Nora returns to the Midnight Library, unsettled by the Australia life. With Mrs Elm, she confronts the idea that choices don’t guarantee outcomes and wonders why she stayed there after Izzy’s death. She recognizes she was depressed and stuck, likening herself to a fish lingering below a tank’s midpoint line.

Pressed to define success, Nora avoids the Book of Regrets but accepts she doesn’t regret how she treated her cat or not going to Australia with Izzy. She admits she wants a successful life but struggles to specify what that means.

Thinking of swimming, Nora recalls early encouragement, the safety she found in water during her parents’ fights, and the shame and visibility that made her quit as a teenager. She reflects on how winning brought scrutiny, how being called “The Fish” hurt, and how quitting strained her relationship with her father, who had pinned his hopes on her reaching the Olympics after his own rugby dream collapsed.

Deciding to test the life aligned with her father’s wishes, Nora asks for the path where she trained relentlessly, sacrificed other pursuits, and reached the Olympics. Mrs Elm uses a rook metaphor to warn that the straightforward path can still be deceptive. The library’s shelves shift to a more distant life-book; Mrs Elm summons it, and Nora opens the lime-colored volume, feeling nothing as she transitions.