Right after entering the living area of these people, I made a mental, executive decision and spoke up.

“Before we start speaking, I would make you an offer and hope that you do not refuse,” I began, the confined space of the building concentrating the scent of unwashed humans to the point that only iron self-control kept me from gagging, “Do you have bathing facilities of some kind or a tiled area that you can use? I can easily conjure up the water and, with all due respect, you people are in desperate need of a bath.”

My words had an amusing effect. These people had been forced to live in their own filth, water was a too precious resource to waste on things like washing and no naturally flowing water nearby meant that being dirty had become unavoidable. But they remembered what it felt like to be clean, they remembered times when they had a shower after exercising and maybe another one in the evening if the days were hot. They remembered being clean and smelling of roses or whatever scent floated their boats, they remembered and they yearned for those times. Not only had they been clean, they had been safe, comfortable, the world, or at least their small slice of it, had been a heavenly place compared to this. They yearned and here I was, offering them a small piece of that heavenly place back.

The results couldn’t have been more obvious. Each and every one of the adults around me gained a look of yearning and glee, to the point that I worried they’d set up a shrine or something along those lines. A shrine to Hygieia, maybe, it certainly would fit.

But before any prayers to cleanliness could be made, I was guided into the cellar where a few old washing machines remained hooked up to waterlines that no longer carried pressure, a dark, slightly damp place but one that was made to withstand large amounts of water being spilt, allowing it to drain away naturally.

The locals didn’t even bother to split off by sex as they shed their clothes, leaving piles of stinking laundry just lying around. Their actions forced me to cover Luna’s eyes, there were some things I didn’t want my munchkin to be exposed to just yet, Maybe I should have left her outside or somewhere else, just away from this… exposition.

To make those kind of matters worse, the people audible enjoyed the first warm shower they had in months, groaning and moaning in ways that brought a blush to my own cheeks and forced me to use an extra bit of magic to cut off the sound from reaching Luna’s ears. Some things my munchkin shouldn’t even think about before she was twenty.

But other than that, the operation ‘wash away the stench’ was a full success, giving my nose a much-needed respite. It also gave me an absolutely inordinate amount of goodwill amongst these people, especially once the freshly showered people moved back up, waking up their fellows and sending them down. It took a few hours, but by the end of them, I had not only seen all the people living here in a natural state, all two hundred of them, I also knew that they had no legacy of Mundus amongst them. I was fairly certain that I’d have felt that, or seen if their avatar had been anything but a human.

In turn, the people here had seen my group, causing a fairly interesting effect. They could easily see that none of us was really human, with Luna being the closest physically but her eyes told a very different story, to say nothing of Lia and myself. While I could pass as human if somebody squinted, was colourblind, ignored my ears and regarded the strange glimmer within my hair as some kind of cosmetic glitter, Lia on the other hand was clearly inhuman. Her solidly red eyes, coarse and pale skin, and almost claw-like hands made that obvious to the point it almost couldn’t be ignored.

But on the other hand, they could just as easily see how we acted. How I kept Luna from being exposed to things I didn’t want her to see, or how Lia deferred to me. These were behavioural patterns they recognised and understood, something familiar they could relate to. It gave them a commonality they happily clung to and opened up avenues of conversation, especially between a few of the local mothers and me, while Luna was regarded with great interest by the few children amongst these survivors.

These talks led to more conversations, especially about their community. It was fairly obvious from the start that they’d love to have us as part of their group, at least that was the vibe I got from them, though that might have been the showers talking. Or maybe they wanted what we could do, the ability to conjure water as I had would be invaluable to anyone, to say nothing of the sheer power I commanded. Even while keeping my aura as contained as possible, the people here could feel the difference in scale.

As I talked with different people, mostly during or right after their showers, I got a bit of understanding about their community. Sadly, it was fairly divided, something that became obvious once the group I had first met went to sleep and I found myself with a group of elderly people. They were something of a planning group, and by the sound of it, they were trying to organise everyone. Only, they lacked the persuasive power to actually lead people, the feeling I got from them was more akin to an advisory council, only one that lacked anyone to make their advice a reality.

Similarly, there were a few people with a slightly higher level who had gone onto the ‘reclaim our homes’ bandwagon and were organising the destruction of Undead as much as possible, but those people didn’t really care about anything but their cause. They had the tactical leadership and a cause to cling to, but strategically, they were lost. They didn’t really care for logistics beyond gathering and looting as many supplies as possible, but that wasn’t a long-term plan, as anyone should have quickly realised. There was a limited amount of supplies and eventually, they’d run out, no matter what.

The best chance these people had when it came to providing for the future, at least from what I could tell, lay with Sarah and Kyle, the acolytes of Hestia. There might be additional divine acolytes, but these two had given me a caring vibe, making me think that they were truly trying their best. What they had told me, and what I had seen on the way here, of their agricultural efforts was admirable but I wasn’t sure it would save all these people long-term. They were growing some of the food they needed but it was only to supplement the stores they had looted, stores that would run out eventually. Sure, they had been fairly lucky and looted multiple tons of easily storable food, noodles, rice, staples like that, but if they didn’t get things up and running, it would eventually get dicey.

Ultimately, the community lacked a leader, either a small group of people like it had been at the farm, who gave direction and made things happen. Without that, people would dither, would discuss, would piss and moan but at the end of the day, nothing would get done. Sadly, I was uniquely unqualified to act as the leader to anyone but my small family, both due to personal inclination and due to the various traits I was settled with. To say nothing of my complete and utter lack of interest, which would make it even more difficult, and my personal mission to continue travelling. No, I wasn’t a leader and I would never be, not unless I had conjured the beings I was leading myself, as I had near the Nexus on Mundus. And even with those, I hadn’t really been interested in leading.

But what I could do, and what I offered, was teaching. I had a feeling that it was something they’d have wanted to demand and only the difference in power had kept them from getting silly ideas, but when I offered to teach them magic, everyone in earshot perked up, bringing a grin to my face. It wasn’t really unexpected, they had seen me conjure fire, they had seen me conjure water and especially the second was something anyone would want to learn. It was simply too important and convenient to ignore, especially after I had demonstrated what it could be used for earlier.

Lady Hecate would have been proud of the way I was encouraging more arcane spellcasting in this world. She might even have said something to my munchkin, with the way Luna suddenly sat up and paid attention when I mentioned teaching, despite being almost asleep after a long night of fighting and talking. So, we were offered a place to rest and headed off to bed, with a few plans made and a few ideas forming in the back of my mind.