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Lyra’s first reaction upon seeing the strange and beautiful Nipponese girl in the courtyard outside her dormitory was to wonder if she were perhaps an angel. Angels could travel between worlds without a window, of course, and this girl was clearly not from Lyra’s Oxford. (When Lyra thought back on this encounter later in life, she realized she hadn’t been fazed at all by the fact that she had lacked a dæmon - not because Lyra had known such people before, but because the girl had been so bursting with color and life that she couldn’t possibly have been severed.)
Of course, she couldn’t be an angel either - despite the bright sunshine illuminating every inch of the courtyard, Lyra could see the girl clearly. Additionally, angels never wore clothes, though their nudity had never elicited from Lyra the hot, red blush than did the girl’s rather… revealing outfit, consisting of only a cropped vest, a striped brassiere, and incredibly short white canvas pants.
And so, with the only other explanation ruled out, Pantalaimon voiced the thought Lyra had been forbidding herself to consider.
“What if she came here through a window?”
“We can’t get our hopes up, Pan, we en’t even know what world she’s from!” Lyra told him sternly. But whatever world it is, she’s in danger here.
Pan knew this too, and so before Lyra even had to tell him so, he sprung out the second-story window onto the branch of a nearby tree and gracefully made his way down into the courtyard and over to the girl. This way, it would appear to someone not paying close attention that the girl did have a dæmon. Of course, if anyone looked too closely they would immediately know that the girl and the dæmon were unconnected, and one of Lyra’s acquaintances might even recognize the dæmon as Pan. However, if anyone was looking for long enough to realize this, it wouldn’t matter, as they would then have even bigger problems.
The girl watched with interest as the pine marten make its way towards her, and reacted with only mild surprise when it spoke, which in turn intrigued Lyra.
“Can you understand me?” Pantalaimon asked her. The girl nodded yes, she did.
“We know you en’t from this world,” Pan continued, gesturing to Lyra watching them from the open window. The girl looked up at her.
“How do you know that?” she asked, still facing Lyra rather than Pan.
“It en’t safe for you out in the open here.” Pan told her, “Come inside with us where it’s secure and you’re hidden, and we can explain then.”
The girl considered this for a moment - she was rightfully wary of doing what a strange talking animal told her to. But there was something incredibly human about his gaze, and the blonde English girl looked down on her with an expression of concern, almost pleading with her to believe them, and the girl decided they truly didn’t mean her harm.
“Yes. Yes, I will go with you,” she said.
Lyra left the windowsill and rushed to the stairwell while Pantalaimon immediately turned to lead the girl to the entrance of the dormitory building, where Lyra opened the door for them.
“Quickly,” she whispered to the girl as they rushed to the stairwell and up to Lyra’s room. Once they were all inside Lyra locked the door behind them, breathing a small sigh of relief.
“Can I ask who you are? How do you know about other dimensions?” the girl questioned.
“My name is Lyra Silvertongue,” Lyra said confidently, Pan leaping to sit wrapped around her neck. “I know about other worlds because I’ve been to ‘em. And who are you? ”
“I’m the super-dimensional special officer Trigger-chan!” she said cheerily, making a motion with her hand that seemed to be a salute of some kind. “I patrol other dimensions dispensing justice!”
Lyra was puzzled by this. “So you arrest criminals in other worlds or something?” she asked, sitting down in her desk chair.
“Kind of,” Trigger-chan said, seating herself on Lyra’s bed with her hands on her knees. “I’m searching for a boy named AΩ Nova who escaped into another dimension. Once I find him I’m going to arrest him and bring him home. But if I can help people in other dimensions along the way, I will!”
“What did he do that you’ve got to go so far to catch him?” Lyra questioned, resting her head in her hand.
“He worked for this monster called a Blackholeian to steal my city and others across the universe, and infiltrate the Space Patrol, and a bunch of other bad stuff.” Trigger-chan sighed. (Lyra was completely baffled by all of this, but decided not to question it. There were a lot of strange worlds out there, though she did lament the fact that it was not the one she had secretly been hoping for.) “But worst of all, he stole my heart.”
Lyra raised her head at this. “You’re arresting him because you love him?”
“Love is justice.” Trigger-chan said simply, smiling. Then her face falls. “But I’ve been to so many dimensions now, and there’s been no trace of him. I wonder if I ever will find him…”
Lyra knew that feeling all too well, and she sighed and sadly rested her head back in her hand, unsure of what to say. Then, in a flash of brilliance, Lyra realized a way she might cheer up her new companion while also imparting to her a critical lesson -
Tell them stories.
“Huh?” Trigger-chan raised her head, confusion on her face.
“I mean, me. Tell me stories!” Lyra said excitedly, sitting up. “You’ve been to a ton of different worlds, right? I want to hear about them! Can you tell me?”
Trigger-chan perked up immediately, eyes shining, and Lyra could’ve sworn even her cowlick seemed to stand up straighter. “Yes, of course! Let’s see, the very first dimension I visited was LWA-17…”
Lyra eagerly listened as Trigger-chan described all the worlds she had been to and the people she had met in each. In one of them, she had visited a school for witches where a small group of students had recently stopped a magical weapon powered by negative thoughts, preventing war from breaking out across the world and ushering in a new age of magic. In another, a bunch of teenagers led by two long-lost sisters had warded off an apocalypse caused by alien lifeforms that had been trying to make everyone in the world be “cut from the same cloth,” as one of the girls had put it. In a third, people around the world had risen up and fought using giant robots against a race of aliens that had been oppressing humankind due to fear of the power the human spirit. These rebels had emerged victorious and secured freedom for humans and for all races capable of evolution across the universe. Each world Trigger-chan described seemed more bizarre than the last, full of strange characters that Lyra wished she could meet herself.
And as Lyra listened to Trigger-chan’s stories, she noticed an interesting pattern. It seemed that, in each world Trigger-chan had visited, a great war for the fate of humanity had recently occurred, wars similar in many ways to the one Lyra herself had been a key player in. She wondered if these battles for the sake of free will had been in some way influenced by the return of Dust she had caused. Lyra still did not fully understand what she had done to create this dramatic shift - she believed it was possible she never would. But through her stories, Trigger-chan had given Lyra concrete proof that she and everyone who had supported her had been successful in their mission, and it filled her with hope.
And in her excitement, Lyra had forgotten that hope can often be a double-edged blade.
“Trigger-chan, how d’you travel to other worlds?”
Trigger-chan seemed caught off-guard by the question.
“Well, I… I don’t know, actually,” She answered, brow furrowed. “I don’t really… have the words to describe it. Not even in Japanese! I just sort of… concentrate on it, I guess, and off I go!” She says, emphasizing this last part by tracing an arc above head like a shooting star. It wasn’t the answer Lyra had been wishing for, and she slumped a little in her chair, Pan moving from her neck down into her arms to provide some small amount of comfort.
Her self-pity only lasted briefly, however, before her ever-present curiosity returned.
“When you do it, you en’t have to think about it, I bet. You just feel it,” Lyra said softly, eyes focused on something so far away she could never reach it again. “It’s clear, and easy, and natural as breathing,” She then looked at Trigger-chan, into her eyes, wide and knowing. “It’s like you’re in the dark reaching out for something, but you know it’s right there, and then you take hold of it.” Trigger-chan nodded.
“Yes,” she breathed, “Yes, it’s just like that! How did you know? Is that how you traveled, too?”
Lyra shook her head.
“No, but I once knew that sort of focus,” Lyra answered with a sad smile. She wondered if Trigger-chan was a sort of an angel after all, if this form of travel was like the imagination-based technique Xaphania had once described to her. It made a strange kind of sense; Trigger-chan herself almost seemed to be a figment of someone else’s imagination.
“Once?” Trigger-chan asked. “You don’t anymore?” Lyra wondered if Trigger-chan too would lose her ability one day.
“It’s a long story,” Lyra laughed, shaking her head.
“Can I hear it?”
Lyra sat up straight. “Are you sure, Trigger-chan? It’ll take all night!” Pan warned her. (Lyra had become quite practiced at telling her full adventure, and knew down to the minute how long it took, not accounting for listener questions.) But Trigger-chan only nodded enthusiastically.
“Yeah! I told you all of my stories, now I wanna hear yours!” She said with a big smile, eyes sparkling. Lyra considered it for a moment.
“Thing is, my story’s real important. I can’t tell it to just anyone! If I do, would you do something for me?”
“It depends, what is it?” Trigger-chan asks.
“I need you to find someone in another world and deliver a message to them for me.”
“I can do that! Who is it?”
“I can’t tell you that yet. It’s part of the story!” Lyra says slyly. Trigger-chan laughs.
“Okay, it’s a deal, Lyra Silvertongue!”
“Alright, get comfortable then!” Lyra says, shifting into her storytelling state of mind. Trigger-chan does so, taking one of Lyra’s pillows and laying down on the bed, head propped up in her hands.
“It all began when me and Pan snuck ourselves into the Retiring Room at Jordan College. That’s where I grew up…”
In a universe nearly identical to our own, Trigger-chan meets a boy who is nothing like Nova - his hair is dark and his eyes are sharp and intense. He has an abnormally large and beautiful cat always by his side, and he is missing two fingers on his left hand - just like the Space Patrol salute, she notices with a smile.
Luckily for Trigger-chan, she doesn’t stand out nearly as badly in this world, and the boy believes she’s an attendee of the convention that’s in town. That is, until she speaks.
“Lyra wants me to tell you that she is doing well. She still loves you and misses you with all her heart, and hopes someday you can meet again.”
Those eyes that she’d been afraid to look into a moment ago turn soft, and with a bittersweet pang Trigger-chan realizes he’s not so unlike Nova after all.
The cat leaps impossibly lightly onto his shoulder to look at her as he takes her hand in his.
“Thank you.”
Trigger-chan grins and salutes Will Parry.
“Bringing the world to justice is what I do!”