Broken Glass - Taekook

59

Namjoon returns, new notebook still clutched in one hand, a few minutes after I've finished butchering the rodent carcass. The moment I look up to see him arrive, he gestures for me to follow him. I stand up, as Seokjin looks up and offers to complete the job I've started. 

He sets down his carving, which is nearly finished at this point, and takes over from my efforts, handing me back my knife. I head down to the river's edge, wiping the blood off of the blade on some dead and dried reeds. Then I turn around, following Namjoon back into the clearing in the forest. 

"I've been doing a little research into your particular situation," he starts,  holding up the notebook for a moment. "I've been trying to figure out your exact abilities, and what you might be able to do in the future, once you've had a little more experience with the golden river. I'm hoping that this will help illuminate your future training." 

I tilt my head at him. "What've you found?" He sits down, gestures for me to do the same. "How did you even figure that out?" He smiles, flicking open a page, and I see the very edges of that writing I remember seeing. 
"It's a little complicated, but let's just say that it took some calculations, a few theoretical dives into the golden river, and a lot of trial and error."
"Trial and error?" 

"Theoretical trial and error," he clarifies. "I need to do some literal tests before I can be certain of any of this stuff, but it's better to do some of the thinking before I make you try anything. I don't want you to get hurt, or lose too much energy." I wince at that, and he chuckles a little awkwardly, shifting his weight from one foot to the other. 

"So we're starting as small as we can, and building up to the bigger tests as we go. I don't want you to try anything you don't feel completely confident about in battle. That could be the difference between life and death, after all. Here, it's a little easier to recover from mistakes than in the middle of a fight against the Knights."

"That makes sense," I agree, crossing my legs subconsciously, and his smile widens a little at the sight. "So where do we start?" Namjoon crosses his own legs, opening the notebook in front of him on the ground, in such a way that it stays open without him having to hold it. His hands come to rest on his thighs, palms facing up. 

"We start by discussing where you might draw your power from. Understanding how you best tap into the golden river, any points of focus you may need, can help facilitate easier dives into that state of mind. It can also boost the effects of anything you try and do." 
"Like the necklace you wear?" 

He looks down at it, glinting in the shifting light that's filtered through the canopy of leaves above. It seems to hold its own glow, independent from the impact of the sun, which disappears behind cloud cover every so often. It's beautiful, in a way. He moves one hand to cup it in the palm, brushing his thumb over the front of the crystal, and the glow intensifies for a moment. 

"Exactly. It's also like Hoseok's compass tattoos, the marks on Taehyung's arms, and on mine as well. All those things come naturally, but they also get more noticeable the more you work with your power. You look down at them, and you're reminded of the things you're capable of."
"Like how the mirror reminds me of my own connection to Eithyr?" He nods. 

"This can make it a lot easier to trust yourself when you're trying something you're worried about, like a spell that's more difficult to pull off. That's one of the reasons why Hoseok's compass tattoos became bronze. They're growing in strength, and this means he has better connection to his own abilities. That's so important for everything he does in the future with his power." 

"The confidence of talking about the word itself, it helped you guys to feel more connected to what you can do, then?" I check, and his smile widens. 
"Precisely. And that is one of the things we need to work on for you as well, so that you are more confident with the different elements of your own power."