Martin's scroll pulsed, and he rose out of a half-sleep. He stared at the scroll for a moment, before it clicked with him who was calling.
"Mom? Is everything alright?" She rarely called unless there was an emergency, or unless he had forgotten her - or his own, or his missing sister's - birthday.
"Everything's fine, Martin," came the voice from the other end. His mother, Blaze Roja, was a beautiful woman, for her age and the hard life she had led, and Martin could see from the earnest sparkle in her pale orange eyes that she wasn't lying, to spare his feelings or for any other reason.
"So why are you calling?" He asked. "Not that I'm not glad to hear from you or anything, but I mean it's a pretty rare thing hearing from you when I'm off at school."
"I've gotten a job offer," she replied.
"That's great news, mom!" Martin smiled broadly, the shine in his own gray eyes threatened to outshine the one in his mother's.
"It's outside the kingdom," she said, sounding less enthusiastic than before.
"Where at?"
"It's in Vale."
Martin's heart made two very opposite moves at those words. First it leapt into his throat - if his mother took the job, and he went with her, he'd get to see all the friends he made in Vale during the Vytal Tournament again - and then sunk into the pit of his stomach - if they left, they'd be as good as abandoning his sister for dead.
"Martin? I guess it's my turn to ask you if everything's alright," Blaze laughed hollowly.
"Just... there's so many reasons we - you should go, but then... Cerise..."
"Martin... I know you miss her, but it's been five years... If she's still out there,
well... she'll have learned to take care of herself, and... would she even recognize us?" A tear fell from Blaze's eye to match the one in Martin's. "I don't want to leave her any more than you do, but I have to think about us now, keep us alive. You're a grown man now, if you want to stay and keep looking, you're more than welcome to. I hope you do find her, and you can bring her home. But I can't stay here and mourn forever, I need to earn a living, provide for you and myself,
and if I have to go to Vale to do it, then that's what I'll do."
Martin fell silent for a moment, and then: "Yeah... You're right. There's more reasons to go, for both of us, than there are to stay." He smiled a broad, fake smile, putting on a strong face for his mother. "I have some acquaintances here, I'll ask them to keep a look out when they're patrolling. They know how to reach me, if they find her they can give me a call."
---
A few days later, after requesting a transfer, Martin and his mother had boarded a transport to Vale, to begin their new lives. Her at the Dust shop "From Dust Till Dawn", and him as a student at Beacon Academy.