[ There is something terribly final about that sentence. Terrible and awful and lonely. It tells Alayne, without a doubt, of Ranger Hansen's end but — more importantly — it answers her question. Do you ever wish for more? She suspects he doesn't know how to.

Perhaps once he did, but it had ruined things terribly. Perhaps it is a lie he tells himself to make living after the fact less sad.

There are many different reasons Alayne can guess at but all of them seem cruel. It makes her heart ache for him despite herself. Even if he does not feel loneliness, very suddenly she feels it on his behalf. ]

I died once, [ she says eventually, after a very long silence. It's a confession she hasn't given in a very long time, a secret (like her marriage, like Littlefinger's secret kisses) that she's never thought to share with anyone for it benefitted no one (not even herself). But here, in this moment, she gives it to Chuck anyway. As if somehow that would make him feel better; an attempt (perhaps misguided) to make him feel less alone in death. ] Months ago, on a ship not unlike this one. We'd been amongst the stars.

There'd been so many things I'd wanted, still, but wanting those things hadn't made any difference. They hadn't mattered at all.