Logos leaned down, touching the pristine white ground. "I know you want to learn about Runes," he said, settling into a cross-legged position, his right elbow resting on his knee. He extended his left hand, and a transparent orb with a pitch-black bead at its center materialized, floating above his palm. Gray liquid filled the orb, obscuring everything except the black bead.
It resembled a transparent balloon filled with gray water, a black marble suspended within. The fist-sized orb rose into the air, expanding into a large sphere twice Logos' size. Elara's eyes sparkled with curiosity, captivated by the spectacle. "How?" she whispered, her gaze fixed on the gray sphere, a memory of Selhob's similar display flashing through her mind.
"This is a projection of images from my mind, created using the Phantasm Rune," Logos explained with a smirk. "Elara, meet Exoklein."
A torrent of images and definitions flooded Elara's mind, concepts she had never encountered before. Her thought process shifted as she began to grasp Logos' intentions. One thought stood out among the many: the sphere represented existence, what Riders called Exoklein.
She realized that the projected sphere was the true form of what she perceived as space-time, reality, the universe – the boundaries of existence itself. The gray liquid filling it represented Time, and within its confines existed the universe and everything within it. To simplify the concept, she imagined it as a giant spherical Plane, with everything existing inside rather than on its surface.
The large black orb at the center, she understood, was the core of the universe.
White, flickering dots, like stars on a clear night, appeared within the gray expanse of the sphere, except around the black core, known as ObsidianVoid. Elara knew these specks represented the objects that existed within Exoklein: galaxies, stars, planets, moons, and meteors – everything that roamed normal space.
Thirteen orange beads then materialized at the edges of Exoklein, surrounding ObsidianVoid. These were the Realms, the domains of the thirteen Rider kinds. The beads merely represented the boundaries of these nations, not actual spheres enclosing them.
She also learned that ObsidianVoid exerted a powerful gravitational pull, drawing objects from normal space towards it. She did not know what happened to objects pulled inside, only that they never resurfaced. Further information about ObsidianVoid's interior was Terminus classified.
"Hold on!" Elara interjected, her brow furrowed. "How can I understand what you're showing me? I shouldn't know this!" she exclaimed, bewildered by her sudden comprehension of the universe's structure and the concept of Planes representing planets. She had never learned about these things before.
"You know the how," Logos replied with a knowing smile.
Elara paused, realizing that the Akashic Records were directly imparting this knowledge into her mind. "I see!" she said, nodding slightly, urging him to continue.
A dense network of black veins emerged from ObsidianVoid, the core of Exoklein, rapidly spreading and expanding to connect every white bead within the sphere. The veins were so numerous that they engulfed Exoklein in darkness, transforming the gray sphere into a black one, with only the flickering beads remaining visible.
ObsidianVoid itself turned dark red. As Elara observed the projection, knowledge about the black roots flooded her mind. She understood that they comprised the Nexus, the fabric that held existence together within Exoklein and connected every object in normal space.
It was the source of the darkness that permeated the void of normal space within Exoklein, the blackness perceived in the absence of light. Her curiosity about its nature was met with the revelation that it was classified information.
However, she received a hint, an old TechKin theory that referred to this black fabric as Dark Matter. She also learned how Riders utilized the Nexus to travel vast distances across space-time at incredible speeds.
"Logos!" she exclaimed. "Can we travel from one point to another on the same Plane via the Nexus?"
"Yes. Normal space objects are linked to the Nexus through several Streams," Logos explained. "Unlike VoidBubbles, which are connected through only one Stream."
Elara nodded again, absorbing the information.
Dark-red beads began to appear within the blackness of the sphere, concentrated around ObsidianVoid, like a swarm of mosquitoes drawn to a solitary lamp.
These beads, Elara learned, were not truly red. Logos had merely colored them for clarity. In reality, they appeared as identical pitch-black spheres of varying sizes to an outside observer.
These were VoidBubbles, similar to the one she had visited. The black roots connecting them to ObsidianVoid turned white, each VoidBubble linked to Exoklein by a single Stream of the Nexus. The main Stream originated from ObsidianVoid, while secondary Streams branched out from normal space objects, limited in number.
To access a VoidBubble, one had to visit a specific Plane and Way-Shear into one of the secondary Streams that connected to the main Stream leading to the desired VoidBubble.
As more knowledge flowed into her mind, Elara's eyes gleamed with excitement.
Like peanuts growing from the roots of a plant, VoidBubbles were products of the Nexus. They differed from objects in normal space not only because they existed solely within the Nexus but also because they operated under different laws of physics and rationality.
"Inner Realms!" she gasped, finally understanding Selhob's earlier explanation.
"Correct," Logos confirmed. "Remember, not all VoidBubbles are abundant in StreamBreath."
Elara was shown that VoidBubbles were densely concentrated around ObsidianVoid due to the Nexus's higher density at the center, making it appear as a larger, darker sphere itself. ObsidianVoid also spawned VoidBubbles that were later drawn away by StreamBreath, dispersing them throughout Exoklein. She learned that ObsidianVoid's gravitational pull affected only normal space objects, not VoidBubbles or Nexus Streams. StreamBreath, however, influenced both the Nexus and normal space.
Planes near the black center were scarce in StreamBreath, while their abundance increased with distance from ObsidianVoid.
"StreamBreath?" Elara blurted out. "I've heard that word before, and not just from you."
Logos chuckled, a sound that surprised Elara. "StreamBreath is what makes Riders, well, Riders," he replied, gesturing upwards. A wisp of red smoke emerged from the edges of Exoklein, expanding and spreading like fog towards the center, its density higher at the fringes and thinning around ObsidianVoid. "StreamBreath is the energy that permeates Exoklein. It enables Riders to attain StreamState and use Runes. However, it is unevenly distributed, abundant at the fringes, and scarcer near the center. Inside the Nexus, it's a different story – StreamBreath is limitless there, which is one reason Riders access it," he explained.
Elara understood that this abundance of StreamBreath was why Riders chose to establish their Realms at the fringes.
Another TechKin theory was shared with her. Before encountering other Riders, they had called StreamBreath "Dark Energy." They discovered that while gravity drew celestial objects together, something else pushed them back, pulling them towards the fringes.
This led them to believe that StreamBreath was responsible for the universe's expansion within Exoklein, causing celestial objects to move away from each other and from Exoklein's center. StreamBreath was pulling everything towards the Edge of End, the boundary of Exoklein. When objects reached this edge, they turned to dust and vanished, along with their connected Nexus-Streams. The theory was later confirmed to be true.
"Wait!" Elara exclaimed. "You said 'scarcer.' What does that mean for us?"
"Without StreamBreath, Riders become Unawakened," Logos answered. "Riders fear becoming powerless, so they avoid places where it's scarce. A Rider without access to sufficient StreamBreath loses the benefits it provides."
"But it exists everywhere in Exoklein!" Elara countered. "Are there places where it doesn't exist at all?"
"Yes, StreamBreath is everywhere, but in some places, it's not concentrated enough for Riders to absorb and trigger Runes, which limits their ability to draw it in. Riders call these places Null-Fields. If a Rider Way-Shears there without a charged BlackStone and the Way-Shear closes, they'll never be able to escape."
"Easy. We just need to avoid the center, then."
"Not necessarily," Logos grinned. "Null-Fields exist even near the fringes."
"What?! How is that possible?"
"That's Thûl classified."
"I see," Elara replied, pondering the implications. "So, can we store it inside our bodies?"
"StreamBreath cannot be stored in a Rider's body. It's used up instantly upon absorption. The only way to store it is by loading it into BlackStone," Logos explained, conjuring a projection of a fist-sized black stone above his right shoulder. "And only your kin, the LastBorn, can do that using their Kin Rune ability. However, keep in mind that StreamBreath stored in BlackStone can be depleted and needs recharging," he added as the projection vanished.
"I see," Elara grinned. "So, to avoid being stranded in a Null-Field, I just need to keep a Way-Shear to the Nexus open or have a loaded BlackStone on hand."
"Correct."
"From what I know, every energy has a source," Elara began, but Logos interrupted her.
"That's Kore classified."
"Euf!" she exclaimed, frustrated by the limitations of her knowledge.
"Good. Now that you understand how things work, you're ready to learn about Riders and Runes," Logos said, standing up as the projection of Exoklein dissolved into dust. Elara decided to postpone her inquiries about the Realms, as she was starting to grasp the bigger picture.