Lyra was sitting in a park, Pan perched on her shoulder, listening to kids as they played. She felt slight jealousy towards the kids; they were so free and careless; they could do what they pleased. She envied them, because she missed the times when she had been one of them.

She sat there because she could not stand being at Jordan college anymore; it also reminded her of the times she had so much fun with Roger.

Lyra sighed angrily and got up. Pan jumped from her shoulder and ran at her side, his little pine marten body undulating as he moved.

"Where should we go?" The little daemon asked. He turned his head as a young puppy daemon ran by him happily.

"I don't know, Pan. . .I feel so. . .out of place. . .and since I haven't been able to read the alithiometer. . .I've felt so lost too. . .like there is no home." Lyra shook her head, a delicate migraine forming near her temples, her golden hair flying.

The pine marten daemon looked up at her, before jumping up her leg and climbing back to her shoulder.

"I've felt that way too. We've been here all our life, and yet, this isn't home." Pan acknowledged.

"Yeah . . .I guess home is where my heart lies. . ." Lyra murmured as they left the park, walking in the sunny streets of Oxford.

"And your heart lies with Will. . ." Pan completed. Lyra nodded sadly.

(0)

Will lay on his bed, alone in the room, hands behind his head. He was thinking of the dream.

"Kirjava?" The boy suddenly questioned.

"Yes?" The daemon answered, curled up near the end of the bed.

"Do you think. . .Lyra's alright?"

Pause.

"Yes."

"But the dream. . ."

"Will, the dream was what is was; a dream. Besides, the daemons said that Lyra's death was something that COULD happen. Not something that will happen, or already did."

Will nodded.

"But I still wonder what they wanted." He admitted, yawning.

And then, his exhausted eyes closed, and along with Kirjava, he fell asleep.

(Dream)

Lyra stood a few feet from Will, looking kindly at him, with much love in her eyes. This look hurt Will so much more than anything else; it was a look that reminded him of his torture and pain for the lovely girl. He loved her, and he could not have her: it hurt him.

"I miss you, Will." Lyra said. This time he heard her voice. It was like the voice of the thousand most beautiful angels, with a chilling, delicate note to it. I made his heart burst with pain and desire.

"Lyra. . ." He called, but not a sound came out of him. Lyra faded.

Again appeared the two daemons. Both stood there, calm, disappearing into the black background.

'Hello, Will Parry.' The wolf said.

'We have been waiting for you.' The horse added. Come to think of it, the horse sounded like a female, and the wolf; an imposing, powerful male.

"Why have you been waiting for me?" Will said. He could talk again.

'Because you have something we want.' The wolf said.

"Then come and get it!" Will snarled, annoyed by this game.

The horse whinnied, and for a second, Will thought it would charge at him. He realized Kirjava wasn't there, and he became scared.

But the horse didn't more and neither did the wolf.

'We cannot.'

"Why?"

'Because.' The wolf said, impatient. 'You have to meet our human. Go to West ridge lane tonight at midnight. Be alone. Our human will be there for you. You do not have to bring the knife if you do not wish to.'

Will blinked, and the whole thing vanished. He suddenly wondered why the two daemons had told him to come see their 'human'. They had said it in a singular mode. Meaning there was one human for two daemons. This stroke him as very dangerous and strange.

He woke up in his bed at the same time as Kirjava. The daemon read his thoughts and saw his dream and instantly, she told him to be cautious. But she said nothing about not wanting go to West Ridge Lane.

(0)

Will sighed, annoyed, scared and furious. Everything was dark around him; West ridge lane was a shadowy part of Oxford, especially at night.

Kirjava looked around the darkness with her cat eyes, sitting by Will, listening intently to any noise out of the ordinary.

The boy had not brung the knife, in case the daemon's human tried to steel it. He was still confused about why there was one human for these two daemons. It was just not normal. Kirjava's fur stood on end at that thought. She knew it was impossible.

But suddenly, all their confused thoughts were put to a stop; light, steady footsteps could be heard.

Kirjava hissed towards a dark figure coming their way, clad in a jet-black cloak. Will curled his fists.

"Will, there is no need to fight." A woman's voice said calmly. Will was taken off guard; he was expecting a man.

"How do you know my name?" He quickly retaliated.

Kirjava moved away from the figure, standing ground nonetheless.

"I know many things, Will Parry. And Kirjava, you needn't to be alarmed. I come unarmed." The figure answered softly, stopping feet from the pair. The boy and his daemon were surprised that the woman knew Kirjava's name, and that she could see the daemon.

"Who are you?" Will asked carefully.

A pale hand came out slowly from the folds of the cape, grabbed the black hood, and pulled it off. Will gasped.

Before him stood a girl that could not be any older than him. She had long, black hair and cold, blue eyes that had an eternal, ever-knowing gaze in them. Will wondered how it was possible she was so young but that her eyes looked so old. The boy was vaguely reminded of Serafina Pekkala, the witch of Lyra's world. She also looked young, but her eyes showed her real age.

This girl had very pale skin, but not in a sickly type of way; more a beautiful pale.

She smiled at him, the grin drawing little lines in the corners of her mouth.

"I don't look so evil, now do I?" She laughed gently. But Will stayed on his guard, reminded of Mrs. Coulter, Lyra's mom. She had also been very nice and pretty, but was as evil as the death of dawn.

"Who are you?" Will asked again, his voice wavered a bit.

"I am Aurora Borealis." The girl answered serenely.

Will blinked. "Are you related to Lord Boreal?"

She shook her head, black hair flying.

"No, but I have met him before he was killed by Mrs. Coulter."

The boy nodded. And awkward silence stood between them, but Aurora didn't seem disturbed by it.

"So. . .are those two daemon from my dreams yours?" Will asked, desperate for answers and wanting the silence to leave.

"Yes." Aurora answered him. She extended two hands to the sky, and with a powerful swish of wings, two black ravens flew down onto her open arms. Kirjava, gasped, not having noticed them, even if they were sitting on the broken streetlamp right above them.

"They can still change forms?" The boy questioned, surprised. He knew, because Lyra once told him, that daemons always stopped changing when someone reached around the age of twelve.

Aurora nodded. The two ravens morphed very quickly into the horse and wolf Will had seen in his dreams. Both bowed their heads to him in respect. The boy nodded and Kirjava gently moved her head, still on her guard.

"This is Equinox (Aurora pointed the wolf) and this is Solstice (she pointed the horse)."

Will opened his mouth, closed it and opened it again; so sound came out. He sighed, and rubbed his head as a headache started to show itself.

"Alright. . .who are you?" He asked, rubbing his temples.

"Aurora Borealis." Aurora repeated herself. Will sighed.

"That's not what I meant. . . where are you from?"

"A city called Cittagaze."

"What?!? But then. . .your daemons will get sick if you don't got back. . .what. . ." Will was lost, and felt dizzy. He rested against the broken street lamp as Aurora watched him.

"I'd better tell you the whole story then. . .' Aurora sighed. ' I come from Cittagaze, but not just from there. I was only born there. Where someone really comes from depends on who his parents were. You, for one, come from this world, because both your parents are from this world. My mother was a witch from Lyra Silvertongue's world and my father was from here.

And I'm over three hundred years old. . .I stopped counting a while back. . .

But anyway. There were once, very long ago, a few windows opened in the fabric of the worlds. Before the Subtle knife was even created. They were natural windows, and since they were a part of life, Specters were not born from them. There was no such thing as Specters back then. And since the world always had these windows, since the start of times, they did not make Dust leave.

My father was a rich man living in northern France. He owned his own land, and his own castle. He had servants, and a beautiful wife. His name was Aesir Borealis.

But he also loved adventures.

So one day, he left to go hunt with a few men. Back then, many castles were regularly attack by bandits. My father had always been there to push these bandits back. But that one time, he wasn't there when a huge gang of them attack his castle. His wife and only son were killed savagely, along with the rest of his people. All his riches were gone.

But my father was a brave, protective man, so he chose to go after then bandits, who had headed north from his castle. He set out to avenge his wife and son, but never really came back.

He got lost in the woods, and one night as he ran from wolves, he accidentally found one of the windows to another world, and ran into it without knowing. The wolves, scared of this floating window, did not follow him. He didn't know it then, but he had entered my mother's world.

My mom was the leader of a powerful clan of witches. Her name was Hel Freyja. She found my father, lost and alone in the woods.

Thankfully her daemon was away at the time, or my father would have been too scared of the mighty eagle called Njord that was my mother's daemon.

She took him in, and slowly introduced him to this world he did not know. Before either of them knew it, they had fallen in love with each other.

But the witches of my mother's clan refused to have him around, since he was from another world. So with my father and Njord, my mother fled through the skies, away from her clan.

She accidentally passed through a window in the sky, so well hidden no one knew of it.

She found herself in the city of Cittagaze. There, she gave birth to me and me brother, days before my father died, since he was rather old for the times; only forty. And since he hadn't returned to his world in nearly three years, his body had taken serious damage. He wasn't as resistant as some. A few people have spent over twenty years in another world, and have been perfectly fine. My father wasn't as strong as them.

But something strange happened when my brother and I came to life.

Solstice was supposed to be my brother's daemon, and Equinox was mine. But something happened right then and there; since both our daemons had too many different particles from the three worlds, my Equinox gave his particles of this world to Solstice, and Solstice gave him the particles of Lyra's world. And both shared the particles of Cittagaze.

But by doing so, Equinox and Solstice became two parts of one, and since my daemon had started the particle exchange, they both linked to me. My brother, strangely, did not die, or became like a ghost; he grew up normally. Seemingly, his daemon was inside him.

At the moment of the particle exchange, there was a huge earthquake that shook every single world alive: it was so powerful it actually moved the worlds so they were no longer parallel to each other. My birth had changed humanity's future.

And since Cittagaze was the epicenter of this earthquake, the tissue of the city became very delicate for a few seconds. And accidentally, one boy made a swishing move with a knife, and opened a window that was not naturally created. The very first Specter came out.

No one knew what it was, but within days, every adult started to fear it; everyone knew that the Specter 'killed' the adults, but no one knew why.

Scientists of Cittagaze tried to use the same knife as the boy had used to open the window, to kill this Specter. It did not work.

So they started to work on a knife that could cut anything and everything. It was called Forseti, the blade of justice. My brother and I were nine years old when it was forged.

Many people, including my brave mother, died to the hands of the Specter.

And even though I was a witch's child, everyone thought I hadn't inherited the long life, because I looked like any normal human after nine years of age. My brother too, but for him it was normal, for the boys of witches of Lyra's worlds have no long life.

But what they did not know was that my growth would slow down in a year or so, and afterwards my eternally long life would begin. As for my brother, another strange this happened; his growth slowed down at the same age as mine. He had inherited the long life, which was against many rules of Lyra's world.

They gave me Forseti, for I was considered a Goddess, since I had two daemons and told me to kill the Specter.

But Forseti was nothing like the blade you had. It was so much more powerful and sharp that with a simple movement you could cut a hole so huge it would engulf the world. You had to be very careful with the blade.

And even though I couldn't see the Specter, people told me it was coming right at me. I slowly extended my hands, with Forseti, and the Specter died, cut with it.

But my simply movement had caused anther window to be opened, and a new Specter came out. The scientists didn't know what to do.

They finally decided on something: they would remove Forseti's miniscule tip, taking away its power to open the worlds. Because the minuscule tip of your blade is the only thing that makes it different from other blades. Sure, it can cut through anything, just as my Forseti can. But that tip is magic, and it is what holds the possibility to open windows in the fabric of air. My brother, which was jealous with my attention, would be given the new blade, for I had been a 'failure'.

And as they tore the magic tip off my Forseti, I could swear I heard her scream and beg to be left alone. I knew she was promising never to open a world again, if she was left with her unique power. But the men, such simple, foolish humans, did not hear her, and took the tip off. I heard Forseti cry with agony. She was given back to me, without the power to open worlds.

They created a new knife, and called it Easheatter. That is your blade. It was less powerful, and to activate the tip and allow it to open windows, the chosen one and the blade had to become one.

And Easheatter was given to my brother. His two fingers were cut off, just as yours and he learned to use the blade, because it talked to him and made him wise, and he killed the second Specter. Then, he closed all the unnatural windows, before swearing to never use the blade again.

But unlike my Forseti, Easheatter was evil, greedy and in thirst of power. Instead of appreciating the gift of the magic tip, like my Forseti once had, he used it against the world. My brother was rather pure, even if he had been jealous of me. But Easheatter saw this jealousy in his heart and brung it out, making my brother greedy, hateful and vicious. The twin I had learned to love so much was gone.

He brung back gold, books and food from everywhere. For a time, it was appreciated at Cittagaze, and my brother managed to keep Specters at bay. He convinced the citizens there were no more of the Specters.

But Forseti knew otherwise. We warned the people of Cittagaze, but they ignored us. Later, we watched sadly as they all died, killed by the Specters.

And soon, my brother saw what he had done, and abandoned Easheatter near the Torre Del Angeli. Easheatter was alone, and my brother vanished into one of the worlds he opened.

Together with Equinox, Solstice and Forseti, we put Easheatter back into the Torre Del Angeli, as he tried to convince us to keep him and use him to get riches. We all refused, and locked him in a box of copper, from which he could have broken out easily if one had tried to save him.

But for a hundred years, not once was Easheatter touched. Forseti wanted to get her magic tip back, but I refused; enough damage had been done.

We closed a few windows, but they were extremely hard to find, and as we realized soon enough, they were not just in Cittagaze; they were in worlds I had never even heard of. One of these worlds was that of the mulefas.

There, their trees were dying out because Dust was flowing away. We closed a few windows, and the Dust slowed down, but many windows were in the sky, and impossible to reach. My daemons could not yet separate from me, as those of witches do, and I could not fly on branches of pine trees, for I had no magical powers like my mother.

We soon gave up on this quest, exhausted, and I realized I needed to live in either Cittagaze, or change between your world and Lyra's. Why? Because one of my daemons was from this world, and the other was from Lyra's. The only place we all had in common was Cittagaze, and it had become desolate, so we couldn't go back. It was too dangerous because of the Specters.

Besides, Easheatter was in there, and we weren't ready to go see him again. I knew I would give into the temptation to use him.

So I returned to Lyra's world, and walked to a place the witches call the Desolation. It is a place where, long ago, something terrible happened. It is where nothing grows, and where no daemons can enter.

It was my time of age to walk through that place, without Equinox or Solstice, and emerge on the other side a different person. I learned my brother had walked through there, and stories told that he had discovered his own daemon, deep inside of himself. I was surprised, because I thought that when I took his Solstice, I took away his only daemon.

But I concentrated on my task; that of crossing the Desolation. Once I did this, my daemons could leave me and I would feel no pain. It is what you have done, Will, when you entered the World of the Dead.

And Equinox and Solstice punished me for leaving them there, and left me alone with Forseti for a few days. I was painful, but when they came back, without a word we agreed to go close more windows.

So I have spent all my life walking every possible world, closing windows, and hearing many things.

But now Will, I need your help. All the windows have been closed, and I cannot open a new one. I need Easheatter, which I know you have, to take away his tip and open a window to Cittagaze. My daemons need to heal soon, and if one of them dies, I die.

But this is not just a one-way deal I am offering you. I know that Lyra, in her world, wished very much to see you, and this would be your chance to see her. Will, please, I am asking for your help." Aurora breathed deeply.

Will blinked, fascinated by her story. It would take him a long time to understand everything.

"But. . .I promised Lyra I wouldn't go back. And if I go back just once, I'll want to go over and over. The Subtle knife, or Easheatter, if he's as evil as you described him, he'll convince me to go." Will protested weakly. He had no desire to refuse this proposition, but knew he had to.

"I know how you feel Will. But I only want Easheatter's tip. Once I take his tip, he will no longer have the power to open worlds, and he will leave you alone. But that is not all, Will, you MUST got see Lyra. She doesn't know it yet, but she'll soon understand that to read the aleithiometer and know if you're alright, she will have to release the Dust from herself.. Only children, who aren't so shrouded in Dust, can read her instrument. That is why her gift disappeared when her daemon became his final form; because Dust covered her up, like it does to any adult.

And if she gets rid of the Dust around her, she'll die. . . . ."

(0)