Kelvin's entrance to his room confirmed Arc's suspicions that something was wrong. He thought he would be safe to practice walking a bit, and was beginning to crawl off of the mattress and onto the floor, but evidently Merri wanted him to stay put.
Her panicked state was amusing most of the time by virtue of being a rare occurrence, but he could hardly consider it refreshing when she was practically throwing him back onto the mattress. It hurt a bit.
"Where did you apply the gel Merri?" Kelvin asked this question while hovering his face over the almost naked Arc. "I want to start from there and see where it ends up."
"His chest, the area around his sternum is where I applied the most. Is there any risk to his Nexus?"
Kelvin cracked his fingers before bringing them to the section of bone just below his throat. "I will not be able to tell until I check, but be prepared for the worst. If you could, take out some bruise and muscle tear ointment from the storehouse. Preferably it should not rely on Xan to augment the healing process, but if it does it is better than nothing."
"You make it sound like you are going to have to hurt him."
"If the situation is serious enough that may be a possibility. I would like to take as few risks as possible, but if I determine there is something that needs to be drawn out immediately we need to be prepared to deal with any potential damage such an action may cause."
Satisfied with the explanation given, she went to her medicine room to search for the proper product. If she couldn't find it, it would only take her five minutes to whip up a substitute.
In the meantime, Kelvin once again turned his attention to Arc, focusing on his fingers. "Your heartrate seems to be a little higher than normal, did we frighten you? I'm sorry for that, but its okay. Grampa Kelvin will make sure you stay safe. I just have to see what is going on inside of your chest. It could be dangerous, or it could be harmless, but I need to check okay?"
His voice was a higher pitch than normal and his lips were puckered a little bit. Coupled with his clown makeup, it made for a spectacular experience for Arc. He didn't know whether to cry, laugh, or scream at the utter disregard for appearance this man was showing him. As a result, his only response to Kelvin's question was a mix between a grunt and a groan.
Kelvin naturally took this as confirmation, picking him up off of the mattress and sitting him down on his lap while he rested in one of the room's rocking chairs.
-----
Kelvin 'knew' that Arc could not yet understand speech. He was under the impression that he could understand the emotion behind what people were talking about. It was false of course, but up to this point Kelvin was the only person to at least register that Arc had an idea of what was going on around him.
It was honestly a shame he had yet to get over talking in that baby voice to Arc, otherwise Arc's opinion of him would be much better.
Using this knowledge of Arc 'understanding' speech, he planned to calm him down by talking to him. Keeping him calm was crucial to what he was about to do, use his own Xan to probe his body for abnormalities.
Normally, the one being checked up on would have to remain calm not for their own sake but for the sake of the person performing the procedure. Should they become agitated, their internal Xan may reject the presence of a 'foreign entity' and forcefully remove it. Depending on the quantity and quality of the Xan being expelled and the speed at which it is done, the injuries to the operator could range from a mild headache to a collapse of their foundation.
In the case that the person being operated on is so weak that their cultivation may as well not exist to the operator, any attempt to expel that 'foreign' Xan could result in their flesh tearing from the pressure. At Arc's level that could only get to the level of bruising and maybe a few of his weaker muscles being torn, but for a baby even that could prove fatal should measures not be taken immediately.
And so Kelvin told Arc a story to calm him down. Not a fairytale or legend, he was not immersed enough in human culture nor nearly as good a teller as he would need to be to be coherent with it. He told Arc a story about his mother and an adventures she had been on. Namely, the adventure where she had met Kelvin for the first time.
-----
"She was only twelve when we first met. I had seen and taken an interest in her before this point, but our difference in strength, status, and age made it hard for me to ever properly meet with her. After all, she was the most junior level of disciple and I was one of the temple guardians of the Moonblade sect. I technically wasn't even part of the sect either, merely an assignment from the Scattered Stars sect while one of their masters was in the middle of a major breakthrough.
It was only before I left that I actually had the opportunity to properly introduce myself to her and figure out what it was that drew me to her, I was granted the opportunity to lead a low level mission with some of the newer disciples as part of my own training. Naturally, one of the people I invited was your mommy, Marlev. She insisted that your uncle, Zerrin, also take part.
I had no reason to refuse. I knew little about the lower disciples of the Moonblade sect as many never received the opportunity to enter the temple, so being given an excuse to fill out the team I would be leading was welcomed." He began to stroke Arc's head at this time, smiling as he recalled what was obviously a fond memory.
"My first impression of her was that of a feisty young lass. Her silver hair was a mess and her skin that reminded me of the snow of the mountains seemed to be littered with traces of fighting. She was also one of the most combative personalities I had ever borne witness to. Any and every challenge to her claims would invariably result in either the claimant backing down, or there being a fight.
She even threatened to stab me if I didn't bring Zerrin along, can you believe that?
Most people would have instead levied the fact they could have refused to come, but instead she resorted to threatening harm upon me. I fell in love with that side of her in that moment and resolved myself to bring her back to the Moon Mirror Assembly to be my disciple. Who knows, maybe I would learn something from her myself.
Taking Zerrin along with us turned out to be a boon as well. He was the Yin to Marl's Yang, and as far as I could tell was the only being in the universe capable of calming that bundle of energy down. He wasn't half bad in a fight either. Though not quite at the level of some of the more senior disciples, he was adaptable, calm, and had a knack for finding just the right way to drag out battles he could not win."