Children of Time, #3
Children of Memory
by Adrian Tchaikovsky
Contents
8.8 Gothi/Gethli
Overview
Gothi and Gethli determine that the reality disturbances on Imir converge around Holt, Liff, Miranda, and their own acts of observation. This gives them a clearer understanding of the world’s instability and prompts them to prepare an intervention to reduce the chaos.
They follow Liff back to the farmhouse, treating her as the central point where events will eventually meet. Their detached, ironic perspective emphasizes both their power to see the pattern and their frustration at being caught inside it.
Summary
Gothi and Gethli fly through stormy skies while following Liff, whom they identify as the Heart of the World and the hub of the disturbances they have been trying to map. They confirm that they are close to understanding the structure of the world’s disruptions.
The corvids conclude that the ripples in reality can be traced back to Holt, Liff, Miranda, and even Gothi and Gethli themselves, because their observations also affect the system. With that adjustment accounted for, they believe they now understand the whole world and recognize that it is smaller and more unstable than it appears.
Gothi and Gethli decide that they need to remove some of the chaos so the people of Imir can continue their ordinary lives. Their motivation is not gratitude from the colonists, but their own programmed or instinctive reaction to the stimulus of the situation.
As they approach Liff’s farmhouse, Gothi and Gethli reflect on their strange position: trapped inside events while also able to view them from outside. They watch Liff enter her home, uncertain which version of her family history will be present there, and settle on the roof to wait for the final convergence of events.
Who Appears
- GothiCorvid observer who helps map the reality ripples and prepares to reduce the chaos.
- GethliCorvid observer who debates the world’s instability while following Liff home.
- LiffCentral figure in the disturbances, followed home by the corvids as events converge.
- HoltNamed as one source of the reality ripples shaping Imir’s unstable world.
- MirandaNamed as another source of the ripples the corvids have finally mapped.