Lyra's POV
I woke still turning Astra’s warning over in my mind,
“Learn when not to be seen”
Easy enough to say but harder to manage when my own senses seemed determined to outpace me no matter how careful I tried to get them to stop acting out and keep things under control but it didn't work.
That morning, working beside Martha I caught myself listening to a conversation happening somewhere near the well, two voices I couldn't place growing clearer the longer I focused until I forced myself to stop before I heard something I wasn't meant to.
I could pick out individual heartbeats now too, if I let myself. Martha's steady and slow, a child's racing somewhere outside, a dog's quick and shallow near the gate. It was becoming harder to tell which sounds I was supposed to notice and whi
