"Of course, you are welcome."
The sect master's voice carried the specific, uncharacteristic quality of humility arriving in the particular register of someone who has encountered something that has made humility not a performance but an honest response — the words filled with the genuine quality of deference that the Morning Glory Ascending Sect master did not extend to most things in the upper realm, and the faint trace of admiration beneath them carrying the honest weight of someone who has been cultivating long enough to know exactly what he is standing in front of and to respond to it accordingly.
"It is the greatest honor of the Morning Glory Ascending Sect to welcome a guest of your stature."
