The Compass Will Show The Way
There are many universes and many earths parallel to each other.
Worlds like yours where people's souls live inside their bodies,
and words like mine, where they walk beside us,
as animal spirits we call daemons.
So many worlds, but connecting them all is Dust.
Dust was here before the witches of the air, the Gyptians of the water, and the bears of the ice.
In my world, scholars invented an alethiometer, a golden compass,
and it showed them all that was hidden.
But the ruling power, fearing any truth but their own, destroyed these devices
and forbade the very mention of Dust.
One compass remains, however, and only one who can read it.
~Serafina Pekkala
The behavior of these particles is quite unmistakable.
Dust is flowing into this man, through his daemon, from a city in another world.
A world much like ours in a parallel universe coexisting with our own.
Invisible, intangible, inaccessible.
Until now.
From there, and from a billion other worlds, Dust flows.
Worlds of infinite possibilities.
Some where men have no daemons.
Some where daemons have no men.
And even some where there is no Magisterium and no Authority.
~Lord Asriel
Roger: Kids keep disappearin'.
They go after the poor kids, see.
The orphans and the servant kids as well.
Lyra: Roger, I promise, if you was taken by the Gobblers, I'd come and rescue you.
You'd come and get me too, wouldn't you?
Roger: Course.
But everybody would go looking for you if you was Gobbled.
You're a lady.
Lyra: Says who?
Roger: Cook.
He says that's why your uncle left you here, to make you a lady.
Lyra: Nobody can make me a lady.
Not the master and scholars and porters combined, right?
Take it back, or we ain't best mates no more!
Roger: All right, all righr, you ain't a lady.
When I was a young woman, I knew that no one could ever really understand me,
except, of course, my daemon,
and that it would be best if we were free to do as we pleased.
~Mrs. Coulter
Master: It's for you, Lyra.
Lyra: What is this?
Master: An alethiometer. Also known as a golden compass.
It was given to the college by Lord Asriel many years ago.
And now I'm giving it to you.
I feel you are meant to have it.
Lyra: What is it for?
Master: It tells the truth.
We've always tried to acquaint you with the truth.
But the secrets at the heart of things elude scholars and Authorities.
But this lets you glimpse things as they are.
Lyra: What's the Magisterium for?
Mrs. Coulter: The Magisterium is what people need.
They keep things working by telling people what to do.
Lyra: But, you told the Master you did whatever you pleased.
Mrs. Coulter, giggles: Ah, that's right. Clever girl.
Well, some people know what's best for them, and some people don't.
Besides, they don't tell people what to do in a mean, petty way,
they tell them what to do in a kindly way, to keep them out of danger.
It's an alethiometer.
It's a truth measurer.
A golden compass.
It enables you to see what others wish to hide.
You got 3 hands you can control.
By pointing at 3 symbols, you can ask any sort of question you can imagine.
Once you got your question framed, this blue needle points to more symbols that give you the answer.
~Farder Coram
Sister Clara: Billy Costa, why didn't you write anything?
Your mother must be missing you terribly.
Billy: I don't know what to put in the letter, miss.
You haven't told us what we're here for.
Sister Clara: You're here to help us.
And just as soon as you've helped us, we'll send you back home.
That's what you should write.
Or don't they teach Gyptian children to write?
Billy: They teach us to write the truth, miss.
Lyra: It's all bigger and scarier than we ever thought.
Pan: Maybe we shouldn't be doing this.
Lyra: But we've got to, thought, ain't we?
Lyra: Is that what they pay you? Whiskey?
Iorek Byrnison, you're the first ice bear I ever met.
I was ever so excited, and scared.
But now I'm just disappointed.
I heard that bears lived to hunt and to fight.
Why are you wasting your time here, drinking whiskey?
Iorek: I stay because the people of this town gave me spirits, and let me drink till I was asleep.
Then they took my armour away.
And without my armour, I cannot go to war.
And I am an armoured bear.
War is the sea I swim in, the air I breathe.
Without my armour, I am nothing.
Lyra: But, can't you make new armour?
I thought bears were good at that.
There's all this metal around.
Iorek, smash the pipe: Worthless!
My armour is made of sky iron, from the falling stars that land in Svalbard.
A bear's armour is his soul, as your daemon is your soul.
Irreplaceable.
You may as well take him away and replace him with a doll.
Lyra: It must have been terrible to lose your armour.
Iorek: It was no less than I deserved.
I am an exile.
I was sent away from Svalbard because I was unworthy.
I fought another bear in single combat and was defeated.
It's a truth measurer.
A golden compass.
It enables you to see what others wish to hide.
You got 3 hands you can control.
By pointing at 3 symbols, you can ask any sort of question you can imagine.
Once you got your question framed, this blue needle points to more symbols that give you the answer.
~Farder Coram
Sister Clara: Billy Costa, why didn't you write anything?
Your mother must be missing you terribly.
Billy: I don't know what to put in the letter, miss.
You haven't told us what we're here for.
Sister Clara: You're here to help us.
And just as soon as you've helped us, we'll send you back home.
That's what you should write.
Or don't they teach Gyptian children to write?
Billy: They teach us to write the truth, miss.
Lyra: It's all bigger and scarier than we ever thought.
Pan: Maybe we shouldn't be doing this.
Lyra: But we've got to, thought, ain't we?
Lyra: Is that what they pay you? Whiskey?
Iorek Byrnison, you're the first ice bear I ever met.
I was ever so excited, and scared.
But now I'm just disappointed.
I heard that bears lived to hunt and to fight.
Why are you wasting your time here, drinking whiskey?
Iorek: I stay because the people of this town gave me spirits, and let me drink till I was asleep.
Then they took my armour away.
And without my armour, I cannot go to war.
And I am an armoured bear.
War is the sea I swim in, the air I breathe.
Without my armour, I am nothing.
Lyra: But, can't you make new armour?
I thought bears were good at that.
There's all this metal around.
Iorek, smash the pipe: Worthless!
My armour is made of sky iron, from the falling stars that land in Svalbard.
A bear's armour is his soul, as your daemon is your soul.
Irreplaceable.
You may as well take him away and replace him with a doll.
Lyra: It must have been terrible to lose your armour.
Iorek: It was no less than I deserved.
I am an exile.
I was sent away from Svalbard because I was unworthy.
I fought another bear in single combat and was defeated.
Serafina: There's a prophesy about that child, Mr. Scoresby.She wil decide the war which is to come.
Mr. Scoresby: War? I ain't heard rumor of any war.
Serafina: You will.
It is your war too, whether you know it or not.
Mr. Scoresby: What would quarrel be about?
Serafina: Nothing less than free will.
The Magisterium not only seeks to control everyone in this world, but every world in every universe.
They've been unable to extend their power until now.
But if Asriel finds a way to travel between worlds,
nothing will stop them from trying to take over.
Nothing but us, and that child.
*****
Mr. Scoresby: War? I ain't heard rumor of any war.
Serafina: You will.
It is your war too, whether you know it or not.
Mr. Scoresby: What would quarrel be about?
Serafina: Nothing less than free will.
The Magisterium not only seeks to control everyone in this world, but every world in every universe.
They've been unable to extend their power until now.
But if Asriel finds a way to travel between worlds,
nothing will stop them from trying to take over.
Nothing but us, and that child.
*****
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