It's a wearying accord, but it's better than nothing, he supposes. He doesn't find 'don't tell me what to do' a particularly compelling primary objective, and that's as someone who has committed his fair share of disobedience. He himself has avoided being 'drafted' into this or that before, but in the end, he doesn't regret having heard those people out, or having done what was asked of him.

It was important, in the end. His reluctance was more on account of his own foolishness and doubt. Geralt, though, seems to be a man of stubbornness that puts his own days as the Azure Dragoon to shame. He can only imagine how much worse the Warrior of Light's journeys would have gone if everyone only ever did what they wanted and took critical offense being argued with on the subject.

But it's fine, he tells himself. From Jaskier's explanation, it sounds like a series of bad experiences led to this path, and that's not something Estinien thinks he can objectively judge. By the same merit, he has had his own negative experiences impact him greatly. Some things are complicated. He can accept that.

So, he'll try to explain this bit of cosmology to him, even if he's probably the least qualified Scion to be doing so.

"'Tis a part of what was once a greater whole," he says. "There was once one world, occupied by beings of unsurpassed magicks. They created gods to cure their world's ills, and in the end, one of them decided to sunder the realm into fourteen 'shards' to prevent its people from continuing along their path of folly."

At least, that's what he was told, more or less. The source of the Ascians, and also Eorzea's recent apocalypses.