Despite everything - despite the blood and the body, despite their son - August was able to smile at Lyra's tone. It didn't reach his eyes. Things had been so much easier when he quoted Shakespeare to her in letters, when they accidentally became engaged, when the biggest concerns facing them were all about her brothers' approval.

But he hadn't stopped reading Shakespeare.

"A Midsummer Night's Dream," August admitted. After Lyra's return and her brother's death, he had not picked it up recently - but it was sitting half-completed in his office, waiting for his attention to return to it.

---