Aethan sat up slowly, his gaze lingering on the Wind and Lightning currents slowly dying down around his arms.
He felt a light headache coming, but he realised later that it was merely the new Aether information settling down in his psyche.
Aethan raised a hand, and a rotating ball of wind formed above his palm, spinning rapidly with sparks of blue lightning running around it.
He smiled, feeling how his above-average control over his Aether helped him control the electric wind ball better than the knowledge alone would have.
Before Aethan could begin to play around with his new affinity though, a sharp pain in the lower region of his torso shook his mind, disrupting his concentration and flow of Aether.
The ball in his hand exploded right after, sharp wind blades and piercing lightning streaks flying around, striking everything in their range.
His father, alert and swift, quickly erected a wall of earth around Aethan, stopping any more stray attacks from destroying the room further.
Martha blinked to Aethan's side like a ray of light, and her glowing palms pressed against his chest and forehead, a warm bright glow spreading through him, reaching for every injured organ and cell.
Martha's face twisted into a frown when she located a Crimson Core within Aethan spinning sluggishly.
Her frown deepened when she 'saw' cracks in it, and she hurriedly poured more of her light Aether into him, mending the core slowly and carefully.
"His core cracked," Martha said out loud, her eyes closed in concentration. She couldn't see Darion, but she felt the tension in the room increase.
"I can heal him though; it'll merely take a few days."
Darion sighed audibly, lowering the earth wall to see his wife and son. He stood up and took a step closer to them.
"Will he be ready to move by the time Merek returns?"
"Yes… hopefully," Martha replied, her brows wrinkled in uncertainty about her answer.
Darion sighed yet again; He was feeling guilty.
The intensity of Martha's Aether multiplied, and Aethan's whole body vanished within it.
Blood Essence Extraction had deactivated as soon as Aethan woke up, and he subconsciously mobilized his Aether to control the lingering Galethunder around his arm.
This led to him pouring more Aether out of his Core, but because his Core had cracked, the Aether leaked outwards through it, rolling over his injured organs and alerting him of his internal injuries.
Aethan hadn't known he was injured. He had expected his mother to have healed him before he awoke, that is if he had sustained any injury. He had passed out the moment the Lightning from the Typhoon Horse had hit him, only for him to wake up in his bed and see his very first Element, so it wasn't a surprise when he tried to control the Element.
Luckily, his mother was a healer, and she was doing her very best already, rejuvenating him slowly.
---
It took a few hours for Aethan to recover enough to move around, and by that time his father was there already with a dead beast.
"Extract its vitality to speed up your healing," Darion said, dropping the carcass before Aethan on a slab of rock.
Aethan didn't hesitate, placing his hand over the creature and beginning the extraction, taking his time to avoid unforeseen circumstances.
Darion stood by his side during the extraction, watching and waiting for anything that might go wrong.
In a few minutes though, the extraction was done, successfully, and Aethan could feel his body and Core absorbing the energy and vitality.
He immediately sat in silent meditation, Cultivating and directing the Aether towards the cracked parts of his Core.
The cracks slowly mended, annoyingly so, but Aethan remained diligent and directed all the Aether he could towards it.
In no time he was done. His core was drained, but he had made great progress. His internal organs were already healed completely by his mother, and his core was well on its way to becoming normal again.
Darion nodded and left his room, the slab of earth he had brought with him following him behind.
Silence reigned in the room for a while, before Aethan rose to his feet and took off his clothes.
His incredible physique was displayed, brimming with raw power. His skin was suntanned a bit too much, but he liked it that way.
His muscles were sharply defined, shifting beneath his skin like steel cords with every movement, giving his body an almost unnatural beauty. Coupled with his short white hair, he looked strikingly inhuman, yet captivating.
Aethan touched his hair, pulling at it softly.
Ever since he began to use Blood Essence Extraction, his hair had turned White. No one in his family had white hair, and that was eyebrow-raising to him.
His brothers had Black hair, his father and sisters Brown, and his mother… blonde hair. He was the only one with white hair among them.
His father didn't explain in detail to him the reason, but if what he inferred from his father's words were correct, then it was what signified a member of the Narok family having awakened their Bloodline power.
Aethan sighed as he recollected. The thought of his brother returning soon made him ecstatic, and he momentarily forgot his broken Core, thinking about the journey to the Eclipse Sect instead.
While he was daydreaming about the sect, his father and mother were having a conversation at the dining, their voices inaudible within the silencing dome conjured by Martha around them.
"...his Core isn't normal!" Martha said sharply, her voice coming out suddenly.
"So? It shouldn't be normal," Darion replied, a bit confused by his wife's words.
Martha shook her head vigorously. "That's not what I meant!"
Darion hung his head, his eyes squinting as he stared at his wife.
"His Core is Crimson!" Martha said sharply again, and this time, Darion's brows raised, and his eyes widened a little.
"Have you forgotten what a Crimson Core signifies?" Martha asked rhetorically, pushing back a strand of hair. "It means he has Totembeast… a Cursed one at that."
A deafening silence descended upon that revelation, before Darion eventually spoke, his confusion written all over his face.
"But how?" He began. "How does he even have a Totembeast in the first place, that's not possible."
Martha paused. "From what I could find, the Totembeast is dormant, probably just a half of the whole," she voiced out.
"Regardless, a Cursed Totembeast is a magnet for bad luck," Darion claimed. "The best way to deal with it is to find the other half… then purge him of it at once."