Chapter Text
It was all she had to do. Loose an arrow. Nock another. Loose an arrow. Nock. Loose. Nock. Loose.
Her eyes had always been sharp. She could see clearly from her obscured sniper's nest when she found her marks. She didn't miss often.
Blue. Gold. Blue. Blue. Blue. Gold. Gold. Blue. Gold.
She was free to fire at will, hidden from sight by Hubert's keen magic. From the pockmarked cliff face overlooking the chaotic battlefield, Bernadetta fell into a rhythm of blue and gold. She let her mind wander to days long gone.
"You promise?" Bernadetta said through the narrow opening her father's hand held in the door to her room.
"All you have to do is shoot. They are here to accept officers to the academy. Do your best to impress them."
"You didn't promise yet..." she mumbled.
A sigh from beyond the door, "Yes, Bernadetta. I promise you won't be forced. It's your decision."
In what felt like an instant, Bernadetta found herself standing in the archery range, bow in hand and a vile pit growing in her stomach. There were so many watching, so many strangers. So many with expectations, with doubts, with judgment in their eyes. Seiros let me miss. Seiros let me miss. Seiros let me‐
Bullseye. Ah. Now she'd done it alright. An impressed murmur passed through the crowd. Well, she'd come this far. Her next arrow split the first, the third driving home in the same fashion. They were impressed, that much was clear from the applause and cheers.
It all felt so far away now. At least it was over with. She set her bow down. No sooner had she turned than a recruiter appeared before her, shaking her hands. They said something she didn't hear. And another.
Another. Another. Another. Another. Another. Far too many, too many by far. She searched desperately for her father's face in the clamoring crowd, to no avail. Desperate times called for a desperate measure. She was hardly faking this time, anyway.
Bernadetta collapsed, falling to her side. It looked worse than it was, she was a well practiced faker after all. Distressed moaning, curling into a ball, clutching her stomach. Check, check, and check. They immediately made room, enough to breathe at least. A single eye slyly cracked open saw her father shove his way through the crowd to scoop her up.
When they were free from prying eyes she shifted in his arms to give him the closest approximation of a hug she could manage.
"How'd I do?"
"An officer should faint less but you certainly did impress them. Will you go?"
"I'll think about it."
Bernadetta was shaken out of her reverie by the sound of Hubert's magic tearing apart whomever had snuck their way into the cave network. She simply nodded at his glance and followed through the arcane portal he snapped into existence.
Onto the next nest. The same pattern. Blue. Gold. Gold. Blue. Blue.
All she had to do was shoot.