The figure is how I've always thought of what Satou is building. Not a demon lord. Not a settlement commander. Something between a person and something larger — present in both states simultaneously, neither one complete without the other.
For the child. When the child is old enough.
—
Lyra held the carved figure.
She looked at it for a long time.
'He had it made by the man working on Cassius's desk,' she thought. 'The craftsman who is repairing the corner. The same hands.' She held the figure. 'Cassius's desk being repaired and this being made by the same person at the same time.'
'That's Loki,' she thought. 'Everything connected. Everything meaningful. The theatrical confidence and the actual depth underneath it — and underneath the depth, this.'
She put the carved figure in the box.
She put the box on the desk beside the folio.
She looked at Satou.
He was looking at the box.
"When he sent the first gift," she said. "At the burial. What he brought."
