In a tense nar­ra­tive, the chap­ter revolves around the pro­tag­o­nist, who has just crossed to the rocks to meet Sol, a girl who is recov­er­ing from a cold swim. She is hypother­mic, need­ing warmth and care, while he is con­flict­ed by a rapid surge of love and fear for her well-being. He pro­vides her with a dry blan­ket and cof­fee, and although Sol remains most­ly silent, he attempts to keep her alert as they nav­i­gate in their boat, **Flower**. The moment is laced with a mix of parental instincts and uncer­tain­ty, height­ened by his unfa­mil­iar­i­ty with such feel­ings.

As Sol begins to regain her strength, her fever brings vivid, dis­joint­ed mem­o­ries of an encounter with Alis­tair, a fig­ure who was caught off guard by flames while Sol, likened to a djinn from **Ara­bi­an Nights**, aid­ed him by retriev­ing his lost glass­es amidst the chaos. Sol shares her tale, reveal­ing her brave actions. She presents the pro­tag­o­nist with a water­proof match and Alistair’s heavy spec­ta­cles, sig­ni­fy­ing her tri­umph over the ordeal.

Even­tu­al­ly, Sol’s fever dis­si­pates, lead­ing them to work on the boat, restor­ing it for their jour­ney while they set sail again, with Sol asleep. They moor at a sea­wall that hints at for­got­ten joys, and the protagonist’s eager­ness to con­tin­ue their voy­age is tem­pered by Sol’s frag­ile con­di­tion. Her health wors­ens; she strug­gles to keep food down and often awak­ens to demand sto­ries.

The pro­tag­o­nist recounts tales from var­i­ous mytholo­gies to engage Sol, whose enthu­si­asm for sto­ry­telling sur­faces amidst her sick­ness. Par­tic­u­lar­ly, she con­nects strong­ly with a sto­ry about Mol­ly Thorn, a young girl cap­ti­vat­ed by a “mys­tery pack­et” of seeds, spark­ing Sol’s imag­i­na­tion. This leads the pro­tag­o­nist to intro­duce Sol to let­ters and the joy of writ­ing, hop­ing to instill in her a sense of won­der and cre­ativ­i­ty.

Despite being hes­i­tant towards the pen­cil, Sol watch­es and lis­tens, absorb­ing the protagonist’s lessons on words and their sig­nif­i­cance, hint­ing at her desire to learn and leave her own mark in the world one day. As the chap­ter clos­es, there’s a sense of hope in her eyes despite her fragili­ty, as she begins to grasp the pow­er of sto­ries and lan­guage.