Chapter Text
Marissa stares at the girl in front of her. The boys are clinging to their Dæmons, but Aodhan is pacing the ground in front of her. Puffed up and hissing, his jaguar form is bristling with nerves.
Marissa wraps her jacket around the girl’s frail shoulders.
‘She’s so cold Aodhan’
The girl was almost elf-like, with a pointed nose and a pale delicate face and high cheekbones. Her buzzed hair is clumping awkwardly in the downpour of rain. She isn’t that much shorter than Marissa herself, but seems like a porcelain doll. She breathes frantically, trying not to be sick.
“We need to get her out of the rain”, she says, stronger than she feels. The boys follow, silent and shell shocked. At Mike and Pallas’s house, she tucks careful blankets around the girl while the boys argue. Aodhan sits on top of the couch, the Honey Badger crouches like a gargoyle over the girl’s head. She can tell the boys are still in shock, and can remember, clear as day how she wouldn’t stop shaking the first time she saw her sister without Belatucadros.
“Well we can’t keep her! She’s not a stray cat!”
“What do you think we should do with her then?!”
“God damn it Mike, will you pay attention!”
Finally, Harriet pipes up from her place on Lucas’s shoulder, the red squirrel’s tail twitching anxiously. “Are we going to talk about the elephant, or lack thereof, in the room? Where the fuck is her Dæmon?!” she hisses.
Marissa twitches, as if physically struck, at the words. “She… she doesn’t have one” she murmurs. “What do you mean she doesn’t have a Dæmon?! Everyone has a Dæmon!” Mike shouts. Marissa shakes her head, helpless. “You guys know about my family?” she asks. They all nod.
“Dæmons kinda… buzz? I can feel their connection to their person and can tell the difference between a Settled and Unsettled Dæmon. Every dæmon buzzes, but she doesn’t. It’s like there isn’t any Dust in her”, she explained. She can see how uncomfortable the thought makes everyone. She gets it. It’s pretty bad to see, but feeling that absence? It’s like someone reached inside her and twisted a fork around in her guts. It’s taking everything in her to not throw up.
The girl tugs on her sleeve, cautious and confused.
“What… what is Demon?”
‘Oh motherfucker’ Aodhan thinks, restless as a wildfire in their mind.
Panicked, she glances over to the boys. They all stand frozen and mute.
She turns back to the girl and tries to explain the sheer loss the girl is living with. “A Dæmon is… a part of you. It’s the manifestation of you in your purest self. When you’re a kid, like us, your Dæmon changes shapes. When you grow up, they stop changing and stay in the shape of whatever animal reflects you the best” she says.
‘That’s a terrible explanation you idiot’
‘Thank you Aodhan, that is so very helpful’
The girl looks unbearably sad, looking between her and Aodhan.
“I… I have De… Dæmon?” she whispers.
Marisa blinks rapidly, feeling a swirl of anger and deep grief. This girl is just a child, and she is utterly alone in the world. Who could do this to an innocent kid?
“I… I don’t know”, she says. She hates the surge of helplessness that washes through her. The girl looks unsurprised. She is so so alone and Marissa hates it. No one should ever be this alone.
“Just try to sleep, okay? You’re safe here”, she says. Marissa tugs the blankets up to the girl’s chin, hoping to bring some measure of warmth to the girl without even her soul to comfort her. The girl doesn’t believe her, not even for a second, but Marissa thinks she appreciates the sentiment.
The boys gather around as she stands. Their Dæmons cling to their shoulders and hide in their hair. “Tomorrow, we get Alicia”, she says firmly. Lucas puffs up, angry as his Harriet, “What do you think your sister is going to do? This girl is obviously a freak, or crazy or something! We need to call the police before she… she… well I don’t know, tries to steal our Dæmons!”. She shakes her head. “Alica has spent some time with the Witches, maybe they told her something that can explain all this. She can get her help and we can get back to looking for Will and Njord, okay?”. The boys all agree. She starts to head up the stairs to call Steve to come pick her up, but is stopped by a small hand grabbing her wrist.
“Stay?” she pleads.
Marissa nods, unable to leave. she sits next to her on the couch, and Mike offers her some extra blankets before heading up stairs. In the dark, the girl is still cold, and Aodhan shifts into a rattlesnake who curls around her throat like a necklace.
‘Many years ago, in the Far North, where Witches and Armored Bears rule over the icy plains, there was a girl named Lyra Belaqua. Though, the great bear king, Iorek Byrnison called her Lyra Silvertongue for her cleverness that won him back his throne. She had many wonderful adventures with her friends, like the laughing Sharpshooter, Lee Scorsby and Esther, the Brave and Wild Gyptians and many others. Chief amongst her companions, were her beloved Dæmon, Pan, and Will Parry, who came from another world and carried his soul inside of him.'
Her sister's voice, warm and eager twists through her brain like a river, steady and sweet.
' Once, the young girl had to venture far from our world and into the land of the dead. When she arrived, she came face to face with the Ferryman of the Dead. The Ferryman told Lyra that a Dæmon could not cross the river while they yet lived, so brave little Lyra left her soul on the shores and sailed away into the darkness…’
Alicia had always loved the story of Lyra Silvertongue. She probably had most of them memorized. She and Marissa would stay up late into the night, talking about the wild adventures she had had. Marissa enjoyed most of the stories, but hated this one. She could never imagine leaving her Aodhan alone on the shore. She looks over to the sleeping girl and wonders,
‘Are you Lyra, or Will?’