This is more a bit of a drabble than anything else. But I hoped to make it a bit more original than your average Martin-Rose ficlet, so please tell me if you think I did that. R&R!

Do you remember that day

When she sealed your fate?

She smiled at you and you felt

Like the world didn't matter enough

For you to care about anything but her.

That was before your heart was broken.

Do you remember the pain?

Like your heart was being ripped apart,

your insides burnt with a flaming torch.

You screamed at the sky

And roared and wept and shook,

Your tears would have filled an ocean.

I watched you even then, Martin the Warrior,

even then, I never left you.

She was the reason you lived for

And the reason you never truly lived again;

Yet – it was worth it, wasn't it?

Her love, short and bright as it was fated to be, was worth getting your heart broken for.

I followed you, Martin, down from the north.

I watched you and cared for you, soothed your pain

As far as I could. But your wounds were deep.

I protected you. When you had dreams of her,

I dulled the agony. I helped you survive.

Even now, you still miss her, her smile and her singing voice,

her compassion and her bravery.

Sometimes you sit by yourself, heartsick, and weep for her.

But you survived, Martin the Warrior.

I made sure of that. I would never

have abandoned you.

So know this, Martin, though you can never see me,

I love you, dearest of my heart, and I shall never leave you.

And one day, Martin, one day you'll come home –

to me,

once and always,

your mother,

Sayna.