Lyra finds herself on a stone bridge in Tartarus with Boone, her friend from the Order of Thieves, who died during the Crucible trials but was resurrected when she won. Before them stands Cronos, king of the Titans, who resembles an older, more brutal version of Hades. Massive gates behind them separate them from the outside world.

Lyra hears Hades pounding on the gates, desperate to reach her, but Cronos explains that wards prevent all communication with the outside. He also reveals that Tartarus has stripped away Lyra’s weapons—her axes and animal tattoos. When Boone elbows Lyra to quiet her, Cronos violently slams him into the gates, knocking him unconscious. Cronos then reveals he knows Lyra’s name because they have met before, and calls her “our savior” (7). A bell chimes from an onyx obelisk at the far end of the bridge. Dangling Lyra over the abyss, Cronos says he hopes she does not die “this time” (7) and drops her into the darkness.

Lyra falls screaming into the abyss. A red, crystalline crack appears and swallows her, transporting her to Hades’s water garden in the Underworld. A past version of