Rebirth of the Phoenix_

The sun's light shone through the window blinds in Luis's room as he woke up. Luis's room was on the second floor and so were all the other rooms in the house. There were four rooms on the second floor: one for his parents, one his two siblings shared, and one room in the corner of the floor that Luis had. The room was 130 square feet, with one bed along the wall opposite the window. There was a desk under the window for natural light. The closet was built into the wall beside Luis's bed on the window side. Next to the window, there was a small vault where Luis kept his training gear and the daggers he was given by Sera for training. Luis had the smallest room on the floor, but it was cozy for him, so he didn't mind. There also was an attic that had stairs going to it from the second floor.

There was a toilet and bathroom on each floor as well. After Luis washed and brushed his teeth he went to the first floor. Where he saw his dad eating an apple. After seeing Luis, Noah tossed him an apple which he caught.

"Morning, Luis. Here, eat this while we head to the training place out in the forest today."

"Morning, Papa. I need some water first," Luis said while rubbing his eyes.

The clearing was quiet today as Luis sat cross-legged on a mat. Kael and Lira only trained once every other day, which made the sound of their usual chatter absent today.

Luis started by focusing on his aura. He didn't need to concentrate when looking at it because when you make new cores and stabilize them, they stay like that. He channeled the aura from his cores, his brows raising in frustration.

"I'm stuck," Luis admitted, breaking the silence. "I can't split my cores into halves and form two new cores. Every time I try, they just break apart and form back into two cores. I can't keep them stable. Also, I remember splitting my core into another one before, but I can't quite remember how much it increased by."

Noah stepped closer, intently watching Luis as he channeled his aura. "It's normal to struggle. When cores split into two new cores, the sizes of the new cores are 1.5x bigger, which is what makes it even harder to stabilize them."

Luis looked up, surprised. "1.5x? I thought it was less. No wonder it feels harder to control and stabilize the new cores."

Noah nodded thoughtfully. "The current issue is just related to control. Right now, you can channel aura into two of your limbs while moving fluidly. If you can increase that number to three or four, you'll be able to improve the control of your aura when trying to split your cores. For now, try to always imbue your aura into one of your arms throughout the entire day and increase the count as you go on."

Luis exhaled and nodded. "I'll try my best."

After the training session, Luis joined his mother and younger siblings for breakfast. They still looked sleepy but also excited.

"What's got you excited?" Luis asked as he gazed at them.

"We're learning about how blessings are inherited today," Kael responded in an excited tone.

"Oh, I remember that. It's a lot of information, but it's still pretty fascinating."

Lira tilted her head. "Is it complicated?"

Luis chuckled. "No, it's not really complicated. It's just a lot of information you have to remember. I can tell you guys the basics right now because it's better than instantly learning everything. Well, if you want."

"Tell us!" Kael said in an excited voice.

Lira nodded. "I want to know too!"

"Well, you know usually everyone is born with one blessing, but there are very small, rare cases like Lira. That's because whenever a person gets a new core from their lineage, a blessing takes root in it. A person has one month to decide if they want to keep it. Sadly, it isn't that simple. In the one-month time, the only way to not keep the blessing is to receive a blessing from a creature. This gets complicated when you get multiple cores at once when reaching a new aura tier because you'll need to get multiple creature blessings in a month and have to make sure they actually give you the blessing for the month. If they decide to take it away before it's been a month since your new core formed, that core will take a blessing from your lineage. The complicated part is that the blessing is completely random. There's more, but that's the basic stuff you'll need to know to better understand today's class."

Kael's eyes widened. "So blessings are just randomly chosen from our lineage? What if we don't like them? What if they're not good?"

Luis nodded. "Yeah, that's why it's important to decide what you're gonna do and why you should rely more on your aura control than just blessings. It's just a risk you have to live with. Well, there are some ways to get rid of elemental blessings. The explanation's too long, so you can just learn in class today."

Lira asked in a curious tone, "I got my blessings from the deity, but why did we risk Kael getting a random blessing?"

Kael responded in shock. "Wait, that's true! Why didn't I get a different blessing in case it was bad?"

Instead of Luis responding, Elena answered while wiping her face with a cloth. "Kael, your blessings were going to be fine. We are from the clan, as we've told you. Our blessings are mostly made to support each other, and you know when we said you are a proxy, that means you have a higher chance of getting a better blessing because of our clan deity."

Kael sighed in relief. "Oh, I don't have to worry that much about bad blessings."

Noah responded in a strict tone. "For now, you don't. But don't forget, both of you, you're not allowed to talk about being in the clan. Well, the Xolit Clan seal won't let you, but still, don't even think about telling other people."

Kael responded in a casual tone, "I can't even talk about that thing not letting us, you know... we'll be fine."

"That's good," Elena responded.

As breakfast finished, Luis grabbed his bag and got ready to head off to class. He was excited because he would learn about different aura breathing techniques.