Hi! I just finished reading the His Dark Materials series yesterday- such excellent books! Especially the last one. And Lyra and Will are officially one of my favorite fictional couples EVER. So sweet!Of course, with an ending like the one in The Amber Spyglass, I couldn't resist writing about when they met again. So here it is!
Will felt old, so very old as he approached the harpy. His hands were gnarled and his hair thin and gray. He couldn't remember her name now; but then, he had only heard Lyra say it once.
He thought of Lyra with some trepidation. Many years had gone by, and he was not the Will of his youth. Yes, he was the same within- still strong and stubborn and quiet- but he was not that young dark haired boy he knew that Lyra would be expecting.
He reached the harpy, and she studied him closely.
"I remember you…" she croaked softly. "William. It goes without saying. I have seen the small ones, Tialys and Salmakia, and they wished for me to greet you. As have your mother and Mary."
"And Lyra?" he asked, in a voice filled with more longing than he realized.
"She has not yet come." Replied the harpy, "You are the first. But then, you expected that."
Will let out the breath hadn't known he'd been holding.
"Of course, I'm glad. But I…"
"Have patience, William. She will come soon enough. But as for now, tell me of your life." She leaned forward, eager to absorb what he would say.
Will felt awkward to begin with- he had never been as good as Lyra at telling stories, one of the talents of hers that she hadn't even seemed to realize she possessed. He told the harpy of all that had happened with Lyra, feeling tears at his soft old eyes. It was the first time he had ever discussed it with anyone, even Kirjava. He told all about how he had gone into the field of science with Mary, how they had done many tests and made new discoveries about Dust, which they were able to use to make many advances in science, and which made them both uncomfortably famous. As he told more of his story, more harpies gathered close, listening to his words. As they did so, he felt less awkward, and got into the tale.
In Mary's last years, she was able to reconstruct a program like the one she had first made in her lab. He related how she had told him not to ask about Lyra, because she knew that it would tempt him too much to try to search for a way to get to her once more.
After Mary died, Will had decided to travel the world. He told the harpies, in an embarrassed way, about how a few other women had fallen in love with him, but how he had known, just as he knew when he was twelve, that he could never love somebody who didn't understand about all that he had been through, all that he was. He could never love somebody when he'd already given his heart away.
And, he said, though he had buried himself so deeply in his work, he was always sure to go to the botanic garden on Midsummer Day.
"And it's funny," he said, "Because every year, I knew Lyra was there too, except for one year. And I worried so much that she had died that I asked the program about it. It was the only time I ever did. I only asked whether Lyra was still alive, and it said 'yes', but no more than that. And I was tempted to ask about her, but I knew that I'd see her soon enough, and then I'd know when we were together again what had happened. She was there the next year, after all, I knew she was."
He took a deep and shaky breath.
"I died- I died alone, I'm afraid. Well, not quite." He amended "Kirjava was with me, obviously. We only died because we were old, nothing more. "Poor Kirjava," he said, shaking his head, "I always…I never felt I was able to- to treat her right, because I never was taught how you're supposed to act with a daemon. But she always knew what to do with me." He laughed a little. "And that's it, I suppose."
The harpy nodded and the others drifted away. She flew forward and led him to the exit, the one he had made himself so long ago.
"You are truly great, William." Said the harpy, as the light from the exit began to hit them.
"I am sure that Lyra was greater."
"I will not deny that," she replied "but she would not be anything had she not met you."
The old man's tears poured down his cheeks when he saw the harpy was sincere.
"You will tell her I am waiting for her?"
"She will know already."
"But you will, won't you?"
"Of course."
To Will's surprise, the harpy flew down and hovered near his head, giving him a kiss on the head. Her pungent odor wafted toward him slightly. He kissed her back, not minding the smell nearly so much as he remembered having done in the past, and then stepped through the window. He breathed out in relief, and then he disappeared. But his atoms stayed close; he would not let them drift too far. Kirjava's atoms, too, waited for the day that they would see Pantalaimon.
5 years later
Lyra stepped off of the boat, aching. She remembered making this same journey long, long ago- except this time, Pantalaimon was not waiting for her on the opposite bank. It had been so very long ago that she barely remembered what would come next. All that she knew is that she would see Will again…
It was an odd sensation, knowing that. He had been her first love- her only love, really. She was glad that her atoms, when they met his, would not show her age to him. She wanted to be remembered as the Lyra of her youth; the brave, clumsily graceful girl that so many people had fallen in love with, without her intending it.
When she saw Gracious Wings, she let out a cry and ran as fast as her old body would allow her to. She hugged her and buried her face into the reeking wings that enveloped her.
"Lyra, my child! I have waited..."
"Oh yes, so have I Gracious Wings…"
All of the other harpies had gathered to see the extraordinary girl, now woman, who had done so much.
"Tell me, tell me everything…"
"Oh, dear, it'll be so hard, some of it. And first, first you must tell me- you saw Will, didn't you?"
"Yes."
"The alethiometer told me. Did he say- did he say anything about me?"
"Don't be foolish. You know he did. He told me to tell you he was waiting for you."
"Yes," she said, smiling affectionately, "I knew he would." But even as she smiled, her expression began to cloud. " But there are things, things that I've done that I don't want him to know about. I couldn't stand it if he was disappointed in me. Or worse, if he was furious at me."
"Come off it; he loves you too much to do anything more than hold you."
"You don't understand, dear. Oh, you couldn't understand."
"What did you do, darling?"
"I married someone else. I got married to somebody else!"
Gracious Wings's weathered face showed that she was only slightly surprised.
"Well, of course. He didn't want you stop your life. He wanted you to live, I'm sure of it."
"But he never got married. I've kept track of all that he's done; ever since Dame Hannah re taught me how to use the alethiometer. He always was faithful, he always came to the botanic garden, I'm sure he did because I could feel him there, almost. But there was one year I didn't go…"
"Yes, but he only worried that you were safe…"
"I was giving birth to a child." Lyra said, "That I don't regret. I named him Will, and when his father left, I pretended that he was Will's son, and how proud Will was to have a son named just after him…"
"He will be proud." The harpy said reassuringly. She ran a claw through Lyra's snowy white hair, pretending she was a child once more. "Tell me what else happened; what else did you do with your life, Lyra?"
"As I said," she replied, "I re learned to read the alethiometer. I was never as good as I was when I was young, but I was close. I was close enough that I was able to use it to help our new Republic, our Republic of Heaven. I was so glad to be able to help Iorek Byrnison and Serafina Pekkala to at least build that." She closed her eyes and smiled. "I think that my father might have been proud of it. It was a beautiful place."
She opened her eyes and kissed Gracious Wings on the cheek.
"And now I am here, and I cannot wait to see Will. Please, please take me to him now!"
The other harpies called their goodbyes, some coming close to touch her, others simply watching. Gracious Wings brought her to the window, and Lyra knew if she had still been living that her heart would be beating wildly and she would hold her darling Pantalaimon close. She closed her eyes once more and ran through.
At once her atoms dissolved all around her. Faintly, she knew that Kirjava andPantalaimon were not far off, but all she could think of was how she was wrapped up in the essence she had remembered so vividly, the essence that was Will. It was different than holding one another, as they would have if they were still in bodies; instead, their atoms clung together and nearly became one, and it was much more satisfying.
Will, she felt to him Will, I missed- I love-I need to tell you-
Shush he felt back You don't need to say a thing. We're together. That's all that matters.
As their atoms, the atoms of the boy and the man, and the girl and the woman, floated away to become part of everything in existence, she knew that he was right.
Ok, as usual, you've read, now review!