In SERPENTINE, a teenage Lyra returns to the town of Trollesund, the setting of her first encounter with Iorek Byrnison and Lee Scoresby in The Golden Compass. Lyra and Pan are older and a little wiser, and in search of an answer to a shocking, secret condition-their ability to separate-from the witch-consul, Dr. Lanselius. What unfolds is a tender, revelatory scene that foreshadows Lyra's future struggles as a young woman, and provides insight into Pullman's own early exploration of a previously unthinkable plot development that would emerge in his The Book of Dust sequence: the idea that a human's bond with their daemon can be irreparably broken​.