The Way, The War, And The End – Chapter 4

Serafina was flying hurriedly back to St Sophia, hoping to speak to Lyra before the morning came about the event with Xaphania. As she looked towards the horizon, she could see the sun just barely protruding out.

Meanwhile, Lyra opened her eyes slowly, hoping to wake up to a special someone. To her disappointment, no one was by her side, only Pantalaimon lying on her lap. She looked out at the window, the sun had just rose from the horizon and just as she turned away to get dressed, she caught a glimpse of Serafina Pekkala. Lyra turned back and opened the window for her to fly in. 'What is Serafina doing back so soon?' she thought. As she landed, Lyra asked, 'What brings you back so soon Serafina Pekkala?'

'I apologise for the abrupt meeting but I must tell you what took place on my way back to the witch tribes,' Serafina said, and she told Lyra about the conversation that had taken place high in the sky. Lyra listened intently, and then with a wide smile, she said, 'I don't believe it! I'm actually going to see Will again.' And she and Pan danced around the room too joyful to speak, but the atmosphere was broken as she stopped suddenly and said, 'But how are we going to reach each other?'

'I don't know, but listen carefully,' said Serafina Pekkala, 'if indeed you were to find Will, the question is; would you continue to build the Republic of Heaven?'

'Of course we would!' Lyra said indignantly, 'we would not get distracted but continue to build it… together.'

'If so, I wish you good luck then, now I really must go, I was supposed to be back with the other witches this morning,' Serafina said quickly, 'until then farewell.'

'Farewell, Serafina Pekkala,' said Lyra, and she watched Serafina fly away until she was a speck in the sky. Lyra tossed herself on her bed and begun to imagine all the possible ways they could meet. Suddenly, the morning bell rang, and she hurriedly put on her uniform and headed down to breakfast with Pan.

All through the day, Lyra did not seem to pay attention at all in her classes, her mind was preoccupied with ideas and ways she could find Will again. Pan had to nip at her hand a few times so she would pay attention in class. Dame Hannah had noticed this sudden lack of concentration, Lyra always payed attention in her alethiometer classes, but today Lyra seemed to be concentrating on something else all on her own. Dame Hannah dismissed this as Lyra was a bright student in her classes.

After a distracted day, Lyra took a shower and tossed herself on the bed while Pan settled himself on the pillow next to her, but she did not pull out the alethiometer like she would. Lyra instead closed her eyes and her mind drifted to the very day she and Will had met. 'It was really stupid,' she thought. Lyra remembered she had charged out at him, Will valiantly fought back and they called a truce in the middle of it. But that was the day she had begun to like Will. Lyra thought of the little room where Will had made omelettes and baked beans for their meal. Suddenly, she snapped out of the trance-like state to notice she was on the cold ground floor; she lifted her head and found Pan next to her just as surprised as she was. 'Pan, are we going insane?'

'I don't think we are,' Pan said as they both headed to the fridge. Lyra opened the door and found a can of coke. She quickly opened it and sculled it down as best she could, she drunk so fast that bubbles got up her nose; she snorted and belched loudly. Lyra came to realise it was not a dream after all.

'This can't be real, how did we ever come to be here in the first place.' Lyra said

'Dunno…' Pan said, 'what I remember is that we were thinking of the day we met Will and then we just happened to be here.'

A sudden voice in the back of Lyra's head happened to recall the day the angel Xaphania had appeared before them and she remembered the words Xaphania had spoken that day, It uses the faculty of what you call imagination… It is a form of seeing… What is worth having is worth fighting for... A smile had formed across her face, and she gave a massive yell of joy, if anyone lived around the neighbourhood, they would immediately have been woken up by the sound. Lyra was prancing around the round yelling, 'I've done it! I've found the way!'

After a while, Lyra settled down and begun thinking of her room; it was a complete mess, but it would be tidied up by the maids not before the end of the week, there were clothes lying everywhere, there would be cupboards open and drawers sticking out of the desks, and there were papers all cluttered up on her desk where she worked hard every night on them. Lyra awoke from her trance like state and found Pan next to her. She could also feel the taste of the coke still fresh on her tongue. 'That was no dream.'

Over the few weeks, Lyra worked hard perfecting this new way of travelling, imagining herself everywhere around St Sophia and even Jordan College, but always in areas where few people ventured to avoid attention. Dame Hannah noticed she payed attention more in her classes more than ever. Dame Hannah noticed a fire in her eyes that burned brightly replacing the sadness that hung tightly around her.

(Time Warp)

It was Midsummer Day, and escorting her from St Sophia was the Master. The Master looked old and clung on to life strongly still. He wore a black coat and had his raven soaring above them. The Master had always escorted Lyra to the Botanic Gardens, after hearing her tale. It was melancholy as Lyra had to be separated from Will after all they had been through. Although it was a tad hard to take all the details in as Lyra had no one else to confirm the most alarming events in her journey, such as the journey to the land of the dead.

The Master and Lyra were at the Botanic Gardens and watched Lyra as she entered the garden. To his interest, Lyra did not seem to be as sad as she always had been. Midsummer Day was usually very hard on her. The pain and love they had for each other magnified over the years but today seemed different. It was like looking at the Lyra of old again. The Master's daemon flew down and said, 'Lyra must have a reason to be happy… after all she deserves it.'

'I heartily agree with you,' the Master said, 'it's good to see her happy again.' And the Master headed back to Jordan College, where he would look after the younger children of the school, and catch anyone making trouble at all.

Lyra quickly walked through the garden, her heart racing, knowing that she'll see Will again. The bell had struck twelve; she could feel his presence and Pan could feel Kirjava, both of them longed for the other and they sat at the bench they had always sat on for the last five years. Lyra went into the trance like state and opened her eyes to find she had gone nowhere at all. 'Pan it didn't work,' Lyra said.

'Take it easy, concentrate on the bench in the Botanic Gardens in Will's world,' Pan reassured her, 'think of his world and of all the fast moving carts that Will had in his world and concentrate on that.'

Lyra nodded and took a few deep breaths before entering the same state of mind. Her mind was focused on Will's world and she could feel the same tingle she had always felt when she tried. It felt like reading the alethiometer again but this state did not work for the alethiometer. Lyra always took it around with her. Lyra opened her eyes slowly, and found she was still sitting on the bench. However, she did not notice the exotic plants that bloomed in the sunlight. Feeling defeated, Lyra sat down and relived her adventures in her head once more. After an hour had passed, Lyra sighed and walked out of the Botanic Gardens, her eyes at her feet… she happened to notice the ground had white lines parallel to the road and then…

Mary Malone was driving towards her laboratory after having a midday lunch at a café. She would drive pass the Botanic Gardens in case Will had not succeeded in travelling, but Mary had no doubt he would be able to do just that. Her daemon, Alex told her not to worry and then her mind drifted back to the road and ahead at the crossing was…

SCREECH!!

The tires screeched loudly. Mary had pushed the brakes just in time before hitting a girl about Will's age, with dark, golden hair and blue eyes and a pine marten at her heels. 'Wait a pine marten!' Mary thought. Lyra had jumped at the sound of the brakes and she stared towards the car that was ahead, she then turned towards a cinema nearby and the audience walking out; they were all healthy looking but… not one of them had a daemon! Lyra gaped almost too amazed to speak another word and then, out of the car a woman in her early forties with short black hair and she could see a small Alpine chough on the woman's shoulder, 'Wait an Alpine chough?' Lyra thought. Before she could speak, the woman said, 'Lyra?'

'Dr. Malone?' Lyra said.

'I don't believe it!' Mary said in disbelief. The cars behind her were honking their horns at her to continue moving. Mary quickly said, 'Lyra, quick get in the car.' Lyra followed and jumped into her car followed by Pan. Mary drove to the first empty car space she could find so she could properly talk to Lyra. Lyra deep down felt absolutely ecstatic. She had found a way to Will's world,

'But where is Will?'

I wrote (typed) this without even thinking how long it was gonna be, I was concerned with chapter three because the original was short, I apologise for the shorter chapter three, I ran out of detail to add in chapter three. I am very pleased with how this chapter went and I would really like to see a few more reviews rather than just one -- Anyways just to say that I do not own the characters in this chapter four, I am not Philip Pullman but if I was I would kindly rewrite the last few chapters in the book )