Chapter Two: Midsummer's Day Approaches
11 months later.......
Nearly a year had passed since Will and Lyra had parted forever. Perhaps
it was Will's instinctive denial of conceding that had kept him going, but
with all of the emotional pain and grief he had suffered, there were numerous
times he had nearly given in. His memories of Lyra were just as vivid as they
had just parted, and he knew he'd never forget them. But perhaps hope was one
of the factors that kept him from giving up. Soon after he had left her, Will
had been thinking. Could there be a way to change Forever? He recalled the
words of the angel Xaphania. We angels have other ways of traveling without
using the windows of the Suble Knife, she had said. You could learn to travel
as we do, as your father did. It uses the faculty of what you call imagination,
but that does not mean making things up. It's a form of seeing, but not
pretending. This way is harder, but much truer. This statement had given him
hope, though he hadn't considered it until after Lyra had left him. So it was
possible. But it was as well as impossible for him, he thought, melancholic,
as he had no idea of how to perform the procedure. But his father could do it,
whether or not it was intentional, so, with stubborn confidence, he knew that,
although it might take him a lifetime, he could learn to do it too. He had
been pondering over the subject ever since he and his mother had moved from
their dilapidated, run-down dwelling to the well-kept, two story house of
Mary Malone's, and his constant musing and silence had troubled them slightly.
But they knew what he was going through and left him to himself. Ever since
destruction of the Knife and the resulting Specters his mother had recovered
from her illness, and all was well, except, of course, on the subject of Lyra.
It was always the most important things that were troubling him.
******************************************************************************
Mary Malone felt his pain. Leaving the Mulfa after her prolonged stay
with them, after she had saved their world and the wheel-pod trees, nearly
mastered their language, and made close friendships among the strange, wheeled
people was painful for her. Often, she would sit in her study, a half-finished
document in front of her, and remember her times spent with the mulefa. For
once, she had felt of importance, and she longed for the memories to become
a reality again. But although she had been able to find a way to communicate
with Dust, finding a way to travel between worlds without disturbing the
delicate balance that kept them separate was a task not even she could
execute. Her dæmon, Vogel, and alpine chough, had attempted to comfort her
as Kirjava had with Will, but the little black bird with his glossy
black feathers, bright orange legs, and curved yellow beak had no better luck.
Although her grief wasn't as acute as Will's, she missed the kind-hearted
creatures, and especially the zalif Atal, whom she had been particularly close
to. But as Midsummer's Day neared, despite the grief they were feeling, nothing
could have prepared them for the visitor that they were soon to have.