After the New York auction, the gray-mist woman drives thirteen hours back to her remote cabin, savoring her success. She relishes having stolen the Book of Matter, already imagining how to experiment on people with it, and she feels renewed by seeing Drummond Fox alive again—even though he escaped her. With more books in her possession, she believes she is closing in on the Fox Library and hopes Drummond suffers for it.

At her cabin, she finds a utility truck parked in the gravel drive. Two local men, drinking and leering, watch her closely; the taller blond man needles her with flirtatious remarks while his friend George follows his lead. The woman offers no real response, unlocks her door, and pointedly leaves it open—an invitation they accept when they hurry inside after her.

Just inside, she waits by the basement door and leads them downstairs. The men misread the room—seeing only a bare cellar and a mattress—and assume they have control. Instead, the woman decides to use them as test subjects for the newly acquired Book of Matter.

She orders the tall man onto the concrete floor, then liquefies the cement beneath him and presses him down as he sinks. When panic replaces his grin, she hardens the concrete again, trapping him as he suffocates until he goes still. George curls on the mattress, begging to live, but the woman focuses on the book’s promise of transmuting living bodies and wills his cells to become liquid; his skin, organs, and bones melt into a pink, frothy sludge.

As the cellar grows quiet, the woman briefly senses something strange in the air—an unfamiliar stillness in her mind—but it passes. She retrieves and stores her books, including the Book of Matter, in a safe, turns out the light, and goes upstairs to wash away the city.