She first saw him at the Royal Arctic Institute, where he was giving a presentation on his latest expedition. She'd known of him beforehand, of course: he had quite a reputation and she was curious to see what he was like in person.
The moment she saw him, she just knew that there was something different about him. His clothes were smart and neat, but unremarkable. He was taller than anyone else in the room, and he seemed to have an aura of power around him, almost magnetically forcing her eyes to gaze into his cold grey ones. His dæmon was a snow leopard, her fur made of silky grey.
She knew, in that moment, that she had to make him hers. She had charmed so many men (including the one sitting next to her) that it had become almost a game. It was too easy: just a smile here, a glance there, and she could wind anyone around her little finger.
Playing against Lord Asriel, on the other hand, would be something completely different, and she couldn't wait to try it.
"Could you introduce me to him?" she asked Edward sweetly, once the presentation was finished. "I'd like to ask him a few questions, I'm really curious about his work." She hated the way she couldn't openly admit to being more than idly curious about these things. How she had to hide her brains behind a veil of beauty.
"Certainly," replied Edward. He took her hand to help her to her feet and led her over to where Asriel stood.
"Ah, Asriel!" said Edward, extending his hand. "Excellent to see you again!"
Lord Asriel took his hand and shook it, gripping it so tightly that a flicker of discomfort shot across Edward's face. "And you," he replied.
"I don't think you've met my wife?" asked Edward, gesturing to Marisa. "This is Marisa – Marisa, Lord Asriel."
"Hello," she replied. She wasn't sure quite yet which approach to take, which way to go about winning him over, so she stuck to the basics. "I've heard a lot about you, and it's so nice of Edward to indulge my humble curiosity – I have a little interest in your work, and I wondered if you might spare your time to answer a few questions?"
She was rewarded for these initial efforts with a smile and a response of "Yes, of course. I'll be happy to tell you whatever you want to know. Would you care to sit down?"
Marisa followed him over to the nearest table and sat down opposite him, pulling out a third chair for Edward.
"You don't mind if I leave you to it?" asked Edward, who had very little interest in Arctic exploration.
Marisa, concealing her joy (it would be much harder to win Lord Asriel over in the presence of her husband, not to mention that his company bored her), nodded.
"What do you want to know?" asked Lord Asriel.
"Oh, all sorts of things," she replied. "The secrets of creation… how people came to have dæmons… the truth about this Barnard-Stokes many-worlds hypothesis… that sort of thing."
There was no visible reaction, which was surprising for Marisa, who could have had any other man eating out of her hand by this point.
"I'm afraid I won't be able to help you with any of that," he replied. "My knowledge can only stretch so far, after all."
Marisa nodded to acknowledge his point. "Then perhaps you could tell me a bit more about your latest expedition? I'm really most interested in the experimental concepts that you were investigating…"
She didn't bother concealing her intelligence, this time, and it seemed to have been the right move. It didn't take long before she had managed to break through his icy exterior and was engaged in a lively debate on the Church's regulation of experimental theology.
She wasn't entirely surprised to find that Asriel completely disapproved of the concept of Church regulation. His remarks went just a little too far for her liking, so she decided she couldn't let them pass altogether.
"This talk of yours could almost be regarded as heresy," she said, keeping her voice light to make sure there was no way he could misinterpret her comment as a threat.
"I'm no heretic," he replied, voice just as casual as hers.
"Did I say you were?" asked Marisa, an almost playful note in her voice, making it sound as if her words weren't being selected as carefully as they were for the precise effect they would have.
"No, but you certainly implied it."
"You implied it from my words. You're making assumptions about what I mean based on unsubstantiated evidence." She didn't really believe that: at this stage she was just trying to get through to him in any way she could, and she had the feeling he wouldn't mind it.
"My evidence is perfectly substantiated." Was that a slight note of some emotion in his voice? Anger, if that was what it was, wasn't what she wanted to make him feel, but it was something more than the little she'd received so far.
"Marisa!" It was Edward. She glanced around at the same moment as Lord Asriel did, hiding her annoyance with practiced ease. "I was wondering where you'd got to, have you been here all this time?"
"Yes," she said, glancing at her watch, "– has it really been – twenty minutes? Oh, I'm so sorry, Edward, what Lord Asriel was telling me was so fascinating I'm afraid I must have lost track of time," she gushed, forcing herself to supress every last bit of frustration. There would be other opportunities, she was sure. "Thank you so much for sparing your time for me, Lord Asriel."
With that, she stood up and followed Edward away, the golden monkey springing lightly into her waiting arms, making sure not to give even the slightest glance backwards despite practically being able to feel Lord Asriel's eyes boring into her back.