William Parry had long ago resigned himself to the fact that this world had no intention of getting any better. He'd written letters to politicians, donated to public schools, and even published essays, but for all his efforts, almost nothing had changed. The average child was still hopelessly uneducated, and there were still very few people researching the things that mattered.

One thing he had learned was that if he educated children, they could sometimes convince their parents to do small things: come to one of his talks or look him up. Children were also naturally curious and would send letters and make calls to him and Mary, who had been a big help.

The problem with adults was that they were too set in their ways. If they had money to spend on putting their kids in private school, they'd already done that. And the other things - educating themselves , donating to charity, standing up for what they believed in - all this doing good stuff costs money. And, really, who was he to tell them how to live their lives?

All he wanted to do was make this world a better place. And, of course, make his and Lyra's sacrifices worth it; if the dead didn't earn the right to go through the window because they had no stories to tell, it made leaving that window open absolutely useless.

Which meant that they would have been better off using their one window for selfish reasons.

He tried hard not to think like that. He knew that, over time, they could build their own Republic of Heaven, but it wouldn't happen right away. He just wished-

Well, he "just wished" a lot of things.

On this particular day, he "just wished" that this lady would go away . She'd been talking for what felt like hours but could only have been minutes. At first, she'd seemed pleasant enough, but then she'd started asking all sorts of questions about his work and Mary Malone's work, which he always made a point to mention in his presentation.

"How do you know Mary Malone?"

"She's my godmother." That was the usual story.

"Oh, it's so nice of you to tell people about her research!"

"Uh-huh"

"Well, have a nice day!" She exclaimed, as if she was dismissing him. Lady, this is my event, and you have overstayed your welcome.

There were only a few more people after her, who thankfully only wanted a copy of the book.

The book. He'd written it when he'd first started, hoping to sell more copies than he actually did. The peak of those books was when a school of some sort bought a hundred copies, which Will thought was excessive, but still made him a bit of money.

Stressing that a bit . You really don't make much money at all as an author, something he'd been warned about, but hadn't really listened to. He had a more stable job, too, as a part-time pediatrician. It wasn't exactly what he wanted to be doing with his life - he'd much rather be a full-time doctor - but there really was nothing else he could do, because he couldn't give up on his talks. He still had billions of lives to change! And he'd just saved up enough money to go to America, and maybe he would be more successful there.

Highly doubtful.

But there he was, walking home, hands stuffed in his pockets, barely paying attention to where he was going. Not even noticing the window, just like the ones he used to cut in between worlds. He just walked right through it. He didn't notice when his feet were suddenly walking on dirt instead of the sidewalk. In fact, he didn't notice that anything was wrong until he almost ran into a small girl huddled on the side of the path.

"I'm sorry, I wasn't looking where I was going!" he smiled apologetically at her, and she smiled weakly back. "Are you oka-"

That was when he noticed that he wasn't where he expected to be.

"Where- um- uh- so-"

"Sir?" The girl asked. She couldn't've been more than seven.

"Right! Are you okay?"

She nodded. "I'm fine. Do you have five silvers? I have ten, and the hotel lady said she'd let me in for a week if I had fifteen…"

Will looked closer at the little girl. She was small, and thin, and her clothes were ragged, and her awful stench was just barely covered up by a strong lavender perfume. Her skin was paler than the moon and her bare feet were caked with dirt. She looked unnatural.

"Are you sure you're okay?"

She nodded. "I'm fine. But do you have five silvers? It'll be awfully cold tonight, and the hotel lady will only let me in if I've got the extra money."

"Where's the hotel?" He asked after some thought.

"It's just around the corner! I-"

"You know what? Come with me."

She hesitated, but only for a second, and then stood up, picking up her knapsack. "Okay. I'll follow five feet behind." Will nodded, respecting her fear. He could admire her caution.

"Alright," he said, and turned the corner that made the most sense to him. There it was: the hotel. It wasn't very grand by his world's standards. In fact, looking around, everything seemed subdued. Or… not subdued , but brown . Natural . The hotel seemed to be made of mud bricks, and the roads were just dirt paths. The only decoration outside of the hotel that he could see were the flame lilies planted out front. The windows seemed not to have any glass in them, only curtains that swayed a bit in the breeze. The fact that the girl still seemed to worship the place was what forced him to accept the truth: He was in another world. He decided that as soon as he'd helped this girl out, he would get back to his world and shut whatever window had brought him here.

From the girl's eyes, the hotel was grand indeed. It stood four stories high with lacy white curtains and an embroidered cloth for the entrance. It would be considered rude and vain of the owner to decorate the outside much more than this, but the inside was lavish, she knew, with gold chains forming curtains between rooms and walls with sapphires and rubies molded into them. But the best part was that this building was blessed by her goddess, Seleniah, lady of the moon. She was a priestess of the goddess, and was to be treated with respect, but that respect was rarely received because she was an orphan who lived on the streets. Even the lowest of the low had a home of some sort, except for a few like her. But she had learned that if she had faith in Seleniah's protection, she could walk barefoot down the streets in her dainty white frock and no one would look twice.

Will stepped into the hotel, the girl tailing him and still managing to look elegant in that special way of hers. He was absolutely stunned by the inside of the hotel - it looked like a palace - but he tried to play it cool, because maybe this was normal. The woman behind the counter had long hair and wore gold jewelry. She smiled at him.

"Would you like a room?" She asked.

"Yes," he said. "For ten days."

She nodded. "I'll need ten silvers."

He turned around and asked the girl, "That's how much you have, right?"

She nodded, wide-eyed, and held the ten silver coins out to him. They were round and thin, with a picture of a crescent moon engraved into the surface. He turned around and handed the coins to the woman. She took them and then leaned to the side, obviously trying to look behind him. He did nothing to stop or assist her. When she saw the girl, her eyes narrowed.

"You!" she barked, pointing a long finger at the barefoot child. "Out!"

"Oh, it's okay," Will interjected, holding his hand up. "She's with me."

The woman's stare moved to him, and she raised one questioning eyebrow, but William Parry, if he was anything, was unrelenting. Finally, she gave in.

"If I were you," she hissed, "I wouldn't waste my time with that little brat." But she couldn't say no to a perfectly civilized customer. "Down that hallway. Fourth room on the east side."

"Excuse me?" the girl piped up from behind Will. He moved out of her way and she stepped up to the counter.

" What? " the owner demanded, staring daggers at her.

"May we please have a room on the west side, so that I may carry out my duties as a priestess of Seleniah?"

The owner could not say no to this, for it would be an act of disrespect to the Goddess herself, so she pointed her finger down the other hallway and grumbled out the words "fifth door". The girl curtsied and kissed the counter as a blessing before leading the way down the hall, leaving Will to follow, and not half so well as she had.

Will returned to the window and left the world soon after, but found he couldn't close it. Kirjava found him there, on a random street in Oxford, trying again and again to close a window that wouldn't close. She was confused at what was happening, so she nudged his leg and he picked her up and they both stepped into this new world they'd discovered.

But Kirjava jumped out of his arms and inspected the window more closely. She backed away from it, once again confused at this strange occurrence.

"There's no Dust," she informed him, and he was as surprised as her. (Of course, they were the same person, so he had been surprised when she was surprised, but now he knew why he was surprised and could therefore feel his surprise more acutely).

"No Dust?" he asked.

"No Dust."

"Well, then…"

He had told the girl that he was going for a walk. If the doorway wasn't leaking Dust, then there was no need to close it. Maybe he could do more for the girl. If he could go back and forth, then…

He set off for his hotel room, slipping through the entrance and past the chains hanging from his doorway, Kirjava on his heels. The sun was beginning to fall and the moon was beginning to rise by this point, and the girl was just taking her prayer rug from her knapsack to perform her nightly ritual. She nodded and smiled at Will, who smiled back and sat down to watch her chant and dance and pray. At the end of the ceremony, she lit a candle and took a small bit of a thick, scented paper between two fingers. She mumbled some words and then burned the paper, filling the room with the smell of rose. Then she turned to Will and handed him a piece of the paper.

"Go on," she said. "Give your thanks, then burn this."

Will didn't know what to be thankful for. He decided to be thankful for the window, and for this strange girl. He burned the paper and let the ashes scatter on the floor.

Then he turned to the girl and said, "I don't think we've been properly introduced. I'm Will Parry. What's your name?"

She bowed her head and then raised it again and, with an air of regality, said "I am Priya of Tinja, Priestess of the Moon Goddess Seleniah. It is an honor to meet you, Will Parry."

And with that, his new life began.

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