The storm-triggered landslide tears Liff away from Miranda and carries the girl down the collapsing hillside. Miranda clings to a tree, then descends through mud, shattered trunks, and exposed roots, shocked by a kind of terror and loss unfamiliar to someone from a culture where minds and bodies can often be restored or replaced.

Miranda finds part of Liff’s red coat and digs frantically through the mud despite the danger of further collapse. Liff appears dead: cold, still, without breath or pulse. As Miranda holds Liff and pleads helplessly against death, Liff’s hand suddenly clenches and Liff opens her eyes, an impossible reversal that Miranda chooses to believe in despite everything Miranda knows about biology and time.

Miranda carries Liff to Portia’s farm rather than risk Landfall’s scrutiny. Portia initially refuses to use advanced medical equipment on a local, but Miranda says Kern was involved, which changes Portia’s mind. Fabian examines Liff and reports that there is no mechanical damage at all: no broken bones, organ failure, brain clots, or obvious physical cause for Liff’s unconsciousness.

Miranda explains that Liff took her to Kern, who was living like a witch in the hills, and that the weather seemed to react to Kern’s anger. Portia is skeptical but later compares the claim with weather notes and admits the data shows strange, abrupt breaks in local systems. Miranda concludes that Kern has found something that has made Kern unstable, dangerous, and possibly a threat to the colony or to the offworld observers.

After Liff wakes, she withdraws from Miranda but gradually talks with Fabian while he cooks. Liff speaks as though her dead parents are alive, and Portia later reports that Liff’s uncle Molder wants Liff sent back in the morning without gratitude. The inconsistency alarms Miranda, who recognizes that Liff may be traumatized but also knows Liff has already spoken impossible memories about Heorest Holt and the Enkidu.

Late that night, Fabian tells Miranda and Portia that Liff mentioned events that happened generations ago as if Liff personally witnessed them, including seeing an old shuttle fly. The group speculates that Kern may have found some advanced machine connected to time, memory, suspension, or transferred minds. Miranda reflects on Landfall’s founding guilt over the thousands left asleep aboard the Enkidu and ends with the unresolved question of who Liff really is and why Liff matters.