"Today's the day...... today we start this project all over again. We've been here a week and you've done very well Marisa. Let's hope it stays this way"
Something catches Marisa's attention. A young girl walks in, at first she takes no notice of the child till she saw the dæmon and realised it was her child.
"Lyra?"
"Mother, what are you doing? You said you wouldn't do this anymore. You saved me but you like to do it to other children. You are a horrible person, I don't want anything to do with you"
"I told you Marisa, you can't mould Lyra, she's too wild for you and you should just give up"
"No, I can fix this. Don't leave me Lyra. Asriel you are so wrong, I can mould her"
Marisa wakes up panting and all sweaty. The golden monkey comes running to his human and puts his hand on her leg.
"It was only a nightmare, get off me"
Marisa flicks her dæmon off her. He flinches in pain and jumps off the bed. All he wanted to do was comfort his human.
"We need to get back to London quick. I have a bad feeling about something"
———————
"Pan, Ma Costa said Asriel is coming back. I hope he brings mother with him. Oh how I miss them both"
Lyra walks over to her window and just stares out of it. She doesn't dream or wish to runaway now, now that she's been given some sort of freedom to walk around the flat and outside on the streets. It's Olivia day off again but she's visiting family so Lyra and Pan are left alone in the flat.
It's now past the time Olivia said she's be back by and there's still no sign of her and Lyra was feeling alone. Yes she had Pan but they have a love hate relationship right now.
"DING"
The elevator door opens and Olivia walks out.
"This came for you Lyra"
"Oh. It's a letter from mother. Thank you"
Dearest Lyra.
In a week I'll be coming home for a few days then I'll be off again. I hope your father is treating you well.
Mother
"Treating me well? I thought my parents were working together. Asriel said they were. I don't know what to believe anymore"
Lyra got so mad as one of her parents is lying to her and she's not sure which one it is. She scrunches up her letter and throws it into the fire.
"When she returns, she better not lie to me and answer my questions"
A few days pass and Olivia ducks out to the shops to grab some things for when Marisa returns home. The other servants were busy doing what they needed to do and Lyra was trying to figure out what to do.
"The key is in the lift we should go for a walk. We can be back before anyone notices"
Lyra runs up to the lift doors and presses the button to summon the lift..... nothing happens.
"Maybe you need to key in the code for it to work"
"But I don't know the code Pan. Maybe it's in mother's office. But that door is locked too"
"Go through the crawl space like you did last time"
Lyra runs to the grate and climbs through to the crawl space. Nothing scared Lyra but tiny spaces did. Once she reached the grate to her mothers office, she quickly climbed out. When she hit the floor she heard footsteps and her name being called out. Lyra quickly looks at Pan and is ready to climb back up to the crawl space to hide. The footsteps and voice disappear.
"Few that was close. Now start looking, I'm sure she would have the elevator code written down down somewhere Pan"
Going through draws in the desk, cupboards, basically anything and everything that had storage. While going through the desk, Lyra came across different blueprints.
"Why would she have these Pan? The station was destroyed. Wait... you wouldn't think she's helping them again after saying she wouldn't cut children's dæmons away. Why would she lie to me"
The footsteps and a different female voice was getting closer to the door.
"Quick Lyra, it's her"
Lyra quickly put everything back and and made the room look tidy. She quickly climbed up to the crawl space and shut the grate behind her. As she was slowly making her way down the space something made her stop and listen to what was being said.
"Will you let me know when Lyra shows up, I need to see her"
Lyra made it to the end and got out when no one was watching. She rushed to her room and changed her clothes as the ones she was wearing were dusty and she didn't want to get into trouble.
A knock at the door startled Lyra. Lyra quickly hid the dirty clothes and went to open the door. Expecting it to be Olivia, it was actually Marisa and the golden monkey.
"Lyra, where have you been? I've been looking for you. We need to have a chat"
"Oh.... uh...... I was in the bathroom. I thought I would make myself look nice for when you got home. I just didn't know you'd be home this early"
Marisa looks at Lyra as she knows she lying and raised an eyebrow.
"Hmmm. Meet me in my study in exactly five minutes please"
Marisa shuts Lyra's bedroom door and walks down to her study. Lyra falls into her bed and starts to panic.
"She knows I lied to her, she knows I've been in her office. I'm going to get into so much trouble, she's going to send her dæmon onto you Pan to teach me a lesson. What should we do?"
"If she tries to hurt us Lyra, just run. Olivia is still here, maybe she'll help if anything bad happens"
Lyra nods at Pan and they both sit on her bed. About twenty minutes pass and Lyra realises she was meant to meet her mother in her study fifteen minutes ago. Lyra gets up and starts walking out her room and down the hall. Lyra noticed the servants are preparing dinner but no Olivia to be seen. Almost down the hall and Lyra hears her name being called out, Marisa was now in her room getting ready for dinner and not in her study.
"Lyra come here please"
Lyra walks in slowly with her head down and doesn't look at her mother. Lyra sits on her mother's bed while Marisa sat at her vanity.
"Now Lyra, there must be a good explanation as to why you didn't obey me when I said to meet me in my study. You know what happens when you disobey me"
"I'm sorry I got carried away with thinking about something I read today"
"Well whatever it was, it better be worth it as you know I don't like to be kept waiting. On another note, where is your father? He was meant to be watching you"
Lyra looks at Pan who then transforms into a moth then flys to Lyra's pocket in her dress.
"He uh left two days after you left"
Marisa looks at her child through the mirror and see her flinch like she was going to get hit. Her face went all red with anger and she got up so quickly Marisa had a small head spin.
"He what? He had to watch you for a month and he just leaves like that? You wait till I get my hands on him. Where did he go?"
"He went back north, he said to go to Jordan college and the master would watch me but I said I didn't want to, he said then he'll have Ma Costa watch me, but in the end Olivia watched me"
"Who's Olivia Lyra?"
"She's one of the servants"
Marisa puts her hand on her temple and lets out a big sigh.
"Your saying one of the help watched you while I was gone. I would of preferred the bloody Gyptian to watch you"
"Please don't be mad, I'm still here ain't I? And Olivia made sure I did my studies and other things"
"That's enough Lyra, I don't want to hear anymore. Now go get ready for dinner"
Marisa turns back around to look at herself in the mirror to finish off her makeup. Lyra got up and slowly walked back to her room. She could hear a commotion in the kitchen between Olivia and the head servant.
"That doesn't sound good Pan"
Lyra heads to her room and slams the door. A few moments later Lyra heard a light knock on the door, it was Olivia to come and say goodbye as she was fired.
"Oh please take me with you"
"You know I can't Lyra, you know you'll always have a friend in me. Goodbye Lyra"
Lyra watched her only friend walk to the elevator. Then the dinner bell rang.
"We better go Lyra, we don't want to keep your mother waiting again. Lyra walks to the dining room for it to be just empty. She waited till her mother arrived. Before Marisa could take her seat at the table Lyra bombarded her mother with questions.
"Why did you let Olivia go? She did nothing wrong"
"Let it go Lyra, you know your better than the servants, we don't become friends with them"
"Why are you building another station? I thought you weren't working for the Magisterium anymore, you said you weren't going to cut children's dæmons away. Your the monster here"
Lyra bangs her fists on the table and stands up.
"I can't live in a house that's constantly run on lies. I'm leaving"
Lyra walks away from the table and walks towards the elevator that happened to be unlocked from when it was last used by Olivia.
"Don't you dare leave this flat Lyra Belacqua"
Lyra walks into the elevator and watches her mother run towards her as the doors close. Lyra has no idea where she'll go and doesn't care if her mother sends goons to catch her, but she felt free.