In this chap­ter, the atmos­phere in the Sham­bles remains oppres­sive, char­ac­ter­ized by hot tar and the inces­sant noise of bilge pumps. Rainy reflects on his con­tin­u­ing work there, feel­ing the weight of impend­ing doom as the cor­ri­dor leads into dark­ness. He is informed by Mar­cel, who oper­ates the incin­er­a­tor and appears vis­i­bly dis­tressed, about the fate await­ing chil­dren, includ­ing Sol, who are being placed in “tri­als” for com­pli­ance ther­a­peu­tics. This news alarms Rainy, espe­cial­ly recall­ing Kel­lan, who fled from such a pro­gram.

Mar­cel explains that these tri­als are legal if a child’s guardian con­sents. Rainy is con­sumed by dread and sus­pi­cion about how Griff, Sol’s guardian, may have quick­ly agreed to such pro­ce­dures. He learns that these tri­als tar­get “non­com­pli­ant minors,” rat­ed five or high­er on a behav­ior scale. The urgency of the sit­u­a­tion inten­si­fies Rainy’s resolve to speak with Wer­ryck, hop­ing he might inter­vene; how­ev­er, Mar­cel is doubt­ful of Werryck’s will­ing­ness to help.

Lat­er, when Rainy meets Wer­ryck, they engage in a tense con­ver­sa­tion about Sol’s impend­ing involve­ment in the tri­als. Wer­ryck dis­miss­es con­cern for the med­ical per­son­nel’s deci­sion-mak­ing, call­ing it anoth­er uni­verse. Rainy attempts to appeal to Wer­ryck­’s sense of author­i­ty and pre­vi­ous fond­ness for Sol, as she showed promis­ing progress in her recov­ery.

As they leave Werryck’s quar­ters, Rainy wit­ness­es Wer­ryck­’s excite­ment over the cap­ture of twelve new­com­ers, detail­ing their mis­er­able state as they emerged from an aban­doned cab­in, beg­ging to return to the ship. When the chil­dren arrive, Rainy is struck by their ghost­ly appear­ance, not­ing their shat­tered spir­its. Among them, he rec­og­nizes Kel­lan, frail and worn, indi­cat­ing the strug­gles they faced.

Wer­ryck eval­u­ates their sit­u­a­tion, reflect­ing on the resources expend­ed on their recov­ery and hint­ing at con­se­quences for Kellan’s actions. The chap­ter ends with Rainy shiv­er­ing from the cold, feel­ing the deep­en­ing emo­tion­al and phys­i­cal toll of their plight, leav­ing him to pon­der the fragili­ty of those they had just brought back.