Children of Time, #3
Children of Memory
by Adrian Tchaikovsky
Contents
8.4 Gothi/Gethli
Overview
Gothi and Gethli try to stop Kern from interfering with Imir’s buried patterns, but Kern’s impatience and power override their warnings. Kern’s intrusion into the earth disrupts the corvids’ careful work and appears to awaken something dangerous, turning hidden instability into an immediate threat.
Summary
From Gothi and Gethli’s perspective, the corvids warn Kern not to act. They see Kern’s impatience as a flaw that persists despite her long life and many forms, and they urge Kern to leave the problem to them while they continue their careful work.
Kern ignores the warning and uses Kern’s power and influence. Gothi and Gethli experience this as an invasion of their domain: tendrils dig deep into Imir’s earth, not to examine it gently, but to disturb and foul the hidden pattern the corvids have been painstakingly mapping.
The interference creates new disruptions that make Gothi and Gethli’s task harder, because each act produces another ripple of altered reality. As they wheel above Kern and cry warnings, Gothi and Gethli recognize that Kern is conjuring old nightmares rather than solving the problem.
The chapter ends with a physical consequence of Kern’s interference: in the rain-softened garden earth, something begins to move.
Who Appears
- Gothicorvid observer warning Kern against interference and interpreting the disturbance as old nightmares.
- Gethlicorvid observer sharing Gothi’s perspective and alarm at Kern’s disruption of hidden patterns.
- Kernpowerful, impatient figure who ignores warnings and sends invasive force into Imir’s earth.