Sunset Valley Lights from the airfield, shining upon you.

Desperate to believe her Rye chanted her words in his mind, letting the echo fill the creases of silence between chants. It wasn't his fault. Now that she had said it would there finally be peace? The man wasn't sure, he felt no different. With the highs and lows of the past ten minutes, he could feel the speedball of deep insecurity and unwanted vulnerability being strengthened. Hotah felt furless, wet and cold, left to dry in a snow storm. It was time for him to rein himself back into reality, slowly but surely, or else he wouldn't be able to get through what he had to explain next. Emotions whirred in his head, clattering around with all the other processes, it filled his head with pain and left little room to acknowledge the new "shitbag ex" character. Later Rye would most certainly ask about them, it would make for a nice distraction. 
"My wife, Imaq," His voice matched his face, expressionless. "Mothered our child, Sikuliak, he was everything to me Towhee. They meant more to me than anyone on this wretched plain but I let them slip away, I watched them leave for their trip." As he spoke, the harsher his tone grew, cracking and wavering as Rye tried to fight the tears, the sobs. "They've been gone for months now, not a trace left behind. And I keep thinking, why was I so stupid to think they were immune to bad things?" Rye looked Towhee in the eyes, expecting to see utter disgust at his failure, he would be shocked if it wasn't there. A more important question was why he didn't go with them, the short answer was Wintersbane, his injuries were extensive but Rye couldn't find it in him to enable that card to be used. No matter how he spun it, the man found himself weighed, measured and found wanting.