As it turned out, the “Chief” was present in the small town, though the expression of worried annoyance on his face made me think that he didn’t really want to be. When Catherine and I turned up, the man was quietly talking with a few other guys, and a woman or two, all of whom had the appearance I had come to associate with people adept at physical violence. While they didn’t have any overt weapons beyond a knife or two on their person, they all had that look of physical fitness, alongside a few scars and a tired expression that spoke of too much violence for anyone’s comfort.

The Chief himself was cut from the same cloth, fairly tall for a human, slightly above six feet, with a burly physique, short, slightly greying hair and a severe face that spoke of a lifetime of exposure to the sun. It was hard to guess the man’s age, but I’d estimate it somewhere in the range of forty to mid-fifties, though I couldn’t be sure. If one expression came to mind, it was no-nonsense and a limited supply of humour employed only during relaxed times, though impressions might very well be deceiving.

“Chief,” Catherine called out long before she was close enough to hear their quiet conversation, though my enhanced senses were able to pick up a bit of it before the interruption. They, too, had seen the smoke on the horizon, the thick, dark cloud spreading further and further while also coming closer at the same time. It took no genius to realise this spelt trouble, and now, these people were trying to figure out what to do about the trouble, which might just be the perfect time for me to step in and give my offer of support, though I’d have to make a judgment on the individuals involved here.

“Catherine,” the man I had identified as the Chief from the ongoing conversation looked up, his eyes flickering across Catherine and her son before landing on Luna and me, already trying to assess whether we were a threat and what our presence might entail. It was interesting that both of us were scrutinised equally. One would think that I, fairly obviously the adult in the situation and sprouting a lot more distinct and obvious non-human features, would get more scrutiny, but no, he tried to get a read on both of us. How much he managed to understand, I didn’t know, but I could see a level of cautious vigilance that might have been reflected on my own face, though I could easily mask that with the confidence that I could kill everyone in the valley and make my escape if I was pushed too hard.

“Who’re you?” he asked, his voice rough and gravelly, making me wonder just how much this man had shouted in his life. Or maybe smoked, I wasn’t quite sure what had caused this particular ailment, if it even was one and not inborn.

“Jade Morgana, and this is my daughter, Luna,” I introduced both of us, curious what he would make of us. He seemed to be quite the intelligent fellow, at least his eyes held a lot of experience, making me wonder what this man had done before the change.

“Chief Warrant Officer Clark Masterson, you can call me Chief,” he introduced himself, making me blink for a second when I realised that the title of “Chief” had nothing to do with his apparent indigenous heritage and everything with the fact that he had served in the armed forces, though I had no idea what the rank meant. Well, other than it being a warrant officer rank, I had no idea what branch he had been in or how high on the proverbial totem pole he had risen.

“Now, why’re you here? And what do you want?” he pressed, making it, once again, obvious that he was used to people telling him what he wanted to know without a whole lot of fuss.

“We came across the mess in that direction, wanted to see if we could do something about it and could use some additional hands to clean the mess up, you know?” I asked while answering his question. He let out an amused snort in response, before asking what we knew about that mess, his expression cracking just a little at the use of our term. Maybe he considered the massive burning area to be a little more than a mess, or he was amused that we thought we could do something about it.

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For the next few minutes, I gave him, and the rest of the group who were likely some sort of leadership group in this village, an overview of what we had found out about the Bitumen, though I left out how I had gathered the knowledge. In some cases, I didn’t explain because I wasn’t about to give them the full extent of my abilities; in others, I was unwilling to admit that the information was given by literal divine revelation. That particular admittance might be considered a bridge too far for some people, stretching the limits of their credulity beyond what it could take. Luna added a few observations of her own, though she, too, kept our abilities under wraps, only telling them what we knew, now how we knew it.

Once Luna and I were done, the group we were facing looked quite amusing. There was clear concern, worry, but also a certain amount of excitement, possibly at the prospect of having help to deal with the problem before it reached their doorstep.

Obviously, the next thing they were interested in was what help Luna and I could provide and who else was with us? Our explanation had referred to other people multiple times, so the question wasn’t too far-fetched, though I remained somewhat circumspect, only speaking of my other daughter without giving any details, as well as mentioning our two animal companions, without going into detail about what Silva and Sasha were.

The question of what help we could provide was a little more interesting, as I had considered a few ideas before and could now give a brief presentation about the options I brought to the table. During that explanation, a few more people joined in, all obviously interested in what I had to say and what I could offer. Their arrival made me realise that Catherine had disappeared during my earlier explanation, likely spreading the word about my presence and the things I offered as she went.

The reactions during my explanation were fascinating. Usually, I would expect a group as large as this, and growing even larger while I spoke, to interrupt occasionally. Either to try and get more information on a particular topic, ask for clarification, or maybe even just to voice their doubts, people rarely listen calmly unless some authority makes them listen. Here, it was a delightful surprise that the people here did nothing of that sort. They listened to what I told them, even if I could see the occasional frown, and once or twice, one of them opened their mouth only to close it without making a sound.

“So, Gods?” Chief Masterson asked, once my presentation ended, looking just a little sceptical at the concept. His scepticism made me chuckle, which, in turn, made his frown even more pronounced.

“Chief, look around you. Civilisation as we knew it has collapsed and burned in azure fire, strange blue boxes have appeared, and a ‘system’,” I made air-quotes around the word, “started to give out powers along some fairly arcane criteria, some of which are by any reasonable definition magical. Powerful beings bestow other powers in the context of worship, granting them to their followers. That part fits what the general population would consider the definition of divine beings and religion, so why not simply use the terms the system uses and roll with them? Unless you wish to be deliberately obnoxious?” I laid out my points calmly, causing him to let out a deep, heartfelt sigh in response.

“Guess that’s just me, being somewhat stubborn,” he admitted quietly and with a touch of self-deprication, getting a bit of laughter from the people around us in response.

However, while that first question was a bit of a softball, the follow-up questions, not just from the Chief but from various others, were anything but. Some were questions regarding my abilities, others asked about my motives and why I was travelling in the first place. Again, others were more interested in the mystical elements, especially when it came to magic, the divine and all things arcane. I even noticed that a few people had pulled out small notebooks, clearly from before the change, and were taking copious notes, even circling back to my answers, probing and prodding to get more information.

This session of questions and answers demonstrated one thing quite well, namely, why the people here had survived in a harsh, almost unforgiving climate, especially without a Legacy to introduce some ideas and concepts to them. They had an excellent leader in the Chief, and the people had united under him, readily combining their strengths to compensate for any weakness. It was, quite frankly, awe-inspiring. Here, life had truly found a way.