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Once the an to build the platfor the and cooperate without getting in each other’s way, and because their techniques of splitting and cutting and joining ere so elegant and effective

Within two days the observation platforned and built and lifted into place It was firm and spacious and comfortable, and when she had climbed up to it, she was as happy, in one way, as she had ever been That one as physically In the dense green of the canopy, with the rich blue of the sky between the leaves; with a breeze keeping her skin cool, and the faint scent of the flowers delighting her whenever she sensed it; with the rustle of the leaves, the song of the hundreds of birds, and the distant murmur of the waves on the seashore, all her senses were lulled and nurtured, and if she could have stopped thinking, she would have been entirely lapped in bliss

But of course thinking hat she was there for

And when she looked through her spyglass and saw the relentless outward drift of the sraf, the shadow particles, it see aith them She could find no explanation at all

Three hundred years, theGiven that the shadow particles passed through all the worlds alike, presu in her universe, too, and in every other one Three hundred years ago, the Royal Society was set up: the first true scientific society in her world Neas ravitation

Three hundred years ago in Lyra’s world, someone invented the alethioe world through which she’d coet here, the subtle knife was invented

She lay back on the planks, feeling the platforreat tree swayed in the sea breeze Holding the spyglass to her eye, she watched the h the leaves, past the open ainst the wind, in a slow, deliberate current that looked all but conscious

What had happened three hundred years ago? Was it the cause of the Dust current, or was it the other way around? Or were they both the results of a different cause altogether? Or were they simply not connected at all?

The drift wasHow easy it would be to fall into a trance, and let herparticles

Before she knehat she was doing, and because her body was lulled, that was exactly what happened She suddenly snapped awake to find herself outside her body, and she panicked

She was a little way above the platfor had happened to the Dust wind: instead of that slow drift, it was racing like a river in flood Had it sped up, or was ti differently for her, now that she was outside her body? Either way she was conscious of theto sweep her loose co out her ar solid - but she had no ar connected Now she was almost over that abominable drop, and her body was farther and farther froishly below her She tried to shout and wake herself up: not a sound The body slu borne away out of the canopy of leaves altogether and into the open sky

And no led, she could make no headway The force that carried her out was as s over a weir; the particles of Dust were strea over so her away fro a mental lifeline to that physical self, and tried to recall the feeling of being in it: all the sensations thatalive The exact touch of her friend Atal’s soft-tipped trunk caressing her neck The taste of bacon and eggs The triumphant strain in her muscles as she pulled herself up a rock face The delicate dancing of her fingers on a co coffee The warradually she stopped ht and strength of the current pushing against her as she hung there in the sky

And then a strange thing happened Little by little (as she reinforced those sense-arita in California, sitting under the le the frost off the windshield of her car), she felt the Dust wind easing The pressure was lessening

But only on her: all around, above and below, the great flood was strea as fast as ever Somehow there was a little patch of stillness around her, where the particles were resisting the flow

They were conscious! They felt her anxiety and responded to it And they began to carry her back to her deserted body, and when she was close enough to see it once more, so heavy, so warm, so safe, a silent sob convulsed her heart

And then she sank back into her body and awoke

She took in a shuddering deep breath She pressed her hands and her legs against the rough planks of the platforone mad with fear, she was now suffused with a deep, slow ecstasy at being one with her body and the earth and everything that was matter