The night breathed through the apartment like a dark animal.

The ticking of a clock.

The groan of a floorboard as he slipped out of his room.

All was drowned by its silence.

But Jacob loved the night. He felt it on his skin like a promise. Like a cloak woven from freedom and danger.

John Reckless when he found out Jacob followed him through the mirror

Who is going to punch John Reckless first, Fox or Will?

Not that I really hate this man or anything

Alright, how stupid was I to forget about him and not make the connection ‍♀️

This is so exciting! I hope the English edition will be released soon after

Did I buy the kindle edition so I could use the translate option in order to read it even though its not going to be 100% accurate and some parts may be confusing?

Yes, yes I did.

(I will not be posting any spoilers)

Am I really about to ignore my tbr pile and the three books I’m currently reading to read Living Shadows again?

Yes

Yes I am

“His Dark Materials” au where a person’s soul manifests as an animal accompanying them

(Part 1)

In the Dark Materials series, a person can’t move far away from their daemon. However, it is possible to achieve the ability of separating from them using a painful process and it’s disturbing to see a person without a daemon. In this au, the Goyl are born being able to separate from their daemon, which is another reason for humans to be disgusted by them.

Most daemon’s are the opposite gender of their respective person’s, but there are exceptions (that don’t have anything to do with sexuality or gender identity).

Below, I have compiled a list of Reckless characters, their daemons’ names (I googled a list because I am very bad at coming up with names), species and character traits. The comments and my inbox are very open for your thoughts on this and if you are missing a mirrorworlder on these lists, do feel free to tell me and I can do more parts! (Also, I might rewrite some book scenes to fit this au, so let me know if there are scenes you would like to see! Or also if they are completely new scenes hehe)

Have fun browsing the list!

Jacob: Vesiora/“Ves”: marten

(Because I appreciate the Gwin from Inkheart parallel with this. Also, both Ves and her human are ready to put on a dirty fight whenever flight is not an option. Since Fox is the Voice Of Reason, Ves is content to merely make Jacob’s plans slightly less fatal.)

Fox: Vixen. Duh.

(Daemon name might just be “the vixen”. Fox has a unique connection with her daemon; in her childhood she would dream that she roamed the forest as a vixen. She discovered that her daemon started being able to leave the house at night and move around while Celeste saw through her eyes. When Celeste started being able to transfer her consciousness into her daemon’s body at will, she was driven away when her stepfather became aware of this.)

Will: Estoria/“Tori”: Lioness

(Will’s daemon first manifested as a golden retriever upon his entry to the Mirrorworld. But as the Jade grew and Will started confronting his buried feelings of righteous anger about his past, his daemon changed to symbolise the way he embraced the strength and bravery within himself. He missed Tori painfully during the time he was back in his home world after book 1. Tori is a very independent character and determined to never show the weakness she associates with the “gentle little brother” persona she and Will had been forced into. It’s quite a contrast to see Will’s bright smile and then the grim lioness next to him. But once she feels respected by someone, she is very willing to offer her friendship and loyalty. She will lie down next to them and offer remarks in a dry humour you wouldn’t expect from Will.)

Clara: Adean: White corn snake

(The symbol of the medical profession is a snake wound around a staff and white corn snakes are very lithe and pretty; Clara would probably not have a big daemon because she is wary of the Mirrorworld when she firsts visits and does not miss her daemon mich upon her return home. Also, the symbolism of a snake leading to exploring a forbidden thing… might be relevant here as well later on. Adean preferred to stay hidden beneath Clara’s clothes during her first visit to the Mirrorworld, only coming out from time to time for some tentative exploring. However, he has gotten braver over time.)

Nerron: Rirja: Kea parrot

(I did consider a snake or wolf here, because Nerron explicitly identifies with some qualities of these animals. But he also is not at peace with himself and therefore I assigned him an animal he *dis*likes to symbolise that. To emphasise how he doesn’t fit in with the Goyl on either side of the civil war, the bird is exotic, therefore a parrot. Kea are very intelligent, make problems for humans and their kind used to get slaughtered for things -very few of them allegedly attacked sheep- they weren’t all responsible for. Sounds very much like Nerron. Nerron’s inner monologues and his self insults manifest in Rirja speaking these things to him, as well as him taking out his frustrationand anxiety on her. At the same time, they work as an excellent team and the other is the only person either of them trusted completely for most of their lives. When they meet Will and Tori, their relationship improves as Nerron starts being kinder to himself. Rirja is an excellent observer and lockpicker.)

Kami'en: Jurriaan: Giant cave lizard from book 4

(The most fearsome and impressive predator of the Goyl world. He is very cocky about the way his daemon is proof of his strength. Jurriaan is just as headstrong and determined as his Goyl, so it’s good that they rarely have disagreements. While Jurriaan is all in favour of proving their strength by defeating the humans, he is against Kami'en marrying one. Jurriaan is blind like the animal he resembles, but he never stopped being wary of Nenad’s smell. Though the fact that the Fairy has no daemon is equally unnerving to him.)

Amalie: Nenad: Slow Loris

(Slow Loris elbows can release a type of venom from glands. The secreted venom, when mixed with their saliva becomes a highly toxic material. Whenever the animal feels like threatened, it will lick the venom. Later a bite from the animal will cause death. Like the animal her daemon resembles, Amalie may seem harmless, but if she is set on delivering a bite, it’s a fatal one. The fact that Kami'en isn’t truly in love with Amalie is shown in Jurriaan refusing to let Nenad touch him.)

Hentzau: Strerja: German shepherd

(The Jesper hound gets to have a dog daemon. And she is far more comfortable being on the surface than her Goyl. But she is equally done with Kami'en’s antics. Nevertheless, she is absolutely loyal to Kami'en and Jurriaan. Strerja’s excellent instincts as a guard and warrior have never let her down. She knows that she and Hentzau will be facing many more battles and she is ready for all of them. The battle of making it through babysittingKochany was an unexpected one, but she is determined to master it with professionalism.)

Sylvain: Yrna: Beaver/Grizzly

(Of course Sylvain is delighted to meet his daemon and takes to her right away. I considered a moose, but they are impractically large. The beaver is a national animal of Canada and I love the idea of her following Sylvain with her beaver legs. But him having a younger bear as a daemon would give him a great connection to Chanute. I am more in favour of a bear who underestimates her own strength and size from time to time, but has the most gentle soul.)

Hideo: Mayumi: Grey pansy butterfly

(Hideo was cast out from the ranks of his fellow fighters when Mayumi settled in the form of the Nihon symbol of homosexual love. At first, Hideo was angry at her for exposing him like this, but she insisted that her form was set as this and wouldn’t ever be changed. She settled like this because she didn’t want her human to spent his life amongst people would hate him for who he loves and to prove a point: while her form may be fragile, its meaning is not. There is nothing wrong with them or the way Hideo falls in love. Mayumi makes him wear his heart on his sleeve so that one day, who he is will be seen and loved by the good people he deserves. These days come when a woman with a fox soul arrives at their island and when a goose recognises Mayumi and understands her message. As their shadow falls on foreign ground, they are ready for their new freedom.)

“The gift” (Fox’s first transformation as written by Cornelia Funke in “Palast aus Glas ”) - English version by me

She was so glad her brothers hadn’t found it before she had. Perhaps the vixen knew that they never sneaked out of the house during the night the way she did. The way she had always done. To escape the yelling, the drunken monologues in which her stepfather bemoaned the cruelty the world showed him. As if he himself didn’t make sure it remained cruel.

Celeste didn’t care whether he hit her older brothers. Gustave was just as cruel as his father. And the second one, Rene, was willing to do anything to please them. But when her stepfather hit Thierry, her youngest brother, or her mother, she ran outside and crouched under the window, listening as if she could comfort them like that just a little. She listened to her mother’s cries and pleas and hated her for being so weak. Hated her for having married and still loving him. Celeste would have fought him! But what could these fists do if they belonged to a girl that was just six years old and so tiny and thin that her stepfather would be able to break her in half like one of his sticks?

It was horrible to feel so much hatred when all the heart wanted to feel was love.

So she ran into the night as soon as her stepfather had fallen asleep, outside where the stars wrote peace into the sky so the dark would swallow all the hatred. Embellish it with stars and wash the hatred off her heart until it was warm and soft again.

Celeste was a quick runner. At least her stepfather had taught her that. She loved running, through grass that was wet with dew, over moss and leaves and even the rough pebbles on the road leading away from the house.

*Run, Celeste. Feel the wind and the night on your skin.*

*Never let him catch you.*

He was drunk and snoring, one arm thrown over her mother’s naked shoulders -owning her even in sleep- and her brother was whispering in his sleep as usual when she found the dress. He didn’t flee into the night like her. Thierry escaped into his dreams.

She was on her way back from the well. She had used the cool water to soothe her aching hand. The vixen had bitten her the day before, when Celeste had protected her and her cubs from her brothers. But she had been sorry. Celeste had been able to see it in her eyes. Such beautiful eyes. Like they had been made of gold and autumn leaves.

The vixen’s teeth had left a mark like a tattoo on her hand even though they had barely broken through the skin. Celeste would bear that mark for the rest of her life.

The dress was lying on the threshold.

She nearly tripped over it in the darkness.

It was so beautiful that she hardly dared to touch it. It was made from fur of the same fiery red as the vixen and softer than anything Celeste had ever touched. The red moon bathed it in its light and the white one flecked it with silver.

It was hers.

She knew it as soon as she saw it.

Thank you!, it whispered.

As soon as she picked it up, there was no greater fear in her heart than that of losing it. She sat down outside the door and placed it over her naked knees. Stroked it with her hands, dug her fingers into the soft fur and smiled. Celeste felt the smile like a new face. One made entirely from happiness.

She gave that smile to the trees, the fields and meadows, the night sky above her, hoping the vixen would see it.

Inside the house, her stepfather got up, stumbling around on his search for more wine. Celeste pressed the dress against her chest and didn’t dare move a muscle, but eventually he returned back to bed with a grunt and she was alone with the silence of the night again.

*Put it on*, something in her heart whispered. *Put it on, Celeste.*

But where? She heard her stepfather’s snoring behind her and one of her brothers grunted in his sleep.

There was only one place where she felt safe. She had met the vixen there, surrounded by three cubs that had been as fiery red as their mother. Her brothers feared the crumbled house and its ghosts. They only dared to enter the garden. They threw stones through the shattered windows, but they never went near the grave. That had made the task of protecting the cubs easy. Celeste had used her brothers’ fear of the spirits of the dead. She herself had never feared the dead. She loved them. After all, her father was one of them.

The gras around his tombstone was white with frost when she climbed over the remains of the wall that surrounded the house where he had lived with her mother. The spot under the bush of wild roses where the vixen had lain with her cubs was the only place where the leaves on the ground were still brown and dry. She had been hoping for the chance to say thank you, but they were gone.

*Put it on, Celeste.*

It was so warm on her cold skin.

And the way it clung to her thin frame. As though it had been tailored to fit her perfectly. Thank you, she whispered even though the vixen was gone. Thank you, as her hands ran through the silken fur that filled her with a warmth she had never felt before; not even in the arms of her mother.

But there was more than warmth.

There was strength.

And wisdom.

And something wild that made her feel so free.

So ancient.

So young.

And suddenly, her body was light and quick. The fur was no longer a dress but her skin. Her eyes drank up the light of the stars and the night turned bright as day. The air was heavy with the scent of rabbits and birds. She wanted to roll in the grass and curl up to sleep in the womb of the earth.

Oh the bliss!

She wanted to forget her human skin, throw it away like a threadbare dress. And with it all the fear and anger, all the loneliness, even her own name.

No longer Celeste.

Fox.

She was Fox.

She was free.

Fox: *walks into the kitchen where there’s spaghetti on the stove, counter, walls, and ceiling*

Fox:why

Jacob: Sorry about this you know how it is with spaghetti

Fox: No, I don’t.

Jacob Reckless is not stupidly fearless. He knows that whatever he is going to do is most likely to get him killed. But he does it anyway. Just for the funsies. And for the kick and to prove to himself that he CAN do it. Like “Look at me, I did it anyway!”

The attitude!

Friendly reminder that Jacob Reckless is still in the possession of Fox’ mother’s glass ring (the one that is able to steal years).

I’m not worried - I’m horrified!

If anyone is not suitable for a magical thing like this it is Jake.

Hey fellow mirrorworlder!

Can we Start calling Orlando Tennant like that, please?

Thank you.

Dear God,

when I asked if my life could get any worse, that was a rhetorical question and not a challenge.

- Jacob, probably

Holy quaternaty.

There it is.

The cover of the fourth mirrorworld book!!!

Isn’t it the most beautiful thing ever?!

Look at fox! And the gold!

The title is “On silver track” btw.

Friendly reminder that Fox and Jacob haven’t said “I love you” to each other jet.

And we all know that it will take a horrible situation for them to say it.

The mirrorworld fandom to all the other fandoms out there: