In this chap­ter, the pro­tag­o­nist grap­ples with ill­ness and con­cern for Kel­lan, who is among twelve pris­on­ers iso­lat­ed in the Sham­bles. After a pro­longed peri­od of sick­ness spent nudged by the care of Ivar, the pro­tag­o­nist final­ly returns to the paint crew, only to con­front the grim real­i­ty of the twelve in their cells, vis­i­bly dam­aged and suf­fer­ing. Kel­lan’s ini­tial expres­sion of guilt upon see­ing the pro­tag­o­nist reflects the cama­raderie that has devel­oped amid their mis­for­tunes. He recounts a trag­ic jour­ney lead­ing him to an elu­sive refuge, filled with dashed hopes and the final real­iza­tion of betray­al upon meet­ing Tom Skint.

The bleak­ness esca­lates as a storm approach­es, prompt­ing Wer­ryck to devise a cru­el pun­ish­ment for the twelve, which man­i­fests in the con­struc­tion of a small cage they are forced into. There’s a pal­pa­ble ten­sion as the crew, whose atten­tion is drawn to the cage, wit­ness­es the help­less­ness of the twelve as they are shack­led in their mis­ery on the water. The chap­ter cap­tures the trag­ic inno­cence of Kel­lan as he grap­ples with the psy­cho­log­i­cal scars from a com­pli­ance treat­ment imposed upon him, reveal­ing a dis­turb­ing façade of loy­al­ty enforced by his cap­tors.

Fur­ther­more, the pro­tag­o­nist engages in a haunt­ing exchange with Wer­ryck, plead­ing for the human­i­ty of the twelve despite Wer­ryck­’s ratio­nal­iza­tions and the con­tracts bind­ing them to their fate. The con­ver­sa­tion cap­tures a philo­soph­i­cal divide, dri­ven by a stark dehu­man­iza­tion that per­vades Werryck’s argu­ment, empha­siz­ing that the twelve’s suf­fer­ing is entire­ly self-inflict­ed, a sen­ti­ment the pro­tag­o­nist des­per­ate­ly tries to com­bat.

As night falls, the weight of despair grows heav­ier. The pro­tag­o­nist is forced into play­ing music for Wer­ryck, nav­i­gat­ing ten­sion through the hymns that speak of loss and yearn­ing. In a moment of haunt­ing still­ness, sur­round­ed by the storm, reflec­tion evokes thoughts of those on the raft, cul­mi­nat­ing in an acknowl­edg­ment of their col­lec­tive fates as the pro­tag­o­nist remains rest­less. The chap­ter clos­es with the protagonist’s solemn real­iza­tion: though iso­lat­ed and trapped in the mid­dle of the relent­less storm, there’s a lin­ger­ing hope as they play for those in the Sham­bles, and in mem­o­ry of those lost, ignit­ing a sense of resilience amid despair.