Lyra witnesses the oddities and horrors of Bolvangar first-hand while your Dark Materialists fall down a pop culture rabbit hole once again.
During one of their planned stops, the Gyptians are attacked by a group of Samoyed traders, who steal Lyra and take her straight to Bolvangar. Always thinking, Lyra quickly assumes the identity of Lizzie Brooks, a younger and more dim-witted version of herself. At Bolvangar, Lyra is processed by an expeditious nurse named Sister Clara and her pert little white dog daemon. Sister Clara makes Lyra disrobe and change into clean, albeit second hand clothes, and takes her to the dormitory, where she falls asleep. Lyra is awakened by a group of curious girls who fill her in about where she is and speculate about what is happening at the compound. The next morning Lyra finds Roger, who is overjoyed to see her, and begins to plan their escape. With the help of Roger and Billy Costa, Lyra discovers a hiding place in the ceiling, which she quickly recognizes as a potential escape route. Scientists weigh and measure Lyra and Pantalaimon, studying the effect of Dust on humans and their daemons, when they are interrupted by a fire drill. Lyra meets up with Billy and Roger to take a look around outside when Serafina Pekkala’s bird daemon Kaisa suddenly descends from the sky. Kaisa tells Lyra that John Faa is only a day’s journey away, then notices she is trying to enter a locked door marked ENTRY STRICTLY FORBIDDEN. Lyra explains that she thinks they are cutting daemons away from children in that room so Kaisa helps to unlock the door. In glass cases all around the room are the ghost-like daemons of all the severed children. Filled with anger, Lyra and Kaisa free the daemons from their cages then Kaisa helps them take the form of birds so he can fly them to safety. Back in the courtyard, Lyra enlists Roger and BIlly’s help in getting the children ready to flee when the Gyptians come to their rescue. As the commotion from the fire drill dies down, a zeppelin cuts through the dark and prepares to land. As snow swirls on the ground, Lyra sees Mrs. Coulter and her golden daemon peering from the window of the aeroship.