Death Right Down to the Cheek­bones, the chap­ter begins with Sol excit­ed­ly con­fid­ing in her com­pan­ion that she has suc­cess­ful­ly stolen a large sum of mon­ey from Richard, who she humor­ous­ly refers to as “King Richard.” Though ini­tial­ly hes­i­tant, Sol has tak­en the oppor­tu­ni­ty to pil­fer Richard’s hid­den funds, know­ing pre­cise­ly where to find his secrets stashed away. As she shares this with her com­pan­ion, the weight of the sit­u­a­tion begins to set­tle in, and the ten­sion becomes pal­pa­ble between them. They both know the poten­tial reper­cus­sions of their actions, with Richard pos­si­bly seek­ing vengeance, which adds a sense of uncer­tain­ty to their lives. Despite the appar­ent vic­to­ry of their theft, the anx­i­ety of what might come next lingers, and they can­not avoid the loom­ing pos­si­bil­i­ty of Richard dis­cov­er­ing their betray­al.

Sol, how­ev­er, remains con­fi­dent and dis­miss­es the idea that Richard will catch up with them. She scoffs at the thought, point­ing out how inept Richard is and how unlike­ly it is that he could track them down. As the boat drifts along the water­way, they talk about Richard’s boat, an old and slow tug named “Relax,” which pro­vides some com­fort in their minds, know­ing they are escap­ing from a ves­sel unable to match their pace. The slug­gish boat offers lit­tle threat, so their con­fi­dence grows, and they begin to relax as they con­tin­ue their jour­ney. The nat­ur­al beau­ty of the sur­round­ings also offers some peace, as herons soar grace­ful­ly through the air and murals depict­ing mys­ti­cal fig­ures line the river­banks. Sol is cap­ti­vat­ed by the paint­ed images and won­ders aloud about the hid­den mean­ings behind these ethe­re­al rep­re­sen­ta­tions. The strange and vibrant images evoke a sense of mys­tery, spark­ing Sol’s curios­i­ty about what lies beyond their imme­di­ate sur­round­ings.

When the pair reach­es the town of Blink­er, their path is blocked by Alis­tair, who demands a steep toll for them to cross the bridge. He ques­tions their rea­son for pass­ing through, and though the toll seems exor­bi­tant, it is clear that Alis­tair is mere­ly fol­low­ing pro­to­col. Despite the injus­tice of the sit­u­a­tion, the pro­tag­o­nist, hav­ing already been robbed of their mon­ey, remains deter­mined to chal­lenge the sys­tem, unwill­ing to accept such unfair prac­tices with­out resis­tance. Alis­tair, seem­ing­ly unfazed by the pro­tag­o­nist’s com­plaints, con­tin­ues to insist on the toll, pro­vid­ing a cold jus­ti­fi­ca­tion that the fees are nec­es­sary for the main­te­nance of the bridge. Despite this, the pro­tag­o­nist and Sol refuse to pay, real­iz­ing that there is a greater prin­ci­ple at play, and they decide to dock instead of hand­ing over the mon­ey.

Sol, ever the prag­mat­ic one, urges her com­pan­ion to take deci­sive action, show­ing her resource­ful­ness in the face of adver­si­ty. They agree to avoid the toll alto­geth­er and seek shel­ter for the night, their deci­sion punc­tu­at­ed by the eerie sounds of dis­tant screams and gun­fire in the back­ground. These omi­nous nois­es add a lay­er of unease to their sit­u­a­tion, yet the two of them try to dis­tract them­selves with sto­ries, light­heart­ed con­ver­sa­tions, and shared moments of humor. Although the ten­sion of their cir­cum­stances remains ever-present, the com­pan­ion­ship between the two helps to alle­vi­ate some of the stress, giv­ing them a fleet­ing sense of nor­mal­cy amidst the chaos. Despite the weari­ness that has over­tak­en them, the exchange of sto­ries and laugh­ter brings a sense of com­fort and tem­po­rary reprieve from their oth­er­wise dan­ger­ous and unpre­dictable envi­ron­ment.

The chap­ter effec­tive­ly blends humor and sus­pense, deep­en­ing the char­ac­ters’ rela­tion­ships while intro­duc­ing sig­nif­i­cant chal­lenges and con­flicts. It show­cas­es the grow­ing con­nec­tion between Sol and the pro­tag­o­nist, as they nav­i­gate the treach­er­ous land­scape filled with author­i­ty fig­ures and sys­temic oppres­sion. As their jour­ney con­tin­ues, the stakes increase, and it becomes evi­dent that their bond will be test­ed as they face exter­nal pres­sures. The nar­ra­tive explores not just the phys­i­cal obsta­cles they encounter but also the moral dilem­mas they must address, set­ting the stage for fur­ther devel­op­ments in their quest for free­dom. The chap­ter con­cludes with a poignant reminder of the del­i­cate bal­ance between hope and sur­vival, with the uncer­tain­ty of the future hang­ing in the air as they con­tin­ue their jour­ney.