Dreadwolf, Lord of Runes

The master and Valkyrie pair stepped into the meditation room that Kane had gotten a short look off earlier. There were a small number of pillowy seating areas placed in a circle, surrounded by strange symbols on the floor, and surprisingly smooth, black stone walls.

Kane looked around appreciatively, before addressing Ella in his head. "Ella? You had some things you wanted to show me, right?"

"Y— Yeah," Ella answered out loud and with a slight stutter at the same time as she appeared in her holographic form. There was a healthy blush on her cheeks, and she looked a little frustrated. Kane and Luna both stared at her with amused expressions.

"F— First of all," Ella began shyly, yet her voice became softer with every word, "t— those walls c— can show holographic…" In the end, she slowly teetered away until she fell silent.

She shrunk a little and hid her face behind both hands. "W— Would you two stop staring at me?!" she exclaimed helplessly, with a high-pitched voice while groaning in embarrassment.

"But you're so cute!" Luna giggled playfully. "I mean look at that blush! How old are you, anyway? Have you truly lived such a sheltered life that you'd react like that to sex?!"

Ella groaned and now completely crouched down, still hiding her face behind her hands, clearly not intend on answering.

Obviously, since it was just her holographic form, there was no point to acting that way, but even if she lived a digital existence now, she was still originally a flesh and blood person. Some mannerisms would never leave her.

Kane chuckled and crouched down next to her. He thought about putting a hand on her shoulder, but it would just go through anyway, so he simply rested his arms on his knees.

"Don't listen to her, Ella," he grinned mischievously. "There's no shame in being inexperienced. Besides, a few weeks of riding around in my head will surely cure you of that."

Unsurprisingly, Ella only began to groan harder and tried to make herself even smaller. "D— Don't be mean!" she exclaimed desperately from behind her hands. "It's just new to me!"

"Of course, of course," Kane nodded with amused and exaggerated sympathy. "That's understandable. Is there any way we can help, do you think?"

"Oh, I know!" Luna suddenly cried out with a wide grin while snapping her fingers. "If you can appear on master's shoulder in doll form and make it seem real, then couldn't you have sex with him, too?! That should help, right?!"

"Aaaargh, I hate you two!" Ella finally cursed and made her holographic form disappear again, leaving a laughing Kane and Luna behind.

After they were done teasing her, it took few minutes before Kane managed to coax a grumpy Ella back out into the open. Now, she appeared back in holographic form with an aggrieved pout to continue her explanation of this room.

Yet, although the teasing was over, Kane couldn't help but store Luna's idea away for later. It had potential.

At the same time, he also felt inclined to smile, because the emotional bond he had with Ella told him a far different story then her expression did. She clearly enjoyed the playful teasing, as he could feel the underlying depression retreating a little.

"As I was saying…" the holographic elf began, still pouting slightly. "The walls can turn into holographic scenes of nature."

She snapped her fingers, and suddenly, the walls shimmered. Within moments, they found themselves in the middle of a serene forest. Even the floor appeared to have changed into grass and soil.

Kane and Luna looked around in wonder, yet they were also a little surprised.

"This is fascinating," Kane mumbled and looked around with a hint of confusion. "And I guess it might help concentration a little, but it seems seems awfully extravagant for what was clearly a military base…"

He turned to Ella with a curiously raised eyebrow. "I remember those meditation cubicles in the training area were made from the same stuff. Don't tell me they all have this function?"

"They do," Ella nodded slowly, having returned to normal by now. "But by your surprise, can I assume you don't know about a Mystic's connection to nature?"

Kane blinked, before frowning thoughtfully, "Assume that I don't, and please explain."

"Alright," Ella explained helpfully. "Basically, Mystic energy, aether, aurum, or however you want to call it, is generated by non-sentient life. And by that, I mean plants and the like, not animals or insects."

At the same time," she continued, while gesturing to her surroundings, "meditation and progression along the Mystic path becomes far easier in a natural environment like this one."

"But we're not in a natural environment, it's holographic," Kane contradicted, still frowning thoughtfully. Suddenly, thoughts of Earth sprang to mind.

"True," Ella nodded with a small smile. "But that matters less than you think. We have these kinds of chambers back on Alfheim as well, and while they're not as good as actual nature, they still help immensely for some reason. Some believe it has to do with instincts and mindset. Since aether comes from nature, it becomes easier to absorb when the body at least thinks it is surrounded by nature."

Then she shrugged, "Or so they believe, I don't actually know the truth. Perhaps Lady Mána might."

Before Kane could respond, she became a little excited. "Although this place is even better. Through the neuralizer, I can monitor your aether intake, and it's already increased by far more than I would have expected!"

Kane didn't actually feel anything, but that was to be expected. Every Mystic absorbed aether naturally all the time, but only in very tiny amounts. Even if that amount doubled, he wouldn't notice it with his current power. Yet, if Ella was to be believed, he'd certainly notice it when meditating.

Meanwhile, Ella pouted, "I don't know why this place is so different from those in Alfheim, though. Like with everything else around here, the specs and explanations have been deleted from the database. I can only operate anything because of the basic, built in protocols."

Kane nodded slowly and thoughtfully as he internalized this new information. After a few moments, he looked up at Ella, "So, is that why there was so much nature in Alfheim? Even your city felt more like it was built as part of the forest."

At the time, he'd simply assumed it was an elven cultural thing, but perhaps there was a very different reason.

"Right," Ella quickly nodded in confirmation. "If nature and sentient beings are not in balance, then Mystic advancement, and, in fact, Mystic talent in new-borns, quicky starts to fall."

She shook her head and continued, "But it's almost impossible to have a society and still be in any kind of balance, so the best any society can do is to minimize the effects as much as possible. That's why there's still people being born on Alfheim that have little to no Mystic talent."

Kane shared a look with Luna as they both came to a realization: this was the reason there were far more Cybers than Mystics on Earth. Right now, parts of Earth were a wasteland, and other parts had been consumed by relentless development.

Basically, nature was hard to find anywhere.

For a moment, it remained quiet as the master and Valkyrie internalized this new information, while Ella waited patiently.

Finally, Kane sighed and shook his head. "Well, whatever. There's nothing I can do with this information now, but thank you for telling me, Ella. I'm sure it'll be important later."

He moved to sit down on one of the seating areas and closed his eyes. "For now, I think it's time I finally have another talk with Mána."