What Lyra LeavesLyra died in the early spring of the sixteenth year, quietly, in her workroom where the herbs were drying from the ceiling beam and the bowl of water was on the table and the smell of old knowledge was in the air. She had known it was coming for two months and had told no one except Tessaly, who had been with her in the workroom that morning as she had been three mornings a week for the past year.Mira came to find Elara immediately. She sat down across from her in the study and said: "Lyra is gone."Elara was quiet for a long moment. She thought about the small room off the south corridor where she had first brought Mira's account of the voices to Lyra, eleven years ago. The complete quality of Lyra's listening. The dark, unreadable eyes that were fully readable if you had known them long enough.She thought about Lyra saying, after the new moon conversation: she held it. After the Moon Grounds confrontation: the old voice knew you were there. After the Codex fourth
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