"Hello, yes. I'd like to talk to a Sky Knight, I'm an extradimensional visitor and I've been told they're the ones most likely to be able to explain to me what's going on around this place."

"...I... think Tobin's in," they say.  "Uh, right through there."  They gesture to another leaf-curtain.

"Thank you!"

Through there he goes.

The leaf-curtain leads to a thin, snakey little passageway that seems designed to block line of sight, and then another leaf-curtain leads him into a larger, skylit room with a few leaf-cushioned benches around the edges.

On one of the benches is seated a figure in golden armor, sleek and angular and finned.  A six foot long, similarly golden-hued swordstaff is propped against the wall behind him.

He looks in Sadde's direction, and a complicated three-part faceshield unfolds to reveal a grinning human face.

"So, hi," he says.  "Extradimensional visitor, huh?"

"Indeed. No dragons or Sky Knights or Wellsprings where I'm from."

"Shit.  So, uh, you'll want to get up to speed, I guess."

"Okay.  So.  Uh.  Wellsprings do everything.  You can program a Wellspring to make all sortsa weird magic plants and shit."  He taps the bench he's sitting on a few times, illustratively.  "Trees don't just grow like this here, Wellsprings tell 'em to do it.  All the big plant monsters we've got hauling around food and stuff, Wellsprings make those too.  They're, like, ponds, in the centers of our cities, and if you know what you're doing you can sit by them and meditate and change what kindsa magic plants they make, but I definitely don't know what I'm doing so don't ask me too much about that part."

"Dragons are big fuckoff monsters, started showing up one day, what the fuck, right?  I wasn't around then, but I got history lessons, you know - they're the reason everything's so fucked up outside the Polity.  Uh, which is where you are.  We're the last holdout against the dragons that we know of.  There might be others but we're not in contact, cause, you know, hard to send a courier across the wasteland.  Even a Sky Knight - farther out you go, the more dragons there are, even a team'll get fuckin slaughtered eventually."

"Sky Knights were dreamed up after the Brush, that's the big wall of plant outside the Polity - once people figured out Wellsprings are shit at fighting, someone built a magical cemetery called a Sepulchre.  You put somebody in a Sepulchre, they wake up like this."  He gestures at himself.  "We die, we're reborn up in the Sepulchres.  We're better at fighting than ordinary people, and we can fly around, hence, Sky Knights.  Us and our support staff live in big floating islands that circle around the edge of the Polity, and whenever a dragon gets too close a few of us fly out and take it down."

"That's pretty much the basics on those three things.  How'd I do?"

"Pretty well. I'd love to see a Wellspring myself and understand them better, but I won't bother you with it since it's not your area of expertise. Dragons just—attack? There's no one controlling them as far as you know, they're just animals? I tried using my translation magic on one but it just tried to kill me so that's suggestive."

"No one's really sure about dragons?  Like I said, the most anyone knows is that they just started showing up one day.  Lindworms - uh, little crawly ones, 'bout the size of horses, come in hordes - sometimes use something like military tactics, but there don't seem to be, like, lindworm sergeants or whatever."

"You got attacked by one?  Who came and saved you?"

"No one, I ran a spike through its brain, or where I figured its brain must've been."

"You took a dragon down on your own?  Shit.  Guess that explains why no one filled you in.  ...You should talk to Eleanora.  She's the director of Azimuth - that's the big flying city I'm from.  If you can fight a dragon alone and come out alive she'll want to get you deployed.  Uh, assuming you want to work with us, I guess."

"I mean, if this were an actual war I'd want to hear both sides but if it's literally a bunch of nonsapient dragons who may or may not be commanded by someone but if so it's someone who hasn't actually explained why or anything like that, then yeah I want to work with you. But I'd like to eliminate the problem altogether and I probably have the means to help you do so."

"If you're bringing even more to the table than being a whatever-you-are that can kill a dragon in single combat you should definitely talk to Eleanora.  Do you have a place to stay already?  If not, how do you feel about living on Azimuth for the time being?"

"I don't have a place to stay, and I don't strictly need one, I don't sleep or eat or need to breathe, but it's sounding like a good idea to do that, yes."

"Sounds good to me, let's get going," Tobin says.  "...shit, how're you gonna get in?  Uh, Azimuth's not designed to be easily enterable, 'cuz anytime we need to get back into it we can just shoot ourselves in the head.  Uh, I guess you could stow away on a shipment of supplies, if I told 'em to they'd probably let you, Sky Knights can pretty much get away with whatever.  We'd have to go to whichever the hell city has a Gate up to Azimuth, though, which means you'd have to navigate the Gates between inner cities, which is a fuckin nightmare.   ...Fuck, did I explain Gates?  They're big stone portals you walk through to go from city to city, they come in pairs.  But there's no big hubs like there used to be before the dragons showed up, there's like... loops?  This city's connected to that one's connected to that one's connected back to the first, and if you wanna get to a city that's not in that loop you have to travel overland, and none of the Gates lead to a city next door, they all lead somewhere random halfway across the Polity, it's bullshit."

"Or I could bridal carry you through the air and, like, knock on a window, if you're up for that."

"Sounds fastest."

"'Kay, hop on."  He holds out his arms.

He hops.

And they fly: up through the skylight, and then up through open air for a while.

Azimuth comes into view after a time.  It looks like someone tore a piece of the ground out of the ground and fixed it in the air, then built a military base on top of it out of trees and hung a bunch of organ pipes off the bottom.

"Hmm... could take you up through a drop shaft, dunno if I could pry one open with my feet or not... all the skylight are grated... fuck, this is tricky.  Um, tell you what, we'll land on the lip of the island, then how do you feel about riding on my back?  If you fall I am 100% capable of shooting down faster than gravity and catching you."

"If I fall the ground will be the worse for it, don't worry. Is there a use for riding on your back that's not merely being accompanied by you so I am allowed in?"

"My hands'll be free so I can fly up a drop shaft and pry open the door, 's'probably the only way in."

"Ah, riding on your back to the top of the shaft, I misunderstood. Yes, that's fine."

"Cool."

They land.  Tobin puts Sadde down, then turns around.  "Hop on again."

Hop.

Fly.

The drop shaft is lit from within with periodic globs of luminescent fungus.  The trip upward is extremely boring.

Eventually they reach the top.  The door is circular, divided in half.  Tobin reaches up and wiggles his fingers into the seam, then pulls.

He growls at the doors while he's doing so: "fuckin - I'm not a lindworm you dumb shit - take the goddamn hint - let me in you useless vegetable - "

Eventually the gap is wide enough for both of them to fit through.  Once they're inside, the doors snap shut.  He lands, lets Sadde climb off.

This room is also circular, made of some gray wood that looks and feels almost metallic.  It's lit by glowing blue-white mushrooms hanging from the ceiling.

"Okay," Tobin said.  "I don't know about you but that felt extremely stupid to me.  Let's go, I'll show you to Eleanora's office."

"I'm not sure you should blame your architects for not anticipating the possibility of extradimensional help who can't shoot themselves in the head to get here. But do lead the way."