Lady Sansa at the Wall
"Valar morghulis" you said, and squeezed my hand,
Our bodies huddled close in the midnight air,
Peering beyond to wild white wastes where
Once living folk dared tread.
Now the chill wind carries distant snatches
Of creatures we only knew as fables, all those long years ago
Parables for children tucked into warm beds, watching
The shadows of our parents, yet mighty enough to stand guard
Against the terrors lurking in the night.
We had not met for nine years,
Until the Nightfort was repurposed by the Watch
Its creaking skeleton all that stood between the rest of us and doom,
From your tower you sent south a murder of crows
With sober tidings and murkier hopes
But I heeded your call for the sake of honour, duty, family
And for Winterfell.
You rode out to meet me, steel shining
In a Lord Commander's black, wearing my father's face
Grey eyes that told me
You were still the boy from my childhood.
When you kissed me for the first time as you lay dying
After a battle that shook the very foundations
And still it was not the first death you'd known
Red-black magic seething in your open veins
Knitting up the hole the ice-spear tore in your heart,
But I said my love would be forever.
I said what we had could carry all these white lines
Cuts where defeat nestled cruel and bitter
Laugh back at the gods, those tricksters
Push back the long fingers of night,
Forge a lasting peace from Sunspear to Castle Black,
Binding Stark to Targaryen, and outlast this winter.
Not knowing that this is the Eternal winter
Before you I hadn't known the meaning of eternity.
You call for your men to rally, shouting words of courage
Here at the last stand of the Night's Watch
And of men, a meagre lot
Not the heroes of song.
But you are my Florian and Symeon Star Eyes
A summer garden amidst foreign constellations.
The gates shake, and will shatter soon
I draw my blade.