In and Out

In the dark mist of the winter, a light gradually appeared in the sky over the mountains of Svalbard. The ice bears all looked up at the wondrous light, as if they knew what it was. The light began to twist and turn into a zigzagging trail, leading to something that shouldn't be here. The bears knew it straight away, there was a human in their midst. They climbed the rest of the way up the steep but smooth mountain, on which their home stood, and looked over the peak. Sure enough, there was a human approaching, but without a dæmon. There are only two types humans that where without a dæmon; those who's dæmons where hidden inside and those who's dæmons had been cut from then.

This human looked very much like he had a dæmon inside, and Iorek Byrnison knew it for sure. He had seen the humans from the other world, the world where Lyra's fierce friend Will had come through from into Cittagazze through a window cut with the legendary Subtle Knife. He had then helped Lyra and Lyra had helped him, but then they where parted. Iorek had a strange feeling that this human walking towards the mountain that he and two other ice bears from his kingdom stood. He suddenly knew that his thoughts were right when the human looked up with a certain happiness on his face. Iorek began to descend the other side of the mountain towards the man and to greet him. The man had stopped and was waiting to see if the other bears would follow, but they remained stationary at the top of the peak, looking down in wonder. Iorek reached the man and then noticed that the light had stopped flowing towards him and was now forming a circle in the air above where he and the man stood.

Iorek looked into the man's eyes and then spoke only four words, "Is that really you?"

"Yes, Iorek", the man replied.

"I can't believe how much you look like your father", Iorek commented.

"I didn't know you knew my father, well, I didn't know much about him", the man answered in the same tone of voice as if his voice box had been fix on the same level.

"Yes, he passed through on the bridge that Lord Asriel had created, from Cittagazze I presume", Iorek explained "He didn't quite know where he was at that point, of course who would."

"Yes, indeed", the man said "I wish I could have known him better, that's part of the reason I came here, to find you."

"And why would you need me?" Iorek asked, slightly puzzled.

"Lyra told me that you would help me if I needed anything, and I thought that you might know the name of the witch who killed my father." The man explained.

"Yes, I do", replied Iorek "But I must ask, why do you seek this information?"

"I need to know why she did it" the man said with a flare of anger in his voice "She took away one of the most important things in my life, and she took him away from me, without even an explanation."

"Well, I could call on Serafina Pekkala" Iorek suggested.

"Yes, please, that would be very helpful" the man replied.

Iorek turned and said "Follow", so the man did. He led him back up the mountain to where the other bears were waiting. The two of them looked at him with complete bewilderment, as if it was complete inhuman not to have a dæmon that follows you around, which in their world it is. They followed Iorek and the man down the other side of the mountain to the cave where the ice bears all live, keeping a close watch for anything unordinary. Iorek went over to his chair sitting in view of all the other bears and began to introduce the man.

"This man is William Parry, a boy from the world on the other side of Cittagazze" Iorek explained and the other bears in turn went up to Will and greeted him and then bowing to Iorek as their King. After what seemed like a very lengthy welcome ceremony, Iorek took Will to his quarters and sat him down on the block of ice he uses for a bed.

"There is no need to be afraid Will" Iorek said in as calmer voice as possible "The bears can't harm you now, and will keep a close watch on you to see that no harm comes to you from anything else."

"Ok, I was just quite nervous standing in front of a large group of bears at first" said Will, shivering a little from the cold. Iorek ushered him out of the bear's ice palace and out into the snow, which seemed to have stopped. Will looked up at the sky to see what looked like a group of large birds, but then he realised that they weren't birds, they were witches. He looked at Iorek who held a calling flower that Serafina must have given to him and Will realised that he had called them for Will's purpose. Iorek walked a little further on and then yelled"Down here" to the witches. One of them stopped and turned around in the direction of Will and Iorek. She then began to approach them fairly quickly and then lowered herself to the ground.

"What is the purpose of this call?" she asked Iorek and he subtly pointed at Will. She turned to him.

"Ah, Will, what are you doing in this world?" she asked sweetly.

"I came to find out why my father was killed" he said, the flare of anger appearing in his voice once more.

"Oh, I see" Serafina said slightly stunned.

"Is there a problem Serafina" asked Will, wondering if he had been to rash.

"No, no, I will tell you all I know" she said and cleared her throat "Your father was under a different name here in our world, Stanislaus Grumman and a witch who is no longer alive called Juta Kamainen fell in love with him. He was interested so he rejected her and left her weeping for ages. She swore she would get her own back on him but she had no idea that he was your father before she killed him. She killed herself right in front of you, didn't she?"

"Yes" Will said, puzzled at how she had known.

"I suspect that when you told her she was so scared of you, having seen the Subtle Knife holstered in your sheath that she didn't want to cause you anymore pain, so she took her own life as well" Serafina finished.

"Didn't want to cause me anymore pain" Will said with anger and rage "How is there a way of causing more pain than killing my father, who I spent ages searching for, only for the second I realised that it's him, he's dead the next, I would have liked to have killed that witch right there and then but now I wouldn't want to, I've changed now." Will looked into the sky and saw the light returning. He stood there looking in amazement, wondering if he could now, do what Lord Asriel had done so many years ago, and create the next bridge to another world.