Skele­tons Climb­ing Stairs in the Rain, the scene in the Sham­bles is one of suf­fo­cat­ing heav­i­ness. The air, thick with the smell of hot tar and the con­stant, monot­o­nous hum of bilge pumps, fills the space with a sense of per­pet­u­al dis­com­fort. Rainy, immersed in this grim set­ting, feels the weight of loom­ing dread, espe­cial­ly as he is sum­moned to car­ry out his duties. As he moves through the dark­ened cor­ri­dors of the ship, the silence is bro­ken only by the dis­tant nois­es from below, remind­ing him of the impend­ing cri­sis. Mar­cel, who oper­ates the incin­er­a­tor, approach­es Rainy with unset­tling news that only deep­ens his anx­i­ety. He informs Rainy that the chil­dren, includ­ing Sol, are now part of a new pro­gram involv­ing “tri­als” for com­pli­ance ther­a­peu­tics, a pro­ce­dure that Rainy knows all too well is dan­ger­ous. This news trig­gers a deep sense of dread in Rainy, espe­cial­ly when he recalls Kellan’s escape from a sim­i­lar sit­u­a­tion. The ten­sion height­ens, as the tri­als are said to be legal as long as a child’s guardian gives con­sent.

Rainy’s thoughts imme­di­ate­ly turn to Sol’s guardian, Griff, and he begins to sus­pect that the agree­ment may have been made hasti­ly or with­out full aware­ness of the program’s true nature. He soon learns that the tri­als are tar­get­ing minors who are con­sid­ered non­com­pli­ant, with a rat­ing sys­tem based on their behav­ior, mak­ing Sol’s fate even more uncer­tain. The fact that the pro­gram specif­i­cal­ly tar­gets chil­dren who are per­ceived as prob­lem­at­ic only inten­si­fies Rainy’s anx­i­ety. As Rainy con­tem­plates the grav­i­ty of the sit­u­a­tion, his mind races with pos­si­bil­i­ties of how he might inter­vene. His only hope now lies in speak­ing with Wer­ryck, the only one he believes might have the author­i­ty to pre­vent this from hap­pen­ing. How­ev­er, Marcel’s skep­ti­cism about Werryck’s will­ing­ness to help adds to Rainy’s feel­ings of help­less­ness. He won­ders if Wer­ryck will be will­ing to risk any­thing for Sol’s sake or if, like oth­ers, he will choose to stay dis­tant from the issue.

In an attempt to change the course of events, Rainy approach­es Wer­ryck, hop­ing to appeal to his past affec­tions for Sol. Their con­ver­sa­tion is fraught with ten­sion as Rainy pleads with Wer­ryck to take action. Unfor­tu­nate­ly, Wer­ryck dis­miss­es Rainy’s con­cerns with indif­fer­ence, claim­ing that the med­ical deci­sions sur­round­ing the tri­als are beyond his influ­ence. He makes it clear that these mat­ters belong to anoth­er realm, one that is detached from his own respon­si­bil­i­ties. The cold­ness in Werryck’s response shocks Rainy, who tries des­per­ate­ly to remind him of Sol’s progress, hop­ing that Wer­ryck might have some emo­tion­al con­nec­tion to her. How­ev­er, the more Rainy speaks, the more it becomes appar­ent that Werryck’s sto­ic demeanor is impen­e­tra­ble. Rainy’s frus­tra­tion builds as he real­izes that his words seem to have lit­tle impact, and Werryck’s unwill­ing­ness to help leaves him feel­ing defeat­ed.

As Rainy walks away from the tense con­ver­sa­tion, the weight of the sit­u­a­tion con­tin­ues to press down on him. Wer­ryck excit­ed­ly tells him about the cap­ture of twelve new­com­ers, found stum­bling from an aban­doned cab­in. These new­com­ers, frail and bro­ken, plead to return to the ship. As the new­com­ers are brought in, Rainy is imme­di­ate­ly struck by the sight of their shat­tered spir­its. Their appearance—gaunt, hol­low, and ghostly—leaves a deep impres­sion on him, and among them, he rec­og­nizes Kel­lan, whose once vibrant pres­ence is now reduced to a shad­ow of its for­mer self. The sight of Kel­lan, now frail and vul­ner­a­ble, cuts through Rainy’s heart, as it’s a reminder of the cru­el­ty of their envi­ron­ment.

Wer­ryck, as always, remains detached, eval­u­at­ing the sit­u­a­tion through a cold, clin­i­cal lens. He speaks of the resources that have been spent on the new­com­ers’ recov­ery, his tone devoid of empa­thy. Wer­ryck implies that Kel­lan will face con­se­quences for his actions, a remark that only deep­ens the sense of despair with­in Rainy. Despite the suf­fer­ing and trau­ma these new­com­ers have endured, Wer­ryck remains focused on the logis­tics and the cost of their recov­ery, high­light­ing a dis­turb­ing lack of com­pas­sion. As the chap­ter comes to a close, Rainy finds him­self shivering—not just from the cold, but from the weight of his emo­tion­al tur­moil. The sit­u­a­tion feels increas­ing­ly hope­less as he con­tem­plates the suf­fer­ing of the new­com­ers, par­tic­u­lar­ly Kel­lan. The chap­ter leaves Rainy pon­der­ing the fragili­ty of life aboard the ship, won­der­ing how much more he can endure as the oppres­sive atmos­phere con­tin­ues to tight­en around him. The sense of despair grows, leav­ing Rainy to ques­tion the human­i­ty of those around him as they face the crush­ing weight of their cir­cum­stances.