the reconstruction work around castle town had begun to take on an uneasy rhythm , scaffolding layered over half-restored stone in a way that suggested an imminent collapse ... depending on who is looking at it . sellen moves through it without ceremony , pausing too long at joints where zonai supports meet hylian masonry , her attention always drifting toward the points where old and new hyrule coalesce .
if she looks inward , she can find them just as easily .
when the structure gives way it does so with a sharp , decisive sound ; dust rising in a useless cloud as bodies shift instinctively backward and the princess⸻zelda⸻already too close , catches the worst of it against her forearm . somewhere at the back of that instinct there is the familiar habit of wondering where link was at moments like these , a question that formed with the ease of recollection from her years of residence in the castle before she allowed it to dissolve just as quickly ; it was not her place to assume zelda required a shadow , and less still to imply she was ever in need of rescue .
sellen is at @woevrns' side almost immediately , bowing her big head with a steadiness that belongs more to the clinic than the field , already drawing clean cloth and salve from her inner compartments . [ patch . ]
❛ hold still , ❜ she says simply , her focus already narrowing to the abrasion itself rather than the circumstances that caused it , fingertips careful in the way they test for embedded debris before she begins to clean it away with precision . thanks to zelda's support of purah's refinements to zonai-construct interfacing, sellen's current form has been rebuilt with more articulated joints . she does not remark on it , though the improvement makes itself evident in her hands , the ease with which she cleans and binds the wound , as if the body has finally caught up to what her work requires of it .
only once the bandage is secured does she pause , cloth still in hand , her attention lifting briefly from the injury , focus softening by a fraction . ❛ are you otherwise intact ? ❜ your highness , at the tip of her tongue . after so long , it's still hard for sellen to stamp it down .