Your Materialists are ready to write daemon fanfic after this week's chapters. We also obsess over spirits, the art of lying and what makes a mechanical spy fly tick.
Lyra is acclimating to the knowledge that Lord Asriel and Mrs. Coulter are her mother and father, and while she finds it is easier to accept Lord Asriel as a paternal figure, acknowledging Mrs. Coulter as her mother is another story. Lyra quickly falls back into her wiley and adventurous ways, exploring the fens and telling outrageous stories to the Gyptian children. While the police continue to search for Lyra, she bides her time, relentlessly questioning Ma Costa about the story of her birth and studying the alethiometer. Three days later, John Faa holds a second Roping, collecting money and assessing the forces for each of the six head Gyptian families. The man from the last Roping speaks up again, this time questioning why they are harboring Lyra when there is a hefty bounty for her return. John Faa reminds him that Lyra is Lord Asriel’s daughter, who assisted and advocated for the Gyptians multiple times, and that they will protect her at all cost. Lyra tells Tony that she wants to help with the expedition North, but her hopes are dimmed when he tells her that she’s already done her part. When the Roping is over, the men retire to the Parlay room to discuss their plans. True to form, Lyra boldly walks in to plead her case to John Faa but he emphatically tells her no. She tries to ingratiate herself with several members of the expedition party, and ends up focusing her efforts on Farder Coram, who talks and listens to the girl instead of sending her away. She and Farder Coram grow close, studying the alethiometer and figuring out how it works. During one such lesson, a gravely injured Gyptian spy returns from a reconnaissance mission. He tells Farder Coram that Benjamin de Ruyter, the same man Lyra was investigating with the alethiometer, is dead and that the children have been taken to the Arctic region known as Lapland. Farder Coram calls for John Faa, who decides that Lyra must accompany them to the North. Lyra spends the next two weeks preparing to leave and studying the alethiometer. Feeling cramped below deck, Lyra asks Farder Coram if she can go out, to which he agrees. Within minutes of being topside, Pantalaimon is attacked by a clockwork beetle, sent by Mrs. Coulter. After being saved by a tillerman’s daemon, Lyra stows her things in her cabin below deck and begins her journey North.