Adonis followed the old man without argument.
They walked away from the cluster of cave shaped houses and arc dwellings, moving along a wide path of pale stone that wound gradually upward through the sky.
The old man set a comfortable pace, neither slow nor hurried, his white robes barely stirring despite the breeze moving through the valley below them.
"What is your name?" Adonis asked after a moment.
"Orvyn," the old man replied, without looking away from the path ahead. "Elder of the Dragon Council. Keeper of the old records. Occasional rescuer of overwhelmed Progenitor successors from their own generosity."
"You do that often?"
"Haha, You are the first Progenitor successor in seven thousand years," Orvyn said amusedly. "So no. But the crowd management principles are universal."
Adonis almost smiled.
They continued upward, and the path widened as it climbed, the cave shaped dwellings and nests of the lower settlement falling away behind them.
