Chapter Text
Laslow doesn’t scream when his Faceless opponent gets a good blow in. There’s a grunt, the sound of armor ringing against rock, and the heavy thump of a body hitting the ground. He must hit his head because he doesn’t get up, doesn’t move, and Selena curses because he always picks the goddamned worst times to be careless: right in the thick of the fighting, almost boxed in by enemies.
(Blaming him is unfair, but what’s the alternative? Thinking he’s tired or he’s injured enough that his best isn’t good enough? No. That opens up so many different doors with worrying possibilities. It’s easiest, safest, to tell herself Laslow was careless.)
“Odin!” Selena yells, because shrieking would mean she’s worried and Selena never shrieks. His head whips towards her and he takes in the situation quickly: when she ducks and runs straight towards Laslow, the familiar crimson glow of his magic sears the corner of her vision. Her Faceless turns its attention to its new opponent, and Selena always hated this part.
The Faceless Laslow was fighting rears back. She could fight it. She wants to fight it. She’s supposed to kill them anyway, and if she doesn’t Odin (and Laslow, when he wakes the hell up and stops slacking off) will. But there are four- five?- six in the immediate area that are slowly noticing an easy kill, and that’s too much.
She practically throws herself over him, snarling as her hair whips wildly around her face, onto the ground, sticking to the blood on the side of Laslow’s head. It catches on her teeth and lips. She doesn’t want to think of how animalistic she must look, like a rabid beast. One of her hands grabs his limp arm and throws it over her shoulder. The other points her sword at the closest Faceless.
It freezes. It takes a step backward, then forward, two different impulses telling it what to do.
Avoid Selena: get away, choose an easier target. But Laslow is the easier target. But Selena is in the way. But Laslow hurt it-
It’s enough time to half-drag Laslow a few feet back. Then Odin buys them time to retreat further, to get reinforcements, to drop Laslow off for medical attention and get back to the fighting. They get to finish the battle relatively unscathed, and she has the time to clean up and hate it.
The back of her hand is free of Grima’s mark. Nohr isn’t Ylisse and the only ones who know what she is are Laslow, Odin, and the Faceless.
If only Laslow and Odin knew-
No. Stop.
If she wasn’t (what) who she was, and if the Faceless couldn’t tell at a glance, Laslow would have more than a bump on his head and Selena would’ve been forced to watch it happen.
But she hates being reminded of it.