[If he was more open to telepathy right now, William would just let Winter know about all the passages he read that taught one all about escaping from predicaments such as quicksand. But they are not actually in quicksand, so he wont.

Instead he tries to calm down and ignore his growing mortification.]

I know. This is uncomfortable for the both us. [He paused, thinking.]

I suppose if we want to escape, what we need to do is remove these rings.