Some months after Midsummer
You can always tell, when you've entered a new universe.
There's something about the air, or the light, or the weather--and if you've been in hundreds, then you will be able to tell very quickly indeed.
Will has been to hundreds of universes. And then he was exiled from all but his own, because of a fruit, and a girl, and a Fall.
And what does one do when one Falls?
...becomes an Oxford student, apparently.
And so he opens the door, weary from a day of books and dust, with a black cat winding around his ankles, and knows that he has entered another universe.
As if in a dream, he turns, and feels along the space in the door for a cut, or a tear, but--
"There isn't anything there," the cat whispers, and he nods. A sudden fierce hope grips him, and she leaps into his arms to scan the room.
"Will, maybe--"
"--Lyra's here."
But if she is, they don't see her. He sags a little.
There's something about the air, or the light, or the weather--and if you've been in hundreds, then you will be able to tell very quickly indeed.
Will has been to hundreds of universes. And then he was exiled from all but his own, because of a fruit, and a girl, and a Fall.
And what does one do when one Falls?
...becomes an Oxford student, apparently.
And so he opens the door, weary from a day of books and dust, with a black cat winding around his ankles, and knows that he has entered another universe.
As if in a dream, he turns, and feels along the space in the door for a cut, or a tear, but--
"There isn't anything there," the cat whispers, and he nods. A sudden fierce hope grips him, and she leaps into his arms to scan the room.
"Will, maybe--"
"--Lyra's here."
But if she is, they don't see her. He sags a little.