horizon were beginning to darken as they left the gardens, no wiser as to what the angel had meant. She went to walk along down the streets she had travelled that morning and many mornings before but something strange pulled at her mind and she looked back to the gardens. Stood on the other side of the open gate was a time worn man with his hands in his pockets and his dæmon by his side. Lyra looked again and as the dimming light struck his face, Lyra saw. She felt as though all her breath had been beaten from her body, it was him.
"Will?" She whispered, testing the name in the cool evening air but the taste was familiar in her mouth, "Will? Is that you?"
Lyra had not realised how she had been moving towards the mystery man until she was a half a metre away from him, his shoes in line with the shadows being cast by the plants around. As quick as a man a half of his age would have done, Will hooked his arm around Lyra and pulled her into a deep embrace. She could not talk for her pleasure was all-consuming and tears racked her body as she smelt the hair she had been dreaming of for seventy years and held the boy whom she had longed for all that time too. Will, too, was overwhelmed by his emotions as he held the girl he had saved the universe with. They withdrew from the hug and looked into each other's eyes and kissed one another over and over in the half-light whilst their dæmons played in the undergrowth, chasing the tail they had been meant to chase for seventy years.