Welcome readers, to my very first chapter of Silver Secrets of Jordan! This is my first story, so reviews would be great! Oh, and obviously this is His Dark Materials related, and it takes place 1 year after the events of The Amber Spyglass. Enjoy! REVIEW PLEASE!

Nicholas stood precariously on one of the window sills of the third story of St. Sophia's. He was peeking through the window of a girl he had followed from the Botanical Garden in Oxford earlier that day. His dæmon, Aika-Tulppa, a hummingbird, swiftly whisked over to his side and landed on his shoulder. Her metallic blue and green feathers radiated from the twilight sunset ending behind the two of them.

"Aika, do you see her?"

"Are you sure this is her room?"

"Of course it is! I checked."

"And by 'checked' you mean you climbed up here and looked into every girl's window until you found her?"

Nicholas scowled, and refused to reply. He knew how odd it was for him to be twenty feet in the air waiting to spy on a girl he did not know. He had just had this bizarre "pull" toward this girl. Or was it "attraction" like Aika-Tulppa suggested? Either way, he found it irritatingly difficult to not look at the dirty-blonde cascades of hair and the exquisite blue eyes that she possessed. Aika eventually admitted that it was hard to ignore the girl's dæmon; a red, golden furred pine-marten.

But one thing that caught Nicholas's attention was the fact that she had been crying. It had been the most spectacular Midsummer Day. The bells throughout Oxford had been ringing and a parade of children and adults had proceeded down the streets in honor of the fall of the Magisterium (which had, until about two years ago, been in complete control of a majority of everyone's' lives). Laughter and clapping, singing and shouting echoed all throughout the town. Nevertheless, this one teenage girl had been all alone, silently in tears as she sat on a solitary bench with her marten dæmon surrounded by flowers and overgrown plants.

Aika-Tulppa whispered excitedly in Nicholas's ear, "Here she is! Look!"

Nicholas slyly watched as the girl opened and closed her dormitory door, slung a leather bag full of over sized books beside her bed, and finally collapsed onto her bed with her chest slowly heaving up and down in a steady rhythm. Nicholas could barely hear her speak with her dæmon, but could make out most of their discussion.

"Books, books, more and more books!" said the marten, shaking his head at the leather bag.

"Pan, just lay off the subject for a bit, will you? I have more work than a king of Svalbard would ever have."

"Are you sure they even have that much work in the first place up in the North?"

"What a silly thing to ask! Of course they do, with the sky iron to mine, and the diplomacy with the Tartars and witches, and-"

"Okay, all right! But the point is we're so close to learning at least three meanings for each symbol of the Alethiometer."

"I'm excited too, Pan. Really, I am. Just… not today? Too painful. Too many…" she trailed off.

"Memories?"

She sighed and leaned over to pick up her dæmon, apparently named Pan. She stroked his luxuriant fur for a minute. Suddenly, she seemed to come to some sort of resolution. She got up from her bed, and the girl started to rummage through her leather bag. Nicholas wished her name would be mentioned during this cryptic conversation at least once. He wanted to know her name so he could learn a thing or two about her from a classmate or two down on High Street tomorrow.

Suddenly, Nicholas gasped. He almost lost his grip on the window sill from the surprise of what he saw. Even Aika fluttered a bit from his shoulder. The girl had produced a small, glittering golden compass from her bag and was staring at it in her lap back on her bed. Now how would someone come across something like that?

"Pan?"

"Lyra?"

So that was her name.

"Should I ask it, Pan?"

"About… him?"

Lyra's face was frowning in concentration. Nicholas could almost imagine the gears whirring and turning in her head, thinking, wondering. Then finally, she opened the compass. Nicholas craned his neck to see the inside of the beautiful object, and Aika-Tulppa flew off his shoulder and up a few inches to see. But, as he lifted himself up, his foot slipped on the window sill and he lost his grip. Aika-Tulppa wailed as Nicholas fell from his spot. Wind whistled through his ears, and a stabbing pain of hopelessness stung his heart as he saw his dæmon shrink away as he fell farther and farther from her. Ten feet. Five feet. Two feet. Two inches.

Then pain flooded his entire body, his vision grew blurry, the sound of a shout sounded across the street, and all went black.

OUCH! That's gotta hurt. Well stay tuned for the next installment of Silver Secrets of Jordan! PLEASE REVIEW! Advice would rule. Also, suggestions plot wise would be cool. I know this is only the very beginning, but I'm really just making some of this up as I go. So suggestions would be awesome. THANK YOUUUU! :D