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Griselda[1] Tern was a ymbryne who lived in France during World War I. Her collapsed loop was the meeting place of the seven light-eaters meant to emancipate peculiardom.

Biography[]

Early Life[]

Miss Tern attended the European Ymbryne Academy with her sister Miss Hawksbill, and was a "true prodigy." She would graduate sometime before 1916 and settled on the edge of a small town in northern France, where she established a menagerie for peculiar animals. World War I would soon arrive at the town where she and her animal wards lived.

In 1916, she created her loop. She used the local zoo as her loop entrance, having a grimbear named Jacques guard the entrance. In 1918, Miss Hawksbill graduated from the Ymbryne Academy and came to make a loop near her sister's. Just one week after Miss Hawksbill's house was completed, Miss Tern left her loop for an unknown reason and was killed by a hollowgast. Miss Tern's loop slipped, and it was bombed by local artillery shells. Several of the animals died in the bombing and even more were injured.

The loop was beyond damaged by the time Miss Hawksbill found out what happened. Though she wasn't able to save the loop, she was able to save the lives of many of the animals. She found a peculiar taxidermist who used their abilities to preserve some of the animals, leaving most as taxidermied, but alive, heads on Miss Hawksbill's walls.

Miss Tern's loop did not repeat the last day of its existence, as every way of reaching it after its collapse was at a time before its destruction. None of the animals or Miss Tern knew about the incoming danger, and they thought that they were living in the present time. When it came for the reset, their memories too were reset. Miss Hawksbill remained in the area so she could visit her sister, which she describes as being "a bit like calling on a forgetful ghost."

Miss Tern's loop was used as inspiration for part of The Tale of Pensevus, a story in the Tales of the Peculiar.

The Desolations of Devil's Acre[]

Sophie and her doll, Pensevus, made six calls to the six ymbrynes who were responsible for watching the seven light-eaters and told them to meet at Miss Tern's loop. Miss Tern is confused to see the light eaters and the ymbryne's as well as her sister Jacob Portman, Noor Pradesh, Bronwyn Bruntley, Horace Somnusson, Addison MacHenry and Enoch O'Connor, who had overheard about the call and through leap frogging traveled to the loop.

When the new travelers arrive, she shows the group to the room in which the light-eaters were meeting, and tries to follow, but Miss Hawksbill holds her back and asks her to chat outside. Miss Tern leaves and attends to her animals. When the group is leaving to travel to Devil's Acre in London, Miss Tern, although tense and confused, suggests leaving through a membrane tear in her loop, which would get the group back to the present. She gets her fastest horses ready for the group to ride to the membrane and guides the peculiars from the sky with her sister. However, she becomes frozen, mid-flight, along with the rest of her loop with the use of Klaus's bone clock.

Description[]

Appearance[]

Miss Tern was a pretty woman in her late twenties. She wore a fashionable army-green coat with a floppy beret.

Peculiarity[]

Miss Tern was an ymbryne, meaning she could manipulate time and make loops. She could also turn into a tern.

References[]

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