Seated on her mahogany-framed chair at the high-table, Lyra placed her tired upper-chin in both of her hands, crossed her bored, glazed eyes, and slumped in her chair. She knew it was bad manners to behave like this, she simply didn't care. Being tried and cross, and having been scolded for not eating some of the nasty-looking green vegetables on her plate, she had no mind for etiquette. Of course, she never really did, but still. Pantalaimon was a white ermine dozing at her feet, feeling a little worn-out himself.

Across from her, Lucy was sitting up, if not straight, than certainly straighter than Lyra was. Reepicheep, in his golden-brown cat form was hissing at Doe every time she tried to get near him; she was always too playful for his liking. Doe, in turn, would hide between Peter's legs, never even noticing that he paid her no mind now.

Seated at his other side was Susan; and it was more than a little apparent that they were holding hands under the table. Maugrim, almost indifferent to their constant displays of affection by this point, let out a doggish yawn and rested his head on his paws.

"Oh, Reep," whispered Lucy to her dæmon, pretending to bend down to pick up a fork she had dropped. "Peter's finally happy again."

Reepicheep twisted his head upwards and looked over at the young couple who-whenever they happened to glance at each other-always had these demented-looking little smiles on their faces. "I am glad, Lucy, I was starting to worry about him too,"

The Master turned and looked at Lyra, taking in her sorry posture with a look of disappointment, but not commenting on it as he had something else he needed to discuss with her at the moment. "Lyra, my dear," he began in as calm and kindly a voice as he could manage.

Lyra blinked at him and raised her head up barely half-way. "Mmm?"

"I was informed that you missed your physics lesson again." he said calmly, giving her a concerned glance.

As if she were a criminal being interrogated, Lyra said nothing at all, making her mouth a thin, unmoved line in the centre of her face.

"I know that you do not always understand our need to educate you," he sighed deeply, not at all sure she was actually listening to him. "but sometimes you must do what others feel are best for you."

"Ah, but I disagree, Master." a smooth, bell-like, buttery voice nothing at all like Lyra's half-urchin prattle chimed in.

Everyone looked up to see who the speaker was and many a face went white. Peter's grip on Susan's hand tightened; he could feel her repressed trembling through her vibrating wrist. Lucy felt her stomach lurch and thought she was going to be sick; Reepicheep shifted into a brown weasel and climbed up onto her lap. A gorgeous blonde woman in an evening gown of glittering gold sequins with eyes just as blue as Susan's, and a fair golden monkey-dæmon at her side, stood before them.

"Mrs. Coulter!" exclaimed the Master, his eyes flashing and widening, and his mind spinning.

All the male scholars and professors rose up from their seats to greet her respectfully. All of them, that is, except for Peter who didn't want to let go of Susan's hand in this woman's presence. Someone casually kicked his chair; it was a reminder that he had no choice, he must stand. Susan, being a lady, was not required to stand, so she had to stay seated-all the while letting her eyes flicker back and forth from her mother to her husband fearfully.

Why was she there? Susan couldn't help wondering, sensing Maugrim's bristled fur through her own on-edge neck hairs and the goose-bumps on her arms. Had she come all this way to see Susan? To try to take her back home with her? Or was this about Peter? Did she want her experiment back? If so, why wasn't she there sooner? How had she gotten into the campus in the first place?

It must be about me, Susan thought-looking down at her wedding ring wishing for a moment that it was still fused to her husband's band, why else would she be here? She's knows I'm here, and Lord Asriel would never let her just come in here and take Peter or Lucy-though she would have no reason to want Lucy in the first place anyway-so what else could it be?

"When I was a young woman," Mrs. Coulter was saying, smiling softly down at Lyra who glanced up at her with an awestruck expression they'd only ever seen her wear when somebody mentioned exploring the north, or seeing the panserbjørner. "I knew that no one could ever really truly understand me-except, of course, for my dæmon, and that it would be best if we were allowed to do as we pleased."

Lyra was positively beaming now as Mrs. Coulter told the men they could be seated and sat down herself-in the empty space right beside Lyra.

"Who's that?" Pan whispered breathlessly up at his human.

"Dunno, but she shut up the Master alright." she giggled down at him.

Peter glared across the table at the woman who had, not only kept him prisoner in Bolvangar for god knows how long, but had also hurt the girl he loved by letting her dæmon attack Maugrim. He was not about to let her anywhere near his wife, even if she was his mother-in-law.

Oddly enough, however, Mrs. Coulter only graced the couple with a brief, barely noteworthy glance, and then turned her attention back to Lyra.

"Lyra," said the Master anxiously. "this is Mrs. Coulter, a friend-of sorts-of the college." Turning to Mrs. Coulter he added, "And this is our Lyra, Lyra Belacqua, Lord Asriel's niece."

Unfazed, "Lovely to meet you, dear."

Lyra shook the woman's hand; it felt smooth and warm. "Lovely to meet you, too."

"You know, I've met your uncle." Mrs. Coulter told her, gingerly tilting her head closer to the thoroughly-captivated child.

Lyra's eyes widened with surprise and she listened, eager to learn more.

"Yes, it was up north near the kingdom of the ice bears."

"I think I'm going to be sick." Maugrim muttered gruffly to his human, watching all of this, still trying to puzzle out what was going on.

"You've seen an ice bear?" Poor Lyra was all so enchanted; a lady who wanted people to let her do whatever it was she wanted and had see ice bears? It was rather like a kind of dream.

"More than one." Mrs. Coulter winked at her.

"Oh," said Lyra.

"You seem like such a sweet young lady," said Mrs. Coulter. "I feel I can trust you."

Lyra looked down modestly, feeling unworthy of all this borderline-motherly attention from the glamorous noblewoman she'd only just met.

"You know what, dear? I'm going to have to go back to the north very soon-I'm going to need an assistant."

At that, Lyra's heart did summersaults. "Me? Go to the north? With you? Really?"

"North?" Pan piped up, his tone nearly as excited as his human's though a bit more restrained. "It's cold up there."

Mrs. Coulter sighed, "Would you like that?"

"Very much."

"Then we'd better get the Master's permission," she whispered, shifting her gaze over to the Master.

A piece of fish fell off of the fork Susan was raising to her mouth, and Doe got a hold of it under the table and ate it. Susan didn't notice; she was too horrified that she had not seen it sooner-it was not her that her mother had come for, it was Lyra!

Lucy swallowed hard, hoping this was all a bad dream.

"Master," cooed Mrs. Coulter cheerfully. "I was wondering if I might borrow dear Lyra-only for a while, of course."

The Master clenched his jaw. Releasing it, he said, "I don't think that would fit with Lord Asriel's wishes for his niece's education, do you?"

Mrs. Coulter's eyes darkened a shade and she stared hard at him. "You let me deal with Asriel, Master, you mustn't deny me this little thing, you really mustn't."

Closing his eyes as if in deep pain, the Master murmured, "Very well,"

"What?" Lucy and Peter burst out at the same time, unable to believe what they had just heard, though it was done and they could do nothing about it.

Doe thought this was all turning into a real party now, with all of the people talking loudly and the flying fish-straps, it was good to know that everyone was in good sprits. Perhaps someone would even give her a saucer of milk later if this festive mood continued.

Under the table, to Doe's left, Mrs. Coulter's golden monkey was cradling Lyra's snowy ermine in his arms, softly stroking his white fur with his shimmering sleek paws.

An hour or so later, long after supper was finished and everyone had retired to their rooms, Susan went up to the guest room her mother had secured for herself. She hadn't told Peter where she was going because she didn't want him to worry, but she figured it was safe enough seeing as Mrs. Coulter's interest had shifted away from one daughter to the other. In all likelihood, Susan was perfectly safe-it was Lyra who would need protection now. Walking briskly at her side, Maugrim let out a low growl feeling displeased and a little frightened in spite of everything.

Of course her mother had gotten a guest-lodging with a sitting-room outside of it and was causally sipping a late-night glass of iced-brandy, looking innocent and angelic, and far younger than she really was, not at all like the monster Susan knew she could be sometimes.

"Hello there," her mother said when she saw her runaway daughter standing at the threshold of the partly ajar door.

"Hello mother," Susan said awkwardly, glancing down at Maugrim who gritted his teeth at the golden monkey.

"Did you want something?" Mrs. Coulter asked in the same polite manner she would have used on a complete stranger.

"Can I come in?" Susan asked rather quietly, daring to look her mother straight in the eyes. "I wanted to talk to you."

"Come in," she nodded, holding the door open the rest of the way.

Susan stepped cautiously as if she were a mouse easing itself over a trap so as not to get its tail or paw snagged; Maugrim's movements were similar although he kept his eyes unwaveringly on the monkey at all times, protecting himself in case of a sudden attack.

The room already smelled just like her mother's perfume although she hadn't been there that long, and the regular pale-green curtains had been replaced with dark purple ones that had a white-gold thread trimming around their edges. It felt very odd for Susan to be in that room, like she had traveled back in time to her old home and former life somehow. As if for reassurance, she rubbed her right index finger along the dent in the gold ring on her left hand. Comforted, she pressed on and took a seat next to a small tea-table, feeling stronger somehow, like she had grown immune to the very things that used to scare her-if only for a fleeting moment.

A loud snore from behind startled her and made her jump; Maugrim pouncing protectively on nothing but plain, bare carpeting. On a couch a few feet away, a dark-haired boy of about fourteen was sound asleep with his back to her.

So Edmund was there, too, then, but why was he suddenly snoring so loudly? For as long as she could remember, he'd always snored either softly or not at all, so why was he suddenly loud enough to drone out an orchestra? Her first thought was that he must have been faking and was actually awake, but Maugrim sniffed and nudged Ella who was sleeping standing up on the arm of the couch, breathing rather heavily herself, only to find that she was indeed asleep and that he couldn't easily make her stir.

"Don't bother your brother, Susan," Mrs. Coulter said as she took a seat across from her. "can't you see he's tired?"

"Why didn't he come down to supper with you?" Susan wanted to know.

"That's none of your business. Now tell me, what was it you wanted to talk about?" She crossed her legs and the golden monkey sat down on her lap.

"What makes you think you can just come here and take Lyra away?" demanded Susan, her face tightening. "Lord Asriel will be furious."

"Probably, but there's nothing he can do about it." Mrs. Coulter told her with a sly smile.

"What do you mean?"

"He's already heading north, guards from the Ruling Powers are after him, as well as a few lawyers from the unfinished case of your father's death, and he'll be much too busy avoiding capture to bother about me."

"You planned all of this!" Susan realized, stricken with horror and disgust.

"She is my daughter," Mrs. Coulter pointed out.

"Who you never cared about before," added Susan.

"Well, I've already lost one daughter, haven't I?" she said demurely, arching a brow at her eldest child. "Perhaps I'll have better luck with this one."

"She's a replacement for me, then?"

Mrs. Coulter nodded. "I can't launch your brother onto society before he's properly educated, now can I?"

"That's what he thinks you came here for, isn't it?" Susan gasped, curling her fingers around the arms of her seat, digging her fingernails into the upholstery. "He doesn't know..."

"Of course not." Mrs. Coulter snorted self-righteously.

"So that's your idea, is it? Get the daughter you never cared about before you lost me, and dump your son off here?"

"Don't speak to me in that tone," said Mrs. Coulter. "You haven't a right to."

"Why didn't you ever tell me that you knew where Peter was all this time?" It was another question that had been bothering her as of late, and she figured this might be her only chance to ask it.

"Because I knew you had no self-restraint and would have gone after him like the pathetic little harlot you've turned into." Her mother's eyes became stormy and her glare stony, filled with cold hard anger.

"Excuse me?" Susan's brows sank into the middle of her forehead.

"I know you're sleeping with him," Mrs. Coulter informed her, moving a blonde curl behind one ear as she spoke. "did you really think I wouldn't find that out-or wouldn't have known it from the first?"

"He's my husband," Susan felt her face growing hot with fury. "there's nothing wrong with what we do."

"Husband?" Mrs. Coulter's glower lowered itself into a half-glance down at her left hand. "Oh, yes, those silly little pieces of cheep scrap gold the two of you wear on your fingers."

Maugrim snapped his teeth at the monkey, not liking the sneer the nasty little primate was looking at him with.

"I love my ring," Susan said boldly. "and more than that I love the man who gave it to me."

"Please," said Mrs. Coulter, putting her hand up. "spare me."

"It's true."

"I cannot believe that the child I raised honestly thinks that because some boy puts a ring on her finger, she's married to him." she continued bitterly. "You're a fool, Susan."

"You're just jealous because I'm happier with him than you ever were-with anyone." Susan shot back, holding onto her ring finger like it was an injured baby bird.

"Don't fool yourself, child, you're not his wife, he has no legal reasons to stay with you and you know it-you're only his whore." Mrs. Coulter didn't seem to care that she had greatly over-stepped a line, or that there were real tears filling up her daughter's eyes as she bit her lower lip, desperate to hold them back.

"I think I should go." Susan had meant to stay longer and attempt to talk her mother out of taking Lyra away, but there was no chance of that now, she couldn't bear to be in the same room with this woman for another minute.

"Do you have any idea how embarrassing it was for me to have to explain your little fling to your betrothed?"

Maugrim leaned against his human's side as she stood up, furious as a couple of tears escaped and rolled down her face. "I'm sure you'll get over it, mother, and I hope you and Lyra are happy-because I am never speaking to you again."

Backing away from his mistress for a moment, Maugrim stepped closer to the couch where Edmund was laid out. This time, he noticed a silver, gold-rimmed goblet resting against its side a few feet away. "Susan, look!"

Susan came forward and picked up the glass gingerly, placing her nose against the rim so as to sniff at whatever its former contents had been. It was a sharp, potent smell that burned her nose hairs. "What did you give him?"

"You're still here? I thought you weren't going to speak to me anymore." Mrs. Coulter answered, glancing up from a fashion-book she suddenly had in her hands.

The snoring, Susan realized, was because the sleep wasn't natural. Whatever Mrs. Coulter had put in her son's cup had knocked him out cold. She had done this, Susan pieced together, because she didn't want Edmund standing in the way of her trying to take her illegitimate daughter away from the college property; she had done it so he wouldn't see and hear her talking to the Master at the high-table, all the while charming Lyra and getting the poor girl wrapped around her creamy-smooth finger.

The drugged drink was wearing off slightly, enough so that Susan could-though it had to be firmly and a bit roughly-shake her brother's shoulder so that he woke up.

Groggily, she heard him moan and start to roll over.

"Ed?"

"Su?" he murmured, sounding dazed and loopy.

"Yes, Edmund, it's me." Susan said, her heart racing as Ella slowly started to come-to as well, ruffling her feathers sleepily. "Do you know where you are?"

"A couch?" Edmund guessed, clearly using all of his currently available brain-power just to come up with that answer.

Susan gently stroked the side of his arm until he rolled over all the way and faced her. As soon as she saw his face, she jumped back and recoiled in terror. She had expected that he might be puffy or droopy from the drugged sleep, but she hadn't thought she would see a dark circle firmly embedded around one eye.

A shriek caught itself on her lips, getting released through a bay from Maugrim's throat.

"Oh my..." Susan spun around and glowered straight at her mother this time letting the tears roll as freely as they liked, shaking her head with rage. "How could you?"

"I didn't do anything," said Mrs. Coulter, calmly patting the back of the golden monkey who looked ready to have a fit. "he had an accident in the stables recently."

That was a lie, and Susan knew it, not only because she knew her brother had been harmed by her before-though not to this extreme degree-but also because she saw little partly-healed marks all around the bruise. They were long and deep, like a monkey's claw, or worse, like their mother's fingernails.

"I hate you, and between you and me," she swallowed hard, nearly choking on her own rage and saliva. "I'm happier being the dæmonless boy's harlot, if that's how you want to see it, than your daughter." With that, she grabbed onto her brother's hand. "Come on, Edmund."

"What do you think you're doing?" Mrs. Coulter demanded, standing up to block their way.

"Taking my brother away from you," Susan shoved passed her and stormed out of the room, leading a frazzled Edmund and a tipsy-looking Ella behind her.

The golden monkey started to lurch towards Maugrim, but Mrs. Coulter shook her head. "No, let them go, it's time to start anew."

Edmund didn't seem to have the least notion of what was going on as his elder sister led him down the hallways towards the dorm room she shared with her husband; Ella rested on his shoulder now and had nearly fallen off at least three times before they reached their destination.

"Susan?" Peter swung the door open anxiously, having been just about to go looking for her.

She stood there, crying heavily, but fighting it all the while, trying to keep a firm, unmoved brave-face on. Needless to say, she was failing miserably, and as soon as Peter saw Edmund's one blackened eye and two glassy ones, he understood why.

As soon as Edmund was in the quiet dorm, he plopped on a chair by the fireplace and fell back asleep-only his snoring was quieter, much to Susan's relief. Ella's ruffled feathers softened, and her twisted beak uncurved and relaxed.

"It's going to be fine," rubbing the side of her arms, Peter tried to comfort Susan who stood, looking vacant, still trembling though she didn't even realize it.

"No it's not." Susan whispered brokenly; Maugrim whimpered and pulled his whole body under the legs of a wooden chair at the far-end of the room.

"Why not?"

"Because I'm still scared," she blinked away the hazy blur swimming before her eyes. "even after everything, I'm still scared."

AN: Reviews please.