Nora reappears in the Midnight Library, this time near a cluttered office desk where Mrs Elm frantically types on an old computer as lights flicker. Nora tries to speak about the swimmer life, but Mrs Elm, reading “System error,” seems unable to hear her at first.

Mrs Elm warns the transfer back was fragile and says the problem is external: the library exists only while Nora’s root life persists. The situation suggests they may be reaching “the end of possibility.” As Nora feels a sudden pull toward life, the lights steady and the system recovers. Mrs Elm reports the “root cause within the host” is temporarily fixed, and they find themselves back among the stacks.

Nora asks for a life where her mother is still alive, but Mrs Elm explains no decision by Nora could have produced that outcome beyond yesterday. Redirected to what remains possible, Nora reflects that while she liked swimming, she may not find happiness in any life and instead wants meaning and to do good.

Mrs Elm recalls Nora’s teenage desire to be a glaciologist. Nora admits her parents discouraged academic paths; her father pushed swimming, and her mother didn’t encourage pursuits that might take her away, unlike her brother Joe. Seeking purpose and distance, Nora asks to enter a life as an Arctic researcher. Mrs Elm agrees to find it, and Nora consents.