 The changes that Ninian make in Martin's life
No one, least of all Martin, could dispute that a man's life should be guarded by his kin—but by those who hadn't been born yet? Nobody in the neighborhood was surprised when Martin's mother disappeared and Ninian came to take care of him. But Ninian didn't know that and she went into a real tizzy, babbling that Martin had been sick and would make up the work. It was then that Martin began to realize that either the whole lot of them were insane, or what Ninian had told him at first was the truth. When Martin was sixteen, Raymond took him aside for the talk Ninian had promised five years before. "So Ninian's going," said Martin, wondering why the news made him feel curiously desolate.
 make Martin uncomfortable and long for his "old life" even though it may not have afforded him the same luxuries of his "new life."
 serve to do nothing other than send a perpetual beacon into the future to let Conrad know where to find Martin.  do nothing rather than offer her creature comforts and show Martin what he has to look forward to.  make other descendants want to come to the past to meet Martin because they will not only have a cause to uphold, they will also have everything they are accustomed to in their life.  make Martin uncomfortable and long for his "old life" even though it may not have afforded him the same luxuries of his "new life."