8 Epilogue

Bright light and a cold-fingered breeze woke Lyra from her exhaustion induced sleep.

Blinking heavily, she tried to figure out where she was, where the inn was- and in moments, recent events began to unfold for her.

Epsilon was nearby, he was sitting cross-legged on the same smooth stone surface she'd been lying on, gazing out at the clouds.

As she sat up, a pulsing headache made itself known behind her eyes.

"Se Valio."

The headache dulled with the soft words from Epsilon.

"Where are we now?" Lyra asked, stretching and kneading tired muscles.

"Lyra. Are you a nice person?"

"No. I don't think so. I may be fair, I may be straight as an arrow, but I ain't nice as such. Why?"

"I'm wondering whether I'm the right person to teach you. You killed them, Lyra. You rang the bell."

Lyra put her hands on Epsilons shoulders and swiveled him around.

"I had to make a split second decision, between letting everyone on the island die, or letting the pirates live. What else could I have done, mister high and mighty fireman?"

"I was trying to intimidate them by calling up the big-guy. I… Lyra what's done is done, but I need to know that you understand. We shouldn't kill. Other people don't have the luxury of choosing, because they don't have the strength to defeat their opponents without destroying them. You are strong. With time, maybe you'll be stronger than me... No, if you continue to grow, you will be, and soon. But I want you to promise me, you won't kill unless all other paths of action lead to ruin."

"Sure. I promise not to kill anyone I can't deal with some other way. I may not be nice, but I ain't nasty."

"That's a relief to hear." Epsilon stood and rubbed his arm where it had been severed during the fight.

"What would you have done, just outta curiosity, if ah'd said 'no'."

"I don't know. Either lock away your magic, or kill you I guess. I trust you, and hope that I won't someday look back upon this as a day of disaster. I doubt that even a week from now, I'd be able to halt you should you set your mind on bringing ruin."

Lyra swallowed. Even if he said she was strong enough to threaten him, she'd seen what he looked like when he got serious and never, ever, wanted to face that being in anger.

"Well, now that's all out of the way, step over here." Epsilon ushered Lyra to where he stood, at what she could now see was the edge of the stone-block surface they'd arrived on.

As she approached, she saw that they were in fact, standing on the top of a building, a tower, that overlooked a massive city, spread across dozens of floating isles, all connected by a spider-web of bridges and cables.

"You dream-walked us here? Why?"

"Unintentional. I lost my bracelet when that moron chopped off my arm. Thankfully, I have spares."

Epsilon reached up and took her shoulder-"Welcome to the capitol of the floating isles. Welcome to the City of Laputa. But before you begin your first new day as a fugitive mage, there's important business to take care of."

"Like what?"

"Breakfast."

End of Book 1.