Kael watched the fear coalesce. It was not a monster, as he had first perceived it. It was a child, as Lyra had so wisely seen. But it was a child that held a mirror to each of them.
In its raw, untamed terror, they saw their own deepest anxieties reflected back at them, amplified and distorted.
For Lyra, it was the fear of a parent for a child she could not reach. For Anya, the fear of a paradox that could not be solved. For Silus, the fear of a variable that could not be controlled. For Echo, the fear of a dissonance that could not be resolved into harmony.
And for Kael, it was the most potent fear of all: the fear of inaction.