We encountered the welcoming party from the town while we were still far away. Men and women, old and young, came in a vast procession. They had seen the giant crow rapidly approaching from the horizon while still in town. (It had to be said that after Mediva transformed into a Crow God with a wingspan of two or three hundred meters, wrapped in lightning storms and blazing flames, she really made for an incredibly flashy landmark. If she flew high enough, you could spot her from two hundred kilometers away.) Then they had rushed out joyfully to greet us. I believed the Crow God had surely granted them birdlike speed: they had only just left town while we were still in the air, yet by the time we landed, they had already assembled two kilometers outside it.
Several hundred men, women, old people, and children halted a few hundred meters away. When they saw a group of people jump down from the Crow God's back, they were visibly stunned. Clearly, the idea of "riding a god out for a trip" was still hard for the locals to understand. But after spotting Vanilla, Lilina, and Older Sister among us, their expressions relaxed: at least things had not become too bizarre. I looked over the welcoming crowd and saw excitement and emotion on every face, heartfelt and sincere. No matter how awful Lilina's personality was, she had at least truly brought these people better lives. The adults all bore weathered faces, marked by years of labor in the mines and the scars of life. The children, meanwhile, were mostly shy. Having been born and raised in the mines, they were not yet good at greeting strangers. Some wore black robes with two hanging ribbons decorating the front. I now knew those