Frank and the Northern Lights - Chapter 7 - John Faa

John Faa

On the way to visit John Faa, Lyra helped Ma Costa. She cleaned, swept, cooked and so on. She felt that she really worked there compared with being with Mrs. Coulter. She recognized she did nothing but act as Mrs. Coulter’s pet.

While she was living there, in the world outside the police were searching for one girl everywhere. Lyra thought there was no doubt Mrs. Coulter had ordered it. So she had to be cautious with the police checks. One day when the gyptians’ boats got through a bridge, the police stopped them to search whether the girl was in the boats or not. Lyra was in fear but fortunately the police didn’t find her although they made a mess of the boats. After they had gone, Ma Costa explained to Lyra some particular wood had prevented their demons, which might have been dogs, from smelling Lyra’s scent.

A few days later, Lyra and the gyptians arrived at the Zaal where they would be able to meet John Faa. John Faa and other gyptians had been waiting for them and welcomed their safe arrival. John Faa wanted to talk with Lyra, so she started talking to him. She explained everything from why she was standing with the gyptians to who Mrs. Coulter was. The more she talked with him, the more she was amazed at the fact that he had already known many more things than she imagined. He had known Lyra for ages and watched what she had been doing. Critically, when he told her Mrs. Coulter and Lord Asriel were her parents, she was really shocked. In addition, the Master was trying to protect her from any danger. So she asked him why the Master had attempted to kill Lord Asriel. John Faa replied that it might have been some reasons which the Master had no choice about. John Faa had absolutely huge knowledge, he had even known a little about what the alethiometer was. And he knew where the manual about that was. He explained to her about that as much as he knew. Also they talked about Lord Asriel. They had a discussion about whether it would be correct to go to meet her father with the aletbiometer or not. But they couldn’t sort it out. After they ended their conversation, she went to bed. Before going there, Ma Costa hugged Lyra and kissed her like she used to do. And Lyra didn’t feel any strangeness. Lyra had heard from John Faa that the woman who nursed her when she was baby was Ma Costa.