Before you read this, I need to state that do not own Lyra, Will or any of the other characters in this story. His Dark Materials, The Golden Compass, The Subtle Knife, The Amber Spyglass and all related characters, concepts, and commercial offspring are the property of Philip Pullman, Scholastic Books, Random House Inc, New Line Cinema and all other right-holders. This is not for profit and is not intended to infringe upon any commercial endeavours.

The Master of Jordan had been as good as his word and included Lyra on the team investigating the object. He got permission from the boarding school for Lyra to pursue the work as a special project. This was only partly because he felt sorry for her and wanted to find something to distract her from Midsummer's day. The fact that she had seen such a craft flying was interesting but any of the scholars would soon have worked that out. The real reason for her inclusion was that the Master knew Lyra was curious and persistent, and that she would not give up until she had discovered everything there was to find out about the unusual machine.

The scholars and Lyra soon worked out most of the controls. One of the scholars showed Lyra the basic functions of the machine as a gyrocopter and she grasped the concepts quickly. The helmet and the cable with the leather grip were a mystery, however. It was plain that the operator had to wear the helmet and that the cable had to be held by the leather grip but despite all their suggestions and theories they could not get the craft to work. Some of the scholars suspected that a particular fuel source must have been required and had expired rendering the machine useless. After three days most of the team had given up and returned to their own work.

Lyra, of course, was not in that party. She could barely be prised away from the machine for meals or sleep. Indeed on the second night the Master had found her asleep in the cockpit and threatened to send her back to her schoolwork unless she looked after herself properly.

Her breakthrough came on the third night. She was alone sitting in the cockpit. The sky was darkening and it was time to stop work. Pantalaimon climbed up to the cockpit window.

"It's getting cold. Come on now. You know what will happen if the Master catches you again and he's bound to come checking any time now."

"Alright Pan." Lyra was prepared to stop for now as she had run out of ideas. She twisted round to undo the harness and dropped the cable. "Oh Pan. Pick that up for me please. It's so tricky to reach down there."

Impatiently, Pan dropped to the floor and seized the cable in his jaws.

"OH!" The craft vibrated and tensed on its six legs. Pan dropped the cable in fright and the machine returned to normal. Lyra pulled the helmet off.

"Pan, you did it! You worked it out. You little genius." Pan forgot his fright and basked in Lyra's praise.

"Shall we try it again?" he suggested.

"But what about the Master?" teased Lyra.

"He won't be here for ages and anyway if he does appear you can show him my marvellous discovery."

With a little trial and error they soon discovered how to make the craft move according to Lyra's intentions. However, once darkness closed in they stopped as it was clearly too dangerous to try to fly in the dark with all the Jordan buildings around them.

Very early the next day they began again. Lyra was reluctant to show anyone what they had found until she had learned a lot more. She suspected that once she shared such a huge discovery she would be pushed out very quickly.

They hovered over the buildings and then slowly circled round.

"Come on Pan," she breathed "let's have some fun."

Lyra's idea of fun was to see how fast and high they could go.

"Lyra, stop!" Pan pleaded. "Someone will see us."

"You're quite right Pan," Lyra replied. "We should go somewhere quiet where we can practice without being disturbed."

That was not what Pan had intended but he was not in control and did not dare drop the cable in case they plummeted to the ground.

Lyra stopped six or seven miles outside Oxford and experimented with the machine. It was quite a shock to find out that there were weapons installed. Buttons that the scholars had innocently pressed to no effect on the ground gave very different results when the machine was in the air and Lyra has destroyed a few trees and created several large holes in the ground before she realized what was happening.

Hovering gently in the air Lyra found herself happier that she had been for a long time. Inevitably she thought of Will and how close she would be to him the next day. The craft suddenly lurched.

"What did you do?" squealed Pan.

"I didn't do anything. I was just thinking of Will and the sky seemed to flicker and the machine jumped." A strange hope gripped Lyra. "Pan, this machine moves wherever I intend it to go. It doesn't just fly like a gyrocopter it jumps to where you want. What would happen if I intend to use it to travel to Will's world?"

Pan was silent for a long time.

"Do you think we should?"

"What do you mean Pan?"

"What if we get stuck there and can't get back. We could be dead in just a few years."

Lyra thought about that for a moment.

"If we can get through one way I don't see why we shouldn't get back again and anyway if we can't get back I don't care. I'm going to try" and before Pan could say anything more he could feel Lyra gathering her will and then they were hovering again but in a different world. There were still fields around them but the crops growing in them looked different. There was a bright yellow crop, which Lyra didn't recognize and the fields seemed much larger. She did recognize the little carts moving quickly along the roads and she suddenly realized that they could see her as well. She knew that they had some amazing inventions in this world but she doubted that they had anything like her craft and that it would therefore be a good idea to hide it as quickly as possible.

She found a small wood a long way from any of the roads and hid the craft in the middle of it. The trees were thick and leafy and when she looked in from outside the wood the craft was impossible to see. If someone walked into the wood that would be a different matter but she would have to trust to luck.

Lyra spent the rest of the day dreaming about what she was going to do in the morning.

Very early the next day she walked into Oxford. She didn't know about hitchhiking but was offered a lift by a lorry driver worried about a girl walking along such a busy road by herself. Pan hid in the back of the lorry.

Lyra made her way to the botanical gardens, found the bench and wondered what she was going to say to Will. She had just decided on something particularly clever when she saw him walking towards her. All clear thought evaporated from her and she ran into his arms.

Will didn't know how long they stood like that, clinging to each other as if the world was about to fall apart around them.

"Will." She said again and held him even tighter.

"Lyra." He didn't need to say anything else and for a long time they simply stayed as they were trying to make up for all the time when they should have been holding each other.

"Young love!" It was an elderly couple walking past smiling, perhaps remembering how they had felt when they were young.

Will and Lyra drew apart but remained holding hands, a little embarrassed but not about to part. The other couple walked on.

"Come and sit down," said Lyra shyly, pulling him towards their bench. Will followed and they sat down next to each other. Will had expected to be gazing at a product of his imagination and although he tried hard not to say it he could not help himself.

"You don't have to go back do you? Not yet? Not after just an hour or something like that."

Lyra smiled teasingly.

"So it's alright if I stay then?" But almost straightaway her look changed. "Will, I didn't mean to come here. Well I did, but I didn't want to let you down, it wasn't like I was giving up. I've tried to be cheerful and carry on, but it's been so hard and I didn't know what to do. I'm not explaining this very well, but you see we found this flying machine, like the one we saw during the battle, and."

"Lyra." Will interrupted her flow of words. Her worried face looked at him. "It's alright. I understand. We're together again for now and that's all I care about. If Xaphania appears to tell us to separate again I'll tell her... Well, I'll tell her we aren't going to."

"Oh Will! I'm sorry. I've been sat on the bench for nearly an hour planning the things I was going to say to you, or wondering whether to say nothing at all and just let you sit next to me, and in the end all I could do was just run up to you and say 'Will'!" But she was laughing now and he gently kissed her, thinking of their last hurried kiss before he had closed that last window.

"No, I don't think I have to return soon, but I suppose I ought to. I was hoping you could come with me and we could try to sort some things out. But first how is your Mum?"

"She is getting better slowly. She is very quiet most of the time but she seems more in control. She has seen a couple of different Doctors and they seem to think she will gradually recover by herself. They say she just needs peace and quiet."

Lyra watched him as he talked about his Mother, sensing that he was still a little worried. Then she explained to Will about the Intention Craft although they still did not know that was its name.

"I haven't exactly stolen it because I mean to take it back. Will, we need to discuss lots of things." She hesitated. " You said a moment ago that you would tell Xaphania that we wouldn't be separated again."

Will nodded.

"Well that's how I feel as well. I think they could have tried to harder to let us stay together. I know that sounds selfish, but."

"Don't worry," Will interrupted her again. "I think we were used and then when we had done everything they needed us to do we were deliberately separated. You're right, we need to talk about a lot of things, I think we need to include Mary as well."

"How is she?" Lyra smiled at the thought that she would able to see Mary again.

Will grimaced.

"I haven't been a very good friend to her. She took the brunt of it when I was upset over being split up from you." Will explained about the previous midsummer's day and Lyra hugged him close to her.

"She will be back tomorrow so until then let's just enjoy being back together. We can worry about the future tomorrow."

Lyra grinned. Her whole face lit up as she gazed at Will.

"That sounds very philosophical, 'we can worry about the future tomorrow.'"

"Are you hungry?" he asked.

"Yes. I haven't even had breakfast yet."

"Come on then, there's a café over there somewhere. But I don't think we will be allowed to take the daemons inside."

They walked off happily hand in hand, without a care in the world for the time being at least.

"Are you sure we are doing the right thing?" asked a voice from one of the two invisible presences in the park.

"No of course I'm not sure," the other replied. "But this has to stop. We all agreed on that."

The first presence considered this and then said, "do you think he will tell her about the knife?"

"Yes," replied the first. "They trust each other and they will have no secrets from each other, even though they will sometimes pretend that they do. That is one of the reasons that their love will last."

"And will they use the knife?" the first persisted.

"I think that they will. But I don't know what they will use it for."