The Golden Compass/Subtle Knife/Amber Spyglass continuation
(as yet untitled)
A/N: This is for those who have already read the trilogy. If you haven't, go out and read it right now! And don't read mine until you have.
Oh, and I kinda forgot some stuff about the books, so if you HAVE read it, don't get mad!
x
x
x
so I finally updated! But it's a little bit sloppy, so don't hate me! Hopefully, this is a good first chapter to my fanfic ;-p
v
v
(I don't know how to skip lines here and none of these symbols in Word seem to work)
v
Chapter OneSixteen-year-old Lyra Belacqua was restlessly pacing about her room at Oxford, now a student at the prestigious university. It seemed such a long time ago that the affair of the golden compass and its mystical companions had led her onto a journey to self-awareness and who she really was. And Will. Will…She winced as the memories of her true soul mate came flooding back. She wondered what he looked like now, how he was faring, and whether or not he had found someone else.
But no, he couldn't have. Not with the connection they had made—the lasting flow of energy between them that was ever-present and electrical to the point of tangibility.
Will…She shook her head free of such thoughts and looked down at Pantalaimon. Her daemon was asleep and looked so peaceful and free of any dark thoughts. Pan, her life's companion, her spiritual soul, was with her at all times. They could never separate; it was too painful.
Will was almost the same.
Except their parting was not physically painful, but spiritually and emotionally draining. It had been torture when she had first crossed back over, unable to truly comprehend that she would never see her beloved again.
Never.
The House Master had been forgiving and understanding about her ordeal. She had been gone for about three years. Her absence had been sorely felt. The innocent, naïve and questioning young child was gone, however. And in its stead was a young woman, worldly-wise and grieving for a love she would and could never see or touch again. Her heart ached and the pining became less intense with each passing day.
That had been a couple of years ago. Now, in her second year at the university, she was studying to become what Dr. Mary Malone had been, a scientist studying dark matter. Lyra had experienced first hand the effects of what scientists liked to call anti-matter. She had focused all her heartache into the study of these remarkable dust and hadn't thought of Will since, blocking off that part of her memory.
But now she took in his form and shape fully and thought of him, exactly as she had remembered him, as a boy of fourteen. He would probably now be quite the young man at seventeen and she wept inwardly to think of him.
I can never let anyone know of this, never…
She had stopped playing with the gyptian children and stopped associating with them. They brought back too many memories. Lord Faa had been kind, and no doubt, he was still the most elder of the gyptians, but she would never know.
Too much pain was connected to the incident, and she let her mind wander to what had happened in their final hours together—she and a boy named Will Parry.
…
They embraced, long and hard, unwilling to let go, for they knew this was their last and final parting. There would be no more.
"Will! Oh, I love you so much!"
"Ssh, Lyra, it'll all be okay. I'll always think of you. We'll find each other, in the land of the dead. And if not, we will find heaven and be joined again."
"I love you."
…
Now, about three years later, she and Pan had put their plans of establishing that Republic of Heaven on hold and her studies with Dame Hannah had proved fruitless. Lyra really had lost her touch. It seemed as if the alethiometer moved only to her fingers for that one moment in time when she was needed. Her ability and adeptness at reading the symbols and figures of the Golden Compass shocked and baffled well-established scholars and professors of the community. Her residence with the house Master at Jordan College had not a well-kept secret.
Dame Hannah was a kindly old woman, round and matronly, but with a strict demeanor. Her hair was always tied loosely in a knot at the nape of her neck and she wore a lavender lace shawl about her shoulders no matter where, when, or what the occasion was. She wore half-moon spectacles that seemed to emphasize, not downplay, her stern eyes.
But with her hawk-like eyes came another side to her. At first glance, she seemed too solemn, but with time, one would learn that inside that hard shell was a loving, tender, and compassionate woman. She had come to accept Lyra's little nuances and faults and she loved her as if she were her own. Lyra was her young protégé and a wonderful student, but the art of the alethiometer, though difficult for Dame Hannah, completely eluded Lyra altogether. At times, Dame Hannah felt Lyra didn't try very hard. And try as she might, what with their strong and close bond, Dame Hannah still felt Lyra was sometimes off in a world all her own.
It was these times Dame Hannah worried the most. Lyra was unreachable and Pan wandered aimlessly about the halls of Jordan, almost as if lost, and unable to answer to a hidden call for his name.
Lyra knew she sometimes lost her place and blanked out. In these moments, she would be reunited with Will, the one from her memories, and they would be playing along the tropical ocean of the Land of the Dead they had created—opened the doorway to—for the dead spirits of the various worlds to become one with Dust and float, as free spirits. The sun would shine on her face. She was gladdened by the warmth… and then she was brought back to the cold English terrain of hallways and bookshelves and dark classrooms.
These day dreams were not Lyra's only means of communing heart to heart with Will. She had also made a vow with him—their secret, silent covenant—to meet annually at the lone bench in the courtyard behind the garden where the fountain was. And yearly, they would sit and sit and think and dream of each other, only each other. And the heartache would not pass.
Lyra wondered, did Will keep up his end of the vow? And did he daydream of her as she did of him?
Her heart ached for Will.
