System Error
Summary
- The chapter opens with Nora returning to the Midnight Library.
- She finds Mrs Elm in an office, intensely working at an old computer. The lights in the library are flickering wildly.
- Nora expresses confusion and frustration regarding the lives she has experienced, unsure whether any tangible differences were due to her own actions or just "furnishings" or external factors.
- Mrs Elm discovers a "system error" and explains that there is an issue with the transfers from book-based lives to the library - an issue beyond her control.
- Mrs Elm reveals that the Midnight Library exists because Nora does, in her root life, indicating the library's existence could be threatened if Nora were to die in her root life.
- Nora feels a physical shift in response to the notion of her own death, just as the lights in the library stabilize and shine brightly.
- Mrs Elm announces that the glitch is resolved thanks to Nora, referring to her as the "root cause" and the "host."
- Moving on, Nora desires a life where her mother is still alive, but Mrs Elm explains that such a life does not exist in the library because it would require a choice Nora never had the chance to make.
- Encouraged by Mrs Elm to focus on what she enjoyed in her last life, Nora mentions her love for swimming but expresses a lack of overall happiness and a desire for her life to mean something important.
- Nora recollects her once dream to become a glaciologist, suggesting her role as an Arctic researcher might be the life where she can make a meaningful difference.
- Mrs Elm agrees to find that life for Nora, despite her apparent hesitation and lack of absolute certainty.