"What does this mean?" Lyra snapped. "I haven't the foggiest of what you're actually going on about!"

"Princess Mages are born from wishes." Kyubey said. "Dark Queens are born from curses." he continued. "The Queens feed on humans... killing them, getting them to kill themselves, and some just leech energy off them till there's nothing left."

She was unnerved at how nonchalantly he said all this. But she could believe him. It was rather outrageous to be an outright lie and his tone, as cold as it was, was not that of a madman.

"Perhaps its a bit to much to explain." the creature said. "I'll round up another magical girl to demonstrate." he said as if it was no bigger than showing her how to tie her shoes. "Meet me here at midnight tonight." the creature said.

As he vanished into the bushes Pan said. "That thing... It's like nothing we've ever seen before." he said.

Lyra nodded. "It certainly is inhuman. But we can reach an understanding with him. Like we dealt with Ieorek." she said more cheerfully than she felt.

"We should get back to our studies." Pan said.

Lyra complied. She entered into the new brick-lined apartment and the shining spiral staircase into her bedroom. Anna, her roommate, was gone. "Left to kiss the arse of that damned Authority." she commented.

Pan responded. "Better than bringing it into our room."

This had been a fight between them. Anna would often retire earlier than Lyra, always praying before going to bed. Lyra was perpetually irritated by this show of faith. The bickering grew to the point that Lyra often would leave to meet Sarah at the cafe while Anna said her prayers. But now she had to deal with studying for her symbology class.

She took out a chart laden with symbols. There were hundreds of symbols with meanings which varied from the obvious to the obscure. These symbols needed to be learned and memorized in order to use her altheiometer. It was work that was both tedious and fascinating. But she was going to try something she hadn't done since she lost her gift.

"You know it won't work Lyra." Pan said staring as his human manipulated the hands of the device.

"True Pan." she said. "But I feel like I just need to try it." she said.

She moved the hands of the althiometer. "The moon." Lyra said. The uncanny. "The alpha and omega." A contract "The angel." A wish.

The fourth needle responded to her question. Lyra recorded the symbols of the device The snake, the helmet, the bird, the marionette, the bread, the hourglass, the compass.

"It's a long response." Lyra said. "A shame I can't read it." Lyra said

"Are you sure about this?" Pan said.

"No Pan." she said. "It's a deal that sounds too good to be true." Lyra said "I'm not signing up until I know the catch."

As soon as she'd said this she heard the chatter of Anna and her daemon. "Great." she said sarcastically.

"Come on Lyra." she said. "Let's meet up with Sarah." he said.

The two left the room to find that Sarah was there as usual, reading her book. Lyra was her sole friend. Sarah stroked Scipio, her Border Collie daemon. The daemon's form was an object of scorn among St. Joan's. Female scholar's were looked down enough without servants passing themselves off as scholars.

"Good evening Lyra." Sarah said flipping through her mundane theology* textbook. "Evening Pan." said Scipio.

She sighed. It was nice to spend evenings with Sarah. She was intensely curious, but she was also very quiet. Lyra liked telling her about her secrets, seeking her condolence in the harshness of this school. Lyra knew it was much harder for her than she let on and felt guilty of burdening her friend with her concerns. She decided to forgo mentioning the creature in the garden.

"How are you doing Sarah?" she asked her companion.

"Fine." she said though looking a bit shaken. She flipped through several pages of her textbook. "Need to study up on entropic law*." she said.

"You know my livelihood." Lyra said with a chuckle. "Symbols. Got to memorize hundreds of these icons for the exam tomorrow." It then occurs to her. "Entropic?" Lyra asked.

"The net static law states that no energy in the universe is ever lost.*" Sarah said. "The entropic law states that the energy of the universe tends to become less orderly over time." she says.

That weasel mentioned entropy. Lyra recalled. The Dust decay was proof of that concept, I suppose.

"Why are you interested in theology Lyra?" she said suspiciously.

"Well..." Lyra said.

Then came Grace. She was adorned in light silk clothes for the summer air. A black swan daemon fluttered up to her human and perched on Grace's shoulder.

"Servant girl, can you get me some cola?" Grace said as haughty as ever. "Us Lyalls need to keep ourselves hydrated." she said in a facetiously sweet tone. Grace was a member of the Lyall family. Her family had produced some of the most well regarded scholars of her generation. She took her heritage as if it entitled her to all the respect her family had earned.

"Ok..." Sarah said. Sarah rose from her seat.

Lyra on the other hand put her hand on Sarah's. "Listen Grace. She may have a dog daemon. But that doesn't give you the right to be a humongous bitch!"

"What did you call me?" Grace said. The swan shuddered a bit. The birds motion signaled to Lyra that perhaps Grace was self-aware on some level.

"I'm sick of you treating everyone like servants." she said. "We're all here for the same reason, family or no family."

Pan was hissing a bit.

"Well I..." she said. But at that moment she just stopped. Her eyes went dull for a second and she remained silent. She merely walked away. As she left she saw a kind of mark flashing on her neck. The mark was shaped like a shield. She looked around and no one seemed to notice. Except for Sarah. She saw the mark and looked at it in horror.

"We need..." she said. In an action that shocked Lyra completely she felt Sarah tug at her and drag her through the hallways.

"You saw it." Sarah said.

"That tattoo?" Lyra asked. "It was kind of hard not to notice."

"That means... Are you the one...?" She said running while Pan and Scipio followed.

By the time they neared the garden Lyra had a grasp at what was going on.

"Hello there Ms. Belaqua." Kyubey said sitting there oblivious to either girls panic. "Lucky for me you seem to have already met the Princess Mage at this school."

"Sarah?" Lyra asked,

"You know everyone has their secrets Lyra." Sarah responded. "Let me show you mine."

Lyra gasped at what happened next. She stroked Scipio for a second. The dog seemingly folded up like paper into the form of an onyx gem about the size of Lyra's Althoemeter. She held the Gem out and in a mere seconds she changed from St. Joan's uniform to scholars cap and gown. The Gem that had been Scipio was nestled on the top of her cap.

"What!" Lyra said. "What happened?"

"Ah yes..." Kyubey said. "Daemons are rather inconvenient in combat." He twitched his tail a bit. "That's why we put them away in Soul Gems when a Princess Mage transforms."

"Don't worry Lyra." she said. "It isn't like intercision or anything." she said. "Scipio's still here and a part of me." Sarah pointed to her Gem. "Just safe and sound. And its a simple matter to change him back"

Lyra was a bit apprehensive about that point. Sarah didn't seem to have been radically altered by the transformation. "Come on Lyra." Pan said. "After the world of the dead. I can take being a gemstone for a bit."

His voice was bitter. But Lyra understood him... Her betrayal... Just leaving him on the shore while Lyra reunited with Roger of the most painful betrayal in her life. Surely this couldn't be much worse.

"I can presume from your state of panic that you have noticed our visitor." Kyubey said.

Sarah nodded. "Gra... Grace has a royal seal on her." she said fearfully.

"Which means I think we can show Lyra what being a Princess Mage is all about." Kyubey said.

Sarah took Lyra's hand and said. "We need to save her." she said. In that moment her outfit resumed to normal and the border collie reappeared.

"You need me to sniff her out?" the daemon asked.

"Yes Scipio." his human said confidently.

The dog took to the ground following Grace's scent. Lyra was left to ponder what would happen to Grace if the Queen got to her? Grace was a grade A brat but did she deserve to die?

"Lyra." Pan said. "We need to stop people from throwing their lives away." Pan reminded her. "That's what we swore we'd do."

Lyra remembered the promise. To build the Republic of Heaven as best they could in this world. If stopping witches saved and enriched lives... It was worth the risk.

"Here it is!" Scipio called.

The collie stopped at a bridge over the river Thames. Grace was nearing the docks clearly intending to jump off. Her daemon was trying as best as a swan could to hold her human back.

"Stop it." Sarah said. "I won't let you do this." she said. She summoned a whip with a black handle and bound Grace before she was able to take the plunge. Grace struggled against it but Sarah bound her tighter until she passed out.

"If we don't topple the Queen." Sarah said. "She'll try again when she awakens."

Lyra nodded though secretly suspecting Sarah enjoyed whipping Grace.

There was a mural of the crucifixion. The detail into the scene of Jesus's death left Lyra very uncomfortable. " I think it's just sadistic." Lyra said.

"We don't have time for criticizing artwork!" Sarah said. She took her Gem and pressed it to the wall. A rip in space appeared.

"A window!" Lyra said.

"A domain*." Sarah corrected her. "A pocket dimension that Queens hide in." she said. "Are you coming?"

Lyra nodded solemnly. Pan and Kyubey followed the girls into the witches Domain.

AUTHOR"S NOTE's

Some claim that "experimental theology" is synominous with "physics". But consdiering the fact that the term seems incredibly vauge I'd say it's more equivalent to "science". Mundane theology is the term I'm inventing for physics specifically

Entropic Law = Second Law of Thermodynamics

Net Static Law =First Law of Thermodynamics

Royal Seal =Witch's Kiss

Domain =Barrier