Blackbeak Bluff with all these memories bittersweet

For the moments he spared to consider her plight, he could not and would not fathom how she felt. What was done was done and he did not think her position uncommon to have been in—their very own mother had once been placed in such an impossible place and could have done the same. For her sake, and perhaps his own, he did not pass judgement for what had been wrought; it seemed hardly his place to do so when she had so very clearly gone above and beyond the task herself.

So when she took his subject change in stride, he tried to bolster her spirits with a wan smile.

"That can be arranged," though he admitted only to himself that he disliked leaving the sand and surf so soon. "We can head inland if you're up for it, find somewhere to rest for a bit." He thought food couldn't have hurt either, assuming she was willing to stomach more than guilt and malicious mental medicine. Reaching out to her, he bumped his nose against the underside of her chin as though to reassure her. Things may have been agreeably bleak now, but she had not lost everything.