[It's a bit of poetic justice to be the one shocked by the time someone is from. Randvi only sort of knows what high school is, but that was clearly something that had happened for Teddy some time ago.]

A disaster is likely a good word for it, yes. Things gradually got worse here - the weather, the disposition of people and animals, the increasing tremors in the earth itself… Not to mention that the things that most of your people rely on for survival only work during the aurora now, and barely at that.

At one time, a thousand people lived here in Milton. Barely a tenth remain.