In this chap­ter, the pro­tag­o­nist reflects on his rela­tion­ship with music, par­tic­u­lar­ly with his beloved bass gui­tar, Mr. Fend­er. As he plays, he recalls mem­o­ries asso­ci­at­ed with his music—both joy­ful and melan­cholic, includ­ing moments with Lark and the strug­gles of past gigs. Mem­o­ries of Lark’s last birth­day flood back, high­light­ing joy­ful times that con­trast with the pain of their cur­rent sep­a­ra­tion due to his cap­tiv­i­ty.

Wer­ryck, his cap­tor, enters and dis­cuss­es the sit­u­a­tion with a hint of sar­casm about Lark, whom he refers to as a guest rather than a cap­tive. The pro­tag­o­nist express­es his desire to see her, but Wer­ryck dis­miss­es this, claim­ing that Lark trusts him, an obser­va­tion that momen­tar­i­ly unset­tles Wer­ryck. The con­ver­sa­tion shifts towards the bass gui­tar, and Wer­ryck urges the pro­tag­o­nist to play it, sug­gest­ing that music could serve a pur­pose amidst his despair.

The pro­tag­o­nist obeys, real­iz­ing that con­fine­ment has dimin­ished his spir­it. As he plays, he finds a small mea­sure of com­fort, not­ing how the act of play­ing pro­vides a reprieve from his grim sur­round­ings. Wer­ryck con­tin­ues to appear dai­ly, track­ing the pro­tag­o­nist’s progress with his music and the state of his cap­tives, Sol and Griff.

Even­tu­al­ly, the pro­tag­o­nist is allowed to step out of his cell, guid­ed by the ship’s stew­ard, Ivar. Their jour­ney leads him to a well-main­tained room with ameni­ties he’s long been denied. After a show­er and a meal of hearty food and red wine, he returns to his cell to find it cleaned and orga­nized. This change breeds con­fu­sion about Wer­ryck­’s inten­tions.

When he final­ly meets Wer­ryck in his quar­ters, he is tak­en aback by the mod­esty of the space, clut­tered yet per­son­al. Wer­ryck, though appear­ing disheveled and unwell, insists that the pro­tag­o­nist play for him. The pro­tag­o­nist’s ini­tial attempts at music don’t impress Wer­ryck, who chal­lenges him to deliv­er bet­ter per­for­mances. Their con­ver­sa­tion hints at ten­sion, with Wer­ryck dis­play­ing errat­ic behav­ior sug­gest­ing inner tur­moil.

In a moment of defi­ance, the pro­tag­o­nist asks to see Sol, but Wer­ryck steers the dis­cus­sion away, empha­siz­ing Sol’s safe­ty but keep­ing her at a dis­tance. The pro­tag­o­nist clev­er­ly asks for a book belong­ing to Lark, but Wer­ryck refus­es, indi­cat­ing a con­nec­tion to their past. The chap­ter con­cludes with the pro­tag­o­nist reluc­tant­ly agree­ing to con­tin­ue play­ing while try­ing to nego­ti­ate his cir­cum­stances, deter­mined not to be an ordi­nary inmate.